Alexander Magyarics is a Slovakian puzzle designer who has quickly become one of the most prolific voices in modern packing puzzle design. He recently went full-time as a puzzle designer and seller, and his catalog has been expanding at a remarkable pace. His work is produced in wood by makers like Wood Wonders and Cubicdissection, and in 3D-printed plastic right here.
Why I love Alexander's work
Alexander is fast. He's one of those designers who seems to produce great new ideas on an almost monthly cadence, and the depth of his catalog at this stage of his career is impressive.
What I love especially are his apparent cube designs - puzzles that look like clean cubes from outside but hide unusual inner geometry - and his specialty in multi-challenge puzzles. Some of his designs include several distinct configurations to solve within the same puzzle, so a single piece on your desk becomes weeks of solving rather than days. The Sliders series is a classic example: one box, seven separate challenges, and you keep coming back to it.
Alexander is now full-time at this work as both designer and seller, and I want to support him on that adventure. Carrying his designs in plastic in my store is part of how I do that.
Meeting Alexander in Israel
I met Alexander at IPP40 in Israel. Aside from being a genius designer, he's super fun, funny, kind, and creative - the kind of person who makes a puzzle convention feel like a reunion with friends. He gave me his blessing to 3D-print his designs and share them with my customers.
What the puzzle community says
Reviewers consistently rank Alexander among the absolute masters of minimal-piece packing puzzles, often pairing his name with Osanori Yamamoto. PuzzleMad has reviewed many of his designs and consistently praises their original mechanical thinking. Wood Wonders by Brian Menold and Cubicdissection produce premium wooden editions of his work for collectors.
Where to start in his catalog
Start with Alpacka 1. It's a 6-piece frame packing puzzle and a clean introduction to how Alexander thinks - simple-looking setup, a frame, six pieces, and a solve that demands more sequence and rotation than the appearance suggests.
From there, climb directly to Alpacka 2. Same basic premise, harder solve, more sequence work. Together they're a perfect 2-step ramp into Alexander's style.
I'm planning to add more of his puzzles in the future as part of supporting his work full-time.
FAQ
Who is Alexander Magyarics?
Alexander Magyarics is a Slovakian puzzle designer who recently became a full-time designer and seller. He's prolific, fast, and respected in the modern packing puzzle community for his clean apparent cube designs and his multi-challenge puzzles. His wooden originals are produced by Wood Wonders and Cubicdissection.
What makes a Magyarics puzzle different?
Two things: apparent cubes (puzzles that look like neat cubes but hide unusual geometry inside) and multi-challenge designs (one puzzle with several distinct configurations to solve). When you buy an Alexander puzzle, you're often buying multiple solves in a single object.
Which Magyarics puzzle should I buy first?
Alpacka 1. It's a 6-piece packing challenge in a frame and a great introduction to his sequence-driven style.
Do you sell the wooden versions?
No, we produce them in 3D printing, since we aim to make great designs as available as possible. Wooden editions of Alexander's puzzles are produced by makers like Wood Wonders and Cubicdissection for collectors. Alexander has given us his blessing to make the plastic versions you see here.
Will more Magyarics puzzles be added?
Yes - I'm planning to add more of his designs in the future. He's full-time now and I want to support that work, and his catalog is full of puzzles I'd love to share.
If you enjoy Alexander's work, also explore puzzles by Osanori Yamamoto, Frederic Boucher, and Lucie Pauwels - some of the other modern designers whose puzzles I'm honored to carry.
