In a small attempt to move my puzzles from work to home, I went shopping at IKEA and found a decent display case. It is meant for CDs and is a bit tall, but works. I really wish it were wider, it only holds about three puzzles per shelf, but it is a start. I have 32 puzzles in there now, so I just need to buy about 10 more cases and then find wall space in my house for them...

I decided I should have all of my custom built and rare puzzles in one place (not at work) so I picked some. It has 10 shelves, and each is pictured below.


[Edit: Updated for more puzzles, and I changed to have the descriptions below the picture instead of above]
Starting from the top, going down:

On top I have some Neons I have decided to keep for myself. From left to right:
Half height prototype, Neon Deluxe #048, Mustard Plug in fluorescent green, Neon #038 (IPP competition puzzle), First acrylic Neon prototype, Neon #003 (Acrylic Pins version)

Puzzles I have built or contributed to, left to right:
Kilominx, Square-2 (my third), Aleh's Circle cube 2x2x2 (I cut the acrylic plates)

Custom hand made puzzles, left to right: Aleh's Brilic #12, Hidetoshi's hand made Bump Cube,
Hidetoshi's red bandaged cube

Custom hand made puzzles traded for Neons, left to right: Jin H. Kim's Franken Tower, P|astic's 4x4x5, David Calzone's Tribulus, Taylor Howell's contoured Mastermorphix

Custom hand made puzzles, left to right: Garrett Ong's Rhombiminx, Scott Bedard's Pentagonal Domino, Juozas Granskas three tile magic

Rare production puzzles, left to right: Tomy Megaminx in packaging, Original Hungarian Supernova, Thomas ball (four color), Original Dogic

Rare puzzles, left to right: Smart Alex, Meffert's Pyraminx leather grain stickers, Christoph's Magic Jewel, Fused Pyraminx (custom built), Magic Octahedron

Rare and custom puzzles
Back row (from left to right): 5x5x5 (Bandelow version, production), Boob Cube (Production 1x1x2), UFO (production)
Front (left to right): Domino (production), Rhombic Dodecahedron (production, flat centers), Original Fisher Cube (custom)

Rare production puzzles
Back (left to right): Combo, Rotos, Rotascope (Concorde)
Front (left to right): Astralobucus, Three wing Roundy, Eight color Mozaika

Custom and rare, left to right:
Wooden burr by Jean Carle (custom), Two Towers by Jean Carle (custom), Rubik's Rabbits (production)

Dave

Very cool collection!

It's nice to see one of my builds in there. It looks like I'm not the only one using the Ikea 'Bertby' cabinet for displaying puzzles.

wow, you have alot of rare customs, and production puzzles, i like the shelf that you are useing now

You mean something like this but with the puzzles inside.

http://prevalence.com/puzzles/

I love the kilominx!
One day I would like to have my puzzles in display cases like that, looks pretty awesome and keeps the dust away (if it has doors).
Nice collection btw.

That's a great collection! I am jealous.
Yea, the kilominx is sweet.

Thats Sandy's collection not mine. I wish I had room for all of that selfing. God knows I need some if not all.

Neat stuff Dave. I never knew Hidetoshi had made and sold bandaged cubes.

I was referring to Dave's collection.
But Sandy's collection is sweet too.

It is a one of a kind and wasn't for sale, it was a very nice gift (that I still need to repay, a functional Chromium continues to elude me...). See here for a thread about the red bandaged cube.

Dave

P.S. Yes, I did eventually solve it, but it wasn't a solution I think I can repeat (it sort of came together after a point) so I need to do some more solution work.

A pleasure to look at your vitrine, David!

I have 4 of them, too

What a nice collection, Dave!
Hopefully there will be a day when I'll be able to get all my puzzles out of storage and on display.

Nice collection!

I am reminded of your Mozaika T-Shirt, now that's a piece. Where/How did you get that?

Thanks for the wonderful pictures and the comments explaining what the puzzles are all called!

Celia

I bought it at IPP17, from the maker. I didn't have enough money to buy the Mozaika itself and the shirt, and figured I could get the puzzle online any time (which was true, until their site went down and they became very rare!). I never got around to ordering one, and was lucky enough recently to acquire two of them through trade for a Neon and Supernova

I know there must be others with the T-Shirt, but I have never seen another. Post if you have one!

Dave
P.S. I need to stop wearing it, it is getting worn out. But I like to wear it...

I've been thinking of mailing the inventor to see if there are any Mozaikas or related merchandise still flying around. Think there's much chance?

Nope. A forum member (not me, they can reveal themselves if they choose) here beat you to it last year. This was how I was able to trade for one

Dave

Ah... blast. Foiled.

Rather annoying because I've been thinking about it for ages but never got round to it. Only myself to blame though!

I suppose they snapped up all the remaining stock, out of interest, was there a lot do you know?

I'll will leave it to them to comment if they wish, it isn't really my place to say. To protect their investment perhaps they will remain quiet on what they have, so if you don't see a response don't be overly surprised.

Dave

Cool collection, some very rare and cool ones in there. I too have a vitrine for my puzzles from ikea, but it's a different one, with only four shelves, which do work out fine.
With 32 in this one, and you want ten, does that mean you have 320 puzzles in total?

Somewhere in that neighborhood, I haven't counted in some time. I keep getting more and the top level of my shelf at work (the cube half, I have another shelf that fills up too) gets higher and higher...
January 2007:

November 2007:

January 09:

(sorry for the poor cell phone image).

Dave

Thanks for sharing your wonderful collection, Dave! I have found myself revisiting your collection at least five times today. I just can't seem to keep my eyes off your beautiful Kilominx and Aleh's circle cube. I really hope that those puzzles will be produced in larger quantities and made available for purchase some day.

I hope to produce a few Kilominxes in the future. I am resizing the plates based on a better base puzzle (the stickered megaminx) so movement will be good. I have one partially complete but am still testing the sizing.

As for the Circle Cube 2x2x2, Aleh has shown a new one based on the Rubik's 4x4x4 instead of the East Sheen (the circle is a bit smaller on the new one compared to the ES). I have the East Sheen (the prototype) and you won't see another of those (movement isn't the best) but he may make more of the Rubik's based version.

So these may find their way to your collection in the future...

Dave

That's quite a collection, and i do believe i see a skewb diamond dangerously close to the edge of a shelf in the November of 2007 picture!

do you ever get distracted at work, i know i would if i were you, and what do your co-workers think?

All the time. I find myself randomly twisting (or solving) puzzles while thinking about programming problems almost absent mindedly. I tend to have small amounts of times during compiles or other batches of work where I can fiddle. Often I will have a half-prepared cube at my desk for a week or two, slowly shaving off the flash from pieces bit by bit. I cleaned up a bunch of DIYs as well as three V-5s and a Rubik's 5x5x5 at work over the last few months.

Most probably think I am a bit odd. If they bring their kids by the office I am sure to get a visit.

I am *trying* to bring my puzzles home in a way that doesn't involve them just sitting in boxes in the closet. This happened a few years back between jobs and it took me finding TwistyPuzzles (in Nov. 2006) to break them out and bring them back to the office. This case is a start, but it hasn't made much of a dent. I think I need two full sized book cases at a minimum. The IKEA Bertby is nice for the jewels of my collection, but at $100 each I won't be buying the 10 more required for my collection to be fully on display. I would rather spend that $1000 on a half a Teraminx

Dave

You could just put up a couple of wooden shelves? Not as pretty as a vitrine, but the puzzles in the vitrine compared to the more standard puzzles are like the same as a couple of vitrines compared to a couple of wooden shelves.

By the way, I would NEVER be able to work when I would be around so many puzzles.

thanks, i was a bit curiouse, and i realy need to get a nice shelf like that for my room for my small collection

I took another few puzzles home to add to the shelf. Look above (first post) for updated pictures. The picture of the case has the door open now (to avoid the glare of taking the picture in daylight instead of at night like last time).

Dave

P.S. Descriptions are now below the pictures, it was a bit confusing with them above.

Awesome collection Dave I love it!

That is an amazing collection. I hope mine will be that nice someday. &&& I love your Elementals.

Wow, very nice!

How do you guys have so many custom/rare puzzles?
Do you just buy them on e-bay? (sooo expensive )

I hope someday I can get my hands on my first custom/rare puzzle! Working on that!

Regards,
Paulo

Many of my most treasured puzzles were bought before the world wide web and eBay existed, through mail order and connections found through friends.

eBay has added a few to my collection (perhaps 10 or more) but not that many. All of my custom puzzles have been through direct contacts on this forum, and most of those have been trades.

Dave

An update is long overdue. I finally got around to building and hanging a new display case. I really needed the extra space.

I now have separated my nicer items into these two cases: One for just hand built, and one for rare production items. I put my own personal builds with the production puzzles as there wasn't room for all hand built in one place.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Custom builds on the left case:
On my custom build shelf I have reorganized not for shape or mechanism but by builder.

Aleh and Adam Cowan
The Blue Thunder fits either here (as Adam's design and prep) or in my personal builds (I finished it) but frankly I didn't have space in other area and it seemed so welcome on this shelf given Adam and Aleh's history of collaboration.
Brilic #12 (Aleh), Blue Thunder (back, Adam/DLitwin), Tanto (front, Aleh) and Circle Cube 2x2x2 prototype (Aleh/DLitwin)


Josh B. and Hidetoshi
Slice Cube (Josh B.), AxisMinx (Josh B.), Red Bandaged Cube (Hidetoshi), Bump Cube (Hidetoshi), Nature of Wander (Hidetoshi, a mix of Forrest of Wander and Ocean of Wander as the sky)


Tony Fisher
Truncated Octaminx, Ball in Cube, Original Fisher Cube, Hexagonal Prism


Frank Schwarz's shelf gets some roommates from David Calzone. Given their close work together (first Petaminx built) I am sure neither would mind. Info on Frank's puzzles can be found here.
Black Axis cube (Frank, Adam), Hexagonal prism (back, Frank, Adam), Black egg (front, Frank, Adam), White Axis cube (back, Frank/Adam), Tribulus (Calzone), Hex-1 (Calzone)


Magics are the theme that brings together Pantazis, Jouzas and Taylor's builds.
Three tile Magic (Jouzas), Secret of Atlantis (back, Pantazis), Baby Morphix DIY (front, Taylor), Curvy Mastermorphix (front, Taylor), Bandaged 3x3x3 (back Taylor), California Cube Day Magic (back, Taylor), California Cube Day keychain (front, DLitwin)


A bit of a mix with a general Rhombic Dodecahedron theme:
[Forgive me, I don't have time to finish the annotations properly at the moment, it was far more work than I anticipated. I will update them in a bit]
Garrett, Jean Claude Constantine, KickFlip1993, Drewseph






Rare production on the right case (top):







Personal builds on the right case (bottom):





Enjoy,

Dave

Wow. That's some collection Dave. May I ask where you keep your normal mass produced puzzles then?

You have one IMPRESSIVE collection Dave! I LOVE it!!

who made your 3x4x5 puzzle? It looks like it has 3x3x3 size cubies.. ?

Most are in other display cases and I will have to take pictures one of these days. For a time all my collection was at work (when it was smaller). Now only my Rubik's related (cubic, face cut) are still at work and those will come home soon. I need to buy a big book case for them though, I don't have room at home right now.

For now I figure sharing my nice stuff is worth while. At some point it may be nice to do a thorough census and share pictures of the entire collection but that will take time. Anything you don't see isn't nearly as interesting or unique. In fact, as my collection grows I realize any attempt at "completeness" is well beyond my ability to achieve so I would rather concentrate my time on acquiring real gems. For me this means hand built or custom designed puzzles from selected builders, and the occasional rare piece.

Jameson (RubiksGuy), it is extended. I'll get around to better annotations later, sorry they are incomplete.

Dave

Can I guess why you have all your puzzles at work (I know.. Not ALL of the ofc!)

It is because you can recieve them there. Then you are sure to get your puzzle as fast as possible and wont have to pick it up at the post office because you weren't home!

I wish I could do this at my school I wouldn't tho, because they would probably get stolen HAHA.

(reminds me that even though I made more shelves for my cabinet, I will soon need another cabinet to fit all my puzzles)

Nope, I have all my puzzles sent to my house.

In general it has been that for the last 20 years I like to have my puzzles around me, and I spend a good part of my waking hours at work. Here's a picture from 1998 when I worked programming games (linking to the picture didn't work long term, here is the link to the page)
Back then I could fit my collection easily in a single bookcase and it took only one or two boxes to move them.

Lately, as my collection grows in size and as I have more items I just can't replace, I have decided to move them home. I am mostly (75%?) there, just a few more to go.

Dave

Hey! I recognize that Light-House Cube! Im glad that it made it to the shelf