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: