Product Update

Is Bedlam Puzzles Still in Business? (2026 Update)

Is Bedlam Puzzles from Dragons’ Den still around in 2026? The deal it made, the dragons who invested, and where to buy Bedlam Puzzles today.

Dragons' Den IndexUpdated 31 March 20266 min read

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Bedlam Puzzles is one of the best known stories in Dragons' Den history, not for the deal that got done, but for the one that got turned down. Danny Bamping walked away from investment offers worth over 100,000 pounds in series 2, took a bank loan instead, and turned a 3D dissection puzzle into a genuine mainstream toy stocked in Hamleys, Tesco and Argos. The full picture today is more nuanced than a simple yes or no.

The short answer

This one needs a bit of unpacking. Bedlam Puzzles Limited, the specific company Danny Bamping ran to sell the Bedlam Cube, was dissolved by Companies House in August 2013, which contradicts an older internal note marking the business as still selling. However, the Bedlam Cube itself, the physical puzzle at the centre of the original pitch, remains on sale today through other toy manufacturers and retailers, including Professor Puzzle, which currently lists Bedlam Cube products for sale. So the specific company from the pitch has closed, but the product it built its name on has outlived it under different ownership.

The pitch

Bedlam Puzzles appeared in series 2, episode 2, in the Kids & Education category. The founder asked for 100,000 pounds in exchange for 30 percent of the company, pitching a puzzle originally invented by Bruce Bedlam in the 1980s, thirteen interlocking pieces that assemble into a cube, which Bamping had been selling in modest volumes before the show.

The pitch itself became a well known example of a founder holding firm on terms even in the face of strong investor interest, several accounts of the episode describe offers from multiple Dragons totalling well beyond the original ask.

The deal that got turned down

Retrospective accounts describe Rachel Elnaugh and Theo Paphitis offering 100,000 pounds for 30 percent, in line with the original ask, but Bamping ultimately chose not to proceed with any Dragon and financed the business through a bank loan instead. It is one of the clearer examples on record of a founder walking out of the Den with no formal on air deal completed, yet going on to build a substantial business regardless.

The commercial impact of the broadcast itself was immediate and dramatic. Bamping reportedly sold 23 cubes online the day before the episode aired, and around 4,500 on the night it went out, turning the exposure alone into a serious sales spike independent of any investment.

From a bank loan to a national toy brand, then a closure

In the years after the show, Bedlam grew into a genuinely mainstream toy business, with turnover reported around 1 million pounds and stock in Hamleys, WHSmith, Tesco, Argos and John Lewis, along with efforts to bring manufacturing back to the UK. That success ran for several years before Bedlam Puzzles Limited was ultimately dissolved in 2013.

What happened to the brand after that is less clearly documented in a single source, but the Bedlam Cube puzzle format has continued to be manufactured and sold by other companies, most visibly Professor Puzzle, whose current product range includes Bedlam Cube listings. Whether that is a formal licence, a rebrand, or simply another manufacturer producing the same public dissection puzzle design is not something we can confirm definitively from the public record.

Why turning down the Dragons did not stop the puzzle

The Bedlam Cube itself was invented independently by Bruce Bedlam decades before Bamping ever bought stock to sell, which is a big part of why the design has been able to continue under other manufacturers even after Bamping's own company closed. A product built on a design the founder owns outright is far more fragile if that one company folds than a product built on a design that other manufacturers can also license and produce.

That distinction matters for anyone trying to work out whether this counts as a survival story. The company that pitched, and the founder who turned down over 100,000 pounds to build it his own way, ultimately did not last as a going concern. But the underlying puzzle proved bigger than any single company selling it, which is a genuinely unusual outcome for a Dragons' Den pitch to produce.

Where things stand now

Bedlam Puzzles pitched in series 2 for 100,000 pounds at 30 percent, turned down investor offers on those terms, and built a genuinely national toy business on a bank loan instead. The specific company behind that pitch, Bedlam Puzzles Limited, was dissolved in 2013, but the Bedlam Cube puzzle it made famous is still sold today by other toy manufacturers.

If you came here to check whether Bedlam Puzzles made it, the honest answer is mixed. The original company did not survive, but the product outlived it, and you can still buy a Bedlam Cube today, just not from the company that pitched it.

Where to buy Bedlam Puzzles

Still selling as of 31 March 2026. Check today's price and availability.

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See the full Bedlam Puzzles deal breakdown and term sheet →