A puzzle box full of secrets is more than enough. But add well hidden elements that reveal themselves through exploration, little tools that are discovered and must be used in unexpected ways to proceed and open the box, and a puzzle box becomes an adventure.
I’m not sure what the Peugot brothers would think about the “Pepper Mill” from Mark van Elteren, an invention of an entirely different sort.
Greatest hits albums are like a mark of true success for a band, having produced enough chart toppers to justify such a compilation in the first place, then taking a victory lap by rereleasing those same songs on one amazing album.
Johanne Sebastian Bach was one of the most prolific composers of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, during a period of musical evolution known as the Baroque.
Mercury was the messenger between the gods and humans, the cleverest of them all, who ruled over commerce, wealth, fertility, good fortune and trickery. What excellent inspiration for a grand and puzzling adventure!
I don’t know why it has taken so long for someone in the Karakuri Creation Group to make a robot, because it seems like a fantastic idea for a puzzle box simply waiting to happen.
Benno Baatsen, who began designing puzzle boxes when he was around ten years old, has kept his dreams, and his limitless ideas, alive.
Dee Dixon continues to challenge us with novel ideas in his puzzle boxes and adventures.
Doog Menzies is at it again. Or it may be more appropriate in this case to say he is at it again again. Like the best puzzle designers, his mind sees things the rest of us may not.
Luke Waier, a mechanical engineer from Houston, Texas, is the master storyteller behind the sensational new creation Fafnir’s Fortress.
Austrian puzzle maker Stephan Baumegger is having a blast. His complex interlocking puzzle designs are celebrated by enthusiasts the world over.
The story unfolds by a cozy fireplace and hearth, complete with a little chimney. The fireplace is empty, as is the mantle. Some preparations are clearly in order to set the scene properly and welcome the Christmas Spirit!
According to legend, a vast treasure in gold lies waiting to be discovered, hidden somewhere in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona.
Bram’s Stoker’s classic horror story about the undead ghoul with a serious blood lust, published in 1897, was inspired by a history of Wallachia, a region in what is now modern day Transylvania, and one of its most famous rulers, Vlad the Impaler - better known as Dracula.
I’m sharing a wonderful gift with everyone this week, on the heels of the American holiday grounded on giving and gratefulness. The gift is the story of another wonderful puzzle box created by one of the world’s true masters of the art, Perry McDaniel.
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.
Dee Dixon did the puzzle world a favor when he decided to dedicate himself fully to designing and crafting his beautiful, delightful puzzles.
The Pioneer spirit is alive and well in the debut puzzle from Dylan Christopher, a mechanical engineer with a flair for ingenious design.
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.
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.
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....
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” ...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Franz Rudolph Wurlitzer was a German immigrant to the United States who started a music company in 1853 based out of Cincinnati, Ohio.
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.
Popular in the late nineteenth century, the “high wheel” bicycle is now better known as the Penny Farthing, a colloquial name derived from its one large and one small wheel, like the large British penny and small farthing coins of the time.