Greg Puzzles Blog

A row of five cast metal puzzles in different interlocking shapes

Best Hanayama Puzzles: A Cast Tier List

Hanayama's Cast series is the most widely owned line of mechanical puzzles in the world, and it is enormous. The box tells you how hard a puzzle is, not whether...

Best Hanayama Puzzles: A Cast Tier List

Hanayama's Cast series is the most widely owned line of mechanical puzzles in the world, and it is enormous. The box tells you how hard a puzzle is, not whether...

A cutaway puzzle box showing the hidden pin and latch inside

Puzzle Box Mechanisms Explained

A puzzle box is an ordinary-looking object that refuses to do the one thing its shape promises. Here is what is actually inside them.

Puzzle Box Mechanisms Explained

A puzzle box is an ordinary-looking object that refuses to do the one thing its shape promises. Here is what is actually inside them.

Puzzle Subscription Boxes: Are They Worth It?

Best Monthly Puzzle Subscription Boxes

Subscription boxes have a reputation problem and most of it is earned. Puzzles are one of the few categories where the format genuinely works, for a reason that has nothing...

Best Monthly Puzzle Subscription Boxes

Subscription boxes have a reputation problem and most of it is earned. Puzzles are one of the few categories where the format genuinely works, for a reason that has nothing...

Mystery Puzzle Boxes: What Is Actually Inside?

Mystery Puzzle Boxes: What Is Actually Inside?

Anyone who has bought more than a handful of puzzles has a type, and the catalogue quietly narrows to the shelf they already know. A mystery box breaks that.

Mystery Puzzle Boxes: What Is Actually Inside?

Anyone who has bought more than a handful of puzzles has a type, and the catalogue quietly narrows to the shelf they already know. A mystery box breaks that.

Two plain geometric pieces designed to fit together

Minimalist Puzzles: Why Fewer Pieces Are Harder

Minimalism in puzzles gets described as a look. That is true and it is the least interesting thing about it. Minimalism is a constraint, and constraints make puzzles good.

Minimalist Puzzles: Why Fewer Pieces Are Harder

Minimalism in puzzles gets described as a look. That is true and it is the least interesting thing about it. Minimalism is a constraint, and constraints make puzzles good.

Gifts for Dad Who Says He Needs Nothing

Gifts for Dad Who Says He Needs Nothing

Dad says he doesn't need anything. Here is the category of gift that works anyway: an object with a problem inside it.

Gifts for Dad Who Says He Needs Nothing

Dad says he doesn't need anything. Here is the category of gift that works anyway: an object with a problem inside it.