Something special typically surfaces around this time of year, out of the cold winter weather experienced in the southern hemisphere, on the other side of the world from my spot on earth.

Cats are full of personality, so naturally any decent cat puzzle ought to be as well.

It’s adventure time again as we head to the outback and visit with the brilliant Junichi Yananose from Australia. Juno is well known for his complex and unusual interlocking puzzle designs which come in many styles, shapes and sizes.

This particular “six piece” board burr, which is actually nothing of the sort, is handsomely crafted from American Rock Maple and Utile “plywood”.

Slammed Car, designed by Junichi Yananose (Juno) and produced by his puzzle company Pluredro (Juno and his wife Yukari) in Queensland Australia, is their latest and greatest sequential discovery puzzle, and one of the best new puzzles in the world.

When it comes right down to it, who really cares what the difference is between a crocodile and an alligator. I wouldn’t want to meet either one hiding in the water.

It’s time for a little detective work. I suppose discovering the secrets of a puzzle box is actually nothing like solving a real mystery, but it’s a nice analogy at any rate.

It’s getting clubby here at Boxes and Booze this week as we continue the card suit case series from Juno with the Club Case, his second in the series.

The idea for this puzzle was in Juno’s mind for more than twenty years, fully formed, but was far too difficult and time consuming to produce even as a prototype.

Junichi Yananose is a well-known puzzle designer and crafter who for many years collaborated with Brian Young in Australia.

The follow up puzzle to the Ixia Flower Box also utilizes the cutoffs from other productions that Juno hated to waste. He created little flowers on the Ixia box with them, and he created outright gears for the Quartet Box.

The Ixia Box, so named for the pretty Ixia flowers which adorn the top, was the result of Juno’s attempt to salvage the run-off wood waste from his other puzzle creations.

Today I am thinking fondly of our friends across the pond for a double dose of British themed entertainment. One of the greatest sequential discovery puzzles of all time, and certainly one of my personal favorites, is the Big Ben puzzle.