Topple Magazine

Review

Topple is a new online magazine that can be printed out and solved with pen and paper, the old-fashioned way. The price of each issue is just a meager $1, and for that amount you get a PDF of about 10 pages and up to 20 puzzles.

The magazine authors have worked hard to offer a wide range of puzzles for everyone to enjoy. There are interesting trivia questions, rebuses, grid logic puzzles, as well as some unique challenges I have never encountered before. The number of puzzles in the magazine keeps increasing with each next issue:

Issue 1: 7
Issue 2: 7
Issue 3: 10

Issue 4: 10
Issue 5: 10
Issue 6: 12

Issue 7: 16
Issue 8: 18
Issue 9: 18

The quality of the puzzles keeps improving as well, as you can see from these two identical puzzles, the second one of which has updated artwork.

To catch a glimpse of the activities you will encounter in Topple, you can check the 4-page sampler provided below. Regular issues are much longer and feature proper formatting, complete with front and back covers. It’s just like purchasing any magazine from a newsstand.

If you enjoy these puzzles as much as we do, we recommend you get the latest issue of Topple and then start collecting the previous ones in reverse order. At just $1, it will be hard to find something that provides better value for the money.

  • appropriate for all ages
  • PDF booklet for easy printing
  • about 10-20 puzzles per issue
  • fun old-school vibes
  • just $1

GET TOPPLE MAGAZINE HERE

Trotsky’s Killer

August 20, 1940

Leon Trotsky, an enemy of Josef Stalin, had been in exile for 11 years. On this day, a Soviet assassin entered Trotsky’s house in Mexico City and hit him in the head with an ice axe. He died the next day.

Here is a group of suspects who were rounded up. Each wrong suspect has one different feature from the correct suspect. Who killed Trotsky?

The killer of Leon Trotsky was Ramón Mercader.

Canaries in Space

NASA was considering sending canaries into space to study them under zero gravity. The project was scrapped when someone realized that in spite of having sufficient water supplies, they could die of dehydration within a few hours. Why?

Unlike humans, birds need gravity in order to swallow. Thus, in space they wouldn’t be able to drink and will die of dehydration.

Raise Me None

Raise me none and I am unbeaten.
Raise me once and I am excessive.
Raise me twice and I am forward.
Raise me thrice and I am eaten.
All said right, but wrongly spelled.

Who am I?

The answer is the NUMBER 2:

2⁰ = 1 (“one”), which is unbeaten;
2¹ = 2 (“too”), which is excessive;
2² = 4 (“fore”), which is forward;
2³ = 8 (“ate”), which is eaten.

Plinks, Plonks, and Plunks

If all plinks are plonks and some plunks are plinks, which of these statements must be true?

  • All plinks are plunks.
  • Some plonks are plunks.
  • Some plinks are not plunks.

Remark: “Some” means more than 0.

The first statement says that the set of plonks contains the set of plinks, and the second statement says that there is at least one plunk-plink. Therefore, that plunk-plink must also be a plonk, and the second statement is true.

The first and the third statements, however, do not need to be true. Indeed, it is possible that there is a plink that is not a plunk, or that all plinks are plunks.