Game and
puzzle
catalogs
Child and Nature, previously "Cooperative Games," originally was the wonderful family-operated catalog business, Animal Town. Sadly, when they sold it in 2000, the new management folded soon after. The family, Ken and Jann Kolsbun, now have a very small site where you can still buy two of their classic cooperative games and books that were designed to instill a love of nature and animals and friendly, happy play. Be sure to read their philosophy page while you're there. Their catalogs were always anticipated in the olden days, filled with family pictures and stories as well as charming descriptions and illustrations of their dozens of games. We watched their whole family grow up over the years. We're glad we kept all those old catalogs; nostalgia is priceless.
Cleverwood has a large selection of excellent mechanical puzzles and secret-opening puzzle boxes by many of the world's most famous designers. Read articles about the history of Japan's master craftsmen and other fascinating puzzle subjects. Proprietors Charlie and Kathleen Malcolmson personally take care of every order and inquiry. Visiting their site is a very warm and friendly experience, lots of fun with the human touch.
Das Spiel is Germany's oldest and largest game seller, with a fabulous line-up of classic and contemporary games, themed and adventure, family and historic, excellently crafted in wood and high-quality materials. The site is in German, but you can use the search engine's translator function to render it into English. The beautiful Imago game we sell comes from Das Spiel. The proprietor is Claus Voigt, whose patience with our elementary German correspondence is as commendable as is his product line.
Davans Puzzles is the neat and easy-to-use site of José and David Rodriguez, full of new and classic puzzles handcrafted in their Massachusetts workshop of exotic and domestic hardwoods. They also offer handmade puzzles by other respected puzzle makers like Channel Craft and Jean Claude Constantin, and the metal entanglements of Tucker Jones (the famous Tavern Puzzles) and Uncle's Puzzles. Their links page includes the best puzzle sites in the world. A nice touch: you can request solutions to tough nuts if you can supply the name of the purchaser. Davans also create puzzles for the exclusive Internation Puzzle Parties.
Design Science Toys has an excellent product line of 3-dimensional puzzles and construction sets. Visit them for a visual and intellectual treat. Since 1986 Design Science Toys has been dedicated to the design, manufacture and marketing of Design Science information in the form of beautiful objects. They call them toys because "a better name has not been invented." Their website is a rich source of information, a clearly presented introduction to the world of "design science" that makes understanding their concepts a pleasure. You can also purchase their very reasonably priced products on their retail site, SeeTouchThink.com. Newsflash! This company is now for sale, or closing its doors.Enginuity has a line-up of clever and attractive original games designed by Andy Daniel, a California engineer. The games are especially suitable for family play, with their element of luck letting even younger players or novices get an even chance to hold their own.
Family Pastimes is a refreshing website offering cooperative games and puzzles, and a warm and friendly philosophy that fits right well with our own. The proprietor is Jim Deacove, the creator of all their wonderful games. Family Pastimes is based in Canada, and their motto is, "Play together, not against each other." We salute them.
Fun Again Games bills itself as the world's largest Internet game store, specializing in imported and American games. Their jam-packed website includes game reviews, reports on major gaming conventions and trade shows, and even their own "Gameweb" search engine for other game sites on the Web. They sell almost any game on earth except those not sold at wholesale (such as Kadon's products). Check them out.
Hardwood Creations is David Levy's wonderful site of handcrafted wood products, including four pages of classic games like chess, go, backgammon, Chinese checkers, mancala, dominoes, solitaires, and cribbage. These are the finest, most beautiful gameboards you'll find anywhere. He even makes — it's not on his website, but we've seen it at shows — a magnificent, adjustable, convertible coffeetable containing all the gameboards and accessories. We're saving up for that one.
Livewire Puzzles are based in Canada and have a superbly done website of wire and disentanglement puzzles, interesting articles, a profound philosophy, and good links to other puzzle sources. The owners of this family business are Frank Gregory and Claudette Ouimet, who have been making their puzzles since 1979. You can find every level of difficulty here, for every level of skill.Pioneer Puzzles make the classic metal disentanglement puzzles. Instead of wrought iron, these folks use smooth steel. They have dozens of styles, in four levels of difficulty. Their attractive website even has a solution video, and printed solutions are available for those who admit defeat.
Puzzle Master, Inc., founded by Allan Stein, a puzzle collector, designer and maker, offers a huge collection of mechanical puzzles and brain teasers, like wire entanglement, puzzle rings, wooden burr puzzles, all the tricky one-solution challenges. Good news: their customers can get free downloads of solutions. They also provide many categories of links to other sites.
Rex Games has a catalog of excellent exclusive products they manufacture. Classic concepts like tangrams, word ladders, games for lateral thinking, geometric visualization, are made in good quality plastic, well packaged. Some are available through Kadon.
Simple Pastimes offers an extensive collection of jigsaw puzzles and accessories, from makers like Ravensburger, FX Schmid, White Mountain, and others. They also have a nice resources directory of links to many game, puzzle, recreation and hobby sites.Andrew Snowie in Canada has a growing line of original, nicely crafted three-dimensional wood puzzles in intriguing shapes, like cubes, orbs, pyramids, cylinders. They're veritable sculptures and harder to solve than you'd expect.
The Spilsbury Puzzle Co. Here's a catalog that's choosy about what to include from the manufacturers of mentally absorbing games and puzzles, stylishly presented. Their online version is so extensive, and won' t process your order without setting a cookie, that you're better off ordering the printed catalog.
Terrific Toys "Intelligence Outfitters" have a terrific online and printed catalog of mind-stretching playthings, from music to science, performance art to competitive games and puzzles, artistic to literary endeavors. Their catalog and website are not only superbly done but contain the most wonderful selections, not found elsewhere. There is also a family store in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The owner is Dirk Grove.
Tessellations. The proprietor is Dr. Robert Fathauer, a teacher, artist and admirer of M. C. Escher. His company makes inexpensive foam sets of tiles in many polygonal and fanciful shapes, including frogs, lizards, snakes, squids and rays, beetles, bumblebees, etc., and the Penrose kites and darts. These materials are a good resource for teachers. The foam tiles have a generous size, nice feel, accurate cut, and don't have the objectionable odor so many foam puzzles exhibit. Tilings and tessellations are a valuable adjunct to both art and mathematics instruction and an aid to understanding geometric principles. The Tessellations catalog also includes original Escheresque puzzles, dissection puzzles, polyhedra and prints.Rob's email address is tessella@futureone.com.
ThinkFun (formerly Binary Arts) are the folks who have brought the world such excellent "smart toys" as Brick by Brick, Shape by Shape, IZZI, Top Spin, Back Spin, the irresistible Rush Hour, and a great many other charming and sincerely challenging puzzles. Their website is continually improved. You may want to check in periodically to see what's new. It's worth emphasizing that ThinkFun, Inc., is not merely a seller of puzzles but the developer and manufacturer, working with the most talented inventors and designers of our time. They also collaborate with other good game and puzzle producers, and sponsor the informative, creative puzzle site, Puzzles.com. Their latest group of geometric and logic puzzles are truly "Mind Challenging Games" (this slogan is their trademark) and aimed at classroom use as well. In 2005, for their 20th anniversary, Kadon presented them with the first annual Gamepuzzles Originality, Perseverance and Leadership salute, an occasional industry award. Their unique prize had 20 parts.
Turn Off the TV has a mission: to bring families and friends together, through games that promote interaction and togetherness. While many of their items are the same as in other game catalogs, you're bound to find some rare gems. The founders, Tim and Nancy Zier, launched the TOTV mail order catalog in 1994, and opened their first game stores in 1996, in Seattle and Bellevue. Their website is superb. You can also request their excellent printed catalog, at 1-800-949-8688.
The Zome System is a building toy, an ingenious 61-zone system of struts and connectors for modeling 3D geometry. Zome celebrates the uniqueness and beauty of nature as expressed in geometric constructions and makes child's play into profound truths. Visit their website for examples of simple and intricate models.
