It sure can be hard to decide which puzzle is the best to get. Each one is unique whether it is it’s history or design. And in addition, sometimes picking the right puzzle can be tough. We often like to match a puzzle with the personality of the person we are giving that gift too. The wrong puzzle, while still a nice gift, could miss the whole point.

That is why we are offering a Monkey Pod Games GIFT SET!  Instead of having to pick one puzzle why not get a gift set of THREE or even SIX puzzles. This can be a great idea for either yourself or as a gift.

We believe gift sets are the best way to go about things. If one puzzle is too hard, they can put it down, take a break with another before going back to the original. Ten minutes a day on each puzzle and you have one groovy hour of puzzle playing!

Our gift sets come in a beautiful box as well, so when they are not in use they can look wonderful on a bookshelf or desk. We could list the puzzles that come in the gift set here but we would like to add a little suspense and let you see them for yourselves from our site. You can check them all here. Hope you like them as much as we do!

The World Cup is halfway done and that means the games are less frequent. If you are anything like us at Monkey Pod Games, then you are obsessed with this competition and love soccer/football. Once you get into the African World Cup spirit, it is hard to get out of it, even when the 90 minutes is up. Therefore in the spirit of Africa and the World Cup, Monkey Pod Games has a game for you that is great to keep your waka waka going!

The game for you is Mancala! This game goes back thousands of years to early Africa where the first farmers played this game in Ethiopia. It soon spread to other parts of the continent and eventually the world. And what better way to honor a world game by playing another world game: Monkey Pod Games Mancala!

It can be played before a game, after or even at halftime! The beautiful Monkey Pod wood, the beads, and the African spirit will all keep you in your World Cup mood even if a game is not playing. This Monkey Pod Games Mancala is a great wooden board game. If you want to, instead of being competitors by name, both sides can choose a country and take the great competition from soccer/football to Mancala.

If you want to see more about his amazing African game, click here

Waka Waka,

Monkey Pod Games

Does anyone think the game of plucking off petals one by one on a flower to see if the man of your dreams loves you is unreliable? I know, if I  was a flower, and some girl plucked off all my petals, I sure wouldn’t let her get the man of her dreams. I mean, why should the flower suffer because the girl doesn’t know if the guy loves her or not.

Save the whales    flowers!

How can we go about that? I mean, imagine how many flowers we could save by not needing them to be used to find out who loves who? Well, we can rely on the Monkey Pod Games Love Test!

The Love Test is an awesome disentanglement puzzle which is way more accurate and valuable than murdering flowers! If you can release the trapped ball on a string, then the answer is: YES HE LOVES YOU! If you can’t, well try again! Love is about never giving up!

The Monkey Pod Games Love Test  makes a great gift whether for valentines day, for a love struck friend, or just a surprise gift to your loved one!

“For today’s ‘Book Corner’, we would love to recommend “Predictably Irrational” By Dan Ariely.

Dan Ariely, is a behavioral economics professor at MIT. While economics seem boring to some, this book is anything but that. Dan Ariely, writes a humorous fun book about what drives us to make the decisions we do.  This book is nothing less than pure genius and relates to our everyday living.

Here is a snippet review from Publisher’s Weekly:

” Drawing on psychology and economics, behavioral economics can show us why cautious people make poor decisions about sex when aroused, why patients get greater relief from a more expensive drug over its cheaper counterpart and why honest people may steal office supplies or communal food, but not money. According to Ariely, our understanding of economics, now based on the assumption of a rational subject, should, in fact, be based on our systematic, unsurprising irrationality.”

My personal favorite chapter is the first one. Here Dan Ariely explains to us the power of relativity. He shows us, how simple marketing and displaying signs in shops can change our whole perspective on how we choose to buy. One great aspect of his book is that he backs it all up with experiments he did with his classes at MIT.

This book is not a hard economics book. If it was it wouldn’t have been a New York Times Best Seller.  You don’t need any economics to enjoy it. All you need is life experience and a good humor when you start to realize your own predictably irrational behavior!

You can find the book here or visit Dan Arieli’s personal site here .

We hope you enjoy this book as much as we did!

Warmly,

Monkey Pod Games

www.monkeypodgames.com

Hi Everyone,

So summer is around the corner. This means the kids will be home and running all over the place. Pool, camp, water, ice cream, freedom, and vacation! All the great times are about to come. I mean who doesn’t love summer?

However, our brains can get a little too chilled out during summer. Sit by the beach to long and you may become a beach bum! So why not have a great little game to keep your mind sharp for the long summer ahead.

In spirit of that hot sun that may give us a nice tan and good times, why not play the GIANT STAR PUZZLE! This is the ultimate brain teaser.

Built after the famous Star Puzzle, this GIANT STAR PUZZLE is very tough but very fun. You will have to use all corners of your brain to solve this one. But once finished, the reward is big! If you can solve it before the end of summer, than you are one smart cookie! If you haven’t already clicked the links to the puzzle check it here!

www.monkeypodgames.com

Hi Everyone,

Here at Monkey Pod Games we love to bring attention important social issues. That is why we want to talk about the amazing charity “Love Without Boundaries”. This organization works hard to help and improve the lives of orphans in China. There are an untold amount of hungry and cold orphans who need our help. Love Without Boundaries has taken the lead in helping these orphans live easier lives. They have made a strong attempt to get people from all over the world to donate to their cause and they have been successful so far. However they still need our help!

Love Without Boundaries helps these children in four major ways:

1. MEDICAL: Love Without Boundaries has sent many teams of doctors to China to perform life saving operations and other necessary treatments to save and improve the lives of young orphans. They still have a serious waiting list which is why they need more help.

FOSTER CARE: Love Without Boundaries has given more than 300 children homes while making sure they are in proper foster homes where they are treated properly.

EDUCATION: Over 200 children are enrolled in educational programs run by Love Without Boundaries. This organization has many programs such as “Believe In Me” aimed at improving the education of these orphans. From pre-school all the way to college, Love Without Boundaries has been there to assist and improve the learning skills and abilities of so many orphans.

NUTRITION: Last but not least, Love Without Boundaries has been sending tons of necessary nutrition and food to different cities and provinces all over China. This is such a crucial aid as the key to smart and independent children are ones that are fed properly.

Love Without Boundaries have had so many success stories. Below is one that is truly touching from their website:

“Julia is one year old, and prior to surgery, suffered from a heart defect called a VSD. Julia suffered many setbacks due to pneumonia that was very difficult to treat. After 66 days in two different hospitals, Julia finally had surgery in December 2009 and is doing really well. We know Julia is feeling better because she likes to make silly faces now! Julia will continue to recover at our Heartbridge Pediatric Healing Unit. We hope 2010 brings another year full of blessings to the children in China and to all of you!! On behalf of all the children in our medical program-thank you!”

As you can see Love Without Boundaries is truly a magnificent charity. That is why we want to do our best to help them and we have decided to give a donation to their charity. But Love Without Boundaries needs alot of help and that can only come from the charitable. We urge you to give any donation you can.

Their website can be visited here at www.lovewithoutboundaries.com or if you need to do some shopping at Amazon, proceed there through this link and Love Without Boundaries will get 4% proceeds off whatever you buy!

The motto of Love Without Boundaries is that “Every child count”. The same goes for every dollar we can give to this amazing charity.

Love,

Monkey Pod Games

www.monkeypodgames.com

Hi Everyone,

This blog post is dedicated to our raffle we are holding! We at Monkey Pod Games feel that sometimes wooden brain teasers are misunderstood. Sometimes people think they are boring and cannot hold up to electronic toys and entertainment.

Well Monkey Pod Games is ready to prove this assumption false! That is why we are holding a raffle to give a free puzzle to one lucky winner. And the puzzle we have chosen to dispel the myths of brain teasers is the SOMA CUBE.

So, lets cut to the important part which is how to get involved! Our raffle is being held through our facebook fan page. All you have to do is go there, become a fan, and then attend the event. It is not enough to just attend the event, you must be a fan aswell. However this whole raffle is free! No monetary costs and no needing to give up any information or pricacy. We have been saying for along time that this social community is for you, the consumers. Hence this raffle is for you all

So we truly hope you will join in the fun and good luck to all!

Warmly,

Monkey Pod Games

We here at Monkey Pod Games want to thank the Masai Warriors for loving our Tumbling Tower Game! We let real Masai Warriors test out our Tumbling Tower Game (a fun family wooden puzzle game) and they loved it!

The Masai are a semi nomadic indigenous people who originate from Kenya and Tanzania. Their language is called the Maa and it is estimated that their population is close to one million nowadays.  They are one of the most well known of African tribes with their distinct beautiful culture. They still keep their traditions and way of life as they did thousands and thousands of years ago. Despite many groups trying to get them to embrace modernity, they have refused and stuck to doing things the way their ancestors lived.  The men and women dress in beautiful flowing clothes and the women wear large colorful unique jewelry. The Masai are an integral and beautiful piece to the puzzle we call human civilization.

The Tumbling Tower is a great game used to bring family members together. It can also be a great ice breaker game. The object is the build the tower as high as you can without bringing down the tower. As all of our puzzles, it is made from our beautiful monkey pod wood. The Tumbling Tower makes for a beautiful wooden puzzle.

Why wait and leave all the fun just to the Masai Warriors? Get your own Tumbling Tower here!

Don’t forget to join our Facebook Fan Page. There we have great offers, competitions, stories and fun! When you join, we will give you as a gift from us, 15% off your next purchase!

As always love from Monkey Pod Games!

So as most of you know, April 15th is when everyone’s taxes are due.  This can be a stressful time but also a time of insecurity because you have to give up alot of your hard earned money. But for the treasures you do get to keep, may we suggest the MAGIC BOX! It is not really a magic box but it is just as cool. Basically, you put your valuables or whatever you want inside the magic box and then the only way to open it is by doing a secret trick! Only skilled handiwork will get the magic box open.

Now, we at Monkey Pod Games are very responsible when it comes to giving advice. We are in the business of making WOODEN PUZZLES and  not safes. So we dont really recommend putting your true valuables inside the magic box. But it is neat for those items of yours that you want to protect from pesty little fingers that belong to curious children.

Or it makes for a great gift idea if you want to put a gift within a gift! Tell the person that they need to open the Monkey Pod Games Magic Box before they get the gift inside.

The Magic Box is beautifully constructed from 18 wood pieces. This Magic Box makes for a great wooden puzzle or wooden game.

Check out the Monkey Pod Games Magic Box here or go to our website at www.monkeypodgames.com

And please dont forget to join our facebook fan page called Monkey Pod Games. When you join, you get 10% off your next purchase! Once more: good luck on those taxes!

WARNING! BELOW IS A PUZZLE SPOILER! BELOW WE HAVE EXPLAINED HOW TO SOLVE THE STAR PUZZLE. IF YOU ARE  STILL TRYING TO SOLVE IT OR WOULD LOVE TO BUY THIS FUN AND TRICKY BRAIN TEASER, DO NOT READ BELOW!

Hi Everyone,

So we have decided to be merciful and show you all how to solve the Monkey Pod Games Star Puzzle. This is one of our most popular puzzles and was even on the hit show Criminal Minds! It is a tough puzzle but alot of fun trying to solve. However, sometimes we just have to get on with our lives and therefore we need a little help. Thats ok, no one is perfect!

So lets delve into it. We will explain in a step by step process how to solve this puzzle.

1. First you need to take apart the puzzle and lay out all the pieces like you see in the picture at the start of this blog

2. The second step is to take two pieces and hold them in the position as shown in the next picture. All the pieces will interlock into each other in the exact same way. Knowing how the pieces interlock is halfway there to solving the Star Puzzle.  Once you have these two pieces, you need to place one piece horizontally into the top niche of the other piece which needs to be held vertically. This can be seen in the picture to your left.

3. Once this is done and you get the feel for how the pieces should lock together you need to add the third piece which fits a bit diagonally/vertically into either one of the empty slots that were created by putting the first two pieces together.

4. Now, this is the trick/spoiler to the rest of the puzzle, so only read ahead if you really want to solve it quick. Most people try and solve the Monkey Pod Games Star Puzzle by putting it together piece by piece until completed. But this is a mistake! Doing it this way, you will close off the final spot for the final piece. Theway to do it is by creating the three piece figure shown above with the other three pieces and then sliding them together. The best trick is to hold the first three piece figure in your first two fingers and thumb and with your other two fingers and free hand, create the same figure. This picture shows how to do it.

5. All you have to do now is to twist the two 3-piece figures together and voila, you have completed the Monkey Pod Games Star Puzzle! This part can be a little tricky so do not get frustrated if it takes a few times to feel it and then slide them in. Sometimes you will be able to slide them together quick and sometimes you have to jiggle with it a bit. Here are two pictures showing how to do it.

Well we hoped this helped for those of you struggling with the Monkey Pod Games Star Puzzle. If you love this type of puzzle, then we really suggest checking out the many more puzzles like this one that we have on our website at www.monkeypodgames.com