The 12-piece wooden puzzle comes in a tray, with the pieces inlaid. When assembled, the puzzle depicts a fire engine.

The 12-piece wooden puzzle depicts a school bus filled with students on their way to learn.  A puppy is chasing the bus and a family is waving. All pieces come inlaid in a tray.

The 12-piece wooden puzzle depicts a black and white cow carrying a bucket. All pieces come inlaid in a tray.

The 12-piece wooden puzzle comes in a tray, with the pieces inlaid. When assembled, the puzzle depicts a blue train with coming down the track.

The nine-piece puzzle features a durable magnetic board with a deep frame. The puzzle comes pre-assembled; when the pieces of the puzzle are removed, the treasures on the ship are revealed. “The quality and educational aspect of the playful drawings of the ‘outside’ and ‘inside’ of a ship can be taught,” Haba USA President Lea Culliton told TDmonthly. “The sturdy compressed boards will be sure to last when used and reused over and over again.” Launch date: February 2008.

Players attempt to memorize the pattern on the board before the board is spun around and another patterned plug is added into play. Get three in a row of the same color or shape and score a point. The game comes with a vertical board, a base, a pivot piece, a scoring block device, a score peg, 30 orange game pieces and instructions. Launch date: March 2008.

The playset resembles the hollowed trunk of a tree and features three spacious levels, a spiral staircase, doors that open and decorative windows. The set’s green “lawn” base is actually a six-piece puzzle. The lodge measures approximately 18” x 24”. Launch date: March 2008.

The 3D wooden toy features standard woodcraft construction with an added color laminate. Over 21 styles are available, including a giraffe and a dragon. Launch date: February 2008.

Grip the Forever Up-Down with both hands and practice turning it inward and outward repeatedly. The object is to control the ball without dropping it! Begin with the “slow” ball, then advance to the “fast ball”. Improves hand-eye coordination as well as hand muscle control. Suitable for ages 4 and up.

The 139-piece puzzle assembles to create a 3D wooden pirate ship. “It’s a fun project that looks awesome when assembled, and even better when painted,” Puzzled Inc. Sales Manager Jay Cohen told TDmonthly. Launch date: 2008.

In this challenging game, players roll two dice, add the dots and find the best combination of numbers to shut two rows of nine tiles. Players cannot touch tiles in the second row unless the tile in front of it has already been shut. The goal of the game is to shut all the tiles and close the super box. Awards: TDmonthly Top Toy 2009. Launch date: February 2008.

Where to Buy: Poopsie's; Aunt Jean's Toys

Part of a line of ScienceWiz Thinking Games, this puzzle game created by Harry L. Nelson and Hiroshi Yamamoto provides 40 challenges at different skill levels. Players put a puzzle card down and solve the puzzle by making sure all the pieces are looped together, at which time the board will light up with the solution.

Babies and toddlers will enjoy finding farm animals and playing a simple puzzle game. Photographs of animals appear on fun-sized magnets that fit into the scenes of the book. This magnetic puzzle book is intended for children over the age of nine months.

The kid-friendly, 3D-puzzle globe is composed of curved pieces that fit together perfectly to form a solid, smooth ball without any need for glue. The 96-piece puzzle measures 5” in diameter when assembled.
— Ravensburger's puzzle balls are selling well for David Hesel, owner of The Toy Shop in Concord., Mass. "We just got a 5' one, which we just put into our window," he said in March 2008, adding that the store has sold 100 puzzle balls since January.
— Nancy Bloomberg, owner of La Toys Etcetera in Cedarhurst, N.Y., was impressed with Ravensburger puzzles at Toy Fair 2008 and recently bought “individual pieces in a new buying program,” she told TDmonthly. “Our area is heavily populated with orthodox Jews so it's important to have non-electronic toys; a focus on games, building and puzzles is generally very strong.”
— Three of 32 retailers said in October 2008 they anticipate the Puzzleball to be one of the best-selling toys for the holidays. “Puzzles are a great niche for us,” said Michele and Ken Gietz of Where’d You Get That!? in Williamstown, Mass., when discussing their best sellers in fall 2008. Ravensburger is among the various brands of puzzles their store stocks for both children and adults.

The game includes 18 wooden puzzle pieces that can be used to create six different bears, each wearing different clothes and a different expression on his face. All pieces are stored inside a 6” wooden box that features a convenient slide-off lid.
— Kim Saltzstein, owner of Silly Goose Toys in Gilbert, Ariz., told TDmonthly that Schylling’s puzzles are one of her stores’ best-selling puzzles.
— Over one-fourth of 45 retailers who spoke with TDmonthly in early 2008 named wooden puzzles as their best-selling puzzles.
— An Emma Moody bear puzzle version is also available.

The 48-jumbo-piece puzzle depicts the planets and the moon in the solar system. The puzzle is educational and also teaches kids matching and motor skills. Each puzzle piece is made of extra-thick cardboard for extra durability. The puzzle measures 24” x 36” when assembled.
— “Melissa & Doug’s solar system puzzle – we sell at least one a day,” Steve Ricks, owner of My Story House Toys in Roswell, Ga., told TDmonthly.
— “Floor puzzles by Melissa & Doug – [we sell] at least one a day,” Bob Colbert, owner of The Toy Box in Searcy, Ark., told TDmonthly.
— Over 11 percent of retailers who spoke with TDmonthly in early 2008 shared that large floor puzzles by Melissa & Doug are their stores’ best-sellers when it comes to puzzles.

The puzzle is composed of sturdy wooden pieces. The puzzle will help children build fine-motor skills, imagination skills and numbers skills. The hour and minute hands even spin around to help children learn to tell time.
— “Puzzibilities by Small World – we sell at least one a week,” Bennie Campbell, owner of ABC Toys in Conway, Ark., told TDmonthly.
— Over 10 percent of retailers who spoke with TDmonthly in early 2008 named puzzles for very young children as their best-selling type of puzzle.
— The Puzzibilities line includes four progressive levels of puzzles, designed to stimulate learning across ages and developmental skills.

The 9,000-piece astrology puzzle measures 54” x 76” when assembled.
— “Five hundred pieces and above are the best-sellers,” David Hesel, owner of The Toy Shop of Concord in Concord, Mass., said of Ravensburger’s puzzles. “It’s the adult puzzle business,” Hessel told TDmonthly.
— According to Dennis Hosstedder of The Toy Store in Atlanta, Ga., “We sell [a Ravensburger puzzle] every day."
— “We sell a lot of Ravensburger puzzles… four or five puzzles a day,” Pam Horowitz, manager of Mr. Toad’s Toy Company in Naples, Fla., told TDmonthly in early 2008.

The 24-piece puzzle measures 27” x 33” when assembled. The puzzle comes in the shape of Thomas the Tank.
— Of 45 retailers surveyed by TDmonthly in early 2008, 40 percent named Ravensburger as their stores’ most popular manufacturer of puzzles.
— When it comes to puzzles, “Ravensburger is the best,” Susan Blanton, owner of Pufferbellies in Staunton, Va., told TDmonthly.
— According to Jacob Talkington, manager of Toy Joy in Austin, Texas, his store does well with Thomas the Tank puzzles.

Each of the two puzzles in the set depicts a different image of “Hannah Montana” star Miley Cyrus. Each puzzle contains 100 pieces and measures 10” x 13” when assembled.

Kids will place center pieces into frames — such as a bird inside a nest frame — to make matches of things seen in everyday neighborhoods. The game will help children enhance their concentration, memory, image association, spatial thinking, fine motor and patience skills. The game comes with 24 colorful, interlocking pieces.

When assembling the puzzle, players pick a piece and attempt to have the last letter of the animal become the first letter in the next word. The puzzle features a thick wooden base, high quality construction and colorful silk-screened images.

Pohaku is a set of games and puzzles with only one rule. Different variations of each game can be played, making the game challenging for players of all ages and skill levels. The set includes a 40 page color rulebook, stones, a sliding puzzle tray and scorecards.

The goal is to line up four bearings of the same color. Starting with the counter at #1, each player pushes one bearing, one space.  The counter is then moves to #2, requiring players to make two moves. The counter progresses to #10, making the game increasingly challenging. The game is intended for two to four players. Launch date: 2008.

Players attempt to fit 16 of the 17 CD pentamino pieces inside the box. Remove a different piece each game for an entirely new challenge. Launch date: 2008.