Václav Obšívac (known as Vinco to his friends) has been designing and making puzzles in his own workshop in Frenštát pod Rahoštem in the eastern part of the Czech Republic in north Moravia since 2001. In that year he was a participant at the World Puzzle Championships in Brno in Czech Republic.
Many of Vinco'sdesigns involve very complex pieces created by glueing a series of shapes together. To create these puzzles Vinco collects many trees in his local area including acacia, ash, beech, cherry, elm, larch, maple, oak, pear, plum and walnut. The puzzles are unsealed showcasing the natural colour and texture of the timber.
Vinco is seen here with a very large puzzle he made, he says that even knowing the solution, and with many friends helping out, it took three hours to put together.
Edward Hordern IPP Puzzle Exchange - Washington DC, August 2012 Presented by Laurie Brokenshire. Made by Václav Obšívac. Designed by Václav Obšívac.
Difficulty 5+/5 You may try 3 (Tri) challenges using the mathematically complete set of 4 different woods on each of 6 pieces which look a bit like bicycle wheels. 1. Uni-Cycle. Simply form a cube (not too difficult) 2. Bi-Cycle. Each corner of the cube must be one single colour (a bit trickier) 3. Tri-Cycle. The cube must have no identical colour touching anywhere, not even diagonally or on an edge (a lot more though required to do this one)
Edward Hordern IPP Puzzle Exchange - Prague, Czech Republic, August 2008 Presented by Mike Hawthorne. Made by Václav Obšívac at Vin & Co. Designed by Václav Obšívac.
Difficulty 5/5 The goal is to make a cube, and the other nine shapes, from the 8 pieces of the puzzle. The shapes are amazingly complex - even for Vinco!
Edward Hordern Puzzle Exchange - Gold Coast, Australia, August 2007 Presented by Václav Obšívac. Made by Václav Obšívac. Designed by Václav Obšívac.
Difficulty 4/5 The puzzle is to take the box apart and get the wooden ball out. There are three identical pieces. Beware, if you take it completely apart you will have to get it back together again.
Edward Hordern IPP Puzzle Exchange - Prague, Czech Republic, August 2008 Presented by Diniar Namdarian. Made by Václav Obšívac at Vin & Co. Designed by Stanislav Knot. Difficulty 4/5 The challenge is to rearrange the eight L pieces in the frame so that the additional rectangle piece fits in as well.
Edward Hordern Puzzle Exchange - Gold Coast, Australia, August 2007 Presented by Laurie Brokenshire. Made by Václav Obšívac. Designed by Václav Obšívac.
Difficulty 5/5+ The puzzle is to assemble the six differently shaped pieces into this very complex interlocking burr. This puzzle is one of the hardest that Vinco has ever invented and because of the way it has to be assembled it is not possible to solve this puzzle using a computer program.
The puzzle is to take the four pieces of the puzzle apart; putting them back together will be even harder to do.
The shape is symmetrical in length of it’s diagonal axis but there are two different sized sides.You end up with this shape that looks a bit like an out of square cube.A Crazy Cube! A Cube after it’s been to a party!
The stocks of these new coordinated motion puzzles are very limited and we do not know if Vinco will be making more of these particular puzzles in the future.
The puzzle is to take the four pieces of the rounded tetrahedron puzzle apart and then put them back together again which is even harder to do.
The checkered pattern and precise fit of the puzzle make determining which facets to grip to take the puzzle apart quite a challenge.
The stocks of these new coordinated motion puzzles are very limited and we do not know if Vinco will be making more of these particular puzzles in the future.
The puzzle is to take the four pieces of the puzzle apart and then put them back together again.
Two different coloured woods shaped into an octahedron with a small curved pyramid appended to each side precisely machined to form a beautiful flower shape.An now you have to find where the four pieces start and finish so you can take it apart. Quite a challenge.
The stocks of these new coordinated motion puzzles are very limited and we do not know if Vinco will be making more of these particular puzzles in the future.
Edward Hordern IPP Puzzle Exchange - Berlin, August 2011 Presented by Laurie Brokenshire. Made by Václav Obšívac. Designed by Václav Obšívac.
Difficulty 5+/5 It's difficult to know if this puzzle should be called a two piece or a four piece puzzle. But it's definitely two; even though it looks like a couple of pieces from other Vinco puzzles have got tangled together... (see one of the pieces below) With these two pieces it is possible to lock them together and make a solid, symmetrical shape.
Edward Hordern IPP Puzzle Exchange - Prague, Czech Republic, August 2008 Presented by Laurie Brokenshire. Made by Václav Obšívac. Designed by Václav Obšívac.
Difficulty 5+/5 Xcruci8 may Xasper8, Xulcer8 or Xhilar8!
Your challenge is to assemble the 8 pieces into the symmetrical cross shape. It's packaged in it's unsolved form and even comes with a solution to put it back in it's box unsolved. Now that's a hard puzzle! Don't worry, just like all Vinco's puzzles it also comes with a solution to solve it too.
Top 10 Vote Getter – Puzzlers’ Award at the Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition 2010
Difficulty 5/5 The challenge is take the four piece puzzle apart. If you manage that then putting it back together will surely be even harder.
The puzzle has four different but very complex pieces that go together in a very precise fit to form the beautiful checkered pattern double cone shape. The fit is so precise that even identifying the four separate pieces is a challenge in itself.
The puzzle is to take the four pieces of the puzzle apart and then put them back together again which is even harder to do.
The shape is like two tetrahedrons with rounded edges that have been joined together.The uniform patterning of the different woods and precise fit of the puzzle make fitting the pieces back together even harder than taking the puzzle apart.
The stocks of these new coordinated motion puzzles are very limited and we do not know if Vinco will be making more of these particular puzzles in the future.
Mr Puzzle - We've got puzzles! 
