Awesome Puzzles

Ever wonder “What if the Starship Enterprise was manned by cats?” Us neither. Nevertheless, this 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle casts felines in several of Star Trek’s most beloved scenes. A tabby plays Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock is a Mexican Hairless, and Chief Engineer “Scotty” Scott is (duh) a Scottish Fold. Beam me up, Kitty!

Maze expert Sean C. Jackson created 30 intricate mazes for fellow Star Wars fans to enjoy. Locations include the forests of Endor, Jabba’s Palace, the rocky cliffs of Ahch-To, and the corridors of the Death Star. In addition to winding your way through the mazes, each illustration contains a Where’s Waldo-style challenge.

For us mere mortals, a 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube poses a challenge. But Corenpuzzle is a bit more ambitious with his puzzles. His Atlasminx is a 19-layer dodecahedron with 4,863 moving pieces. It’s made from 3D-printed pieces that rotate around a circular core. He used colored plastic to avoid having to apply thousands of stickers.

Artist Ray Whitby shows how he created a unique cylindrical jigsaw puzzle. He first designed and 3D printed the pieces using wood PLA filament, sealed them with superglue, and filled them with blue resin. He then attached the pieces and turned them on a lathe. Using latex to protect the pieces from excess resin was key.

If you or someone you know is into difficult puzzles, The Master Theorem – A Book of Puzzles, Intrigue and Wit is sure to offer a challenge. It’s filled with more than 40 perplexing puzzles include ciphers, logic games, and visual puzzles, each of which requires smarts and creativity even to figure out where to start each one.

Photographer Troy Litten challenged himself to photograph every bowl of noodles he ate across Southeast Asia. From crowded Hanoi food stalls to Bangkok skyscrapers, he documented his delectable lunches then turned it into a colorful 500-piece Galison jigsaw puzzle guaranteed to whet your appetite.

Here’s a fun alternative to traditional puzzle books. This two-volume book series is filled with challenging riddles that will exercise your grey matter. They’re enjoyable to solve on your own, but can be even more fun to figure out with friends. Grab the Kindle 3-pack and get Riddles for Smart Families too.

Craighill’s latest desktop object is a beautiful and tricky stainless steel puzzle. It’s comprised of four identical pieces which come together to form a rounded-corner pyramid. Expect to be just as challenged disassembling as assembling its parts. It’s also available in a Vapor Black PVD matte finish.

Despite being made of only four pieces, this palm-sized metal puzzle offers plenty of challenge for puzzle lovers. The goal – remove the interlocking pieces from their base, then put them back together. Designed in Japan by puzzle expert Mineyuki Uyematsu.

Nervous System makes unique gifts, housewares, and jewelry that incorporate math and generative art. Their birch wood jigsaw puzzles of the Earth and the Moon have no straight edges, and the ability to be reconfigured into a nearly infinite combination of shapes. The Earth version has 441 pieces, while the Moon has 186.

Game studio Kong Orange and Wired Fly Animation are working on this co-op puzzle game that puts players in the roles of Karla and Kurt, two friends on the verge of expressing their love, but who lose their ability to speak. Each character and background will be hand-animated using traditional stop-motion techniques.

Rademic Puzzles creates awesome-looking metal puzzles, including the stainless steel Hexahog. This 3-dimensional puzzle is made of 14 unique pieces which interlock to form an outer cage and an inner cage, which contains a sculptural brass nugget. PuzzleMaster explains the puzzle’s design without giving away any tricks.

We are shamelessly addicted to LEGO, and that includes Chronicle Books’ colorful 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles. LEGO Rainbow Bricks Puzzle is a particularly fun one, vividly tapping into the color puzzle trend without driving us bonkers like the all-yellow minifig puzzle. Bonus: These pieces don’t kill your feet when stepped on.

Puzzle Master’s metal plaything offers a Level 9 challenge for serious puzzle fiends. It’s made from 12 identical interlocking pieces that are painfully difficult to take apart and put back together. Despite having four fewer pieces, their similar Lattice puzzle is rated a Level 10 difficulty.

These from Peru’s D.A.R. Proyectos are made from a unique combination of gemstones, cut to form interlocking shapes. Stones include rhodonite, celestine, serpentine, and jasper, which come together to form a colorful 1.75″ cube. Since each stone is real, every puzzle is one-of-a-kind.

BetterCo. specializes in colorful and challenging jigsaw puzzles. This astronomical puzzle features a dramatic image of the stars, dust, and gas clouds of the Milky Way captured by NASA’s Hubble Telescope. The completed 1000-piece puzzle measures appx. 27.5″ x 19.7″.

It may look like a Rubik’s Cube, but this 2x2x2 puzzle is much more. It has 24 LCD screens, 8 processors, motion and touch sensors, and plays a variety of mobile games. It can also be used to display information widgets on its screens. It’s expected to launch by late 2021 with a price of $249. Place your reservation here.

These wooden stash boxes are perfect for hiding away small items. At their center is a metal tube with a peg that must be moved through a series of twists and turns in order to unlock its contents. Available in natural or cherry-stained birch wood.

Carpenter David Lundell enjoys making furniture that incorporates hidden storage compartments. Each one works like a puzzle box, requiring a specific sequence of actions in order to access its contents. Here’s another version he built for hiding away guns, booze, and a poker set.

This series of three jigsaw puzzles come together to form the major anatomical structures of a 5-foot-tall human being. Choose from head, thorax, or abdominal sections, each certified for accuracy by medical illustrator Mesa Schumacher. They make a great gift for biology students, or just anyone interested in science.

Love a challenge? Jean-Claude Constantin’s Hidden Corridor puzzle will definitely get your brain juices flowing. The objective of this Level-9 puzzle is to maneuver its ball through a maze by moving a series of sliding levers. Made from laser-cut wood, acrylic, and metal hardware.

Chronicle Books teamed up with LEGO to create a series of fun jigsaw puzzles. Among them are these 1000-piece puzzles based on the faces and bodies of LEGO minifigs. With its repetitive details and yellow color scheme, the faces puzzle is definitely the more challenging of the two.

In the 1800s, an engineering reference book showed off a pulley design that could expand its size. Angus of Maker’s Muse wanted to see if he could replicate the part using 3D printing, and along the way found a different use for it, and incorporated the mechanism into a nifty looking puzzle box.