I wish I could give an exact date, but I really can't. I'll give estimates instead. Some time in 2009, I went to my friend SmaZ with a rainbow cube and asked him to make me a Dino out of it. Smaz rose to the challenge and made me a beautiful puzzle (which I sadly can't show tonight because the majority of my handmade puzzles from SmaZ are at work keeping my books company). Well, I knew a little bit about Dino's and had him make me 3 more. Yes folks, I have a 6 color, a four color, a two color, and a dinosaur stickered set of SmaZ's handmade Dino cubes. Insane I know.
Well, then a while later he started making them again with his trademark hallow stickers (more on that in an upcoming post) Well, I needed another set now didn't I. So yes, somewhere either in my office or under my bed there is a set of Dino's with hollow SmaZ stickers.
In 2010 sometime, SmaZ made barrel Dino cubes, and I got a few of those as well-not full sets though. I mean really, how many dino's does one girl need? And then.....he mass produced the barrels. So now I have at least 5 barrels at home. maybe more.....(again, I'm not exactly sure where they are.)
So that brings me to today. I texted SmaZ earlier in the week to see if he had the dino's in yet. No such luck. So I went about my business knowing full well when they came in SmaZ would text me and let me know I could collect my dino's. This morning I got a text asking for a cup of coffee...And to pick up my Dino's.
I arrived at SmaZ's shop round about 3, and left at 6. We had a lovely afternoon chatting about puzzles, and future puzzle builds, and future meet ups...Puzzling sort of things. And all the while, poor SmaZ was stickering away at my 7 dino's.
So what is this puzzle like? Well, it turns better than the originals. I have a set sans lubricant. I hate the stuff, and they still turn fantastic. What about solving difficulty? Nope, there is none. Anyone can solve a Dino. I think that is one of the joys of this puzzle. It is dead easy! Absolutely easy. Nothing to it at all. I think it might take 5 minutes for the 6 colored version and you kind of work your way to zero from there. As for the two colored one I think the puzzle is in trying to mess it up.
A fun puzzle to have if you don't have an original, and at the price SmaZ is charging, you can't go wrong. If you want one, you can contact him via: 1smaz@facebook.com. I'm sure he'll hook you up....White coming soon. Oh, and I forgot about the really cool little bags they come in. Each puzzle has it's on protector bag. I just picked up another 7 of them as you can see above. Dust proofed puzzles. Can't go wrong there...
Oh, and one last photo:
If you look really carefully, you can see SmaZ's logo on the corners. Mf8 is in there somewhere as well, but I didn't capture it here.
A handmade dino barrel is in the photo above. Stay tuned for a post about SmaZ's handmade puzzles. Great stuff those are. And the barrel's are ever so slightly trickier.
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