Mechanical Puzzles

Mechanical puzzles comprise all those puzzles that consist of tangible objects - Rubik's Cube, wire disentanglement puzzles, burr puzzles, sliding block puzzles, pentominoes, Soma Cube, Tantrix.
Here are the best web sites for finding out all about these intriguing puzzles.

Puzzles

Architest: Desktop puzzles that challenge your abilities to solve basic architectural problems.
Berrocal's Puzzle Sculptures: The Ultimate in 3D puzzles.
The Burr Puzzle Site: All about burr puzzles - from IBM Research.
The CalmPlex: An all wood mechanical put together puzzle that requires the dexterity of the Rubik's and the logic of the Soma. The CalmPlex puzzle, its simplicity belies its innate complexity. This will leave the most seasoned cubie bewildered. A chessboard, a cube and over 50 other puzzle shapes, from super simple to completely complex.
Domain of the Cube: An excellent site all about Rubik's Cube.
Genel Collection: This site represents the work and art of the independent designer and inventor, Viktor Genel. Most of his creations are Real Three Dimensional Puzzles - box puzzles, inside-out puzzles, molecular puzzles, sliding puzzles and much more, abundantly illustrated.
James Dalgety's Puzzle Museum: The Virtual home of real puzzles. An excellent site.
The Pentominoes Page: An excellent page by Jay Jenicek.
A Puzzlebox Page: Traditional puzzleboxes use hidden sliding panels that are moved sequentially in order to solve the puzzle and open the box. Others can use variations of panels, pins and/or magnets. This site is dedicated to the unique craftsmanship of Puzzle boxes, with Puzzlebox gallery and links.
Puzzle World: A superb site. Puzzle World contains information about and images of some of the finest handcrafted mechanical puzzles in the world. The puzzles presented here are not the mass-produced variety found in stores, but limited production puzzles designed by the foremost puzzle designers in the world and produced by craftsmen (often the designers themselves) working primarily in wood.
Soma: A Java applet for the Soma Cube (the 3-dimensional spatial puzzle invented by Piet Hein).
Tantrix: Tantrix, a multi-player strategy game and IQ puzzle made from hexagonal Bakelite tiles, was invented by Mike McManaway from Nelson, New Zealand. A set of Tantrix consists of 56 black hexagonal tiles, with hand-painted links in combinations of red, green, blue and yellow. Each tile is unique and with all 56 tiles you can play both the game and the solitaire puzzles. Tantrix creates a spatial world of kaleidoscopic colour, requiring tactical and strategic analysis.

Manufacturers & Retailers

Atelier Archimedia: A small Swiss company that creates educational, hands-on, thinking games which help teach mathematical applications - Quadrix, Tangramagic, Dudeney's Zoo, Trigonus - also mathemagical postcards with original optical illusions and geometrical paradoxes.
Bits & Pieces: Order a printed catalog or shop online. The range of puzzles is about 80% jigsaws, but there is always something new and different.
Cleverwood: Finest quality wooden puzzles personally designed and crafted by Kathleen and Charlie Malcolmson in their Colorado Springs workshop. They make: Secret Opening Boxes, Puzzle Boxes, Trick Boxes, 3D Mechanical Puzzles including the classic Chestnut Burr, Zig-Zags (3D jigsaw puzzles), Magnetic Puzzles, and much more. Plus the Cleverwood Puzzle Collection - great mechanical puzzles made by talented craftsmen from around the world, especially genuine Japanese Puzzle Boxes.
The Climbing Bear: The Baerreis family has been producing beautiful handmade wooden puzzles, puzzle boxes, and sculptural pieces since 1972. The Climbing Bear offers a wide selection of their pieces (as well as electric trains and hand made teddy bears).
Interlocking Puzzles: Interlocking Puzzles L.L.C. makes unique hand crafted mechanical puzzles. These elegant wooden puzzles are made with precision from domestic or exotic hardwoods. Some of the puzzles are difficult to take apart, and all are a challenge to put together!
Livewire Puzzles: A company making wire disentanglement puzzles - a good range.
Mr. Puzzle: A good range of wooden puzzles made by Brian Young in Australia, including Limited Edition puzzles.
Pentaplex: The home of seriously perplexing products. The puzzles are the invention of Sir Roger Penrose, one of the world's top mathematicians, who was joint winner with Stephen Hawking of the 1988 Wolf Prize for Physics. His work on non-periodic tessellations is the basis of the Pentaplex range of puzzles.
Pioneer Puzzles: Pioneer Puzzles offers challenging metal puzzles in four skill levels. There are also specialty puzzles which depict favorite Texas animals and items, and Texas school mascots.
Puzzle Master: Puzzle Master has a large and unique collection of wire and wood brain teasers. In addition to this they also carry specialty jigsaws and chess sets.
The Puzzle & Craft Factory: A family owned and operated business that designs, manufactures and sells a range of over 150 handmade puzzles.