On the 7th day of Christmas

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me,
7 Eric Fuller's
6 Tony Fisher's
5 Richard Hess'
4 Mr. Fok's
3 Da Yans
2 Brian Young's
And Stickman in a pine tree.

Eric Fuller is the brains (and the brawn) behind cubic dissection.  If you haven't been over there, now's the time to go look.  Eric is a builder extraordinaire and another all around great guy!  What's not to love about this guy, he's big, he's brawny, he's an amazing builder, he loves a good cigar, and he's ex-service.  What a dude!

I have passed the bull with Eric for a while now, but it wasn't until this past IPP that I finally got to meet him. I must say, I completely enjoyed the time I spent with him and look forward to doing it again.

Over the past few years I've gotten a few puzzles made by Eric and I haven't been disappointed by any of them.  They truly are lovely pieces of wood that just so happen to form a puzzle.  I've blogged about one or two in passing and am sure once I open the others I've bought from him I'll blog about them as well.  :)  Head over to cubic dissection to see what he has to offer, then snap one up.  You won't be sorry!

On the 6th day of Christmas

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me,
6 Tony Fisher's
5 Richard Hess'
4 Mr. Fok's
3 Da Yans
2 Brian Young's
And Stickman in a pine tree.

The one puzzler that is allowed into my collection of men that I have yet to meet....Such a sad thing for me.
I've known Tony via the internet for many years now and simply love his dry humor.  I look forward to meeting him one of these years and keep looking for an excuse to get to the UK so I can do just that.

I've known about this Mr. Fisher for many many years and can vaguely remember getting excited when he first got an account on TP back in 2005!  Imagine, the king of handmade puzzle transformations himself wanted to join our little forum!

Ok, enough cheekiness Tony really is a fantastic builder.  He's had a number of his designs mass produced by Meffert's and can be seen over on PuzzleMaster as well.  He even has his own webpage for you to drool over.

I've no photos of Tony because I've not met him.  (that makes sense right???)  I'll link you to my nesting cubes though.  Over the years I've been lucky enough to get his sliding pucks as well as a miniature golden cube.  There are a few more in my pile, but typical Rox can't remember any of them.

His creations are a bit costly, but they are worth every twisting moment.

Sorry Tony, no photo, but I'm so loooking forward to the day I meet you for real and up close and personal!  Until then, I'll stick to the silly messages and droll posts. :)

Mine is the one in the middle (Photo courtesy of Tony Fisher)

As a non-puzzle related note, Happy New Year All!  If you go out tonight, stay safe.  Hand over your car keys and don't even think about drinking and driving.

On the 5th day of Christmas

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love sent to me,
5 Richard Hess'
4 Mr. Fok's
3 Da Yan's
2 Brian Young's
And Stickman in a pine tree.

I had the pleasure of meeting Dick in Japan 3 years back and have spent many a pleasant moment in conversation with him.  He has a great way with kids as well.  Katherine loved playing math games with him over a beer in Berlin.  He had her (and me) stumped on more than one occasion.

Dick is a long time puzzle collector.  But more importantly for this series of posts, he's also a long time designer of puzzles.  Reading back in time he's designed many different kinds of puzzles but I would have to guess that he's best known for his wire puzzles.  I've no idea how many puzzles Dick has designed, but I'm sure it is many many.  I seem to run into his name at many different puzzle shops.  For starters, Dick has a number of them on Puzzlemaster.  The prices range from $10 to $12.

Dick wrote a "Compendium of Wire Puzzles" and I've heard tell it has over 10,000 different wire puzzles in it.  That in itself is a feat.  I can only imagine the amount of research that went into writing that book.  Mind, a lot of the puzzles in it are his own designs.  I can't wait to see what he has in store for us in the future.  I'm sure there will be many more to come.  Kevin wrote up about a few of them over on his blog.  Go take a look and enjoy!