I know this is as stupid as collecting sticker variants of the 3x3x3, but who cares.
How many variants are out there?

I am unaware of exactly how many, but I believe this is much more interesting than the sticker variants. These are more unique, there aren't as many types, and instead of just stickers the plastic is different colors often too.

Now, for clarification, do you mean only this type of puck puzzle?
Because I know there are at least 27 out there.

I made 2 custom ones, Their is the one of the Madrid hockey team and Georges has the one with the dog on it that looks very loose.

Below are some more examples, including 2 colour variations without imprint (second row) and a couple of advertisement variations of Skoda, Mazda and Sikkens (top row, second from the right).
The top-left one is by PuckPuzzles.com showing the 12 standard colours.

Geert

Thank you Geert.
Sadly PuckPuzzles.com is still down. Hrm.
Well. This series is not that important as the others...

@funmonkey54: I meant pucks with 12 segments.

There are two variations on the half-rainbow puck:

There is also a variant of the full rainbow puck that has no text or logo in the middle (these were the ones found by Skarabajo and sold to forum members a while back).

It looks like this:

I bought two of the ones on the left and made an all black one and one with all color.

I don't know if it's the lighting in this photo, but mine has much brighter colors. The red is almost neon pink. Was that one from the same lot?

Wow! Good eye! You're correct on that red part. I actually have three rainbow pucks - two I bought from Skarabajo, and one I did not. When I took the pic, I reached for a puck at random. In error, I picked the one I didn't buy from him, and not one of the two I did.

Here is a pic showing the difference between the two rainbow pucks with no writing:


As you can see, the variations are slight, but there. The puck on the right is a rainbow puck I bought from Skarabajo, and the one on the left is a rainbow puck I bought earlier. The differences:

1. The red, orange and yellow segments on Skarabajo's puck are closer to neon than the puck on the left.
2. As they are closer to neon, the lines delineating between segments are harder to see on the right puck. The other three segments are more difficult to differentiate from puck to puck.

But here's the real kicker:


3. Skarabajo's puck on the right has the words "MADE IN SLOVAK REPUBLIC" written on the side of the red segments, while the other puck does not.

These are interesting differences that I did not catch at first. Thanks, Jared!

Hehe, I just have an obsession with pretty colors. It's mostly why I got into twisty puzzles in the first place!

Can't wait to see the comparison shot.

There is also the blue hockey puck and I have some all black factory blanks. My 18 can be viewed here.

Thanks for bumping the thread, Tony. I would have missed the pictures otherwise.

I noticed that Milan has quite a few pucks which I have never seen before.

In this picture there are 18 variants of pucks which are not already listed in this thread (advertisement variations for Morpa, Swissair, Bosch, Toyota, Mazda etc.) There is also a white and red puck to the very right in this picture, and what seems to be a white puck with red numbers and black center and a special version of the rainbow puck with white pieces are shown here. Finally there are two versions of the USA puck (both with black centers, but the pieces on one of them are lighter blue) in this picture.

I guess I am glad I don't have the desire to collect every version of the puck puzzle, but good luck to those who "need" them all.

(I only included links in this post since I didn't want to upload the pictures without asking permission from Milan).

The Rainbow Puck with white pieces could just be a simple custom version using white pieces from one of the numerous other Pucks.

The blue pieces are also of a lighter shade than on the other rainbow pucks. The color seems to be the same as on the white and light blue puck in the picture posted by Geert, so if you are correct in assuming that this rainbow puck is just a custom version, that may have been the puck providing the new pieces...

I think that particular puck is not white at all. Just the lighting of the picture.

Compare the "white" of that rainbow puck, to the Yin Yang puck right next to it. I'm pretty sure it's the lighting, but only Milan could say for sure.

The white on the rainbow puck makes it look like the sample listed here: http://look.net/hockeypuck/

Klara, thank you very much for your excursion through the pics on my webside. I would like specify some details. The white and red puck is puck with Polish flag. All showed pucks are original, no custom versions. In the fact exist two types of inner construction of pucks. First type has two middle parts compressed together. The puck isn't simply demountable. Second type has two middle parts with two screws on each half of middle circle. The screws are secret under caps. The puck is simply demountable. I suppose that the first type come from USA - as Jared listed - http://look.net/hockeypuck/ . Second type ( with screw ) come from Slovakia. There were made a lot of promotion pucks. Hendrik has also a lot of puks - very interesting is puck with Swedish flag.

Milan, thank you for confirming that none of the pucks were custom made and for providing additional information about these puzzles.

And for those more interested than me in keeping track of the different puck variations produced, here is a direct link to Hendrik's list of puck puzzles (including the Swedish puck, a different variation of the NHL puck, a couple of different hockey pucks and some promotional pucks for Ikea, Sparkasse, Abax and EuroTel): http://www.puzzle-shop.de/puck-puzzle.html

(Sorry for distorting your web site like that, Hendrik, but I didn't find a better way to provide a direct link to your list of puck puzzles).

@Andreas Nortmann

just wanted to give you the heads up, if you are collecting variations of the same type of puzzle, you are missing the original USA variant, which had a black center saying USA, with the line in the center to turn it being vertical, while the USA was horizontal, which is why they made a 2nd 1 with a blue center, the line being horizontal, and the USA being horizontal

I know there are other very different designs but I just realised I have at least 4 different types of the standard IQ139 Pucks. The differences are very subtle. Most of my IQ139s have 3 + 4 on blue parts with blue 4 always having the ball-bearing. However I now see a few differ. The ball-bearing is always in a blue part however.

Now this has become ridiculous.
Collecting pucks has went down on the priority list.
Not that it has been very high...

Thank you, Tony.

I bought the Six pair puck first type. I played with the puck and the puzzle broke. So I was able to take a pics of internal mechanism. Two midle parts are glued together. See pics. I'm also adding the pics of pucks I got within last two months. Find and show all types of pucks it will be very hard work I think.

Undoubtedly these puzzles were pad printed after assembly, so the placement of the numbers would vary from one puzzle to the next during a production run. But the ball plunger is a mechanical feature, so it would be consistently located in a particular part.

Very nice finds Milan, could you please verify if the words "MADE IN SLOVAK REPUBLIC" are written on the side of a red segment for the In Glas Co puck and the Mondo Puzzles rainbow puck? Does the inscription looks like this picture I took a year ago? Another example of the text can be found above, in blizzard_kb's post. I am very curious to see if these are all made in the same factory.

Thanks,

Skarabajo

I checked all pucks if there are the words "MADE IN SLOVAK REPUBLIC". I found that they are written on the side of a red segment the In Glas Co puck. Other pucks are without these words. I suppose that the words "MADE IN SLOVAK REPUBLIC" is possible to find on second type of puck puzzles - with caps on middle parts. Does anybody have a first type puck with the words "MADE IN SLOVAK REPUBLIC" ?

Yes but then they should be random. However most of mine have blue 3 and 4s.

Does anyone know where I can purchase these puzzles. I checked for puck puzzles.com and they no longer have a website.

I have got some pucks for sale. Have a look at my trade side with pucks.