A spirited journey through the world of collectible artisan puzzles
Pairing craft cocktails with crafty puzzles
Double Feature
Close friends of Doog Menzies, a ship builder, engineer and craftsman, among other things, know Double Trouble is the name of one of his best puzzle boxes.
Blind Faith
Dee Dixon did the puzzle world a favor when he decided to dedicate himself fully to designing and crafting his beautiful, delightful puzzles.
Pioneer Daze
The Pioneer spirit is alive and well in the debut puzzle from Dylan Christopher, a mechanical engineer with a flair for ingenious design.
Play the Silver Ball
Matt Williams, a die cast machinist in England with a brilliant knack for creating outstanding mechanical puzzles, loves pinball, and has produced a remarkably puzzling object in Pinball Wizard.
Young at Heart
There’s always something abuzz at an International Puzzle Party (IPP), which often has to do with, no surprise, an interesting puzzle, perhaps spied passing hands here and there, and utterly unfamiliar.
Military Brass
Who Dares Wins is a British television show named after the SAS (Special Air Squadron) motto. It is also now a collaborative puzzle lock box from a bunch of brilliant Dare Devils....
Golden Ticket
I recently received a mysterious package. The return label identified the sender as “The Source”. I suspect it may have come from the CIA, as the address listed Arlington, Virginia. It was also not addressed to me, but rather one “WSW” ...
Cover to Cover
September 6 was National Read a Book Day, which is celebrated like a National Holiday at Boxes and Booze headquarters. This is because at B&B we love books as much as we love boxes. And booze.
Ménage à Trois
Joe Turner is getting frisky. The newest numerical addition to his ever expanding “free the coin” series of puzzles showcases his development as a woodworker and puzzlemaker over the many years that he has been honing these skills.
Closed Circle
Dee Dixon's latest foray into the circular format, which began with the Bad Moon rising, and came full circle with the uplifting Uplift, has got some dizzying antics sure to give you Vertigo.
At Your Pleasure
In March of 1882, construction began on what would become the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world, the Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família.
Happy Hour
Puzzle historians will be well familiar with the works of Angelo John Lewis, an English lawyer and avid magician, who catalogued a compendium of puzzles of the Victorian era.
On the Record
Franz Rudolph Wurlitzer was a German immigrant to the United States who started a music company in 1853 based out of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Party Pooper
Whilemina the Wombat is an adorable marsupial made from rare Queensland Walnut, an indigenous Australian wood which is no longer commercially available. Produced in 2008, the puzzle combines elements of a high-level interlocking burr type puzzle with hidden mechanism sequential discovery tools.
Matters of the Heart
They say you never forget your first love, and it’s likely true with puzzle boxes too. I’d argue that with a Mowen’s puzzle box, on the other hand, you might try not to forget, but try as you might, you’ll get lost every time – and probably love every moment all over again.
Rival Arrival
Lex Luther, Dr. Doom, Magneto, Joker – arch enemies are easy to identify in hero centric fiction, and always seem to be the evil characters. I’m particularly fond of Moriarty, if we’re picking favorites.
You’ve Got Mail
There’s something thrilling about receiving mail. Perhaps the excitement of getting a physical letter from someone wears off as we get older, likely tempered by all the bills and junk mail, but even now in my jaded days it’s still nice when that happens. And if getting a special letter is a nice surprise, well I don’t need to tell you what it’s like to receive an eagerly awaited puzzle box.
Coastal Living
There was a time, once upon a time in the not too distant past, when becoming a metagrobolotegestolomixologist was merely a speculative thought experiment meant as clever wordplay.
Critic’s Pick
If mechanical puzzles came with a soundtrack, this one would elicit fine chords of acoustic guitar to placate you every time you picked it up, soothing your frustration in failing to solve its secrets. And if you found yourself with a selection of well made, compact, clever, multistep, elegant and entertaining sequential discovery puzzles to choose from this year, you would surely heed the call of this one, to Pick Me.