Quadlock 1 by Jerry McFarland - 1992

Jerry had been crafting mostly Bill Cutler puzzle designs prior to releasing this design in ‘92.  His background in engineering led him to a novel automation of his burr notching method that allows such precise notches.  I originally started making Bill’s packing puzzles for him to sell on his website in the mid 2000’s and struck up a friendship with Jerry at that time.  Once I began offering puzzles for Eric to sell on Cubicdissection I soon asked Jerry if he wanted to sell some of his work there as well and that’s when he sold a run of these very cool Quadlock 1 puzzles.

Here’s Jerry’s description of the Quadlock designs:

“Quadlock 1 is a difficult to take apart 19 piece flattened cube puzzle.  Quadlock 3 is a similar 25 piece cube but with a completely different disassembly method.  It is more difficult than Quadlock 1 and requires 22 moves to get out the first piece.

Both puzzles are made with 7/8” Walnut, Mahogany and Maple.

Note:  Quadlock 2 was a 23 piece version of Quadlock 1.  Since it was very similar to Quadlock 1 only a few models were made and it was discontinued.”

The lock picking sequence used is quite cool and a lot of fun trying to conjure up the elusive opening sequence.  This original version measured 3.5" x 3.5" x 2.6".

Subsequently Jerry offered a slightly smaller version in 2011 version 2.9” x 2.9” x 2.2” .  As well as several different exotic wood varieties:

Tulipwood/Wenge/Maple

Cocobolo/Wenge/Maple

Walnut/Maple/Cardinal

The copy below has Jerry’s unique stamped marking of #10 with his initials and year in pencil.

Toyo Glass Puzzles

Years ago I had a Pack the Plums packing puzzle by Toyo Glass and I found it very intriguing, all of these puzzles are just so clever and of course beautifully made!  I found this very informative description below from The Metagrobologist and Frederic Boucher of The Toyo Glass Company:

 “TOYO GLASS Co., LTD is a company that produces bottles and various kind of glassware. Between 1988 and 1995, TOYO GLASS produced a series of glass puzzles. About one hundred puzzles were commercialised and countless models of all sorts that were not commercialised: prototypes, promotional models, models utilised for specific events, and so forth.

This remarkable achievement could not be done without Mr.Kunio Saeki, the president of TOYO GLASS at the time. He had the opportunity to conciliate his passion for puzzles with his work and created a new department called PUZZLE CITY. “Life is like a puzzle”, he said. Mr.Kunio surrounded himself with a small team of collaborators, and notably the world-renowned puzzlist Mr Nobuyuki Yoshigawara. During this relatively short period of time, approximately seven years, what a rich heritage Mr Saeki left for future generations of puzzles lovers!

As a collector, Frederic Boucher felt the need to create a document that would present as much information as he could gather on the collection of PUZZLE CITY. It was his way of honouring and paying homage to the designers who were passionate and inspiring, and who accomplished a remarkable work in the universe of puzzles.”

~ TheMetagrobologist and Frederic Boucher

Here’s photos of a variety of different designs:

Climburr - Christoph Lohe - Ken Irvine - Andrew Crowell by Mat Nedeljko

 

I couldn’t pass up the chance to acquire this terrific puzzle collaboration between Cristoph, Ken and Andrew.

Mat’s craftsmanship is superb on this one so when more become available, I highly recommend you snatch one up for your collection.

Here’s Mat’s description from Nedeljko Woodworks:

“Climburr is a very special collaborative design effort by Chris Lohe, Ken Irvine and Andrew Crowell.  Building upon the previous  designs by Chris that featured three sticks in a 5x5x5 cage Chamburr and Cyburr this design is on a whole new level. 

Here is what Chris says about it: 

"Climburr is not really a 5x5x5 framed puzzle any more. In order to
disable an early shortcut it requires an odd angled cut in the frame,
and two angled cuts in one of the three Burr sticks. It pays back by a
50+ level for the first stick, many required rotations, and a really
fantastic solving sequence. The beauty of that puzzle is not in the
outer appearance but in the complexity which can be achieved with only
three burr sticks, if you stretch the concept to the limit. The puzzle
is very difficult to disassemble and reassemble."

Beautifully crafted from Chechen and Maple. Lacquered and waxed. Ships assembled.”

Naked Secret Puzzlebox (Green Version) - Akio Yamamoto at Torito

I was surprised to receive this cool little box from Discord Admin Mike, thank you!

Obviously as the name suggests everything can be seen but it did take me a little finagling to find the right orientation and order of assembly.  These are apparently available at the Torito puzzle shop in Japan in four other colours (Red/Blue/Orange/Purple) as well, if you get a chance to acquire one or all I highly recommend them.

Here’s Torito’s description:

　“A series of transparent secret boxes made by assembling acrylic pieces. The structure is a visible "secret box without secrets", but it is not always possible to open it immediately. 
　Once opened, disassemble everything next. And let's assemble it again.”

Jerry has written a nice blog review about the Red Version.

If you’ve ever wondered how they came up with their puzzle shop name Torito here’s the explanation:

By the way, what is the store name "Torito"?

　“We got the name from "Torito de Pukara", a pottery cow amulet that can be placed on the roof in Peru, South America. It is also used in the name of the American South American restaurant "El Torito" (there is a branch office in Japan, but it has nothing to do with our restaurant).

　The Torito in the photo is 5.5 cm high. It's like decorating a house. 
* This is a gift from puzzle collector Naoaki Takashima. Thank you.”

6 Board Burr 5x8 #02 (3 colors)

I was fortunate enough to acquire this cool puzzle in a swap.

Be sure to see what’s available at Pluredro

Here’s Juno’s description:

“This arduous board burr has a unique level 15-14-8-2-3 solution. After removing the first piece from the assembled shape, you still face another challenge to remove the second piece. At some point, a few pieces tend to rotate but a shortcut solution using rotational movement will not be possible for removing the first and the second pieces as Juno inspected by himself.

We guess some of our customers think that's why the puzzle has #02 on the end of the name? It was because Juno designed its first version #01 way back in 2007 and we had produced only a couple of miniature versions of them. #01 had a level 5-11-4-3-3 solution and he thought that it was a bit mediocre for our regular product since there were lots of high-level burr puzzles in the puzzle world when we put one of the miniature versions on eBay auction in 2018.

The puzzle is made of our original plywood. American Cherry and Sassafras are used for the outer layer and the darker timber used for the inner layer is Amoora.”

Soma Perch - Rick Eason by Mat Nedeljko

I’m amazed by how many ‘Soma’ variants that have surfaced recently, finding a solution to this one will take a while. 

I really like the ‘tripod’ stand that Mat made for this cool design.

I strongly advise you to grab any of Mat’s work at his website Nedeljko WoodWorks

Here’s Mat’s Description:

“Rick Eason calls this design a "close cousin" of the el Perch puzzle. The objective is to use the seven pieces of the  classic Soma Cube and solve for the solution which is stable in all three directions when placed on the perch.  Forming the cube is easy (there are 240 solutions), only four of them are stable on the perch. This puzzle is nicely crafted from solid Maple for the pieces and Walnut for the perch.”