Pavel will now work with you to create a 100% custom jigsaw puzzle,
using your photograph or other design, and optionally incorporating
'special' pieces in representational shapes that are meaningful to you.
Read more, including pricing information, here!
Pavel Curtis is perhaps best known as the creator of the online world
LambdaMOO,
but he's been collecting mechanical puzzles for as long as he can remember, and has
been designing new ones since 1999. Many of the designs on sale here have been
featured over the years at the exclusive International Puzzle Party.
As a day job, Pavel works as a software architect at Microsoft.
Other Puzzle Sellers
Puzzle Resources
Some Serious Collectors
Online Puzzles
Got a puzzle site and want to trade links? Write me!
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A classic puzzle from a century ago:
it ties on in just an instant, but then can you remove it without a hint?
(Instructions on setting up the puzzle are provided at the URL
etched onto the stick.)
Just arrange the four pieces to form a simple block letter “T”.
A surprisingly tricky little classic!
Fit all four T’s into each square! The one-star tray is easy, but
what about that two-star square?
(Tray and piece colors are likely to differ from those in the photo.)
March both groups of marbles past one another, each to the other
end of the track. A classic brainteaser!
Pavel's original variant of the classic puzzle. The same rules apply as in the original,
but it’s much trickier to solve!
From a pipefitter’s fever dream, can you remove the rubber O-ring
from this three-stick candle holder?
Watch out, these four- and five-stick candle holders are even trickier
than their three-stick little brother!
Young lovers, cruelly separated... It’s a sad but timeless tale.
Can you bring them together again?
(Doesn't everyone see romance in plumbing parts, or is it only Pavel?)
This couple have become estranged, turning their backs on one another.
Can you reconcile them, bringing them back face to face? (What they do
after that is none of our concern...)
Any good mason knows: when laying bricks, you don't want the cracks
in one row to line up with those in other rows. Can you satisfy the bricklayer's
challenge, or will you end up banging your head against this wall?
At first, this seems to be just a little jigsaw puzzle, and it is, but it's
a tricky one, and that's just the beginning of the solving experience!
Pavel's 10½-year-old nephew handily solved his
version of this one; can you do as well with yours?
What if you left some beer bottles out in the sun too long, and they
melted and slumped all over each other? And what if you could take that
pile apart and put it together again? Each of these fun puzzle sculptures
is custom made for you, and will baffle and intrigue your guests for a long
time to come!
It's just a jigsaw puzzle, right? With only a couple dozen pieces, how
hard could it be? Pavel's latest multi-stage solving experience will
take you to the edge: can you guess the secret word he's thinking of?
Can you get a word ... in Edgewise?
Conceived by world-renowned computer scientist and mathematician
Donald Knuth, and brought to fruition by Pavel, this is an elegant set
of five progressively more complex and difficult challenges, each
using the same pieces and each with a unique solution.
Brrr! This big, frigid beauty recalls the shockingly blue ice of an Alaskan
glacier, but assembling its complex interlocking pieces won't leave you
cold. A striking attention getter in any room, begging to be taken apart.
Do you dare to brave the elements and challenge this icy jumble?
This investigator's magnifying glass has been broken!
Repair the glass in two different ways to reveal clues
to an old mystery. Can you put the pieces together
to uncover the hidden meanings and solve this
puzzling enigma, not just once, but twice?
The word “EIGHT” seems so innocent, so harmless, so
devoid of either mystery or malice, doesn't it? Don't
you believe it! Your job is to pack those five letters
into each side of the tray, one supposedly “easy” and
the other admittedly “hard.” Watch out, they're tricky!
Now also available in this economical CD jewel-case edition!
(Tray and piece colors are likely to differ from those in the photo.)
Just four simple-seeming pieces to fit into each side
of the tray, but they're much trickier than you'd think
to get your head around, and there's only one solution
per side! This award-winning puzzle design is
available again for the first time in many years!
Now also available in this economical CD jewel-case edition!
(Tray and piece colors are likely to differ from those in the photo.)
Originally copyrighted in 1932 by the son of Thomas Edison,
this puzzle has been unavailable for over half a century.
Can you assemble the 12 blocks into a single, solid rectangle?
Just how easy a puzzle do you think an Edison would design?
Anansi, the trickster spider god of African and Caribbean lore, has created
a tricky maze with no walls, no paths to follow,
not even any dead ends! Can you see through all of
Anansi's tricks and find the secret he's left for you at
the center of his maze? Pavel's series of multi-stage
solving experiences continues in a very satisfying way!
Twelve stars with a deep or shallow notch on
each arm. Can you match deep with shallow
at every intersection to assemble this beautiful
crystaline sphere? It's a tough challenge with
a truly satisfying result.
A mysterious disassembled octahedron with an equally
mysterious engraved tablet: what can it all mean?
The third in our series of multi-stage puzzles!
Eight slim plastic triangles with tabs and slots on the edges,
some strange etchings on the surfaces, and a whole lotta
holes! A new multi-stage solving experience!
Six flat pieces, each with two little tabs hanging off one edge, come
together in just one way to make this handsome figure. An elegant
and intriguing addition to any executive's desk.
A new concept in mechanical puzzles, the Ooo Tray is a multi-level solving experience
with each level's solution leading you on to the next. The final answer is a single word;
can you find it?
Twelve pieces exhibit all the ways that two slightly "off" squares can be joined.
In the first of four challenges, you "simply" fit them all into the tray. The final
challenge has only three solutions; can you absorb enough Easter Island
culture to complete it?
Pavel found twelve ways to choose a group of three tiles from a lovely
Arts and Crafts-style floor and then fitted them nicely into this tray.
Can you find both possible packings?
There are just four pieces to fit into a tray that's clearly way oversized for them.
How hard could that possibly be? It pays to keep this puzzle's name in mind...
Now also available in this economical CD jewel-case edition!
(Tray and piece colors are likely to differ from those in the photo.)
Each of the seven sticks has one dovetail tab attached along its length,
and one dovetail notch cut across it. Your goal is to assemble the
pieces with every tab fitted into a notch. Two of the four solutions will
balance nicely on the end of one stick.
Enter the strange world of non-periodic tiling! Can you fit these mind-boggling pieces into the
turbaned head of the Grand Vizier? Once you do, there's a second challenge on the back!
Can you recreate the simple symmetry of the Japanese flag from these twelve
two-sided dominoes? Careful, the pieces aren't the same on their backs!
This version of the Japanese flag puzzle is made from stiff card stock instead
of Lucite and comes without a tray. A portable brain twister at a bargain price.
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(November 27, 2013)
Fourth Annual Holiday Discount Puzzle Solve this puzzle for 10% off any order! It's that time of year again, time for the Pavel's Puzzles annual Holiday Discount Puzzle! As in past years, I've created a brand-new multi-stage puzzle that leads to a one-word solution. That solution word is a special discount code that you can use when making an order from Pavel's Puzzles to receive a 10% discount on any number of puzzles. Even better,...
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