Just some memories of this year's Toy Fair in Nuremberg.




Albert Eckhart and his Frustr8tor... I got the first version when it came out a few years ago.




Paul Hildebrandt and his magnificent zometool. Those stuff in the past have helped myself too
with my own inventions! Respect!!!




Guido Lap has done an excellent job inventing puzzles for Recent Toys! They now also sell
puzzles made by others, such as the Gear Ball by Oskar & Uwe.




Now this guy is a Puzzle Professor!!!




He only had three single hair units and I pinched them all out!




If you do not know Jean Claude Constantin, then you do not deserve to play with puzzles!!!
Just look behind the wealth of his designs!




Marusenko sphere and their lovely designs!




Perpleeeeeexus!!! (I was so excited, I then ran to the toilet on the right)




Takeshi Onishi, the sales-samurai of Hanayama, we have been friends for such a long time.
And I love their new "Harmony" puzzle!




The boss of Eureka at his booth, he loves all my inventions and I love him too!
Here I am holding a huge Hanayama puzzle whom they represent.




Showing to Daniela how to solve the V-Cubes!




Just look at the size of this booth!!! LOL




Konstantinos Verdes and me with many many V-Cubes!
Impressive as well as super quality product.




I got hypnotised by watching those cubes turning around!




Petros Rizos (the distributor of V-Cube range in Greece from Mathematical Library)
just found a new solution for my "One Four All & All Four One" puzzle!




Ingo Uhl and his Logika, one of the nicest people with the nicest puzzles you can ever meet!




Once upon a time... I was at the Nuremberg toy fair! (do you remember this cartoon?)




My spoils of the day!


Well, this is what I got from the "puzzle-heart" of the Toy Fair, there are still many places
that I have not been to, but it will be hard to find something to match the above.

I was also surprised to see Uwe Meffert, and he was surprised to see me too.
For a moment I got confused and thought I was at the... Hong Kong Toy Fair!

In some other news, I got five offers from people here to manufacture my Acropolis,
and without even showing to them the mechanism! (but I am not in a hurry for this as I am
focusing on other priorities). So... has anyone guessed yet the number of states of the Acropolis?

Anyway, will try and get more the next few days.


Pantazis

Wow, in picture 5 you have a giant krtecek. I remember being introduced to that mole at the IPP in Prague.

I would love to try out that giant perplexus too. Too bad they don't mass produce the big ones.

Thanks for sharing!

-d

Τhanks darryl.

I could post some more photos, but I am very busy here as I am meeting too many contacts.
Do you guys want more photos posted during the next days? (some of them may be for toys,
puzzles, or other related stuff, such as 3D printers). Just let me know, and will do so.




Pantazis

Yes yes yes more photo's, especially of puzzles.

Nuremberg stroll, Part Two!




3D printing is getting more precise and... cheaper to buy!




I am a normal guy, and all of my friends are perfectly normal too!




Noah's Arc... they were waiting for me! Believe or not, all those animals were moving quite naturally!




Wilfried Braun (who found the Quadrilla marble run system) is also Twiddler's inventor,
an interesting way of using small parts which can emulate many 2d rotational puzzles of the past.




A Twiddler example... you may place pieces of any color, or even choose bandaged ones.




Colors, colors, colors... I LOVE COLORS!!!




In some places, everything is made of wood, e.g. the oven, the food,
and surprisingly, the chairs and the table!!!




Voila Toys!




Eiffel Tower made of single blocks... INSANE!!!




La Siesta... no more zzzz comments...




Finally! I found something which was made for me and I was made for it!
(I stayed there for an hour)




Smart Games had a challenge for me, a puzzle that no one had solved yet,
and thought to be too difficult... Well, well, well, SOLVED!




The previous game I solved, as well as many others were made by Raf Peters.
He has a nice (and more personal) website: http://www.smartgamesandpuzzles.com




A very interesting marble guiding structure...




Would you believe that an entire section (the 1/12 of the toy fair) was dedicated to trains?
Seems to be a very popular hobby in Germany.




Anyone for backgammon? We can play plakoto!!!




This structure using pipes may be very useful for a future prototype of my matrix...
I kept the company's details just in case!


You guys want more? (my feet ache from walking... this place is HUMONGOUS!!!)




Pantazis

Don't you mean "In Seine"???

Nice pictures, thanks for sharing.

You look like you are having the time of your life!

Those are very interesting pictures, thanks for posting them. I'd love to see that marble guide as I'm fascinated by them. Plenty of interesting puzzles too. I want to learn more about the Twiddler.

Yes that Twiddler seems very interesting and what is that new Smart Game?

Thanks to everyone for the nice words!

About the Twiddler, it is mathematically related to the Arulosky, the older TwinSpin,
and the very old Cohan Circle. The difference is that this one actually can be "built".
I am not sure if there is any overlap of ideas/trademarks, but I like the concept that
you can create your own color configurations and bandaging. And I am sure even
Doug Engel may have done some similar designs, but this one is more constructive
in a way the old "Orion" puzzle was.

It certainly moves better than some of the older ones by using an extra part,
a transparent disk that fits on the extensions to move the pieces. Just look at the
first photo to see what I am talking about! At the end of the fair, he will pass me
a sample too, and then I could make a video. He had many "frames" which of course
could be filled with the pattern of your preference.

Anyway, got to go... it is going to be a busy day today!




Pantazis


PS. I believe the new Smart Game is called "Links". It should be somewhere on
one of their websites.

Part 3... (last part).




Now, this is a VERY amusing puzzle/toy!!! (I was laughing by myself when playing)




Inventors' Meeting at the Spiel-Kafe photo Nr 1




Inventors' Meeting photo Nr 2




Gooooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaal!!!!




Interesting Impossible Object...!




The magnetic tower...




Sierpiniski's Triangle... welcome to the world of fractals!




Mayaaaaaaaaaaa! (we meet again after three decades).




The future of football?




Ok... that was a bit weird...




Another puzzle solved! Oh yeah!!!




Snow on my hair... snow everywhere!




Toy Fair... white flake blanket!




Solved Jean Claude's keyboard puzzle with my own solution...
Although I had to wait till the last day, I was the first to solve it!




One view from the first floor...




This Toy Fair is the biggest in the world. And it is so big, that I feel small like a hamster!




Normal people at the Toy Fair? Yeah right!




This was one reminds me of a funny incident. When I arrived to the Nuremberg main station
and asked how to go to my hotel, the information officer told me "Just look outside the window!".
Priceless.




Spoils of the last day! (I literally looted Jean Claude's booth LOL)

Sadly, I was not able to get the Twiddler, as the man lied to me when four days ago
he told me he will pass to me a sample on Monday. He claimed he could send it to me
by post (as if I have not been told this lie by others in the past!). That really put me off
and left his booth immediately... I had to go to the huge hamster machine to calm myself
down LOL. In any case, I did enough of advertising to him and I hope he does well.
He did have a cute product in the sense of mechanism, because mathematically speaking
it was the re-invention of the wheel (Anyone remember the Orion puzzle?).

Thankfully, there was no other person who was dishonest, and I got a big share of puzzles
to treat my curiosity, solving thirst, and of course, my collection.

Those were my impressions for this year's biggest Toy Fair. There have been
many more photographs, and also there have been many people who did not
want to have their products in public (but only to distributors, at least for now).
But photographs can never do justice to what my eyes have seen, and the
vast variety of toys and puzzles that I had the chance to try out. In terms of
data overlfow, it can be easily compared to the IPP, especially as there are
many items that they share in common.

I hope you liked this advneture!


Pantazis

Thank you for this coverage Pantazi!
I enjoyed seeing all these many interesting pictures with their comments!

Yes, it's very interesting and I'm so jealous that you got to play wth a large version of the Perplexus!

Georges, my pleasure! I will try to bring some coverage of the (much much smaller in size)
New York Fair in the next days. I have never been at that Fair, and also have never seen anyone
posting any photos of it, so I guess it will again yet another first-time-world-exclusive coverage
by the... Puzzle Ninja! (I can already see many of you fainting by my comments LOL)

And Burgo, did you say... "large" Perplexus? Because in 2009 I met this one in Sonoma (California)






Pantazis