I've reviewed so many puzzles by Jean Claude Constantin over the years that I ran out of adjectives to classify his unique designs. Probably one of the most prolific puzzle designers/manufacturers in recent history, each puzzle you try from him is bound to leave a positive impression on you. So, what to say about today's featured puzzle, Ella Propella? To put it simply, yet another impressive design.

Ella Propella - That's a pretty nice name right off the bat. And the design is something that catches your attention right away. Including a propeller, magnets and a metal sphere. What else to make this a very unique and interesting puzzle... You're gonna need some dexterity, a good amount of trial and error, but in return you'll get a high dose of fun.

The puzzle may seem confusing at first, as the movement is somewhat stuck by a pin that keeps the propeller moving. You can see what's going on below through the acrylic disc, but you have to figure out a way to make the pin drop and rotate the propeller so that the opening for the sphere can be seen. This movement is a bit of a hit or miss, because the two magnets below repel the natural movement of the puzzle. So you have to keep trying until the pin finally drops and the propeller is free.

Another good thing about the puzzle is that it has a high replay value, since you can't always solve the puzzle at your first try (you probably never solve it at your first try), so it's kind of a fun puzzle to keep around and play to release your stress. As far as difficulty goes, the level 7 is an appropriate classification, as it's challenging but not overly complex that would drive away casual puzzlers.

Closing Comments:

Ella Propella is a really nice little puzzle (just 7.5cm or 3" in diameter), and it's an intriguing puzzle that will keep many occupied for hours. Puzzles and magnets always make for a nice combo, and this time is no different. A definite worthy choice for your collection or just to have a good time.

Availability: Ella Propella is available at PuzzleMaster for just $23.99 CAD. Check out the large collection of Constantin's puzzles also available to purchase.

If there's one thing that most of us find fascinating and intriguing at the same time, is magnets. One way or another we marveled at how two seemingly uninteresting objects can attract or repel by way of an invisible force. How can a small object have so much force that it can easily win gravity, the force that keeps all things on Earth from falling into space? This fascination transcends all age groups, and whether you're 4 or 104, the "attraction" we feel by this subject won't get weaker as we age.

Thinking about this topic, Popular Playthings created a game that shows us how fun playing with magnets really is. Packed with 40 different challenges, Magnetic Match Rings is an educational tool that teaches how magnets work, but also how to manipulate them in order to show a specific pattern, improving hand-eye coordination and visual matching skills. If you're a seasoned puzzler and you're looking for a challenge, this is not for you, though. There's no actual difficulty here, just plain science.

The game is rated as a difficulty level 7/10, but to be honest, I don't know how it can even have a difficulty rating. In order to solve any of the 40 challenges you always have a 50/50 change of getting it right. If the rings are not snapping together, they will absolutely repel each other. There's no other possible outcome. This is supposed to be a fun and educational game, not a puzzle. That's why I don't agree at all with the rating. If you approach it with the correct mindset, you're in for a treat. Otherwise, you're going to be disappointed.

With the rating out of the way, let's get snapping.

The game features 10 colorful ring magnets and a stand with a post that helps keep the rings in place when stacking them. Just choose one of the 40 challenges and start stacking. If the magnets attract, they're going to snap together as a unique object. But, if they repel each other, they will produce a nice effect, as they will float above the other magnets. You can also try to create your own patterns, since the possibilities are way more than just 40.

Closing Comments:

The Magnetic Match Rings game is a nice and fun way to play with magnets. There are a lot of magnet gadgets on the market today, but this is the first time I've seen one like this. And it definitely deserves your attention. Just don't expect to get challenged by it and you'll have a great time. It's just a fun game to play with.

Availability: You can get a copy of the Magnetic Match Rings at PuzzleMaster for just $16.99 CAD. Check out other interesting games by Popular Playthings.

If you read my blog on a regular basis, you know that I've been reviewing some of the latest puzzles from Ivan Moscovich, produced by Fat Brain Toys. This week, I bring you not only one, but a collection of 10 logic puzzles and games all neatly packed into one convenient magnetic box to better enjoy your long journeys - The Craniatics.

The included brainteasers are a mix of solitaire logic puzzles and multiplayer games with difficulties ranging from fairly easy to demanding. You might already be familiar with some of the concepts presented here, even though they are given their own identity with a beautiful new colorful approach. If you're used to logic puzzles, then you won't find them extremely difficult to solve, although some of them will surely give your brain a workout. On the other hand, if you're not a puzzle buff you'll have several tough challenges to occupy your mind for a while. No need to worry, though, because there are solutions included in case you get stuck.

What's interesting about this collection of puzzles is that they're portable: the box includes a magnetic board and opens like a suitcase, eliminating the need for extra space to play. The collection is comprised by high-quality magnetic pieces, just like your regular fridge magnets, and their vibrant colorful palette is a feast for the eyes.

Setting up one of the 10 brainteasers is very simple: just pick any of the 5 double-sided puzzle mats and hold it in place with the four Craniatics pieces in its corners. Each puzzle mat specifies which pieces you need for that particular challenge, so it's very easy to pick them out among all the others lying in the box.

The feeling of solving the puzzles in a magnetic board is surprisingly satisfying. Placing and removing pieces  on the puzzle mat as you try to figure out a solution is my idea of fun, and it won't be long until you realize a couple of hours went by like that.

Since there are 10 different brainteasers to try, it's difficult to cover all of them in a single review without making it overly boring to read. Instead, I'm gonna give you a brief description on a few of them, to give you an idea of what to expect, and leave the rest of them for you to discover on your own.

Also, note that some of the brainteasers have multiple solutions, and even if they have a unique solution, the final arrangement of the pieces might look a bit different. I see it as a bonus, since it will expand the replay value on a few of those puzzles.

The Continuous Loop:

You are given eight similar pieces with a gradient of colors and your task is to arrange them in such a way that they form a closed and continuous loop. The solution is unique and follows a simple logic. This one seems easy at first, but you won't get far just by randomly placing pieces. You need to look at them and find a connection between the colors. Very nice and original idea.

The Disappearing Square:

This one's a well-known concept. See the "Missing Square" puzzle for more info on this fascinating puzzle. This version is a little more complex, in my opinion. It uses 17 pieces in 5 different groups. Your first task is to recreate the colorful pattern on the puzzle mat and then, by removing the central piece, you're asked to create a new pattern with the same exact dimensions.

Spectrix:

This one can be played as a solitaire challenge or as a game for 2 or more players. The solitaire rules are as follows: 1. Place any of the colored tiles on the mat's grid; 2. If the next tile you place is the same color as the previous one, you can't place it next to any of its adjacent squares (diagonals included); 3. Fill the entire grid so that all colored tiles follow these rules. There's only one possible solution, but the arrangement of the colors can be different. The game rules have all players take turns to place a tile as described above, until someone has no more possible moves.

Binary Bits:

This one's another interesting version of a known concept by Niek Neuwahl, the Crossed Crosses. It can also be played as a solitaire puzzle or a game for 2 or more players. In the solitaire puzzle you're required to place all 16 tiles so that their touching edges match in color with the surrounding tiles. There are multiple solutions for this one. In the game version, the principle is the same as the previous brainteaser. The players take turns by placing tiles following the solitaire rules, until one player has no more valid moves.

Closing Comments:

The Craniatics will delight any puzzle enthusiast and give your trips a whole new meaning. It's practical, portable and the selection of puzzles is varied enough to have something for everyone's tastes.

Availability: You can find the Craniatics at Fat Brain Toys for $25 USD.

Today, I will deviate a little from the common puzzles I'm used to review. Zen Magnets are to blame, as they're my latest addiction... As if my regular madness for mechanical puzzles wasn't already enough.

First of all, can this executive toy be categorized as a puzzle? - In short, my answer is yes, it can. As stated in one description of the word "puzzle": "A puzzle is a problem or enigma that tests the ingenuity of the solver" in Wikipedia. If you set your mind to solve a pattern you saw on a picture with your magnetic set, or you just want to build a structure you imagined, but don't know exactly, at first, how to do it, that's basically a puzzle for you.

Now, with the definition of the puzzle behind, I'll describe what exactly are the Zen Magnets. If you browse regularly around the Internet looking for puzzles (like me), you've probably seen these magnetic sets a dozen times before. Every time I'd stumble upon one, I would think to myself: "Yes, you can build a few things out of these, but I bet I would get tired of them pretty fast", and I just continued with my search for the next puzzle. That was until I found out about the Zen Magnets Gallery and was astonished by the sheer amount of beautiful and cool designs you can build with these simple magnetic spheres. It was like stepping into a whole new dimension - I felt this when I first discovered the many types of puzzles that existed, when I started my collection. You can see by the hundreds of pictures, that there are many talented people building all kinds of fantastic and complex designs.

Inspired by all those demonstrations, I decided to explore a little more about this subject. They are around since 2008 and they come in many brands and flavors. One thing that I was concerned about, was their overall quality. I read some people's comments that after a few weeks of constant manipulation, the spheres start to loose their shine and most importantly, their coating, which can leave your hands in a mess after playing with them for a while. After careful research, I decided to give Zen Magnets a try, because their quality is supposed to be the best in the market, right now. Also, this video sort of helped me to decide.

So, what are the Zen Magnets, after all? - Well, they are strong rare earth Neodymium super-magnets, with 5mm in diameter and are coated with mirror polished NiCuNi. They are sold in four different sets: Standard, Gift, Mandala and mini. The Standard and Gift sets come with 216 magnet spheres, a velvet bag and a PVC card (useful to separate groups of spheres), although the gift set has a few extras thrown in (stainless steel plate, microfiber cloth (to clean the magnets), guide and MDF hard case). The Mandala set is the equivalent of eight sets (1728 spheres) for the price of about six... And finally the mini set, with just 72 magnets. Zen Magnets are also owners of the Neoballs brand, which uses several different coating colors, that will sure make very nice contrasting patterns. Bear in mind, though, that Neoballs aren't the same quality as Zen Magnets, as they're a different product.

I was excited when I first received my Zen set. I got the Gift set, by the way. I was more than ready to start making some cool patterns and 3D structures. However, my expectations came crashing down after a few minutes with the spheres. I'm not referring to their quality, but the easiness of manipulation instead. It sure looked easy from the pictures and videos... Every time I tried to make a more complex design, the magnets attracted each other like crazy and the structure would fall apart in an instant. What could I possibly be doing wrong? - Apparently, everything... It seemed that the magnets were too strong to do any serious progress.

For starters, I didn't bother to look at the guide before starting to play with the magnets. How difficult can it be to snap magnets together, right? - I guess I overlooked the fact of the magnetic polarity on the spheres. I know that magnets have a north and south pole, I just didn't think about it. The magnetic polarity compatibility can be grouped  in two types, coupled and linked. Coupled chains have the magnets parallel to each other, whereas the linked chains have the magnets in an alternating pattern. There are many techniques that you can use to simplify your work and ease your frustrations. You can find many of these useful videos around the web that will sure help you. This all sounds a bit complicated, but trust me, you get used to it with practice.

Enough of theory... You might be asking, what exactly can you build with the magnetic spheres? As you probably already saw from some photos above, you can pretty much, build anything you can think of. The only limitation, besides having a small amount of magnets, is your own imagination. Think of it as magnetic Plasticine: from 2D patterns to some of the more complex 3D designs, every object can be recreated to perfection, provided that you have enough spheres to work with. 

I could go on and on about these fantastic spheres, but I fear that the review is already too long, so I might as well conclude. Even though I feel like I've just scratched the surface, I think the information I wrote is enough already, to show you what you can do with your Zen Magnets. I just have to apologize for the photo quality, as I found it extremely difficult to photograph the magnets and keep them in focus. I do believe that it can give you a pretty good idea of the patterns being shown, but there's a lot more you can discover for yourself.

Update (22 Feb.) - I have received a few more Zen sets and I feel I must mention the PVC cards that come with every set. I didn't get this notion when I had just one card, but now I discovered that they are a very worthy addition to the Zen package. They are made by Phil Lewis and display a magnificent art image. Each set comes with a different image, so even though you know that you'll be receiving a Zen set, it'll always be a pleasant surprise to discover what new image is on the card. You're not just collecting the magnets, you're also collecting the cards.

The Zen Magnets sets can be purchased, either from ZenMagnets.com or from ZenMagnets.co.uk, if you're from this side of the Atlantic.

For the past two weeks, I've been fascinated with the potential of this creative tool. It's the perfect distraction from your everyday boring tasks and above all, it can be quite therapeutic and stress reliever. The Zen Magnets were a wonderful find and I will probably be getting more of them in the future. My only complaint? - When seeing all those amazing designs at the Zen gallery, with thousands of magnets, 216 of them seem so little, it's frustrating. One set should come with, like 500 magnets, at least... If you're thinking to buy a set of these, be careful though, as you might get hooked for a long time.

Cube Art was one of the 72 entries in last year's IPP Design Competition. Unfortunately, it didn't win an award, as it faced some tough contestants, but it doesn't mean that it's less interesting.

Inspired by the work of Dutch painter Piet Mondrian, Durandus Dijken from The Netherlands, invented and designed the Cube Art. It comes in a nice plastic container cube with a sliding lid and it sort of reminds me of the Pattern Puzzle Instant Insanity, where you had to arrange four cubes in a row, so that it showed four different colors on each side. 

In the Cube Art, the goal is similar: you have eight blocks divided in three categories: a 1x1x1 cube, a 2x2x2 cube, three 1x1x2 and three 2x2x1 blocks, and they can have a combination of six colors, although some blocks won't feature all six different colors on them. Instead, they can have a repeated color, which adds to a much higher level of difficulty. By choosing a four different color combination, you have to assemble the blocks into a cube and repeat that combination on each of the cube's six faces.

To maintain the blocks into a cube form without falling apart, the designer implemented magnets on each piece and a magnetic plate between the two layers. This way, it becomes much easier to assemble the cube.

At first, your task is simplified at choosing the right color combination, because you are given the three known solutions. You can see three small pictures in a sticker, found at one of the magnetic plate's sides, showing which colors are part of each of the three solutions. Solution 1 has white, yellow, red and blue; solution 2 has orange, red, green and blue and solution 3 has white, yellow, orange and green.

Don't think that because you know which colors to use, that the puzzle is halfway solved. When you receive the puzzle, it already comes solved with one solution, to better give you an understanding of how it works. It took me about two hours to find the first solution, or second, if you count the one it came solved, although a while after you take it apart, you don't remember anymore, how the blocks were organized. There were many times when I had only one block left to place, but it resulted in disappointment and frustration every time, until finally in a surprising moment, I had solved it. Not easy, at all...

Finding the last solution, however, it was much faster for me. It only took me about half an hour. Not sure if it was a stroke of genius or just pure luck, though, but the important thing is that I solved it. Now, all I need is just to find the correct block placement for the first solution, the one that the puzzle came in... Or is it? - I wish it were that simple...

One of the coolest things about the puzzle is that, after you solve the three known color configurations, you have a much harder challenge in your hands, which is to find a fourth secret solution. This time, you don't have any information regarding the colors you're supposed to use, you're simply on your own. I still haven't found this solution yet.

The fourth solution was found by the designer himself, after the puzzle had been published, by analyzing it in further detail. In theory, there could be 15 possible configurations with the six existing colors, but only four of them are solvable. Is it really possible to have more solutions? Now there's a nice challenge for a mathematician...

I enjoyed very much, playing with the Cube Art. Besides using magnets, which is always cool in a puzzle, I liked the challenge. It requires just the right amount of frustration from you, so that it never feels overcomplicated, and yet providing a satisfying rewarding feeling.

To buy your copy, you can visit the puzzle's website or contact Durandus Dijken directly.

The Magna Cube was another great surprise for me, also from Puzzle Guru. The other one was the Houdini Dead Lock, reviewed last week. It is also part of the IQ Collection from the Family Games America, together with the Mosaic and the Labyrinth 4D, both seem very interesting as well.

This puzzle is like a Soma Cube with a "Twist". The added difficulty comes from the twenty four strategically placed magnets into the eight wooden pieces that form a 3x3 cube. Each piece can have either two, three or four magnets scattered around, although only one has two and another one four, leaving all the other six pieces with three magnets each. The tricky part is that each magnet will either repel or attract with another piece, thus making the puzzle much more difficult to solve.

Since 1933, we've seen many puzzle variations inspired by Piet Hein's seven piece Soma Cube, although some of them stand out more than others. One of the most popular is the Bedlam Cube with its thirteen pieces, but the Magna Cube is also a very nice change from the old formula and can be considered one of the best so far.

The puzzle is beautifully presented with a harder tone wooden stand, to better displayed it when solved. I say solved, because there's no way you can keep it in the stand, unless it's all tight packed correctly, otherwise you're gonna have falling pieces.

After you take the cube apart and shuffle the pieces, you have a serious challenge on your hands. Although it's not as hard as a Bedlam Cube, it does take a little patience to see some progress. One of the requirements to solve it right is that no magnet can be visible outside of the cube. It seems only logic, but there's going to be countless times when you think you're in the right path, to only notice one or two magnets seen on the outer side.

Another requirement to keep in mind is that each magnet has to be connected to another one. In other words, you can't have two magnets of a particular piece connected and leave another one loose without a counterpart on another piece. Once more, this will give to the puzzle an added level of complexity, making sure to leave you with a small headache.

One thing that it does make the puzzle a bit more easy, is that the cube only has three types of pieces (graphical representations can be done with a small 'v', an 'L' and a 'T'): 5 v's, 2 L's and a T. Knowing this, it simplifies when you need a 'v', for example, but the magnet configuration doesn't fit with the rest of the placed pieces. Then, you just need to replace that piece with the one that has the magnets in the right position.

Looking at the puzzle like this, knowing the two main requirements and taking advantage of the fact that it only has three types of pieces, you only need some experimentation with a couple of pieces and work your way up to form the cube. I'm not sure of the exact number of solutions, but I reckon it must be a very small number, given the restrictions and requirements needed to solve it.

Having played with several other Soma related puzzles, I can honestly say that this one is among my favorites, alongside the Bedlam Cube. Not only for its great presentation with the stand, but also for the challenge and the novelty of seeing something different with magnets. It can be a little time consuming though, depending on your puzzle solving skills, but then again, you'll have your money's worth.

The Magna Cube can be purchased at Puzzle Guru, as well as the others in the IQ Collection: The Mosaic and the Labyrinth 4D.

The Tetraxis puzzle is an invention by John and Jane Kostick. It's a magnetic puzzle designed to stimulate the brain's ability to recognize symmetry and color combinations.

There are twelve sticks shaped like a triangular prism, divided in four colors (yellow, green, blue, red). Each piece has four magnets, two in the parallelogram base and one in each of the prism's other two faces. Building shapes is easy and intuitive, as the sticks only connect in a way that feels just right.

(Click to Enlarge)

To build the puzzle in its original shape, you can start by joining two pieces together. Add a third stick to form a pinwheel. Now build three other ones and you're left with four identical pinwheels. It won't be much harder to join them one by one until you have the final shape built. After that, just make sure if the color combinations are right, as you might need to swap a couple of sticks to get the desired combination. Tip: try to build each pinwheel with three sticks of the same color. You'll end up with another cool color combination.

The Tetraxis comes boxed in its most recognizable shape already built. The color combination that you'll see right away is three sticks of the same color, pointing at the same direction in a triangular orientation. However, there are other several combinations that you can try yourself. For example: try to have only one of the three colors pointing at a particular direction for the entire original shape (image below). For other challenges, visit the Tetraxis'  image page (Scroll down).

(Click to Enlarge)

You can also use the sticks to assemble the puzzle in different ways other than a closed shape. Some can be magnetically linked (right image below), while others you can use a mixture of magnetically linked and just touching each other, like the four pinwheels below at the left. The pinwheels are linked together by the magnets, but they're only touching each other in a plain surface.

(Click to Enlarge)

You can also see in the Tetraxis' image page, other shapes you can build with more than one puzzle. There are countless possibilities, only limited by your own creativity and imagination.

Closing Comments:

If you're into the type of puzzles that can yield the best of your creativity, then the Tetraxis is a recommended toy for you. Whether you'll get one or more puzzles, you can be sure to have many hours of plain fun with the building possibilities that the Tetraxis can offer. It's also great to have one in the workplace to refresh your creativity.

The creators also do exquisite hand-crafted artwork, with similar structures and a few more complex shapes. If you'd like to know more about these products, you can go to the creators website and take a look at the great collection available. You can contact the designers if you want to buy anything from the site... Here's a video that shows one of these fine sculptures.

Also available from the MoMath website.

(Click to Enlarge)

Invented by Roger von Oech, author of "A Whack on the Side of the Head" and two others, the multiple award-winning Ball of Whacks is a combination of 30 magnetic design blocks that can be used to create countless different shapes.

There have been many of these toys over the years, that enable one's creativity to build new patterns or shapes. I personally, have some of these in my puzzle collection, like the Rubik's Snake, the Rekubus cubes or even the classical Tangram.

So what does the Ball of Whacks have that makes it so special?

...Well, the 30 pieces that make the Ball of Whacks are built with 180 rare earth magnets, that enables you to combine the pieces, in order to create any kind of shape your imagination can think of. It's a great way to exercise and stimulate your brain. The pieces only connect with the faces that perfectly fit together, otherwise they repel. When you're building the ball shape, you can see that the pieces almost connect to each other by themselves.

What's a Whack?

Each Whack piece's base is a golden rhombus, that is, it conforms to the golden ratio which is 1.618. To prove this, you can measure the long and short diagonals of the base and when you compare them, they'll have a ratio of 1.618, represented by the Greek letter ϕ (phi).

You can make different challenges with the Whack pieces, for example:

- Close you eyes and imagine a shape. Now, with your eyes still closed start building the shape you have in your mind. When you're done, open your eyes and see if what you just made, is close to what you were thinking of.

- Another challenge is to get a metallic surface to play with the pieces. Because the pieces have magnets, you can build different patterns on the horizontal plane.

There's much more challenges you can make. You'll find them on the 96 page activity book that comes with every Ball of Whacks.

Currently, there's four available color versions of the Ball of Whacks: Red, Blue, Black and 6-Color. There's a different challenge you can make with the 6-Color BOW, which is to make a ball where no Whack piece touches any other piece of the same color.

In conclusion, the Ball of Whacks exceeded my highest expectations. When I got it, I was very impressed with what you can make with it. It's an ingenious design and extremely addictive. It's a very enjoyable toy that anyone at any age can pick up. Even my mother got fascinated by it, and she's not into puzzles that much. For being a toy that only is limited by your imaginative thinking, it's recommended to anyone that likes to create shapes and patterns with any kind of material and it's very relaxing to just play with it. You can have it anywhere and when you're feeling bored or need to unwind, you can just pick it up and start creating. You'll see that it puts you in a good mood in no time.

Video - Since there's virtually no video for a Blue BOW on Youtube, I made a small video for this one.