Today we have for you a selection of awesome mechanical puzzles. Now we have looked at all kinds of puzzles here at Geek’s Oasis ranging from Pokémon puzzles to dinosaur puzzles and everything in between!
However, today we are looking at very different kinds of puzzles, mechanical puzzles! You may think that we could have covered these in our metal puzzles article we did a little while back, however, do not get metal mixed up with mechanical.
You see, these puzzles we look at today move, but they are mostly made of wood! These puzzles are a lot of fun, they require real finesse to put together with steady hands and a keen eye for detail, but that is what makes putting a puzzle like these we are looking at today so much fun!
Moving Mountains With Our Puzzle Selection
If you have a quick look online at what are the best mechanical puzzles, you will notice that there are what feels like a million to choose from out there.
We thought really hard about which ones to include on our list and we decided to ultimately go for the ones that we felt looked cool and had a bit of a geeky vibe about them.
Why We At Geek's Oasis Love It
This first one on our list, ROKR Marble Night City, is just awesome! It looks so cool, and it's so much fun to watch the marbles roll through all those channels.
This marble run model is sure to catch your friends' eyes, and they'll always ask you what it is and want to see it in action!
Good To Know
- Tools included
- 294 pieces and 10 marbles
- Size: 12.8 x 8.4 x 8.9 inches
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
Did someone at Geek’s Oasis want this Wood Trick Mechanical Spider on the list just so that they could say that this puzzle is Wicki-wicki-wild? Perhaps, there is a little truth in that.
However, this is one of the most eye-catching mechanical puzzles on this list. With this, you get to make this really cool steampunk-style spider.
Even cooler is that this thing will actually scuttle along the floor which is sure to freak some people out! You will have fun building this and then terrifying people with it after!
Good To Know
- Size: 9.8 x 12.6 x 4.9 inches
- Recommended age: 14 years and up
- This is the creepiest of all the mechanical puzzles on this list!
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
Ok, so we have looked at some cool puzzles here at Geek’s Oasis, cool Star Wars puzzles, charming and magical Disney puzzles, and more. However, we feel that this ROKR 3D Wooden Vitascope is the craziest and most mind-blowing puzzle we have ever seen.
With this, you get to make an old-timey-looking movie projector and that alone is cool, right? However, what makes this truly insane is that this actually works, it even comes with a little film real and it will project onto the wall!
Good To Know
- Size: 8.7 x 10 x 5.3 inches
- Recommended Age: 14 years and up
- This is a legit mini movie projector, it not only looks amazing, it actually works!
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
While this ROBOTIME Marble Run Chocolate Factory may not have the hundreds of reviews that some of the other ones have, we were so in awe of this when we saw it, we felt it had to appear here.
Heck, this thing is so awesome it could have made an appearance on our 3D puzzles list that we did a while back. This is like an old-school gumball-style machine.
Building this is challenging, but fun as it is made from 420 pieces. Once it is complete and you start to crank the handle and see the balls working their way through the machine, it truly does make you feel like a genius!
Good To Know
- Size: 10.0 x 6.7 x 12.2 inches
- Recommended Age: 14 years and up
- This has the look of an old-timey gumball machine and that is pretty awesome!
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
We had to put this ROBOTIME 3D Wooden DIY Music Box Model Kit on our best mechanical puzzles list as it has a real sci-fi twist to it.
This is based on the classic starry night model with the Solar System and is like something you would see in an old-school sci-fi movie from someone like Jules Verne.
While it has the typical wooden style like these types of puzzles usually have, the planets are colored and that is really cool.
Plus, this thing even plays a little tune as well. 84 pieces may not sound like a lot, but this is one heck of a challenge.
Good To Know
- Size: 5.3 x 5.3 x 6.1 inches
- Recommended Age: 14 years and up
- You can paint the pieces before assembling
- Not only does this look great on display, but it also doubles as a musical trinket too
Why We At Geek’s Oasis Love It
The only thing missing from this ROKR 3D Wooden DIY Music Box Aircraft Model Kit is a big gorilla on top of it swatting down those planes! That is right, we saw this and right away thought of King Kong!
Comprised of 255 pieces, this allows you to build a tower that has three planes that zoom around it! This is such a cool display piece and we feel if you can get your hands on a little wooden gorilla figure to put on the top it would look even cooler!
Good To Know
- Size: 15.67 x 9.33 x 2.13 inches
- Recommended Age 8 years and up
- If you are a fan of the classic King Kong, you are sure to get a huge kick out of this
FAQs About Mechanical Puzzles
Puzzles like these are very different from your standard jigsaw puzzle so it is only natural that you may have a question or two. We have a couple of the most commonly asked questions about mechanical puzzles.
Do I Need Any Tools?
This is really on a puzzle-by-puzzle basis, to be honest with you, but most of them have interlocking pieces so no tools are required. These wooden mechanical puzzles we have mostly looked at today will have all of the pieces on a wooden sheet and you then pop them out.
Think of it like how you would put together a wooden puzzle of a dinosaur, car, or something like that and you will have a good idea of how these go together.
You may need to sand some pieces of the wood (they tend to come with sanding paper) and you may have to “grease” the gears a little bit too to keep them moving smoothly, again, most sets come with this grease that allows you to do this.
Just How Difficult Are These?
As some of these mechanical puzzles have a lot of moving parts, it goes without saying that these are not super easy to put together.
These are going to be a challenge, but if you take your time, pay attention to the instructions and just try and have fun, you will get through it and have an awesome display piece once you are done.
Are These Good For Your Brain?
They sure are! These will give you a brain workout as well as exercise your fine motor skills! If you're into these types of mental workouts, we have looked into some other brain teaser puzzles in the past.
Do you know what a puzzle box is? Or do you like solving Rubik's cube kind of challenges? Check out our posts about Top Puzzle Boxes Including a Smash Hit or Become As Smart As Yoda With These Awesome Cube Puzzles!
If you like disentanglement puzzles, check out our post about metal puzzles too!
Grinding Your Gears One Last Time
“Hey, you know what really grinds my gears?”
We have put together what we feel is a pretty awesome list of mechanical puzzles. We just want to make sure that you guys are having as much fun with your next puzzle project as possible and wanted to give you one last bit of advice before we bring this thing to a close.
We touched on this earlier, but just remember when you are looking for puzzles that are mechanical, more often than not, we would say 99/100 you are going to be looking at a wooden puzzle. That is not a bad thing at all, just make sure you know that when going into one of these puzzles.
Hope you had fun reading this post!
