Hello puzzle fanatics!

[Dangerzone]

Thought I would say hi,

My name is D.J. and I'm from the USA. I have been a puzzle fan for years and pride myself in solving puzzles extremely quick, then watching others struggle to do the same

Sadly, due to unforeseen circumstances, I lost most of my collection some years ago... Most of the desirable out-of-print puzzles from the old bits and pieces catalogues. (Brass cannon, jail cell, lighthouse, magic key, bottled frustration, etc.) so I took to playing digital puzzle games instead.

A recent favorite of mine is the room series by fireproof games... If you have not heard of these games, look them up. You will hit yourself for being ignorant of their existence!

And that is why I am introducing myself. Ignorance... I had no idea that the real life puzzle scene was as big as it was and I was wondering if anyone could give some of beginners pointers on meetings, newsletters, designers, other blogs and forums, how to maybe restore my lost collection, that sort of thing.

It's nice to meet you all and know I'm not alone with my "problem" lol

Thanks, and God bless!

[Splinter]

Hi D.J.,

Welcome here!

I'm not a big collector (small one would say; the few puzzles I have I mostly bought at Dutch Cube Days), but I can tell you that at the moment Facebook is one of the more active places if you want to be part of the crowd.

Look e.g. at these groups:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/105764382903363
https://www.facebook.com/groups/53098540594

This forum every now and then is active e.g. when some fundamental discussions take place or new puzzles are announced that are non-twisty (twisty puzzles collectors are VERY active here: http://www.twistypuzzles.com/ , with also a non-twisty section).

As you can see at e.g. http://www.twistypuzzles.com/ , a lot of sales of (also older) puzzles is taking place through Ebay.


Good luck & welcome again,

Splinter

[Dangerzone]

Yeah My love has always been Progressive move and sequential discovery puzzles...I've always enjoyed the perplexes line as well, I have all nine of them now. Even the deathstar model.

Despite knowing all the tricks to solve a rubicks cube in under a minute, I often come away with a headache. Lol

Recently, I came across Mr puzzle in Australia and may order some of his work, but I'm also interested in stickman and wil stejbos work. Do either of them also have any kind of store front or contact info?

I'm aware their work is sought after and expensive, but to me it's totally worth it.

Because, My dream is to open up a puzzle library for my friends and the community... Lending puzzles out through the mail that most would not normally have access to (for the cost of shipping of course )

[Splinter]

Wil(l) can be contacted on this forum; he's a member here. Just look at the member's list.
More easy if you have a FB account: William

He's typically the guy you want to contact to be added to his mailing list of new puzzles.
I've sent a PM with his e-mail address.

[Dangerzone]

Yeah me and Facebook don't get along, it creeps me out... Namely because I never made an account before last year. But when I tried to make one with my personal email that I never hand out or use, it said my email was already registered. Thought that was odd so I did the password change thing... I Came into a pre-made account with details and photos I have never posted online anywhere. Needless to say I closed the phantom account and damn near sued for breach of privacy because I never authorized any of it. Even more spooky is the fact that no one person I'm aware of could have had *ALL* the info that was on that page... And the worst part is that this tale is not all that uncommon to hear, so yeah. I'll put my tinfoil hat back on now.

Anyways,

Thanks for the links! And the warm welcome

If anything ever comes of my puzzle library I'll post all the info here on how to access it. And I might do a blog like I see quite a few others doing.

Do you have a list of popular mechanical puzzle blogs btw?

[Splinter]

If you start here (good blog, Allard is a nice writer):

http://allardspuzzlingtimes.blogspot.co.uk/

just look also at the right "stuff I read (often)"

And you may want to check Gabriel's website, with I think the most reviews about puzzles you can find:

http://mypuzzlecollection.blogspot.com/


Well, you've enough to browse through now (I guess).

[Dangerzone]

Indeed!

Thank you so much, I'll keep you updated on my progress ^_^

[Brian706]

Hi D.J.,

I love The Room series. Have you played the third one that came out this month? I completed it and the four alternate endings. This was by far the best one yet and gave me a lot of play time. It took me about 7 hours to complete the main game and then an additional 3 hours to complete the alternate endings; 10 hours total!