Today was a very interesting day. We had some people over to take a few photos of my toys.
It took us about 2 hours to lay them all out, about an hour of taking photos, then it took Miss N. and I almost 5 hours to put them all away again (I swear the reproduced while they were out of their boxes). After all was said and done, I remembered the puzzles that live on the shelf above my computer. I'm not quite sure how I forgot those since I play with them and see them every day.

As we were putting them away, Miss N. and I were diligently counting. I really want to know how many I have. But we got a call from Mr. Wong saying he was on his way home-he called when he was 10 minutes away Since I don't want to get divorced, we stopped counting at 1218 (twisty puzzles only) and started tossing puzzles any which way to get them cleaned up before he came in the door

Anyway, I thought you might enjoy a few photos of my toys. It is the only time they have ever all been out together at one time. I usually take out a box at a time, play for a bit then put them away.

In the beginning, they looked like this:








Then we laid them all out. Remember, I have a small flat, so finding room for them was a bit hard. We put most of them in the living room on the floor, on the sofa, on the bugs table, anywhere we could find room really:


A close up of some of them:



This table is only Smaz puzzles. After all, this was supposed to be about him, not me. I'm not sure if I liked how it ended up, but we'll see what happens in the end. And that lovely generous man brought me a brand new HT Square-1!



Since there wasn't enough room in the living room we had to lay some out on the bed.

Well, the photographer had an idea, and we went with it. Enjoy the pictures of me making a fool of myself!

*bravely dives into the sea of puzzles and saves Rox from certain drowning*

Oh wait... did you actually want to be saved???





Pantazis

Of course, my bug had to be in there as well and I managed to snap a photo of the photographer photographing the bug.



All my favorite things are in this photo (oh, minus my husband of course)



And just for Charlie, I did wear a hat!



We also got a bit hungry so I decided to make some lunch, I guess it must have been hot in the house, because when I opened the fridge this is what I found!



Hot dogs and hamburgers were on the lunch menu and the bug was serving



I cooked up a few eggs for us as well



of course the bug had to have a go at the eggs too

Because sitting in a pile of puzzles is a once in a life time thing, Smaz and LuckyStar decided to get in on the fun.



LuckyStar got caught solving a puzzle while sitting on puzzles!



And we all decided we had to end the day holding some of our favorite puzzles!



As you can see, Morph decided to jump in the pictures again! He just loves having his picture taken!

Great collection you have there, Rox. How much do you reckon the collection is worth.

Thanks. They are worth what I paid for them

I wouldn't even hazzard a guess, just like I wouldn't tell the people there today. My husband reads, and I want to stay married to him. All things considered, he's a keeper!

He Rox, didn't you read the disclaimer that came with the microwave:
"This appliance is not suitable for unfreezing pinguins"

I guess I should have put a warning up to not try this at home.

LuckyStar took some behind the scenes photos that I thought you might enjoy:


The one's we forgot!


It's hard to hold a puzzle on your head and concentrate!




I think my comment was sometihng like "I don't mind tossing the garbage"





Showing off Tony's Nesting cubes!


All of the day's photos can be found here and here

Hi
Wow! Fantastic collection

I spent a pleasant time viewing the photos. Thanks Rox

In 2 of those pictures I noticed you have a 1x2x4 stickers that are all red...
Is it real?

Of course it's real! It's an entex version of a yoshi's square.

Ha ha, this is wonderful, Rox! Great story and pictures well worth posting.

Great pictures Rox.

That is one amazing collection!

i wonder how many puzzles are there..."1,2,3,4..."

such a huge collection

I already knew you were a serious collector, but this is just amazing!

What are those silver and black snake things?

-π (Eitan)

Those snakes are giant tangles. The gold one, and the black and silver one are from 1982. The all silver one is from Last week

A publicity stunt and a bit of promoting is all those are. They had to be added for "research purposes". That necklace is the same, the bug combined a bunch of them, and the gold bracelet is also a tangle.

Not really a puzzle, but fun to play with and it makes for an interesting decoration too!



They have become my new plaything of choice-I don't go anywhere without one-mostly for inspiration and ideas. You'd be surprised how many ideas come when you are fiddling with stuff and not really thinking.

I'm with you 100%. I can't count the number of puzzles I've built from ideas conceived when messing around with other puzzles.

-π (Eitan)

WOW. What a collection. Rox, you really like to make us all jealous

You want jealous? Ask Georges, or Geert, or Frank, or Pantazis, or.......you get the idea. I think mine is comparatively small. It just looks huge because of the size of the Rabbit hutches we live in in HK.

I'd love to see those collections all laid out by the way!

You said your flat is small, but I suspect it is huge and feels small only, because you are sharing it with some thousand puzzles.
Thanks for posting those pictures. Really amazing.
I cannot show them to my wife because she considers me insane already for having 200.
She would assume that I want to beat you and get bankrupt.

X2. I would also love to see their collections 'at large'

Oh my god! that picture of the flying Gigaminx... HOPEFULLY you didnt drop it - onto some of those valueable items underneath, of course.

great collection Rox! you are quite a collector!

why would you call that little charming girl, a Bug?

Just to answer a few questions, The flat is small. around 750 square feet. The puzzles are all stored outside in a waterproof shed that is bolted down to make it Typhoon proof, although I still get very nervous when the are around.

When the bug was 2 I bought her a bug box with magnifying glasses built into it so she could "see nature" better. She loved it and filled it full of all sorts of insects. Unfortunately, she didn't like to set them free after her observations, and we went through a period of having them let loose in the house. Bought her a fish so she could have a "better pet". As parents do, I told her she was bugging me when I was working, and kept telling her she was going to be a bug if she didn't stop bringing the bugs into the house. It just turned into a nickname that stuck.

Besides, if you knew her, you would know that really does fit! Ask Pantazis, he knows. When she get's sugar-she's a real bug!

Surprisingly, no puzzles were hurt when taking all these photos! I do have a bruise on my chest where the gigaminx kept hitting when it fell-I was kind of tossing it backwards and leaning over so I could 'catch it'. Not because I cared about that one, but because I saw what was below and around it.

But the best news is-I found the 2 missing tiles from my Meffert's 4x4x4 that I thought were lost I had given up hope and they just surprised me by being at the bottom of a box!

I also learned that all those 'pineapple' cubes and such have very bad glue. Not a single sticker was still on the puzzles-every last one came off without leaving any residue. I'm sure I have a bunch of sticker sets around here somewhere.......(Thanks Frank)

and once again, I'll put in an appeal to Georges, Geert, Frank, Pantazis..............

Rox, it may seem your life is one endless fun. Thank you for sharing with us. Your great posts like these always make me smile.

I didn't think you are so careless with your collection. Either you are all light-weighted jugglers or it was pure luck that it survived this human attack.

konsassen, you should try to show these pictures to your wife. I periodically show such collections to my wife to explain that my collection (300 puzzles possibly?) is still pretty small, and it seems to work.

Isn't that the truth! I've showed my husband some other web collections to do the same thing! I even took him to that museum that houses Jerry Slocum's collection-juts to 'prove' I'm not as insane as I could be.

So Georges, help out a friend...............

She's referring to Frank Tiex, by the way, not me.



She is referring to me here (I think).

Too many Frank's. I hadn't even noticed.

Frank Tiex and Frank (Flambore) in that order!

Regarding collectors- though I've never seen his collection, I would be willing to bet that Claus has an impressive collection- if not quantity, definitely quality. Ditto for Hendrik.

It will surely happen, I just need to decide where I am going to permanently live in the future!
(Australia? Singapore? Greece? - Singapore seems to be winning the... battle!)
Moving them would require a Puzzle Ninja secret operation.

I could take a photo of the boxes I have stacked 90% of them in, as they are ready to be shipped!




Pantazis

I always wondered why you stored your stuff on a balcony... I didn't think that there would be a shed on it!

How i want to be your Neighbor !!!!!

Excellent pics, Rox!!

Wow nice collection!!! absolutely enormous. oh yea and is that big golden puzzle one of those Tangles iv never seen one that big!!!

They are tangles. about an inch in diameter. You can still buy them in silver. Around $75-100 depending on where you get them.

Wow!!!!