Dee Makes Me Dizzy - Vertigo

He Also Reminds Me Not To Solve On A Sofa

Vertigo from DEDwood Crafts

I'm quite lucky to be able to blog about something today! Mrs S has decided that the decor needs refreshing and that entails painting and decorating as well as reupholstering furniture. This has cost me a fortune and nearly ended up with an assassination when I inadvertently questioned some of the decisions being made (Whack! Ouch!). I have spent part of the weekend moving furniture about in preparation for the painter to come and do his thing. This movement has "allowed"/forced me to be in a position to replace the sockets, fused spur point and TV aerial socket with nice new brushed steel ones that match her vision (I grudgingly have to agree that the old brass ones were looking a bit dated). Now, whenever I do electrical work, at some point I always forget to switch off the mains and electrocute myself at least once. This time it was a close run thing - I remembered just in time that I had to switch off the RCD before touching something live. As I have said many times...I am not terribly bright! It all went well and everything has tested and works fine without a death in the family - PHEW!

Instructions are quite clear

Today, I have to write about a puzzle that I have been trying to solve on and off for nearly a year! Sigh, more proof that I am not terribly bright and certainly not very good at this puzzling business. I received my copy from the amazing Dee Dixon way back in May last year and immediately loved the smell, the look and feel of it - he always makes wonderfully tactile puzzles. It is gorgeous being made from Tigerwood, Sapele and Black Walnut.  It is quite chunky at 5.5 diameter and 2.5 inches thick. When you get a puzzle from Dee you always receive an instruction card with the aim and the usual admonition not to use any force and not to complain when you can't solve the bloody thing! I have quite a few DEDwood puzzles that I am currently not whining about and also not solving.

Apart from the beauty, the first thing to notice is that very little moves when it arrives. The central disk can spin freely and that's about it. The is a hint of potential movement in a panel and the circular centre of the bottom face. I fiddled with that for at least 6 weeks before I found the next move. It's a bit disheartening to be completely unable to find even one non-obvious move for such a long time. I had to put it aside and solve or at least attempt other toys. If I only work on one puzzle at a time then you will only get a blog post every 6 months or less frequently 😱.

It was almost an accident that I worked out the first move - I just happened to be holding and twirling at the same time. After that move, the next one is screamingly obvious - HOORAY! And then I got stuck again... I was able to spin something else round and around and around and nothing was visible or changed whilst doing it. Sigh. Another few weeks of doing the same thing over and over again (from this you would wonder whether I should be trusted to administer potent drugs, all of which can prove quite fatal within a minute or two! I certainly should not be allowed to use a screwdriver on a mains circuit 🤣.

As often happens to me, I inadvertently did the same thing in a different way and there was a change - yessss! Unfortunately, whilst something had changed, it didn't seem to lead me anywhere and I spent more time searching for the next move. I couldn't find anything at all. I knew that something inside had changed but it didn't help me. Another month went by and I had a thought© which is odd because they are few and far between. Having thunk for a bit I tried something new and after a struggle it worked revealing the interior of the puzzle and a tool. At last, I was making progress - it had only taken me 6 months or so.

There are several places where the tool fits but only one placement actually does something. I didn't know what it was doing but definitely something. Time to fiddle again and turning the puzzle over for the 4th time I had a piece of puzzle come off in my hand. I couldn't see why at all but progress had been made. I was beginning to suspect why this puzzle was named Vertigo - it wasn't because of any height related issues. The design of this puzzle was such that the damned thing needed to be manipulated and flipped over and over from side to side to allow progression of the solution. 

With the next piece in my hand, it didn't look like it could be used as another tool but there was a hole visible. Flipping it over again and using the tool I had in the opposite side suddenly dropped something in my hand - another tool - a smaller one. It took a bit of play before I realised where it had come from. Looking at what I had, it was obvious that 2 tools combined into one and could be used elsewhere. There were several options  and none of them worked - more think©ing required. Suddenly I had a random epiphany and what had not been possible initially was suddenly possible. I was using the combined tool and nothing was happening. Maybe I was using it wrong?  I spent another unhappy afternoon searching every orifice and place to use my tool - unsuccessfully. 

Having been frustrated about the lack of progress for a while, I had to give up when summoned by the present wife to cook dinner. On standing up, I heard something and realised that another rather tiny item had fallen out of the puzzle onto my lap and I had not realised it. It was only by sheer luck that I was working in the conservatory which had very light tiles on the floor and I heard and could see the small piece on the floor. It could very easily have fallen into a fold in clothing or down the gaps between cushions of the sofa I was sitting on and I would still be attempting a solve with a missing piece years later!

I now had a teeny weeny item and an obvious place to put it. It seemed to engage with something inside but that alone wasn't terribly helpful. At least, after this amount of time, I had gotten used to having to turn the puzzle over and over and try things in multiple positions. There was one more hole to play with and this time I was ready for it. I didn't lose the next bit that came out. Another pretty small item and despite having middle aged eyes, I noticed that there was something on the surface of it.

The DEDwood logo at last!

My goodness, what an odyssey - it has taken me 10 months and cost me what little hair I had left! Resetting it was fun - really just the reverse of what was done before but for me made a bit harder because I was not entirely certain where some of the pieces had been hidden inside. After an hour of fiddling it was all back to the beginning. Solving it a second time was just as much fun!

This is a cracking puzzle! At the 2024 EPP, it was mentioned by a couple of people as one of the best puzzles of the year and at last I can now agree with them. It is no longer available but if you ever see one come up at auction then just buy it, you won't regret it. It is beautiful, smells nice and is a fantastic challenge. I am sure that you will manage to solve it MUCH faster than I did!

Thank you Dee, I am still working on quite a few others that I have bought from you and always on the lookout for more.

A Minima That Is Anything But Minimalistic

Minima Texas by Frederic Boucher

It has been a little while since I played with any of Tye Stahly's Minima creations designed by the incredible Frederic Boucher and subsequently additions to the series by a bunch of other amazing designers. I reviewed the first 6 in the original series of 12 way back here and loved them but had to move on to something else for variety and also because I have got quite badly stuck on solving Minima number 8. For some reason I have a bit of a mental block about it - I've been trying, on and off, for many weeks and keep having to put it down.

Mrs S needed to refill the paper tray of the printer in my shithole of a study and had to move a rather embarrassingly large number of unsolved puzzles to get at it and that included a bunch of the latest Minima puzzles that were released after the IPP in Texas last year. In a fit of pique she left them on and in front of my computer keyboard in the hope of shaming me into tidying up. Well, that didn't work! 😈

All that it did was motivate me to play with a few of them and put the rest back where she plucked them from. I'll tidy up when (if) I'm good and ready!!! Whack! Ouch! Ok I’ll do it soon, sorry dear. 😇

What I couldn't resist was the Minima Texas produced by Steve Smith as an exchange gift at the IPP and distributed by Tye until the stock ran out. I, of course, couldn't resist it at all. It wasn't a cheap one but in retrospect was well worth the money. 

The instructions are to retrieve a barrel of oil, find the puzzle number and then reset it all. Poking and prodding in the delivery position reveals that nothing can move at all and the only option is to unscrew the bolt from the back of the puzzle. After this, some movement is possible but there's something rather odd about that movement. You can't see enough of what's going on to tell why, all you know is that it's odd. I undid that move and redid it several times before getting a vague understanding of what was wrong with it and that gave a rather big indication that some weird stuff might be needed later. Time to move on and see what is possible after the first movement. Initially nothing is possible. It turned out that the tolerances are rather fine and every move needs to be done just right and all the way to the end to make space for the next one. Once realised, a rather pleasant sequence of 3 moves makes lots of space inside and a hint of the puzzle number comes out a well as the reason for the first move oddity. 

I guess that’s my number? Out are there more digits to come?

At this point, realising that all the pieces are L shaped triominos, it becomes impossible to go any further. Thinking that some weird and wonderful rotation might be needed, I tried lots of shaking, gravity tricks, poking with fingers and with the bolt all with no success. Time to think©. Having some experience with Frederic's previous designs I eventually decided to try something improbable and, of course, it worked perfectly. Steve had put it all together beautifully disguised and only logical thought (plus some desperation) made it possible. I had now opened up more possibilities. My fancy move had altered things inside and made other stuff possible and the first thing that occurred to me was to go back to the beginning after that change. Maybe something entirely new was possible from the beginning? Erm.....nope!

Luckily I had a decent muscle memory of the path I had followed and backtracked to the point where I'd made my fancy move and again needed to think©! Looking at it for a bit, by sheer chance, I made a move that revealed something special which led to my puzzle number being fully revealed. That's great, but where is my barrel of oil? There's no sign of it so far and I thought I'd run out of options. There's a lot more space inside now and whilst exploring it I felt something land in my lap. Ooh! A metal cylinder. Hooray, this must be my barrel of oil - I fully congratulated myself for being a genius and took my photo of puzzle with number and oil. 

Is this my barrel of oil? It’s sort of the right shape but…
Something’s not right

At this point I had a little panic because I really had no idea where my “mini barrel” had come from. A quick fiddle about showed me that there had been a hidden hole which had lined up with an external hole and it had fallen out. I put it all back together thinking I had joined the ranks of Derek, Juno, Big Steve, Volker et al but something was nagging at me as not quite right. Surely Frederic would have made the oil barrel a bit more obvious? Time to look again...

Back to the place where I found my "false barrel" and look for more clues. There seemed to be a potential move that looked very inviting and I tried to make it happen for absolutely ages. It wouldn't go and even now I can't say why - something unseen was blocking it. More desperation led me to look elsewhere and right in front of me was something new. I've no idea how I missed it but there it was looking at me. It wasn't accessible to fingers but I realised that there was a hole in the box that hasn't been used before and it invited me to poke the bolt in - off course, this did absolutely nothing at all. I then tried something daring and discovered that it was a one-way dare. Gulp, had I been really stupid?

AHA!!!

Now I'd had to combine two things I'd found and finally I had my real barrel - photo fully taken, and the reset was not too much trouble. This was most likely because I'd spent so much time hunting for correct moves and backtracking so often. 

Now I knew I’d found the oil barrel

This puzzle is yet another example of the genius of Frederic. How did he get so much puzzling in such a small space? It's not impossibly tough to solve. It's just right for a nice morning of play and is beautifully clever as I’d expect from Frederic. 

It's not for sale in any of the stores, unfortunately, presumably as a deal for Steve's exchange puzzle. If you see it on any auction sites then just get it - straight away - just buy the damn thing. You won't regret it!

Thank you Tye for the opportunity to get this it is fabulous

Yet More Pelikans!

The bumper crop of puzzles from Pelikan Puzzles

Wow! What a pressured week! Not only did I have an enormous set of puzzles from Jakub and Jaroslav, but I also worked about 80 hours this week as well doing some rather stressful stuff. Luckily for me, I find that puzzling is quite a nice way to relax. It doesn't matter to me if I am failing to solve the puzzles - the process of admiring them, the beautiful wood and playing with them to admire the genius of the designers. I just find the whole process rather soothing. It made a difficult week much more palatable.

Today I need to finish my reviews of the remaining puzzles - some of them have already sold out but there might be a possibility that if people contact them about these then a further batch might be made.

The Horns of Booth

Interesting delivery arrangement

5 pieces to fit in the box

Who can resist a new packing puzzle from Dr Latussek? This gorgeous creation using highly grained Acacia and Purpleheart has a box with 5 very interesting pieces to be fitted inside. The opening in the box is not big enough to have a piece enter sideways - there will have to be rotations at some point during the solution - why doesn't this surprise me? Volker is the master of restricted rotations. Looking at the pieces it looks like there should be lots of room with maybe a number of large gaps between pieces but despite this, the L shapes of the pieces interfere with each other and the required rotations don't seem to be possible. This should be fun. First, I had to read the thought processes that the good Dr went through during the design process. He said:

"When I experimented with the tricube v some time ago to find a suitable box for a certain number of v’s, I stumbled across some surprises. I was thrilled with the new ideas that I hope to publish one day with Pelikan.

I will start with a particularly nice experiment: I wanted to put six broken v’s into the FRITZ-FLOP box, into which six v’s fit without much challenge. When a v is broken in the middle two identical parts are created, which I wanted to put back together in a staggered way. The result should be six parts that look as if the two ends of the Tetra cube L have been cut off. As so often happens, I was unable to solve the task I had set myself. I couldn’t find a move that would convince me and would have given you a headache in the search for it. But when I left out a piece and experimented with only five pieces, THE HORNS OF BOOTH was quickly found.

 

I found the movement convincing, especially because this puzzle has a feature that I appreciate: the box and the pieces have to be turned and tilted to fit. This is the only way to ensure that the pieces move harmoniously around the box without getting stuck. I really like that. THE HORNS OF BOOTH is not suitable for a solution video with a rigid focus on the opening in the box. Discover and enjoy the interplay of the five pieces and the box with me. Then you won’t need a solution video either."

As usual, I started with searching for a 3x3x2 assembly and found a couple quite quickly. Obviously, the shape created can be rotated 90º 4 times as well as inverted giving a lot of possibilities to search through. With most of these types of puzzles, working in reverse from the assembled shape is helpful for me - several of the starting positions are obviously impossible with no piece even remotely removable if it began in that state. After an hour or so, I had honed my search down to 2 possible assemblies (I have to say that the insertion and removal of the last piece to go in the box is rather lovely. Having done that, finding a way to insert them through the reasonably large but not quite large enough hole is a fun challenge. I did bear in mind the Fritz Flop puzzle and some of the moves required for that which did help. If you have done a few other packing puzzles with angles of 45º then you will have a head start but there is quite a lot to do. When I found the required move, all I could do was sit back and gasp at the beauty of the sequence. This is a stunning puzzle - unfortunately sold out just now but hopefully another batch will be made. Dr Latussek is a genius!

PSI

PSI by Girish Sharma

This beautiful burr designed by Girish Sharma is still in stock as I write. It is a classical 6 piece burr shape made from absolutely stunning Bubinga that Girish has altered to make a whole lot more interesting. He has taken the standard 2x2x6 burr sticks and added an extra voxel or two along one of the short axes to make a few of the pieces 2x3x6 and yet still assemble into the standard shape. You can see that there is something rather different from the outside by the presence of odd extra cubies visible where you wouldn't expect them. The upshot of Girish's alteration is that it makes the burr much more interesting to explore. Parts get blocked when you think that you are making progress and also the level increases enormously.

I managed after a couple of evenings of play to get to a fairly widely separated bunch of pieces but nowhere further to go. I went back and forth (creating a muscle memory for later reassembly) and really struggled to find the next move. Finally, after a lot of work changing the orientation of the puzzle in my hands and searching inside the shape I had, I found a lovely clever move that effectively split the puzzle in half. After that, I was able to fully dismantle it and take a photo:

Not "just" a six piece burr!

Only the very best of you will be able to assemble this from scratch (you know who you are). I had to resort to Burrtools to tell me the placement of the pieces but was able to reassemble it from there by muscle memory. This was a wonderful little challenge.

It would appear that there is a second challenge"

"By the way, another side goal of the puzzle is to figure out the full form of PSI"

 I'm afraid I have no idea what this means - to me PSI means pounds per square inch but that's not really helpful. 😱

Sym Duo

Sym Duo by Frederic Boucher

This delight from Frederic Boucher is also still available for sale. It was originally sent out to me in the assembled state but I have convinced Jakub that it should be sent out with a false assembly to give you all an extra challenge. It is very nicely made from Limba, Ovangkol and Cherry woods. I originally thought that the primary aim is a packing puzzle to place all the pieces in the box so that the entry is filled. This part of the challenge is fun and not terribly tough for those of you who are used to TICs or doing the amazing packing puzzles by Osanori-san and Alexander-san. There is a rather clever little move to get the pieces in correctly which is rather satisfying.

The real challenge from Frederic is to use the two shapes to make a series of symmetrical shapes. I have found 1 rotational symmetry and 5 mirror symmetries - I am not particularly good at these types of challenges but with these shapes they are remarkably fun and tactile to play with. It will keep you going for a good couple of hours.

Yes U Can

Yes U Can by Frederic Boucher

My goodness! Frederic Boucher is having a good time these days! This is yet another puzzle designed by him in this release. Made from a particularly beautiful combination of Wenge, Padauk & Mahogany, this will be delightful to fiddle with. Unfortunately it is now sold out but maybe it will be recreated if enough people ask jakub. Like the Sym Duo, this is a two-fer - there were two challenges in one puzzle.

The obvious challenge is to place all the pieces in the box. It is made significantly more difficult by the present of 2 glued cubies inside the box. Rotations are required and add to the challenge. I found two assemblies that would fit in the box but I think the aim is to place them all inside with the single tetromino hidden by the pentominos. Make sure that you look for and find both.

The next, and to my mind, much more difficult challenge is to take the 6 pieces and arrange them in such a way that the red tetromino is completely surrounded by the U-shaped pentominos. This is possible in several ways and is a fun thing to try but much more difficult is the challenge to completely surround it so that the red piece cannot be seen through from any angle through any of the drilled holes. I have never tried puzzles like this and find that I do not have the skills to do it. Embarrassingly, this took me a good hour of trial and error. I do not know if there is a good method for this sort of thing - let me know if you have any techniques.

5 Balls

5 Balls by Frederic Boucher

Don't you love a puzzle that has an instruction sheet?

OMG! Yes, another incredible design by Frederic! This wonderful series of challenges is made from Wenge and Maple with 5 nice large chromed steel ball bearings - it has it's own case to store the pieces and will keep you occupied for quite a long time.

The first challenge is to use the 4 L shapes to hide all 5 balls with a mirror symmetric shape. Yet again, I am terrible at these puzzles. he first thing that occurred to me was that the hollows in the wooden pieces should be placed next to each other to enclose a ball bearing but there are only 8 hollows to enclose 5 balls. That requires some thought© which is a weakness of mine. I spent a good hour searching and did manage to hide ask 5 balls but there was absolutely no way I could do it with a mirror symmetrical shape. There are only so many ways to put the pieces together into an effective ring shape but none of them were symmetrical. After more than a week of trying I have gotten nowhere near solving that part of it.

Challenge two is to create a symmetrical shape using the 4 L's on their sides with the balls sitting in the cavities. To make this particularly hard, the shape created by the L's should be mirror symmetrical but also the position of the balls should be symmetrical too. I do not know whether the whole thing should be a single symmetry or the wood and the balls are different symmetries. Yet again, I have been at it for a week and haven't got even close to a solution. My brain just doesn't work this way - I remember that the 2 piece Symmetrick puzzle from Tomas Linden took me many many months to solve. I just don't stand a chance but it is fun to try.

The final challenge which I did have more success with is to take the pieces from challenge 2 and to created a 3x4 rectangle with the balls assembled into all of the 11 shapes in the diagram above. Some of them are relatively simple but a few are a huge challenge and I think some might be impossible! At least I have completely failed at a few of them so far. There is a lot of puzzling for you money with this one and who can resist a puzzle with a storage box?

Serial Squares NTC

Serial Squares NTC by Lucie Pauwels

This gorgeous tray packing puzzle by Lucie has been made from Ash, Wenge, Acacia and a vibrant Padauk. It also remains in stock. When I first took it out of the box, I wondered whether it was a sliding piece puzzle but in the configuration it arrived in that was impossible and after that I thought it might be a packing puzzle. A little thought told me that would be trivial. There must be something more to it. I then decided that the aim was to pack the pieces in the tray in such a way that no single colour shared an edge in common. This was a fun challenge but did only take me about 10 minutes:

No edges of the same colour touch

I have played with many of Lucie's puzzles and none of them are as trivial as that! It was time to read the instructions! Oh boy! She wanted the pieces to be packed in with no adjacent pieces matching colours on either edges OR corners! That was going to be a massive challenge - there are apparently 2 solutions but I have completely failed to find them myself. I do not have any idea how you go about doing this sort of thing. If you do put by trial and error then how do you keep track of what you have attempted after a few failed tries? I also have to ask, how do we know that there are only 2 solutions? 

This is a beautiful and frustrating challenge that will keep you all busy for hours if not months!

A Huge Selection Of Pelikans!

Upcoming release from Pelikan

Couldn't fit into the grid 

A rather large box arrived earlier this week and an annoyed Mrs S muttered "not again" to me. I gritted my teeth, kept my head down and promised not to leave them lying around once I had solved them (there is a rather embarrassing number of puzzles just strewn all over the house just now and I need to put some away before there's a bloodbath in PuzzleMad HQ.

This time there is a huge selection of puzzles from your favourite designers and a variety of different types of puzzle with varying difficulty levels to suit everyone. 

From top left above:

Zack Die Krone by Stephan Baumegger (2 versions available)

The Horns of Booth by Dr Volker Latussek

PSI by Girish Sharma

5 Balls by Frederic Boucher

One Match Left by Jorgos Anastasou

Serial Square NTC by Lucie Pauwels

LOL by Frederic Boucher

Sam Duo by Frederic Boucher

Heavy Lifter by Girish Sharma

Yes U Can by Frederic Boucher pictured separately

Jakub has asked for me to give some reviews as quickly as possible and so I will be spreading them over two weekends of blogs. Expect them to go on sale quite soon.

Zack Die Krone

There will be 2 versions of Zack Die Krone by Stephan Baumegger, both are absolutely beautiful. This fabulous puzzle is not for the faint-hearted. When I first picked it up, I thought it was a 6 piece burr in a frame and expected a huge struggle as a result. When I had a closer look I was relieved to see that it is "just" a mere 3 piece burr within a cage that has a big hole in the top. How hard could it be? OMG, it is a serious challenge!

There are a few possible moves at first but after that the possibilities open up quite a bit as there is plenty of space to look at what is happening and also plenty of space to move the pieces around each other an around the frame. Initially the frame really gets in the way of what you want to do but after a bit of fiddling a way method of getting around it can be found. Once this has been done, you will need to carefully control the pieces as they appear to become quite unstable. Rotations won't happen easily but are possible and you will need to prevent that. I managed to unlink one side of a piece from the others and then got very badly stuck being completely unable to progress and needed to backtrack to the beginning again. Luckily, I found that it's usually pretty easy to backtrack if you paid attention but I dare say some of you might get lost at some point.

I remained stuck at the same position for a whole evening before I managed to find a possible move. It's a huge advantage being able to see more or less everything that is going on and sort of planning what you can do. With great satisfaction I found a path to release a piece from both the others and then a simple matter of releasing it from the frame. I had my 4 pieces and could take a photo. At level 21.8.3 for the complete disassembly, this is a huge challenge for anyone and only the very best of you will be able to reassemble it without Burrtools (I certainly needed it)

An incredible challenge The magnets hold it stable when assembled

One Match Left 

Looks just like a matchbox

As expected - one match inside

A new designer I've not heard of before, Jorgos Anastasou seems to have been designing for a few years but this is the first of his that has been mass produced. This beautiful cute little puzzle is made to look like a matchbox (very reminiscent of the matchbox playground from last year). It's made of Jatoba, Wenge, Maple & Cherry. Only two of the woods are visible from the outside of the box. There appear to be two but pieces inside the box which can slide and reveal a lovely little single match left in the box (hence the name). 

After six moves the match can come out but the tray formed by the two but pieces still won't slide out. A further 7 moves leads to one more part removal and a further 2 to complete disassembly. It's not terribly difficult but it's lovely and really quite cute. I suggest that you leave the pieces for a couple of days before attempting the reassembly. It will keep you nicely for a little while. Not hard but just right for a little light puzzling.  Indeed, Jorgos wrote about it:

"Sometimes the simple things can be the most enjoyable! The "One Match Left" is a moderately difficult level 6.7.2 disassembly challenge with a unique solution reassembly. It's fun to determine the position of the small match piece trapped inside the seven unit burr pieces and frame. Τhanks to Pelican for making my design a reality with their high quality construction and materials! Have fun!"

He's right, it is a simple thing compared to may others that have been made but it is a delight and very beautiful.

Leave it for a few days and assemble from scratch

Heavy Lifter

Arrives incorrectly assembled

5 pieces

This wonderful interlocking 4x4x4 cube puzzle is by the amazing Girish Sharma. It has been stunningly produced in some lovely woods - Zebrano, Acacia, Wenge, Maple and Massaranduba. It has been incorrectly assembled for transport and quickly comes apart into 4 rather complex shapes and an L. I did not receive any instructions and from the start assumed that it was a TIC. As a result, I set to work looking for the position of all the pieces and then rotational moves to get them interlocked. The process took me about an hour whilst watching TV with Mrs S. It was really very satisfying to work it out and seat the pieces into place. I was so delighted that I did it repeatedly that evening. 

The following day I got my instructions from Jakub and was stunned to realise that it was not meant as a TIC...he wrote:

"Over the last few months, I have been tinkering with the idea of high level 4x4x4 IC which form a full visible cube. So far, I've known the highest level to be 11 by a few designers. The challenge I took on myself was to design something with a higher level. This is first of the many designs that I have coming up in future. 

Heavy Lifter is a level 12.2.2.2 IC with 5 pieces. The puzzle comes disassembled and the goal is to assemble the pieces into a 4x4x4 cube. Once you have assembled the cube, you might realise the importance of the name of the puzzle."

Amazingly, it was actually an interlocking cube very similar to many of the wonderful Microcubology puzzles I bought way back at the beginning of my puzzling odyssey but MUCH MUCH tougher. The following evening, I just had to try again and do it without the rotations. This was a huge challenge as the TIC part had given me some preconceived ideas that I needed to get rid of. Girish has created an absolute monster of an interlocking cube which is absolutely wonderful to work on. The "proper solution" took me well over an hour and was joyous - this might well be my absolute favourite of the bunch.

This was an absolute joy to solve

LOL

Laugh out loud?

This made me laugh when I managed it

How can anyone resist a new puzzle designed by Frederic Boucher. I certainly can't and if it's called LOL then there is guaranteed to be something sprecial about it. This puzzle is very reminiscent of the Galette by Osanori Yanamoto in that there is a small flat box with a limited entry and a set of pieces to insert inside. There's no window in the front so it will all need to be done with dexterity and gravity along with quite a lot of thought. The puzzle is beautifully made from Jatoba and Cherry with the puzzle name on the surface which I think might be Marquetry (it's something I've never seen from Jakub before). 

The 5 simple pieces are to be put inside to make a 4x5 voxel rectangle. It's made more complex by the fact that the largest piece can't even fit through the 2 voxel opening - it requires a rotation to get inside and maybe there will be rotations needed inside the box without easy access?

There seem to be only a limited number of ways to create the rectangle and some of them are quite obviously impossible. I found a couple that potentially might be possible but finding a way to get them in the box is a huge challenge. The pieces block each other from getting into position and manipulating them through the tiny entrance hole is a frustratingly difficult experience. At one point I had a really good idea and it worked. But then the next step wouldn't work at all and I had a mini heart attack trying to undo the first supposedly good idea. It took me a good 30 minutes to get the pieces all out again and calm myself down.  There had been quite a lot of swearing during that process and Mrs S kept glaring at me! Having retrieved all the pieces I had a little think© and found myself trying to do the same thing over and over again. At one point, a little experiment with the pieces revealed a very subtle design element and yes, thank you Frederic, I did laugh out loud. A few minutes later I had my assembled puzzle:

Phew! That took a while.

Subsequently I received the instructions and found there was another challenge to be had:

Frederic wrote about it:

"LOL is an assembly puzzle with a very simple goal: Assemble the five pieces to make the acronym LOL, respecting the following rule: the 3 characters must have the same size (height and width). Will you discover the trick and succeed in the challenge? Exclusively for the PELIKAN version, a box is included. As a second challenge you must pack the pieces completely into the box. I hope this puzzle will make you laugh out loud!"

It appeared that I had only done the secondary challenge. The primary challenge still awaited me. This took me another hour or so yesterday and the important thing is to assemble the letters standing up on a flat surface. There is a very special trick that has had be done during the manufacture of the pieces to make it work. Another laugh out loud moment!

Sierpinski's Burr

Sierpinski's Burr by Tyler Hudson

Finally for today, I have a wonderful caged 6 piece burr from Tyler. He has been quite prolific over the last few years and has designed several different kinds of puzzle. This is a caged 6 piece burr which has had 2 opposite corners chopped off to allow quite a lot more freedom of movement for the burr sticks. It really adds to the challenge and allows it to reach quite a high level. I loved it but it might be too difficult for many of you if you are nor big burr fans. It has been beautifully made by Jakub and Jaroslav in Mahogany and Acacia. The angles of all those cuts must have made manufacture a bit of a nightmare to produce but the effort was well worth it. Obviously, it needs disassembly and then reassembly.

Tyler wrote about it:

"Sierpinski's Burr is a variation on the traditional framed 6 piece burr, in which 2 opposing corners have been removed. The resulting shape is one I hope you find quite interesting! It adds a few extra moves to the puzzle, and also provides small windows through which possible moves can be deduced. At level 40, it may sound a bit daunting, but keeping track of the solve is manageable, without too many dead ends. I don't think this one will be the hardest burr out there, but it should be a lot of fun to work out. Of course, the puzzle is named after the Sierpiński Triangle, which the triangular faces of the burr resemble. Pelikan's build of my design adds a lovely tactile feel, as well as being a beautiful wood combination. I hope people enjoy it! :)"

He is absolutely right! This is a huge challenge but is definitely manageable.there is a particular sequence that recurs several times and each time it is done it allows further progression before being undone and moving other pieces. The entire disassembly is level 40.6.3.1.2.2 so once the first piece is out then the rest will follow quite easily by looking inside and working out what is possible. 

A fabulous burr

Having taken my photo there was absolutely no way I could reassemble it myself and off to Burrtools I went. So much fun in one small cube! 

I have only had 5 days with the puzzles so far and managed to solve 5 of them in that time. I plan to work on the rest for next Sunday - come back for them.

My pick from this bunch is the Heavy Lifter and the LOL puzzle but all are absolutely fantastic!

Lulled Into A False Sense Of Security By Frederic

...And Tye

Haeckel Sphere designed by Lee Krasnow

It seems like I place an order with Tye Stahly quite frequently. Mrs S certainly thinks so! In my recent delivery, I couldn't resist adding a new design that the amazing Lee Krasnow has come up with, the Haeckel Sphere. I let Tye choose the colour scheme and when it duly arrived I took a photo and put it on my puzzle tray. One evening we had a Teams meeting for our group of orthopaedic anaesthetists and during that meeting I couldn't resist picking it up much to the horror of people in the group.  It was not clear to me how it came apart so I grabbed it on opposite sides and pulled. It duly separated in two and then promptly fell to bits in my lap to the amusement of several onlookers.

12 identical pieces

It was hard to concentrate on the meeting whilst working out how this went back together. It's not terribly hard to decide how the pieces assemble but at several points it requires a bit of dexterity to recreate the two halves and align them correctly to get it back together. There are quite a lot of colour options suggested by Lee to create extra puzzle assembly challenges of different external patterns - if you order from Tye then I am sure that you can get various colour schemes.

Flushed with success, I couldn't resist moving on to one of the many puzzles designed by Frederic Boucher. Over the years I have bought, been given and reviewed many puzzles by Frederic and uniformly enjoyed and been bamboozled by them. Amongst my favourites (and Allard's) are the various Minima puzzles but Frederic does do other types. I have a few of his tray packing puzzles and have always struggled with them. I put it down to the fact that I am simply awful at them.

In the last delivery was a beautiful packer with wooden pieces made from colourful cubes (produced by Baz). Tye created the nice tray for them. It's called Artefacts.There are two sets of challenges:

Artefacts side A

The tray is 5x5 and the wooden pieces consist of paired cubies which are connected to each other at a half cubic overlap plus a peg which is effectively a 2x1 shape. The first challenge is to pack all the wooden pieces and the peg flat into the tray. There are 3 possible solutions.

Showing that I am an eejit with these, it took me 2 days to find the first packing pattern. The half voxel attachment really caused me issues. I ended up trying lots of random placements over and over again until something clicked and I had my "what if" thought©. Having found that one, I realised that the next was just a matter of flipping a couple of the pieces. Yay! Maybe I am less of an eejit? Then I went for the third assembly and I realised that I hadn't improved at all. It took me a whole day of play to find it!

The next challenge set by Frederic is to put the peg on its end in the hole in Tray A and then assemble the 5 wooden pieces in the tray around it (only one solution). I thought to myself that this should be an easy prospect. After all, the end on peg is just a single voxel in the centre rather than the 2 on its' side. I set to work and it proved to be a lot of work! OMG! Why is it so difficult? I spent several more days failing to solve this one. I got a bit desperate and even resorted to Burrtools. Much to my horror, Burrtools was unable to find a solution! This meant that Frederic had lulled me into a false sense of security with the initial challenge! I was going to have to place at least one of the pieces in the tray at an angle. So far after over a week of attempts, I have failed. Turning any of the pieces even slightly diagonally seems to block off a lot of space and makes it impossible to place the other pieces. I have tried to be systematic and try placing each of the pieces individually at an angle but to no avail. Frederic has beaten me - sob!

In desperation, I moved on to the third challenge with this puzzle. Side B of the tray has small half voxel bulges on each edge at odd positions. 

Artefacts side B

The offset position of the bulges leaves a 2 voxel gap on one side and a 1½ voxel gap on the other which prevents placement of a pice flat in that gap. The challenge here is to find a set of 4 of the wooden pieces that can be packed flat in the tray. It's not clear whether it is possible with all combinations of 4 or just one of the 5 sets of combinations. I have tried all of them several times and completely failed to find any packing method that can get them in. It's been days!!

Again, I created a BT file for this part of the challenge and not one of the combinations of 4 pieces can be fitted inside the tray orthogonally. I then attempted to search for tilted assemblies but the bulges completely bugger that up for me!

Yet again, I have been beaten by Frederic and Tye! I've given up for the moment but may well go back to it when I am feeling like being a sucker! Thanks guys for the lesson in humility! 😱😱😱

Rainer Nearly Killed Me...Again!

Popplock T14

T13 unsolved

Every few years, Rainer Popp lets loose on the world the latest edition of his incredible series of beasts. It had been almost 3 years since the T13 was released and I (as well as the rest of the eager puzzling fraternity) had begun to anticipate the next one. This does remind me that I have so far completely failed to do anything with that one and it has been sitting on my puzzle tray next to my armchair for over 2 years. In fact it has been responsible for a significant part of the weight of it and upset Mrs S by marking the carpet. I really should get a move on and start work on it again.

I guess that a few people get to hear early when the latest release is coming but I had absolutely no idea when it was due to be released. In fact this one has been released in phases already. At Peter Hajek's End of Year Puzzle Party there were a good few people who showed it off and several others piped up to say they had been working on it for a while (including Allard. Whilst I gulped at the knowledge of the cost of it (handmade puzzles from brass and steel are never going to be cheap) I fired off an email to make an enquiry and was duly put on the waiting list. A few weeks later a VERY heavy box arrived and the sheer beauty of the creation was revealed. It is 1.7Kg! I received the dire warning of a painful death if I were to crack a tile or the kitchen granite and I insisted that it would only stay in the kitchen for long enough to take my photos. It was very quickly taken into the living room to be a couple of weeks of evening puzzling. It isn't much fun having nearly 2Kg of brass on your thighs and it doesn't mix well with china mugs!

It has rivets and dials and a key and...no bloody keyway! That's very odd. Reassuringly, the underside has Rainer's mark:

The only thing possible at this stage is to poke at things and try to push and pull stuff. Needless to say, not a lot is possible. A few things can be twiddled but that's about it. I spent a couple of evenings twiddling and alternating that with prodding and can only say that by pure chance doing the same thing over and over again actually made something change. Wow! There's a first time for everything.

In my usual manner I backed up to the beginning and tried again. It didn't work this time. That's odd! I was sure that I hadn't hallucinated it. I tried it a few more times until suddenly it worked again and I had an idea what was required. I had no idea how it worked that way but I could do it repeatably. With my discovery, I had a piece separate from the main body of the lock. What on earth was I supposed to do with that? Time to look and think© again. After all these years, I am still rubbish at this thinking business. If you look close enough then there is something obvious to see at this point but fiddling with that obvious item doesn't seem to do anything. It's time again for random movements until something happens. Just because you cannot see it doesn't mean that nothing is happening or changing whilst you carry out random moves. Discovering my second item I could see what my random moves had done and why they had the desired effect. My second item is MUCH more useful straight away - YAY!

I had a keyhole at last but the key wouldn't go in it - there is a front and a back keyhole and they aren't aligned. Damn - he's a sneaky bugger!

And here I got stuck....for a very long time! By this stage I have a few pieces and none of them seem terribly useful even in combination. I suspect that this is the place where Allard spent a very long time as well. I spent over a week at this point with nothing I could even try. I did end up sneaking a little peak at the solution (these are nicely set out in stages to allow clues for just one step without revealing others). Interestingly, the step that was described was exactly what I had been trying to do for a week or more and not managed to make it happen. Did I have a defunct lock? Impossibly unlikely from Rainer but I fetched the device I had used all those years ago when I had locked up my Louvre puzzle:

It's amazing what you can do with an unfolded paperclip!

This amazing device showed me that the lock was fully functional and I put the lock back to the beginning again and put the unwanted tool away and started again. Even knowing what was needed and how it worked I still couldn't do it with the pieces of the lock. Why was that? Because I wasnt doing it right of course! It took another couple of days before I found the right technique and it's very very subtle. It requires the exact combination of moves and positioning to do the required thing but it works every time if done right - Phew!

Having done that elusive move, I'd like to say the rest was plain sailing but I can't. I am not terribly bright because I was only able to do the next couple of moves before getting stuck again.

I'm not going to give much away here but at this point the key is useful in several ways - mostly unexpected ways. The most important movement to be done is a bit of a shock when you do it. The clue to do it comes by a careful examination of the entire exterior of the puzzle and having a think©. At this point I was thinking the impossible or even the slightly unfeasible. I thought to myself

"Self, that cannot be possible!"

Of course, with Rainer, the impossible is actually quite likely. After a bit of wrestling I noticed a teeny tiny change and continued what I was doing and got the fright of my life! I had sort of understood that it was going to happen but when it did, it was quite a shock! The engineering in this thing is incredible! 

It was still not over! I had thought that the huge move might be it but there was still more to be done. The next steps were quite logical but nicely disguised and it took a few minutes to find out what was needed. Suddenly, I had an open lock and a breathless admiration for Mr Popp's ingenuity - this might be the best one yet!

There is absolutely nothing given away in this picture

I have taken a photo of all the pieces that I had at the end and it is breathtaking! This will definitely be in my top ten(ish) of 2025.

The reassembly is a perfectly logical sequence and only takes a couple of minutes. Now that I know the solution, the whole process (including the difficult step) can be done quickly and easily in no time at all. Every single time I do it I find myself with a very big grin on my face! Amazing!

Thank you Rainer - keep doing what you do, it is fabulous. I look forward to the T15 in a couple of years.