This checkerboarded field of waves hides a secret: 24 five-celled tiles (all different shapes) uniquely patterned with frosted colors. All-acrylic construction forms an 11x11 square in 22" black tray. Many other designs to solve are contained in its handbook. Select silver or gold paired with another color of your choice.
$350 (plus $15 oversize shipping surcharge)

Shown here at 3/4 scale to the other puzzles.

• Larger view of Hexacube (34.2K)
• Names and shapes of all pieces

The 166 different shapes of 6 cubes joined, plus 4 unit cubes, are built into a 10x10x10 cube, in a hinged fold-out wood box. The pieces are sized to Quintillions and Super Quintillions. In fact, they are constructed from the parts of 10 quint sets and at least 4 superquint sets. Each piece is carefully tailored to fit easily and smoothly with any other piece, no matter how convoluted the combination. Over the years many interesting questions have been proposed for subsets of Hexacube, and for long blocks other than the 10-cube to build from the entire set. The attempt to solve a 2x3x166 snake led the construction through the office, out the door, and down the hallway, impeding foot traffic for several days. The owner's manual includes a naming system and one solution to the 10x10x10. Exploring other sizes is up to you. When ordering, please allow at least 4 months for Kate to build your Hexacube. $795

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The immensely popular 7-piece Soma cube of decades ago has been brought back by the ThinkFun (formerly Binary Arts) folks under this new name. It's made of molded plastic in a nice handling size and fits well in all those three-dimensional shapes. Soma expert Sivy Farhi contributed much research material. A deck of puzzle cards with hints and solutions will keep you pleasantly challenged for a long time. The graphics are great. Recommended for ages 8 to adult. $12

This is the new edition of the original, definitive polyominoes book, more than a quarter century after its first publication. Dr. Golomb has updated and revised his 1962 edition, with many new puzzles, packings and patterns, including a major section on pentominoes. The 248 pages with 243 figures get into the mathematical underpinnings of these fascinating shapes and include discussions of several other polyforms plus a hefty bibliography. Published by Princeton Univ. Press, 1994.