Boxes and Booze 1/11/25 Boxes and Booze 1/11/25

Fly Me to the Moon

Austrian puzzle maker Stephan Baumegger is having a blast. His complex interlocking puzzle designs are celebrated by enthusiasts the world over.

Boxes and Booze 7/6/24 Boxes and Booze 7/6/24

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.

Boxes and Booze 4/6/24 Boxes and Booze 4/6/24

Nuclear Option

In the 1930’s, Columbia University physicist Isidor Isaac Rabi set out to determine the nuclear spin and associated magnetic moment of atoms in his molecular beam laboratory.

MRI puzzle by Benjamin Heidt

Boxes and Booze 3/16/24 Boxes and Booze 3/16/24

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.

Boxes and Booze 3/2/24 Boxes and Booze 3/2/24

Big Things

A little over three years ago now, Alan Lunsford began introducing the world to these marvelously compact little puzzle cubes that pack a punch.

Boxes and Booze 9/16/23 Boxes and Booze 9/16/23

White Castle

Fans of Tolkien’s (and Jackson’s) Lord of the Rings saga will be well familiar with the many regal palaces encountered within Middle Earth, from the ethereal vistas of the elven kingdoms to the depths of the dwarven mines.

Boxes and Booze 8/12/23 Boxes and Booze 8/12/23

Footloose and …

From the distant depths of the world beyond, something glimmers.

Boxes and Booze 11/28/20 Boxes and Booze 11/28/20

Canfield-Shaker

I’m about to shake things up here at Boxes and Booze – figuratively, literally and otherwise.

Boxes and Booze 11/21/20 Boxes and Booze 11/21/20

Lo-Fer

Things are afoot here at Boxes and Booze, and there’s no time to loaf(er) around. Fresh off the heels of the brass beer stein from Rocky Chiaro comes the next step in this series, surely a shoe-in for a favorite.

Boxes and Booze 10/10/20 Boxes and Booze 10/10/20

Turtle Trip

Sometimes you get invited to the party, but you just can’t find your pants. So begins the premise for one of the most surprising (and good) puzzles of what has been one of the most surprising (and bad) years in recent memory. This puzzle is so good it will make you forget about 2020, for a little while. It’s a trip worth taking.

Boxes and Booze 9/28/20 Boxes and Booze 9/28/20

Euklid for Nick

I'm "mixing it up" here at Boxes and Booze this week, with a surprise "Special Edition" of "Packing and Potions" in honor of that legend of logic, the duke of dissection, the grand poobah of puzzles, his royal highness of hi-jinks, yes, the one and only, Nick Baxter.

Boxes and Booze 9/18/20 Boxes and Booze 9/18/20

Sea Chest

Neverfear! I’ve just the thing for you, my boisterous Buccaneers, a treasure chest plundered by the Corsairs straight from Davey Jones Locker. How they came to acquire it, we shall never know, as dead men tell no tales.

Boxes and Booze 8/29/20 Boxes and Booze 8/29/20

Ansel

There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept. – Ansel Adams

Boxes and Booze 6/13/20 Boxes and Booze 6/13/20

Feed the Monkey

“The higher a monkey climbs, the more you see of his behind.” – General Joseph Stilwell

Boxes and Booze 6/6/20 Boxes and Booze 6/6/20

Hip Flask

Here’s a beautiful little object which falls into the category of “perfect boxes and booze” puzzle, since the puzzle itself reflects the theme of the blog.

Boxes and Booze 4/11/20 Boxes and Booze 4/11/20

Humpty Egg

Let’s start simply, by mentioning the fact that the talented Dr. Stephen Chin, diabolical dentist by day and wily woodturner by weekend, is rather fond of making puzzle eggs.

Boxes and Booze 12/14/19 Boxes and Booze 12/14/19

Moulin Rouge

With a stroke of his pencil and paintbrush, the famous French painter Toulouse-Lautrec released his art on the world so that it might live. His philosophy might also give insight into the driving force behind the desire to solve a puzzle box – as an inherent act of life itself, perhaps.

Boxes and Booze 7/6/19 Boxes and Booze 7/6/19

Plugged Well

“My formula for success? Rise early, work late, strike oil.” - John Paul Getty

Boxes and Booze 6/15/19 Boxes and Booze 6/15/19

Ze Bomb

Stephen likes to take complex interlocking polyhedral objects, such as the humble cube, and “turn” them into practically impossible objects by spinning them on his lathe to create spheres, footballs, apples, and in this particular case, bombs.

Boxes and Booze 6/1/19 Boxes and Booze 6/1/19

Bovalis Lock

This unique creation comes from the mind of Greek American Constantine Bovalis, a mechanical design engineer from Illinois. Constantine notes that the inspiration for his puzzle creations comes in a roundabout way from traditional Japanese puzzle boxes

A spirited journey through the world of collectible artisan puzzles