Puzzles are a good way to spend a lazy day, but this puzzle does more than make pretty pictures and waste a few hours. This 125-piece puzzle when put together the right way, will make a fully-functional .45 caliber muzzle loader handgun.



It is part of the Maxton Art Gallery collection where Gare Maxton sells his puzzle sculptures. Called the “Intimidator”, it’s quite the challenge to figure out, hence the name. The Intimidator’s design is “by far my most complex metal sculpture and it’s both mentally and physically intimidating” in the Maxton puzzle collection, but it has it’s reward (a gun!). It weights in at 40 pounds and is made out of brass, copper, bronze, aluminum, steel and magnesium notched pieces as well as cap screws, springs and other bits.

The final result is a .45 caliber muzzle loader that looks like something out of James Bond’s “The Man with the Golden Gun”. All the parts needed to make the Intimidator Puzzle Pistol are within the puzzle sculpture itself. The tools used to assemble the pistol, hardware, 45 caliber bullets, a sight, a laser sight, a cannister with black powder pellets, a storage area for 209 shotgun primers, a spent primer removal tool and a ramrod to load the bullets. So far Maxton has only made one Intimidator for his personal collection, but he can make them for you if you’re willing to wait 24 months and drop some serious money. Each sculpture will include a serial number and tax stamp making it fully legal to own, and in case you wanted to display it on your desk it comes with a key to lock the puzzle in place so no one puts it together and sticks you up with it.

Check it out at the Maxton Art Gallery.