Links
Currency Converter: xe.com
Search by GTIN (barcode)
Google for Japanese sites:  "Puzzle", "Mechanical Puzzle",
"Disentanglement Puzzle", "wheel of intelligence" (Japanese for tanglement).

 

Links to Vendors

Preferred Vendors - U.S.

My experiences with the sites listed here have been positive. This list is biased towards vendors who ship to the US and accept PayPal or credit cards via a secure site. High-quality specialty vendors with whom I have dealt include:


Cubic Dissection
Eric Fuller
Wood Wonders
Brian Menold
Creative Crafthouse
Dave Janelle
Eureka!
David Leschinsky
Brass Puzzles By Rocky
Rocky Chiaro

PuzzleMist
William Waite
PuzzleAtomic
Doug Engel
Pavel's Puzzles
Pavel Curtis
Kadon
Kate Jones
Wood Frustrations
Tom Lensch

Bill Cutler
Tucker Jones
The Puzzle & Craft Factory

LiveCube
Cluster Puzzles
Kelvin Palmer
DanLock
Dan Feldman
The Yot
Kagen Sound

Here are "mass market" vendors:


Bits and Pieces
FatBrain Toys
Xump
Games Unlimited
Bob Schwartz
Funagain Games

Preferred Vendors - Non - U.S.

Reliable foreign vendors with whom I've dealt include:


Puzzle Master
Mr. Puzzle Australia
Brian & Sue Young
Pelikan Puzzles
Puzzlewood
Bernhard Schweitzer

Meffert's
LiveWire
Frank Gregory
Hendrik Haak's Puzzle Shop
Puzzle Vision
Michael Toulouzas

The Karakuri Creation Group and Club
Gemani Games
Roger Mustoe
Pentangle
Izumiya

HK Now Store
Lightake
Arteludes
Torito

Sources for Tanglement Puzzles


Tucker Jones
Uncle's Puzzles
LiveWire
Frank Gregory
Channel Craft

Puzzle Master
Fiddl' Widdit
BrainPuzzles
Seth Anderson

Sources for Twisty Puzzles


Hendrik Haak
Official Rubik's site 		V-Cubes

Cubesmith
Georges Helm's Puzzle Shop 		Thinkgeek DX dealextreme (Home) hknowstore (Calvin Fan)

lightake
championscubestore
cubezz
tridizcube
thecubicle.us

witeden (DaYan cubes)
Cube4you (James Lee)
MF8 Shop
Omega Studio (TW)
Smart Toy Shop (HK)
CubeNJoy (Korea)
Nice Puzzles (9spuzzles)

Cubikon - Michael Layher East Sheen Mindstrat Puzzles (Pantazis Houlis)
Fourieridea (Quarks)

Puzzle Boxes


Akio Kamei

The Karakuri Creation Group and Club

Cleverwood
Kagen Schaefer

Heartwood Creations
Pandora's Puzzle Boxes
Unique Box Shop

Izumiya (Hakone)

Cubic Dissection - Eric Fuller

Barouke
movable Hellraiser box
Puzzle Box World Honma
(Japanese site - no orders) 		Burl Puzzle Boxes
(More art than puzzle.)

Check Clay Parker's website "A Puzzlebox Page" for more links.

Read an article by Jerry Slocum on Japanese Puzzle Boxes.

Puzzle Vendors Around the World

Here is a sorted listing of many puzzle vendors from around the world:


Puzzle Vendors Around the World
[0-9]| A| B| C| D| E| F| G| H| I| J| K| L| M| N| O| P| Q| R| S| T| U| V| W| X| Y| Z

0-9


 1001-Jeux
 3D Puzzles

 

A


 Albinegri - Albert Guebeli
 Antique Toys and Games - Pierre Patau, Elisabeth Calley
 Archimedes' Lab
 Architest (nail puzzles)
 AreYouGame
 Atlantis - Dr. Karl Scherer
 Avenue des Jeux
 A.Z. Plerp - Cluster Puzzles - Kelvin Palmer

 

B


 Barouke
 Bart Buie
 Bartl GMBH
 also try Bartl GMBH dot com
 Bathsheba Grossman - Moon Pi
 John Berkeley (uk)
 Beverly Enterprises
 Boutique Strategie
 BrainPuzzles.com (Seth Anderson)
 BrainWright
 Brandora (Logika / Uhl)
 Brilliant Puzzles
 Buffalo Games Inc.
 Burl Puzzle Boxes

 

C


 Cadeaux en Bois
 Calendars.com
 Channelcraft
 Chapman Puzzles
 Rocky Chiaro
 Chronos (jp) - Edi Nagata
 Cleverwood - Mike & Judy Richard, Charlie Malcolmson
 Jean Claude Constantin
 Cracker Barrel
 Craftypuzzles.com - James Cole
 Creative Crafthouse
 Creative Whack Co.
 Cubicdissection.com - Eric Fuller
 Cubikon.de - Michael Layher
 Bill Cutler

 

D


 Robert Dalloz
 DaMert (now Toysmith)
 Wayne Daniel
 DanLock by Dan Feldman
 Denny Magic - Daryl's Enchanted Cube
 Davans - Jose Diaz
 Decorative Puzzles - Mike & Gill Hayduk
 Dry Gulch Gifts (Old Time tangles - wholesale only)

 

E


 East Sheen Cubes
 Eleganter Australia
 elogIQ
 Elverson
 Eureka (be - Belgium)
 Eureka! - David Leschinsky

 

F


 FAO Schwartz
 Fiddl'Widdit
 Flyping Games
 Foxmind
 Frust8tor.nl
 Funagain Games

 

G


 The Game Preserve
 Games and Puzzles.co.uk
 Games2Puzzles (eBay store - Emma Lee)
 Games Unlimited - Bob Schwartz
 Game Surplus
 gamesweb.dk
 Geduldspiele.ch
 Gemani Games - Roger Mustoe
 [also try puzzlepalace.co.uk]
 Geo Australia
 GepetoVillage
 Dan Gilbert - Triazzle
 Golovolomki.ru - Vladimir Krasnoukhov
 The Grail, Inc. (on Toydirectory)
 Grand Illusions
 Kirill Grebnev
 Kirill Grebnev - Cubature of the Ball
 gummylump.com

 

H


 Haba (de)
 Hakone Maruyama
 Hanayama
 Hand Puzzles
 Hasbro
 Heartwood Creations
 Hellraiser box
 Hendrik Haak's Puzzle Shop
 Hoberman
 Honma (Japanese site - no orders)

 

I


 Icarus (jp)
 I Qubed
 Izumiya (Hakone)
 also try yosegi.jp

 

J


 Jeruel Industrial - Kinato, Crystal puzzles
 Jeux et Console (now Micromania)
 Tom Jolly Games

 

K


 Kadon - Kate Jones
 Kagen Schaefer
 K & J Magnetics
 K & T Toys - Touchdown
 Akio Kamei
 The Karakuri Creation Group and Club
 Kii-Peli
 Kniffi
 Knobelspiel
 Knox (Roland Koch)
 Kubi Games (Germany)

 

L


 Lagoon Games / The Lagoon Group
 Ledindon
 Le Valet d'Coeur
 Liberty Puzzles (fine jigsaws)
 Tomas Linden
 LiveCube
 LiveWire - Frank Gregory
 Logical Choice (au)
 Logika (de)
 Robert Longstaff Workshops (uk)
 Lookina

 

M


 Magicsale.com
 Magnif
 MathLove
 GarE Maxton
 Jerry McFarland Puzzles
 me100fun (hk)
 Meffert's
 MGC Custom Jigsaws
 Minds On Toys ( Digi-Comp I repro)
 MindWare
 Misdirection
 Lenoid Mochalov
 Mondenkind (de)
 Mountain Stream Forge - Uncle's Puzzles
 Mr. Puzzle Australia
 MuseumTour

 

N


 Naef Spiele AG
 Nature's Tapestry
 Nzanity.co.nz - Labyrinth Woodworks - Louis Toorenburg (NZ)

 

O


 Office Playground - Magic Sand Wand, K-Dron
 Okuno Karuta-ten (Game Shop Okuno)
 Omega Studio
 Optical Toys
 Oriental Trading Co.

 

P


 Pacific Puzzleworks - Lee Krasnow
 Padilly - Chelona, Anchor
 Pam City - Kumiki
 Pandora's Puzzle Boxes
 Parlor Puzzles
 PaxPuzzle.com
 Pentangle
 Philos (de)
 Potty Puzzles - Frank Potts
 The Purple Pomegranate
 Puzumi.co - tray packing puzzles
 PuzzleAtomic aka General Symmetrics - Doug Engel
 Puzzle Box World
 The Puzzle & Craft Factory
 Puzzlein - Haoyuki Iwase
 Puzzle Me This
 Puzzle Master
 Puzzle Palace - George Miller
 Puzzles and Games (wholesale)
 Puzzlesdownunder
 Puzzle This (uk)
 Puzzlevision - Michael Toulouzas
 Puzzlewood - Bernhard Schweitzer
 Puzzling Place (uk)
 PuzzlingPuzzles (au)
 Pyramid Gallery - Le Marchand (Hellraiser Cube)

 

Q

 

R


 Rakuten
 RecentToys (Planets)
 Rombol.de
 Official Rubik's site

 

S


 Schachland (Chessland - German)
 Science Enterprises
 SeriousPuzzles.com
 Shop New Zealand - Puzzles
 Sloyd (Oy Sloyd Ab)
 SMART (be)
 Spilsbury
 Springbok Puzzles
 Star Magic
 Stave Jigsaws
 Stickman Puzzle Boxes
 Stumpy Originals
 Swissmad

 

T


 Takara/Tomy
 Tankenotter (Erik Johansson)
 Technology of Wonders - Viktor Genel
 Tenyo
 Thinkfun (Binary Arts)
 Torito (Japan)
 Tour de Jeux - chain in Quebec
 The ToyHouse - Chris Baldwin
 toys-for-all.de
 Toys From Times Past
 ToysGamesPuzzles
 Transposer Puzzles
 Tucker Jones

 

U


 Uhl GMBH
 Uncle's Games
 Uncle's Puzzles
 Unique Box Shop
 University Games

 

V


 Vakkaraverstas
 Variantes
 Venta (cz)
 VIA Spiele
 Villa le Bosquet
 Vin & Co. - Vaclav Obsivac (cz)

 

W


 Wallingford Toy Works
 William Waite - PuzzleMist
 Winning Moves
 Wirwar
 Trevor Wood
 Wood Wonders - Brian Menold
 wooden.co.uk
 Wooden Toys UK (cz)
 Woodpecker (Hikimi)
 World in Puzzle

 

X

 

Y


 Yamanaka Kumiki Works
 also try Dento Nippon
 The Yot

 

Z


 Zoki
 Zome
 Livio Zucca

 

You might find it useful to find some vendors by their logos...


GarE Maxton
Atlantis
Dr. Karl Scherer

Trevor Wood
Haba
Albert Guebeli

Pelikan
Vin & Co
Venta (Cz)

Puzzlein
Haoyuki Iwase
Thinkfun (Binary Arts)
Magnif
Spilsbury

Jerry McFarland
Puzzles

Retail Stores

I wish there were more locations selling mechanical puzzles, but there seems to be a dearth of good retail stores. Here are a few I have found...

Eureka!
1349 Beacon St.
(near intersection of Beacon with Harvard St.)
Brookline, MA 02446
(617)-738-7352
www.eurekapuzzles.com
The Games People Play
1100 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA
(617)492-0711
M,T,W,F,Sa: 10-6; Th: 10-8; Su: 12-5
The Games People Play
Time Machine Hobby / New England Hobby Supply
7 Hilliard St.
Manchester, CT 06040
(860)646-0610
www.nehobby.com
A fantastic toy and hobby store in an old industrial building. They have a large model railroad department and a very large club layout in a back room. They carry some puzzles.
Necker's
1591 Hopmeadow St.
Simsbury, CT 06070
(860)658-5783
M-Sa: 9:30-5:30; Su 10-3; Closed Tue
Necker's website
This is a wonderful toy store that has been around since 1948!
They carry some mechanical puzzles, including Puzzle Master tanglements.
Over The Rainbow Toys
at 2872 Main St. Glastonbury, CT
The Perfect Toy
290 W Main St
Avon, CT 06001
(860) 678-7015
M,T 9:30-5:30; W-F 9:30-8; Sa 9:30-5:30; Su 12-4
This one is a little further afield:
Books Ink
Perkins Cove
Ogunquit, ME
(207)361-2602
www.booksink.com
Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, Maine, is a great spot with some neat shops. When I was there a while ago, Books Ink had a cool selection of books on science, math, chemistry, physics, and other topics of potential interest to puzzlers. They also had a small selection of puzzles. I bought a CubeOcta there. Up the road is another great shop selling mineral specimens and collector-quality sea-shells. Around the corner is the Marginal Way - a walking trail along the seacoast to Ogunquit. You can take a trolley back to the cove.
The souvenir shop at Old Sturbridge Village
might carry some puzzles. I haven't been there in a while.
Toys R Us
1460 Pleasant Valley Rd.
Manchester, CT 06040
(860) 644-7606
Target
125 Buckland Hills Dr
Manchester, CT 06042
(860) 327-0082
Wal-Mart
420 Buckland Hills Dr
Manchester, CT 06042
(860) 644-5100

Links to Enthusiast Sites

Among the best have to be:


PuzzleWorld
John Rausch 		Puzzle will be played...
Keiichiro Ishino 		Burr Tools  

Twisty Puzzles
Sandy Thompson
Jaap Scherphuis
Calormen.com
Joshua Bell
Puzzle Patents

The Poly Pages
Andrew Clarke 		Mathematische Basteleien
Jürgen Köller
Puzzles.com - Thinkfun

Here are some organizations and other resources for puzzle enthusiasts:

Puzzle Auction Sites:

Forums:

Blogs:
For solutions to some mechanical puzzles, try these:

BurrTools by Andreas Röver
Solutions page at SiamMandalay
Puzzlesolver
Solutions de Casse-Tete
Casse-tete et Solution
Classic Puzzle Cube - describing the classic Kumiki cube
Eternity Puzzle Solution
Taniguchi's programs to solve iamonds and sliding block puzzles
SBPSolver - by Pierre-Francois Culand - solves sliding block puzzles

Shapeways shops:
I have found these sites, many belonging to fellow collectors, to be inspirational...


Martin Watson
Matti Linkola
Juno's World

Puzzle Grail
Richard Whiting
Casse-tete et Solution
Jürg & Karin von Känel

Atelier Tamura
World of Craft Puzzle
Hidekuni Tamura
Puzzlewood
Bernhard Schweitzer
Cisco's Collection
Francis Andrac
Age of Puzzles
Serhiy Grabarchuk

Mathpuzzle
Ed Pegg
Leonid Mochalov 		Yukiyasu Sekoguchi
Happiness Cubes (JP) 		Puzzlein - Osho

Enygmo
Martinho Dos Santos
(Google translation)
Kohfuh's Lab
Kohfuh Satoh
La Collection de Casse-Tete de Chantal 		Hlavolamy - Puzzles
Milan Vodicka

Erich Friedman 		Geduldspiele Pantazis' Puzzle Paradise
Pantazis Houlis' Collection
Puzzle Palace
George Miller
Other collections I've found out there in the aether...

Extremely Puzzling - Goetz Schwandtner
Jim Storer's site
Dario Uri's site (the wooden panels on the walls)
Rick Eason's site
Hlavolamy - Milan Vodicka
Chosi's Puzzle Collecting Page
James K. Strayer (all of Yarger's Stickman boxes, etc.)
Jyuta's Page
John Childs' Collection of Kumiki Puzzles
Erich Friedman
Geduldspiele
The Puzzle Pit
Michael Suodenjoki
puzzleum.de
Jose Diaz
Don's Puzzle Collection
Kevin Moore
Casse-Tete de Chantal
mypuzzle.dk - Per Moller Nielsen
Clay Parker's A Puzzlebox Page
Markus Goetz
Denkpuzzels
puzzle.ro (Romania) --  shows Radut's Cube
Witful.net - Edi Nagata
Nick Baxter's Ninomiya box collection
Mechanical Puzzle Freaks (jp)
Other interesting sites:

Logic Mazes - Robert Abbott
Adrian Fisher Mazes
Angela and Otto Janko
Blake O'Hare's Nerd Paradise
Glorieux Ronse Pentomino site - Odette de Muelemeester
George Bell's Peg Solitaire site
Chess Variants - Chess Puzzles
Yukio Hirose
Sliding Block Puzzles
Ultimate Puzzle Site - Logical Puzzles
The Puzzles of Sid Sackson
Iwahiro's Puzzles (e.g. Rectangular Jam)
Fatrazie
Toothpick World
Akiyoshi's Illusion Pages
Innocent Penguin (JP)
Tankenotter AB
George Hart - Geometric Sculptures
Harvey Heinz - Magic Squares
Theo Geerinck
Scott Kim
Christian Eggermont
make the Dr. Who "Key To Time" puzzle
The Gardner Index
Tune's Tipi Page (geometric models)
Da Vinci Days 2002
Shunting Puzzles
link to some of Nick Baxter's past puzzle auctions
7-piece cube from thewoodcrafter.net
Mathematical Puzzles - Chris Lohe
Hirofumi Fujiwara
Kohfuh's Lab
Ronald Kint-Bruynseels
Rob Hegge's Puzzle Pages Archive
Vladimir Krasnoukhov
O'Beirne's Cube
Clickmazes - Andrea Gilbert, Bill Mitchell
The Woodworker's Library
Harshbarger's 21 Squares
Puzzle Fun - Rudolfo Kurchan
My Puzzle Note - Wen-Shan Kao
Deutsches Spielzeugmuseum Sonneberg
Optics for Teens
Exotic Wood site
Art Metal - a metal melting furnace
Mike Helland - Springbok Jigsaws
World Flag Database
Perplex City
Paper Folding

Kathryn Huxtable's Flexagon Page
Flexagon.net
Brain Binders
Unique Projects Complico
Hexaflexagon Toolkit
Kaleidocycles

All About Twisty Puzzles

Jaap's Puzzle Page, maintained by Jaap Scherphuis, is the best for analysis and solutions.
TwistyPuzzles.com, maintained by Sandy Thompson, has the most comprehensive catalogue/database, and a vibrant message board community.
Twistypuzzles.com Articles - learn how to make your own custom twisty puzzles
Ton Dennenbroek - speedcubing and Rubik's puzzle building
Ton Dennenbroek - custom building
Speedsolving.com
Speedsolving Wiki
Speedsolving Notation
Chris Lohe's site has a nice table of twisty puzzle types
chrono.org - Jin Kim
Georges Helm
Sandy's collection
Kar Watanabe
Kastellorizo (WARNING: sound!)
LoloCube - Laurent Blanc
Puzzlemaniac
cubeman.org - Mark Longridge - Domain of the Cube
Virtual Cubes
Yang Ho's Cubemania (KR)
i4no - Rubik's Cube Museum
Four-Dimensional Rubik's Cube
Juanan's collection

Play Online...


Bloxorz
3D Logic
Circle the Cat
Loops of Zen
Planarity
Vexed - like Sokoban meets Tetris
Gridlock - like Rush Hour
Puzzlebeast - has Bulbous Blob
Cheesy Games - Emmett Henderson
Panex
Nick Baxter's Sliding Block Puzzle Page
janko.at - many online puzzles!
janko.at -- Classic Sliding Block Puzzles
Hirofumi Fujiwara - Sliding Piece Puzzles
Tenyo Beat-the-Computer puzzle simulator -- Steven Atkinson

Some game sites...


Handheld Games Museum
Boardgamegeek
Abstract Strategy Games
Jose Diaz (Davans)
The Big Game Hunter
Bruce Whitehill