I am very grateful that Jerry McFarland keeps in touch with me! He is a truly
lovely man and always pleased to have feedback on his new creations. Pictured
above we have a lovely cuboidal puzzle that is immediately obvious as Jerry's
work. He has called it the obscure burr. I was allowed to buy a copy at a very
reduced price as it is just a prototype - even his prototypes are beautiful.
I am the third person to receive a copy and I hope that I am the one that
Jerry is pleased with the outcome. The whole point of this is that the
solution is based on an obscure mathematical idea - at least that was the
description given by Jerry's brother after he described it to him.
Jerry had sent this to both Brent (of
FiveSinatras fame) and
also Bill Cutler (who is a proper mathematician having been a maths professor)
and both had solved it but...
they cheated!!!!! 😜
The aim, as usual is to dismantle the interlocking cube (obviously by removing
the central key piece which, here, stands out as a vibrant Padauk). Yes I can
hear your gasp of horror! They cheated? Well, sort of. Some of you may recall
some of Jerry's much earlier puzzles - the
Quadlocks were stunning works of art that had multiple moving pieces in several
dimensions that literally had to be solved like picking a lock. It has been
quite some time since I played with them but they were quite a challenge for
me.
Quadlock 1 (way back in 2011)
Quadlock 4 (from 2012)
So, the main aim of the Obscure burr from Jerry's point of view is to solve it
using the mathematical technique that he wants you to find. This should be a
"good" puzzle but I am really "bad" at solving mathematical puzzles (although I
am pretty good at Sudoku, Kakuro etc). I could see that Jerry was really quite
disappointed that both Bill and Brent had succumbed to the urge to get the
solution quickly and they lock-picked it open. Despite that, I do think they
both enjoyed the puzzle even if it wasn't terribly hard to do.
I promised Jerry that I would not give up so easily (he said that as soon as I
pick it up then I will see the strange feature and use that to help me. After
my initial photos, I could see that there were a whole lot of magnets in there
- the light brown burr sticks can move freely in each direction and snap into
place at each position thanks to these rather powerful magnets. The white burr
sticks were fixed and would not move. Lord! The temptation was there to put
pressure on the central key piece and move the sticks around to feel what was
happening in side...but nope! I was going to be a "good" boy!
The strange feature that Jerry had promised was a 3 digit number stamped into
the end surface - in my case it was the number 177. What on earth did that
mean? I had no idea. There are 5 sticks that can move but only 3 positions for
each one - each of those sticks is also stamped on one end with a number (1 to
5 from the bottom) - did this matter? I tried to make 177 up using various
combinations of the 1-5 and 3 positions. Nothing really worked.
Off to Google to find any interesting theorems or combinatorics that involved
the
number 177. Well there were some really interesting features to that number but
none of them helped. Jerry insisted that it was very solvable but that he was
working on having a clue built into the puzzle but covered by a magnetic
plate. After 2 weeks, I had to ask for the clue and Jerry replied with just a
single English word and a number:
AHA!
With that clue, I had some definite ideas and within a couple of minutes I had
the key piece removed I have put the next picture behind a button because
there potentially might be a spoiler there and I don't want anyone to work out
how it was supposed to be solved from my picture:
Finally after 3 weeks!
It was a "good" feeling to finally understand the obscure mathematics behind it
and I felt "bad" for not having worked it out. But...I actually don't think that
it would ever have been possible for me to work it out myself. I don't think
there is enough on the puzzle for the maths to be visible.
The next step is to take it apart and that also was not trivial. It doesn't
just dismantle after removing the key piece. There is a particular trick that
Jerry has used before and it took me a little while to spot the trick and
remember what he had done before - I soon had a nicely arranged set of pieces
and some seriously strong magnets which keep clamping them together when you
let go.
So we have "the good" aka me "the bad" aka Brent and Bill (plus a
rather obscure puzzle idea) AND the beautiful - nothing Jerry has
ever done is ugly
Having solved it the "good" way, I decided to assemble it again and see what it
was like to solve the "bad" way and lock-pick it. Placing pressure on the key
piece and moving pieces around in various orders left me with a solved puzzle in
just a matter of minutes - it is pretty easy to cheat with this puzzle - almost
trivial for anyone with any experience. Jerry had already thought about it and
designed a mitigating mechanism which he thought might require too many hands to
solve by cheating but in my opinion that will not work.
Jerry has had quite a lot of requests to purchase copies of this puzzle and
he really wanted my opinion about the viability of this as a puzzle - what
should I say? I obviously don't want to upset a very good friend but also
feel that you all as potential purchasers need honest feedback and Jerry
should know whether it is actually a "good" puzzle. Here is part of what I
wrote to him:
"Your clue was just what I needed. It took a bit of experimenting to
work out but I worked that out and managed to take the key piece out
and dismantle the puzzle. Very nicely made and nice idea. Having taken
the key out, I did like your signature well hidden next step. It took
me another 15 minutes to find that move.
I then went back and lock picked it instead and that is almost
trivial to do. I definitely don’t think your suggested locking
mechanism will prevent lock picking. The only way to prevent that is
to deliberately create several "false set" positions. That will throw
off all but the best lock pickers and will mean it has to be solved
mathematically or by huge amounts of trial and error which would not
be fun.
Do I think it is a great puzzle? That is difficult to say. It is a
fabulous idea but I think only a tiny minority of puzzlers are
mathematicians and almost none of us would get it without a clue. Why
would we choose this mechanism? Without the clue, I would never have
known to try what I did. As you have seen with Bill and Brent, most
puzzlers will not try and figure out a mathematical puzzle. They will
just lock pick it and maybe be a bit dissatisfied because doing that
is pretty easy. On the other hand, your puzzles are extremely
collectable and many people would buy it just so that they could have
another of your puzzles in their collection.
Whilst this would earn you some money, I don’t think that you would
be happy knowing that you had a puzzle that people wanted to buy
purely for who made it rather than for the solution process. I myself
am delighted to have another of your puzzles and it took a supreme
amount of self control to stop myself lock picking it from the
beginning.
I really hope this helps you decide what to do."
In the end Jerry has decided that the idea and the tactile feel of the
puzzle is too good to leave on a shelf and will make a bunch for interested
puzzlers. I have to agree with him - it is a really lovely thing and a
clever idea. If you lock pick it then it will literally only take you a few
minutes and then you will just have the more minor challenge of dismantling
and reassembly. If you try to use the methematical solution then maybe you
will work it out - I am sure that you all are a lot brighter than me but
Jerry will put a clue in the puzzle to help you.
Of course, I am only too delighted to have another of his puzzles in my
collection and I am positive that you will be too (the
Burrlephant remains in pride of place on my mantlepiece).
Elephants to remind me of my mother (she grew up in Kenya)
After my week off in which I had managed to solve 5 of the 9 puzzles about to be
released by Jakub and Jaroslav's
New Pelikan Workshop, I had to return to work. Amidst the beginning of a third wave of Covid that
seems to be hitting the UK, I got a bit of a shock at how suddenly things can
change and suddenly had much less time than I wanted to play with my new toys. I
am only too aware that Jakub is waiting for me to solve and write something -
the pressure is on and I had left the most difficult ones until last.
Waffle by Oasnori Yamamoto was actually one of the first that I actually tried
from the new arrivals but I got a bit of a shock the very first evening. This
consists of 4 bright yellow mini burrsticks made from
Garapa which have been arranged into an attractive cross shape on a
Jatoba
frame and the obvious aim is to remove them. Itis immediately clear that
Burrtools is not helpful here because as soon as the pieces start to move the
requirement for rotations becomes very apparent. I began moving them about and
trying to make space for the required rotation to happen and quite quickly
lost track of what I had done - I suddenly couldn't reset the puzzle! OMG! A
lot of swearing during an episode of Grey's Anatomy had Mrs S looking at me
with anger and me sweating under that gaze as well as worrying about the
puzzle. After a fraught ½ hour I got it back to the beginning and drew a
little diagram of the start positions. I went back to work on the others and
only this last week did I start to play again. This time I actually made plans
of what I needed to do and always made sure that I could reset. Still no joy -
the pieces always seem to block the required rotation and I could not find a
way to make space. I moved on to the next one - Camel ride.
I failed on Camel ride for a couple of days and in desperation returned. Again
whilst watching TV I idly fiddled and did something without realising it. I
looked down in surprise and couldn't believe it. Moving back and forth, it is
apparent that the arrangement and movement on this one is critically accurate.
Having found that amazingly accurate move, I quickly had the puzzle solved.
This beautifully made 12(13) piece burr design by Stephan is yet another that
belongs in
Goetz' Burr zoo. I had bought this and solved it way back in 2014 after I had bought it
direct from the designer. Obviously Stephan has allowed Pelikan to reproduce
some of his more fun burrs. Having solved this way way back, I had absolutely
no recollection of the solution. I have gotten a bit rusty with burrs over the
last couple of years and this caused me quite some difficulty. The level is
16.8.9.2.2.3.4.2.1.2 so not too high a level but the fun part here is that to
make some of the moves the camel inside needs to be moved around to make space
for the other pieces to move. I managed to remove the first two pieces after 3
days of fiddling about with my usual to and fro approach. Removing the next
piece was a real challenge - finding the required moves requires looking and
experimenting and is very enjoyable. Even after almost all the pieces have
been removed it remains stable and does not collapse on itself at all.
Fabulous!
Stunning design and beautifully made
I have not yet reassembled it as I will definitely need Burrtools for this.
Fermat
Fermat by Dr Volker Latussek
Using the usual box that we are by now all rather familiar with, Dr Latussek
has branched out into the use of not rectilinear shapes. Named after the great
French mathematician, this puzzle takes 3 triangular prisms of slightly
different dimensions made from Maple and asks that they be "solved" into the
beautiful Acacia box. I have been playing with this on and off since they all
arrived and have gotten absolutely nowhere! I can get 2 pieces inside and this
can be any combination of the pieces but I have not even come close to getting
the third in with them. I think that just possibly, maybe, if I am not
delusional that I might have worked out where they all need to go for the
final solution but there is just no way that I can achieve it. I hope that
maybe someone can send me a clue once others have managed to solve it.
Lutz
Lutz by Dr Volker Latussek
Is there no end to Dr Latussek's talents? I have not had time to play with this
at all and am awaiting being told what the challenge is. A tray packing puzzle?
Probably not as there is a gap in the side of the tray. I assume that the aim is
to insert all the pieces into the tray through the gap? As always, Pelikan has
made it beautiful and I hope to play in the near future.
I would estimate that these will all be released quite soon - maybe early next week - keep an eye out on the Pelikan site or later this year on the PuzzleMaster site.
Take care out there people! The pandemic is far from over - don't become complacent. Just because you have been vaccinated, does not mean that you cannot catch it and infect others even if you don't get sick yourself. We also do not know whether the vaccine prevents the development of Long Covid which is an extremely debilitating condition.
I showed off on my
New Additions page that I had just received another huge batch of puzzles from Jakub and
Jaroslav that they were hoping to release soon. I know that you all want to know
about them as soons as possible and they want to sell them soon as well. I know
that they like for me to write a bit of a spiel about them for their site and
hence I start work as quickly as I can. Luckily I had a week of annual leave
this week and did get a bit more time to play than I usually would BUT Mrs S is
still a woman to fear if I don't do all the chores and duties that she has
decided I must do and hence I did not have quite as much time as I needed.
Plus...I am only human and my very feeble brain can only solve so many puzzles
in a short period of time without feeling like it is going to explode. There are
9 in this release and I have managed to solve 5 of them so far. I will work on
the remainder as quickly as I can.
I have no idea when these will be put up for sale so keep an eye out on the
Pelikan puzzles site
for updates or (if you are North America based) then keep an eye on the
Pelikan section of PuzzleMaster
for them appearing there (this normally happens a few weeks after the initial
release).
I will start with the 2 puzzles from my friend Alexander Magyarics - right up
front I have to shout out that HE IS ON FIRE!!! The puzzles that Alex has been
designing recently have been not ownly beautiful in their design but
absolutely astonishingly fun designs to play with and solve. He has got just
the right difficulty level and play experience recently and these are the very
best he has produced.
Colliding Galaxies 2
Colliding Galaxies 2 by Alexander Magyarics
Let me say from the beginning that for me this was the pick of the bunch - it
may not be for everyone but I seriously struggled with this and the Aha!
moment when I managed it was something truly special. Yet again this is
another 3x3x3 cubic packing puzzle with a fancy box and a complex restricted
entry which must be completely closed once solved. The title comes from the
rather nice 3 armed hole on opposite poles of the box - the one pictured above
is made from Cherry and Wenge and of course, like all of Jakub's work it is
superbly made. The 4 pieces are quite restricted in the way they can be
inserted into the box but so much that there is only one choice. Alex is not
going to make it too easy by restricting too heavily.
Solving this was an unusual experience for me - I did my usual of trying to
solve it outside the box and got only so far before having to change my
approach - this may because I am stupid I guess. I found a few ways to
construct a cube and felt this part was quite fun. Finding which orientations
would fill the entry gaps was rewarding too and I had narrowed my assemblies
down to only one or two. My next step is to seat the box on my lap (or the
sleeping cat on my lap) and alongside it put the assembled shape I thought
might be correct and then work through the possible disassembly. The problem
for me was that these shapes and the holes in the box were too complex for me
to keep visualised and held in place during the process. I tried this each
evening for several days and just could not do it. Eventually I abandoned that
approach and did something I have almost never managed before - I actually
tried to assemble it within the box without having worked out what order or
sequence to use first. What a challenge! Which pieces to put in first etc?
Eventually I managed to get 3 of the pieces assembled inside but the 4th was a
problem. I could do this with several combinations of 3 different pieces,
Aaaargh! I spent 3 evenings desperately trying to get this together and always
found that the crucial move that I needed was blocked until I noticed
something special. A few slides later and:
At last! Fabulous!
I had not tried a particular set of positions before (I don't know why but I
just had a mental block and couldn't see it) and suddenly I found the setup
position I needed and AHA! It went together like a dream - this is a
STUNNING challenge. You may find it easy but for me, I just could not seem to
visualise the sequence. It forced me to work in a different way to my
usual.
Play-boy 2
Play-boy 2 by Alexander Magyarics
It arrived like this
Yet again, we have another puzzle based on a non-rectilinear grid. Only
Pelikan seem to have the courage to do these sorts of puzzles - probably
because they must have a way to create the necessary jigs cheaply and easily.
This puzzle has been made from Pink Oak and Padauk. Taking the pieces out of
the box as it had been packed for transport, I could see just how accurately
these had been made - the pieces had sharp corners and I had to be careful not
to stab myself. I am sure that you can see it straight away but for me it took
a few days for me to realise that this one is also "just" a 3x3x3 cube to be
fitted into a box with a complex entry hole. The special feature is that this
box and the pieces have been sheared along the x-axis to make a shape that is
also quite difficult to visualise in your head (of course, YOUR head is
probably more capable than mine).
I had taken this to work because I knew that I had a vascular case down in our
angiography suite which was going to be a very easy anaesthetic and a VERY
long procedure. I needed something to keep me out of mischief (I get up to all
sorts of pranks if I am not kept properly occupied) - this puzzle was going to
save the staff from being annoyed by an anaesthetist with the mind of a 12
year old and a low boredom threshold!
I worked on this in my usual fashion - assemble the correct shape outside the
box and then work out whether and then how it can be placed inside. I am not
good with a non-rectilinear grid and just finding the shape took me a little
while. There are some big clues as to what is needed in looking at the shapes.
The restricted entry is very helpful in limiting the possible assemblies and I
was pretty sure that I had the correct one settled on fairly early. Time to
work through the disassembly first outside the box and the skewed shape made
it hard for me. After about ½ an hour I had it worked out - solved in about an
hour? Not so fast! Actually doing the assembly proved an extra fun challenge -
gravity has to be utilised just right and a good bit of dexterity - it was
almost like a non-rotational version of the Rollercoaster puzzle which I
reviewed
here. The nursing staff and my ODP had watched me working on it with fascination
and were almost as delighted as I was when I stood up and showed them this:
That was FUN!
Yet again Alex and Pelikan have produced something wonderful and requiring a
different thought process to usual.
No Pelikan release seems to be complete without something from Osanori
Yamamoto - the next two were his challenges.
All Tetra Pod
All Tetra Pod by Osanori Yamamoto
This puzzle has been beautifully made from wenge and Padauk. This was the
first one I tried from the current batch - I thought I might manage to do it
fairly quickly because the pieces are relatively simple being just the
complete set of tetrominoes and also because I distinctly remembered having
solved a very similar challenge from my good friend from South Africa,
Johan Heyns. He had produced the Tetro puzzle from Ishino's site complete with a frame
and a stand - I had written about it
here and had enjoyed it a lot.
Tetro pieces - see the similarity?
Assembled in the stand
And there was my first mistake - the similarity was only superficial - Johan's
puzzle was relatively easy because there are 63 possible assemblies into that
corner shape and whilst finding one of them was not trivial, it was not too
many hours of work. The new design from Osanori-san has a much more restricted
entry (in fact, it is a corner shaped box with only a slot for entry). I think
I had made about 6 different corner shapes which would not go inside the frame
before I realised quite how much more of a challenge this was. I needed to
think in terms of the restrictions as well and that really added to the
challenge! Over an afternoon I think I lost most of the rest of my hair from
this puzzle - it is a massive challenge and it transpires there is only a
single assembly out of the 63 which is assemblable inside the box. It requires
a lot of thought and a LOT of trial and error - fabulous!
That took me a very long time!
Palace
Palace by Osanori Yamamoto
Palace has been made from Pink Oak and Wenge. I know...it's yet another packing puzzle! Yet another of those 3x3x3 cubes that need to be inserted in a box so that they fill all the entry holes! Over the last few years I have bought dozens and dozens of these puzzles and I never ever get fed up with them! They are all very similar in idea yet all very different in challenge. I absolutely adore them because they require several different trains of thought and then some fun manipulation of pieces and even some dexterity too. Osanori (and Alexander) are the absolute masters of this subtype of the packing puzzle group (I consider it a mixture of packing and interlocking along with some dexterity).
Palace looks pretty simple because there are only 3 relatively small pieces and they don't look terribly complex but there is the challenge - such compact pieces still need to fill some very big gaps in the box. It is quite easy to make a few shapes outside the box which will fill the gaps so maybe the challenge will be small? Unfortunately the entry is really not very restricted at all and therefore it requires a lot of trial of different orientations and assemblies before the appropriate thoughts begin to percolate my dense noggin. Like most of Osanori-san's designs, the pieces need to dance around each other quite a bit - in this case there is one particular move that I really struggled to find at first. The Aha! is tremendous when it hits you and everything finally slots into place.
Palace solved - magnificent!
I would be interested how all of you store these puzzles? Do you leave them in the solved state? Do you put them on display in pieces or just assemble into an incorrect shape for the shelf?
Web 3
Web 3 by Dan Fast
Finally today, a new design from a man we have not heard much from in a long time...Dan Fast (he used to be called the CrazyBadCuber but has given up that moniker now) has designed a few puzzles over the years (both Twisty and interlocking/burr) which I have had the opportunity to review and enjoy a few times on the blog. Dan got into Burrtools a few years ago and has recently been playing with it again. He sent me a few BT files a month or so back to ask my opinion and I was fairly positive about them. Jakub also got to see them and was enthusiastic enough to make a quick prototype (really really quick!) and made the decision to produce one of the easier of the designs. Web 3 is the result. This has been gorgeously made from Garapa and Ovangkol (stunning grain on it). Dan has designed a whole bunch of these up to 8x8 but I think jakub wanted something more approachable for all puzzlers.
The aim here is to slot the pieces into the frame to create a lattice that sits flush with the base. My first attempt at this had it solved in about 5 minutes and I was left with a feeling that I was missing something. I took it apart and gave it to a coworker and they really struggled - I must have got lucky. They eventually put it together and were very pleased with themselves so I tried again. My second attempt was less straight-forward. It requires a little trial and error but mostly, after the first few attempts, a definite plan and logical approach. It is still not hugely difficult (I think that a 4x4 version might be really really tough - too tough for me) and they final assembly gives a nice satisfied feeling. This is definitely suitable for beginners and experienced puzzlers alike. Dan has commissioned Alfons Eyckmans to make a full set for him up to 8x8 - now that will be a wonderful puzzle set for his collection!
Fun challenge and looks great on display
I am continuing to work on the rest of the puzzles and will hopefully have reviews up for you all soon.
And Gives a Huge Challenge (which I even solve for once)
Axes and Hammer
At the beginning of the year my friend, Aaron Wang, showed off his latest
creation on Facebook (it had quietly been shown off in the IPP design competition in 2020 for the IPP which had not happened due to this blasted pandemic). It was a very exciting announcement because he had clearly
gotten very big ideas - not only was he making new disentanglement puzzles but
he had branched out from simple hand made wire puzzles (which you will have seen
a lot
on this blog) into making beautiful versions out of stainless steel. Of course, I am
addicted to his puzzles (I think I have bought almost everything he has
produced) but how could I resist when he moves into a new medium? An order was
placed and then it all went rather badly wrong! The Pandemic has really hammered
the international postal service from China to the rest of the world.
Several of us in the UK had ordered these at the same time in March 2021
and the tracking reached the airport and stopped... they stayed at the
airport for weeks and weeks. Of course, I trust Aaron and he was just as
exasperated as I was but we decided to just keep on waiting and after 3 months
(just when Aaron was contemplating absorbing the cost and sending another
package out with a different courier) the packages suddenly started to travel
around the world. Phew! Once they had left China they arrived here pretty
quickly and I was delighted to receive my fabulous puzzle - in fact there were
2 in there (he had made me a gift of another great design).
The star of the show (pictured at the top) is the Axes and Hammer puzzle. As
soon as I saw it I recognised the type of design - I have featured this at
least twice before much earlier in my adventure. The very basic versions are
the
Scorpion
(available frome Puzzlemaster
here) or the Smuggler's revenge which seems to be no longer available.
Scorpion
Smuggler's Revenge
These are functionally identical with a classic solving method but are not
quite the same as Axes and Hammer in that the string/chain loop only feeds
through once. For this more complex version then you should look at Scorpion's
Sting from
Puzzlemaster
or the
Wedge
from the sadly no longer with us, Livewire Puzzles - you will notice that
these have a double loop through the puzzle:
Scorpion's Sting
The Wedge
It won't fit
The solution for all these puzzles involve moving the ring to various
positions and then feeding one end of the string/chain through the puzzle
before continuing to manipulate the ring further. It is actually not a
particularly difficult one (Scorpion is level only 8 (Demanding) out of
Puzzlemaster's scale of 5 to 10 whilst Scorpion's sting is level 10 - I would
put it down at level 9 at most). The key feature is the ability to move the
ends through the puzzle. I quickly set to playing with Aaron's version and
quickly discovered that Houston has a problem! As you can see in the picture
to the left, the axe heads will not go through. It can only pass through at
the very end and this is impossible with the ring in the way as pictured which
is an essential position for the solution of the more basic versions. Oh
yesssss! This is why I buy puzzles from Aaron - he does make his own designs
but he also takes other designs and makes them MUCH more fun.
The equivalent of the Scorpion rather than the Scorpion's Sting Too
easy for Aaron
The weight of the Axe heads also adds to the challenge as they pull down and
make the accurate positioning more awkward - I would suggest that it is almost
vital that you have the help of a cat to solve this - if you are not working at
a table then you need something to lean on:
He is essential - couldn't have done it without him
Wonderful challenge - a great variant on a classic
The next puzzle was a delightful surprise which took me down the puzzler's
path of frustration - elation - frustration and tears! Aaron was very kind and
included a gift to me of a new puzzle called the The Bodies:
Three bodies
I instantly recognised this puzzle on two levels! This had been made by
cannibalising the All Cuffed Up puzzle (from the same range as the Smuggler's
revenge). It is a version of the Classic ball and chain puzzle which I have
written about at length before (especially
here). It is interesting for me that the All cuffed up version was the one that
Aaron used. The Ball and Chain puzzle has a very specific sequence of moves with
the puzzle held in exact orientation to solve or else produce an ever more
complex loop or knot. EXCEPT the All cuffed up had a fatal flaw - the "ball
part" which was a triangle on the end of the chain was able to fit through the
hole in the end of the circle and this would allow the ring to slip off easily,
avoiding the main solution method. Aaron had taken the flawed puzzle and removed
the reason for the flaw by chaining three of the circles together ensuring that
nothing could fit through where it shouldn't. This meant that the Three bodies
was a Ball and chain on steroids - the same idea but much MORE!
Aaron has done similar dreadful things to these puzzles before and kept me
occupied for days, weeks and months before:
The reverse process was not a huge challenge because I had properly mastered the
sequence having had to do it several times.
As usual, this success lulls me into a false sense of security and I then move
on to puzzles which are well above my skill level. Aaron has made a whole
bunch of Ball and chain variants over the last year or so and I have
dutifully bought them all and singularly failed with almost all of them (apart
from the 2 and 3 level variants above). I was flushed with success and
confidence and quickly moved back through my collection to puzzles that have
been lying in my work bag for nearly a year:
Maze B&C
Wholly B&C
I really thought that I might have managed to develop some real skillz with these classic puzzles and all I can say is "thank heaven for the quick release mechanisms"! I managed to get quite close with one - but as you all know - close is not solved so no cigar for me:
So near and yet still not there!
I never managed much better than that with this puzzle despite hours and hours of trying. Interestingly, if I start with the solved puzzle and work in reverse then I can usually reassemble to the unsolved state but at no point can I go the other way!
The Wholly B&C looks simpler but has proved to be a complete nightmare for me - I cannot assemble or disassemble it and in either direction end up with a complete mess. I repeat...thank heavens for the quick release:
Not even close! An horrific knot
Aaron has created other B&C based puzzles and yep, you guessed it, I can't solve them either! I will keep trying but suspect it might take me years. Great value for money of course. You should all keep an eye out for even more puzzles being released later this year - he has been teasing us on Facebook for a few weeks now.
Thank you for reading my drivel guys! I seem to have somehow passed the 2 million pageview mark! Amazing
