This puzzle is one of the best examples of how theming can really make a puzzle truly exceptional. This was probably one of my first experiences with a 3D printed puzzle, and it definitely paid off.

The mechanics of this puzzle essentially break down into a disassembly puzzle. Your main goal is to remove all of the ribbons from the puzzle to reveal a key. While most of the puzzle revolves around the interlocking ribbon pieces, there still is enough stuff here to keep things fresh, like a gravity element at the end which requires you to essentially drop it on a flat surface, or the removal of parts of the heart box entirely, it makes everything quite captivating to solve.

As for the design itself, it comes in a really nice gold and red colour, something quite unique. I enjoy the way it feels so shiny to look at, The fact it’s a heart does make for a really nice valentine’s day gift to someone. Though if it were up to me, I’d never give away something so awesome. Haha.

I like this one particularly more than the standard Romanian version, namely because it is much better themed.

Let’s address the elephant in the room, this is a puzzle by bits n’ pieces. They usually don’t have stuff that’s particularly good, namely they usually simplify and make every puzzle a lot less interesting. This one is pretty guilty of it too, as there’s no secret compartment behind the mirror, I really used to like that feature, but I’ve grown comfortable without it.

The theming on this puzzle is something to behold though, I love the books on the side that are just cheeky winks and nods to the solution of the puzzle. Even if this puzzle box is VERY commonly known, I still appreciate the design. I also find the colours work nicely, and the painted key is still quite comfortable to use, really making it feel regal. So despite its incredibly cheap presentation, it’s the way they’re incorporated that makes this a decently solid puzzle.

I just can’t enjoy this puzzle. What it essentially boils down to is a jigsaw puzzle. With only a few pieces, it’s a 2D packing puzzle without much substance to chew on.

What else is there really to say about this puzzle? It’s a simple and quite frankly poorly made puzzle from China. The manufacturing really just doesn’t give it any justice.The pieces on the inside are unstable and slip around too much, this puzzle just feels like an exercise in keeping it balanced.

If I were to describe this puzzle in a single word, it would be “unoriginal”, The main shape is unoriginal, the main pieces were unoriginal, and so much more just didn’t really get into place. I think this puzzle can make some people happy, it's just not me. What a lackluster puzzle… at least it was cheap!

I got this one as a Christmas gift. I’ll be honest, I was never the biggest fan of interlocking puzzles since I find them to be quite boring and repetitive. Unfortunately this seemed to match my previous reservations as it just wasn’t that interesting.

The solution is decently easy and you’re able to assume how they interlock, so there’s no funny tricks to it. So it does get points for that. I like that the puzzle itself was hollow, and made for a decently fun solve on its own. I do know alternate versions of this puzzle have a ball in the middle, but mine didn’t have anything like that.

I think its biggest flaw is that the puzzle feels strangely old despite being new. I think that might just be the paint job.

Fun fact, this puzzle can hold random things if you really want it to.

Oh hey! I finally got a puzzle from the famous Cheat3! I really like the different mechanics on this puzzle. I appreciate its wide array of keys that are used, this includes the clever pushback technique seen apparent in one of Brickyorkman’s

There are a lot of cool elements in it, not to mention the design. Despite it being a seemingly random rainbow pattern, each brick gets to feel impactful as it depicts a nice pathway of coloured tiles on the very top.

The best part about this puzzle is still the fact it’s made out of lego. I will always hop at an opportunity to see a puzzle that you could recreate in the future.

I liked this box, it has a small and cute design, but I can never really get over the big issue of its internal logistics. The first half is relatively fine, but pretty quickly it becomes quite confusing due to the internal build quality. I am unsure if this was meant to be some kind of fake out, but I think it just was a construction issue.

The radio design itself is decently well used, with just one dial being the way to solve it, this does technically count as a blind maze, but it’s like one step that it really never feels like it. The problem I had with it, is expecting that the left knob would slide out a bit more upon moving it.

I think this puzzle has some serious potential. If there was some way to REALLY implement a blind maze inside the small grooves of the radio, then I think it is worth looking at for next time. There is gold to be mined with this concept.

And now comes another puzzle I designed out of lego! I think this one was leagues ahead. The idea came to me when someone suggested I should incorporate a gravity pin system to change the sliders ability to move. This sounded like a perfect idea, so I went straight to work.

I enjoyed designing this puzzle, though I did find that it consistently was a big problem when I made the choice to make this puzzle layer by layer. That rapidly increased the cost pretty unnecessarily.

This puzzle is less steps than I would have hoped, but still packs quite a fun punch once you are told which way you have to stand it up in order for the pin to fall. If I were to approach this again, I’d find some way to have another gravity pin that goes from left to right. Oh well, for next time I suppose!

I gifted this one to my cousin again, it was well received.

Ayy! Another Karakuri puzzle! I already knew the solution to this one, so I lost a bit of the fun in solving it. By far this was the most expensive puzzle in my collection, at least when it came to a single purchase. The Jury is still out on whether this truly was worth the money. There are a grand total of 7 steps in this puzzle, meaning that each step cost a whopping 30 dollars each!

I was quite excited to own another karakuri, if they can do one thing right, its their build quality. Every single build they come up with is just so airtight. I appreciate that the functionality of this puzzle was directly related to the box itself. Using a simple gravity mechanism, this puzzle surely was a fun party-trick style puzzle to solve.

I usually don’t like gimmick puzzles too much, though certain times they really do wow me with a certain ingenuity that makes the box itself part of the clue.

This is just a plain fun packing puzzle. I had a lot of fun trying to figure out its six pieces. Generally when it comes to packing puzzles, I prefer ones that have minimal pieces, but make a big effect.

There’s just something about the theming of this puzzle that really wows me each time. It’s so simple, each piece is functionally identical, all that changes is the angles. Each piece is a simple three-ball structure. My friend affectionately called it “Little water molecules”, and that has stuck with me ever since.

I find the solution to be just as entertaining. It’s almost sequential, and the logic just works out really nicely, once you know how each piece can be naturally oriented, everything falls pretty well into place.

I really didn’t like this puzzle. This is probably the only puzzle that gave me aches and pains from using it. The main function of the puzzle is to use a piece as a key-extender… unfortunately you have to position it in such an inconvenient way with your pinkie that it’s painful to gradually finesse it into place.

The craftsmanship on the other hand was a step above the functionality. Not that it really makes it much better. The top slider feels loose and slides around, and almost every part of this puzzle feels like an unintentional fake-out.

The one thing I do enjoy is its theme. Something I really appreciate is the open window clue. One of the pieces has an open window, which lets you know to push it inwards. Overall, I think the puzzle’s biggest issue is that it fails at being a puzzle box. The space inside is completely non-functional because the space is used to transfer the key.

For something found at the dollar store, this is legitimately a good assembly AND disassembly puzzle. Each piece interlocks in unique ways that it makes the solve quite a fun journey of discovery. You are given major hints by the designs on the front, giving away the eventual shape like a jigsaw puzzle, now all you are left to do is figure out the order in how they interlock.

I find it quite fun how the pieces fit together, it’s enough that things slide around quite nicely. It’s a really good mix between a TIC and a typical burr puzzle. The smiling s’more is quite a nice looking theme for the puzzle, making it less like a cube, and rather something more unique.

I really don’t have much to say on this one, it just simply punches above its class. I really do think this is one worth looking for if you ever find it.

I LOVE this puzzle. This is a top notch creation by the Karakuri group. I’m quite surprised that this was the first karakuri I’ve ever owned. I had a particularly successful month so I decided to spend the extra cash on a new Karakuri.

What I really like about this puzzle is its solve pattern.. I will admit I got spoiled for the solution, but that is how I learned about what elevates it above I, II, and III is its solve pattern is a very intuitive binary pattern instead of a 3D version of a traditional Japanese puzzle box.

I had always dreamed of owning a Karakuri, I had heard so much about them, the trick boxes were something that always interested me, especially for their ingenuity. Though I could never justify getting one because they are SO EXPENSIVE! I’ve never seen one that felt affordable until this one.

The craftsmanship on this is impeccable, nothing terribly special, but its a very well put together puzzle. I’d dare even call it a perfect puzzle. This is my top recommendation for anyone who wants to start or find the perfect centerpiece for their collection.

Kind of underwhelming.

This puzzle is just a hidden maze. While blind-mazes can be fun, this just doesn’t do it for me. I find that the technique to solve it is incredibly unsatisfying. You essentially have to get the marble to jump between tracks to get into the secret spot. I just didn’t find it works because it almost betrays the rules that it already established for itself.

This is another example of a laser cut puzzle. And while it doesn’t have any quality difference, I do find that the woodwork is too bulky to really make for an interior space on the inside. Like the space inside there is legitimately

This puzzle honestly took me way longer to figure out than it should have. I do have to admit I saw a tutorial for it too, but sometimes you forget one small step and the whole house of cards comes crumbling down. I really don’t enjoy slap mechanics and that was the first step in this rather simple puzzle. The box does have a cool design however, it reminds me of a newspaper box. Though it being laser cut makes it less appealing to me.

This would be a repeating issue I’d face, but here for the first time I made the mistake of unscrewing structural elements of the puzzle, that was how I spoiled myself on the solution.. I did enjoy the solution after things had been settled. Though I found this to be an example of an unusable puzzle box. That being it doesn’t have any storage space, because the storage space is used to solve the puzzle, its effectively useless.

Cool mechanics, but just doesn’t amount to much.

It was the summer of 2023. I had just completed an arduous session of work at a summer camp full of snobby rich kids, and I needed some kind of solace, something fun, something exciting. It was finally time for me to get back into puzzle boxes as an adult.

I finally ordered myself some puzzles with the newfound money I got, and for the locked cabin I was not disappointed. This was a good run of the mill puzzle. It essentially only had one mechanic which was to rotate the windows so that it would free up other spaces. It was very simple, but it definitely felt worth-it simply due to how much of a bargain it was.

I did find that a bit of the mechanics were a bit clunky, though its something I’d be perfectly tolerable of due to the nature and price of said puzzle. It’s definitely worth a buy.

That summer camp was so bad that this locked cabin is probably a full star higher just for the emotional relief it gave me.

Another lego puzzle box of my own design!

I’ll be completely honest, this one just didn’t live up to any expectation I had for it. The main draw was the sliding aspects at the top. I really enjoyed designing puzzles that have a large element dislocated via a sliding mechanism. Unfortunately the piece was too big, and the puzzle was too small for it to be stable. This one falls apart too much for me.

This one was also majorly inspired by BrickYorkMan’s works. Though I feel it’s too derivative to really stand on its own two feet. At some point it might be worth redoing this box once I have some more solid ideas. As for now it stands as my least favourite creation.

If I were to redesign this puzzle, I do have a few ideas in mind. Namely I would focus a bit more on the big shifting elements.

This puzzle box was a Christmas gift. I found it to be quite fun.

Despite this being mass produced, I don’t actually hate it that much. It’s a surprisingly fun and simple puzzle that did have me guessing a lot. The mechanics essentially revolve around some basic functionality, twisting a knob here, sliding a panel there, it’s all very basic and elementary stuff, and yet the combination of actions here is surprisingly fun to partake in. I can’t explain it, it just works for some strange reason!

The build quality isn’t anything to write home about, it’s pretty simple and mass produced. I did find one part that the functionality was a bit rough, but overall it handles itself well. I think I also just like the box design, its simple but gets the point across very clearly that it’s a puzzle meant to be solved. There’s a coin slot at the end so its pretty much destined to be solved

And finally! We are now at the first puzzle box that I made.

My design was a completely original design with a completely unoriginal concept. Basically all you had to do was spin it to release a pin, then it would function similar to a japanese puzzle box, incrementally sliding around until yet another opportunity to release a pin.

My dorm room actually had a ton of lego just laying around. This I had to take advantage of and design my own puzzle box with. After about two weeks of fiddling around with it, I finally had something worth showing. After that I went to buy each piece on Lego’s pick-a-brick feature (A waste of money in hindsight). It was a fantastic gift for my little cousin. He still has a copy to this day.

Overall, not bad for my first puzzle. I do wish to do more with it someday, but for now I have my other designs to work on and perfect.

Here it is, a lego puzzle box! These puzzles have always been something I enjoy to the highest degree. This one in particular was designed by BrickYorkMan, an amazing lego builder. The original design is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in recent memory. I was bedazzled by the mechanics. It essentially uses every trick in the lego puzzle box book, sliding pieces around, using an array of different keys, it’s all here.

The design on the outside is a mishmash of different colours and quite a few non lego pieces. I remember an instance where a teacher thought it was a cigarette box, hilarious in hindsight.

I’ve been modifying it over the years to keep it interesting. I think now it has 30 steps, but as a drawback it’s incredibly unstable now, practically guaranteed to break any time I use it. At some point I should really go and update it.

Unfortunately this would be the last I’d really get to play with puzzle boxes for a while, as the interest lay dormant for many years.

This right here is definitely a prime example of a bargain bin puzzle. It’s a simple three moves. I forget where it was purchased but I do know it was given to me at a birthday party.

I think this is a puzzle that kids very young can get into. With a few simple steps it does give you many reasons to like it. Although that is also its biggest detractor, it’s just not that interesting. You can play with it for a few moments but I don’t think I can ever get sustained joy out of it.

I would compare it to a McDonald’s hamburger, same same every time. The average puzzle box is like a big mac, just that bit of extra effort really turns things around. I miss McDonalds, but Elbows up!

One thing I will give it points for is I really like the design. The deep red honestly compliments the box quite a lot. It’s something I didn’t really expect to like as much as I did. The build quality is something I wasn’t expecting to be so good as well- this might just be because of the build requiring thicker blocks. But it surprisingly holds up. I enjoy it.