Going Solo on the Stairs?

Solo in basket by Koichi Miura
Beautifully made by Mine

I had not expected to have two weeks of tributes to Koichi-san but it worked out that 4 of the 5 puzzles that I purchased from Mine's store were designs by him and they turned out to be just what I needed in times of stress and burnout. For some reason I seem to be working pretty much 6 days a week for a 3 month period and this is having a bit of a toll on my general energy levels and my puzzle solving abilities. I am just too damned tired to solve much! I know, I am the one that writes the rotas at work and should be more in control but I work one weekend day in trauma and another writing rotas and another in a non-NHS hospital and the diary fills up very quickly without realising what I have done. 

Luckily for me the puzzles from Mine are just perfect for an overworked bloke! The next challenge I picked up after the delights from last week was the Solo in basket. The reason for the name is pretty obvious from the photo and I thought that this has only 4 nice simple tetrominoes and can't possibly be terribly difficult to fit them into the 3x3x2 basket - there will obviously be 2 empty voxels somewhere inside. The entry to the basket is divided into thirds by the handle which will obviously severely limit the positioning. The bottom of that handle is elevated by a couple of mm which is absolutely critical for the solution even if I did not realise that at first.

Picking up the pieces and experimenting with the different way to create the final shape reveals that the options are very limited. There are, in fact, 11 ways to fit the pieces in that shape but the vast majority of them can be discounted due to the fact that more than one of them are oriented flat or perpendicular to the entry slots and that achieving that is impossible. I played for a while and realised that this was not as straightforward as I had initially thought. I should have realised it would be a decent challenge because Mine never chooses puzzles that are simple. He is a master of seeing the wonder in something special. Believe me...this is special!

I spent about 45 minutes failing to assemble any of the shapes I had found inside the basket and had to think© which in my weakened state was not easy. I eventually realised that a special sequence of moves might be needed and attempted it with several of the pieces and it seemed to be blocked. That is, until I tried something rather non-intuitive. I had the most beautiful Aha! moment at this point and got to understand the incredible design and the beautiful precision of the manufacture. If the shapes of the pieces or basket were even a mm out then this would not be possible but it's perfect and beautiful:

No spoilers here - Solo is now packed

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Stairs Posting - also by Koichi-san

I cannot show the complete puzzle here for fear of allowing people to make a copy without permission. The 4th puzzle in my delivery was Stair posting - it also has 4 planar pieces to be fitted inside a 3x3x2 box but this time with no spare empty voxels. The pieces need to be posted through the entry slot like a letter through a postbox. The puzzle is named because all of the pieces look like stairs if placed on their edge. Imagine all the different ways you could make stairs using a triomino, tetromino, pentomino and a hexomino and hence posting of stairs.

It arrives with one piece poking out the letterbox and an invitation to rethink it. I found this one just lovely. It is not difficult and the design has been perfectly created to allow manipulation of the pieces through the entry hole and the convenient hole in the top and once finished there are no gaps. It took me only 10 minutes to work it out but has been much more challenging for work colleagues who are not used to this type of thinking. It is perfect for the newbie or your friends.

The stairs have all been posted!

Thank you Koichi-san and Mine-san - you have really helped me keep my sanity during the last 2 weeks of overwork.

Koichi-san Bamboozles Some Operating Theatre Staff

Latest arrivals from Mineyuki Uyematsu

Mine has been very very busy this year. Life got in the way for him and the proposed puzzle manufacture took much longer than he had hoped but everyone was patient and understood that sometimes puzzles have to wait. I had requested this set (there could have been a whole lot more but I was frightened of the Whack! Ouch!) and they arrived during the week - in fact I was sitting at home in a MS Teams meeting when the delivery man arrived and I had to sneak out of the meeting to answer the door. One colleague in the meeting let out a big smile when he saw me arrive back on screen carrying a nice big box from "the foreign" - he knew about my habit/hobby/obsession. Actually, everyone I have Teams meetings with knows about my hobby because I have set my background as the first few puzzle shelves of my study. I have been asked by quite a lot of people what they are. After the meeting I eagerly unpacked and found these Japanese beauties inside - I couldn't even remember what I had ordered.

I set to work that evening on a couple of them which I will present now. The first one I tried was the rather fascinating looking Perfect Entrance by Koichi Miura (all of them have been made by Mine). I am very careful with puzzles from Mine not to show off any more details of a puzzle than he shows off on his Facebook page. 

Perfect Entrance - 2 pairs of pieces

More interesting than a knee replacement!

This wonderful 4 piece packing puzzle made from acrylic is truly beautiful. It also was an entry in the 2024 IPP design competition and won a "Top 10 vote getter prize". When I showed off my latest arrivals on Facebook, the genius did tell me that he thought that it was a brilliant puzzle and he really should know! To me, it has just the right difficulty level for any puzzler of any experience and will keep you working for just the right amount of time until you triumph having had 2 or 3 simply lovely Aha! moments.

 The 2 pairs of C-shaped pieces have interesting diagonal ends to them which must be significant. They all have the same outer dimensions which perfectly fits through the rectangular hole in the top of the case. It is very easy to fit 2 in side by side and then a third on the top layer but still within the case but after that, the 4th piece cannot fit under the lip of the top. Hmm! Maybe rotations inside are needed and off you go to try that for a bit. 

Having had no rotational luck, it is time to think like a burr and maybe the pieces move around each other inside the box to make space for the final piece to go in (this is very reminiscent of the challenges from Osanori-san and Alexander-san. Whilst attempting these moves you might find a little Aha! moment when the odd shapes suddenly make sense. Even having found the first of the Aha! moments, you will still be unable to proceed until you have been forced to think©! When I finally packed them all in, I had a huge grin on my face - I can visualise the puzzlers in the competition room with the same grin - no wonder it got so many votes! Of course I am not going to show you the solved puzzle!

The 2 miscreants in the photo above spent a good hour trying and in the end gave up and asked me to show them the solution - they too had big grins when the saw how clever it was. I gave this to several of the other operating theatre staff and they also failed but loved being shown how it was solved. It is truly wonderful!

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3Lx2 as it arrived

Having had lots of fun with that one from Koichi-san, I couldn't resist the 3Lx2 also designed by him. It consists of another 2 layer box but with a lid that slides from side to side. The aim, as you'd expect from the name is to pack the 6 pieces (3 of each different type of L shape) into the box. When it arrived, it was difficult to see how it was special because one of the pieces is protruding into a third layer and obstructing the movement of the lid. Once you have turned out the pieces (not easy without a few rotations and perfect alignment) then you get to see why the puzzle is so-named:

2 different sets of L's

I had not solved it but took it to work with me in the hope that I might have a little downtime to play. I felt brave and handed it to the 2 miscreants above to play with before I had even tried. They spent an hour on it intermittently whilst also helping me with a revision knee replacement and they were forced to give in. They handed it to me during the case and wanted to watch my approach to it. The pressure was on as they didn't want to see me fail and I did still had to concentrate on the case. 

Obviously, it is necessary to explore how the pieces can move inside the case. There are 2 layers for the pieces under the lid and yet again, once a few pieces are inside, it is difficult to get any more in. It is vital to move them around inside and make space for the appropriate diagonal insertions. I had a pretty good idea of how it was necessary to proceed and created a few possible assemblies outside the box (just as the boys had done) but then I did something they had not thought to do. I mimicked a disassembly from the shape I had created to see whether it might be possible to insert the pieces that way and also what order was required. This was new to them. I did work out that there was going to have to be a few nice sliding and rotational moves to make it happen and in just 10 minutes I packed them in:

No spoilers here!

Needless to say, they were all very impressed with my prowess. If only I could say that the present wife was quite so impressed with my prowess! Alas, that will probably never happen.

Thank you Koichi-san and Mine-san - fantastic puzzles.

Think Where You Want To Be...

A Lesson For Life As Well As Puzzling

Python designed by DDK

It's been a tough week with long working days and yet another Saturday working too (rota writing this time). I sometimes think I am getting too old for all this. I had saved the Python puzzle bought from Aaron Wang until fairly late. I had heard that it was relatively easy to solve despite the level 10 assigned to it. I figured that when I reach a time where I have only a few hours to play, solve and write about something then I will be able to use this one.

I was sort of correct but also did not figure in a bit of a hiccough in the path. This puzzle teaches a good lesson to plan ahead and think about the direction you want to travel in. My! That's very deep for me...I am usually a pretty shallow person.

The first thing that threw me when I picked this puzzle up was that my copy had been sent to me with an incorrect start position. Compare the picture at the top with the diagram to the left. The shuttle is in the wrong place. Will this make it easier or harder?

I suspected that the puzzle had not been solved all the way back to the start position and that it would have a lower number of steps to separate the shuttle than it should. An alternative horrible thought did occur to me that to save time the maker had assembled the shuttle from open wire into the start position and had done it in the wrong place. If this was the case, had he placed it in an unsolvable position? Only time would tell. I set to work this morning.

This is clearly going to be an N-ary type puzzle but made interesting by the maze pathway to be navigated. This requires the choices of direction for the shuttle to be placed through the rings to be chosen carefully. At each point the ring can be fed through from either direction and only one is the correct one. Needless to say, I got lost a few times and ended up having to backtrack to where I made the mistake. After doing this a few times, I realised that trial and error was time consuming and less than fun. Time to think© yet again. I fed through a few times and watched the response as it moved and finally managed to see how the shuttle and ring interacted in a predictable way. At last I could choose my path deliberately and know where I was going. All I needed to do was decide which way through the maze. After about 20 minutes I had the shuttle:

First part of the solve

Having taken my photo, it was time to reassemble it and to aim for the correct start position. Easier said than done. I had no idea how that final stage of the reassembly was done because I had never navigated it. I would have to work out where I wanted to be and work out a way through the last part of the maze. It looks like a simple maze but is quite well blocked by this 3 rings on the left hand side. I managed to get almost there quite easily:

Close, but no cigar!

Getting that last step proved quite a challenge. I tried something and found myself inadvertently heading back to the beginning and then had to backtrack and think© yet again. Twice in one day for me gives me a bit of a headache! Eventually I managed it and we have a correctly assembled puzzle.

Got there in the end

This is a really delightful puzzle, it is N-ary but unlike the simple Chinese ring style, there are numerous decisions to make and positive choices are essential to simultaneously navigate the maze to where you need to be. My personal journey was actually made better by having to solve it differently as an assembly than as a disassembly. I would suggest that something like this might be a good step up after a beginner has solved the Chinese ring puzzle. If you live in North America then you should have a look at Aaron's other challenges currently available in PuzzleMaster. They may end up stocking some of these in the future as well.

Thank you Aaron and DDK.

Minima Tower

Toweringly Clever...Definitely Not Minima-lly Challenging

Minima Tower by Frederic Boucher - still available from Pelikan

Last week I reviewed the latest puzzles from Jakub and Jaroslav's Pelikan puzzles site. They went on sale on Thursday and a few very quickly sold out. What really surprised me was that the Minima Tower did not sell at all well and I sort of blame myself a little. I had 7 puzzles to review in just under 2 weeks and all I could do in my review was describe it and tell how great Frederic is. I should have done better and I apologise for that. My only excuse is that I seem to have been working 6 days a week for over a month.

Minima Tower is a packing puzzle from an amazing designer with an incredible track record of fabulous designs. I missed out on getting hold of the complete Minima series from Tye Stahly's Nothing Yet Designs store and am still kicking myself about it ever since it sold out. I was so glad to receive one of the newer designs in the series and really think that you all owe it to yourselves to get a copy as well.

Visitor Q	Jammed Gem (remains unsolved)
Other incredible designs by Frederic

I have taken this one to work with me since Monday and played in evenings as well. Believe me, it is a huge challenge despite having only 4 triominoes to pack inside a 2x2x3 space within a 2x2x4 box. Ultimately, Frederic intended it that the packed pieces form a solid shape at the bottom of the tower almost like a lift in lift-shaft (elevator to the Americans). These would not be any fun if the assembly wasn't restricted by being forced to place the pieces through a 1x2 voxel hole in the top of the lift-shaft. This puzzle is a LOT of fun!

As usual, start outside the box and play with lots of random assembling of pieces. Of course, with such a simple set of pieces, there are a lot of ways to assemble a 2x2x3 shape. Many of the shapes are just very minor alterations of previous ones due to the ability to flip pieces and reassemble with 180º symmetry. Whilst making my shapes, I initially was a little disheartened at the sheer number of shapes to attempt to get inside the box. This was me being silly...Frederic would never leave a puzzle solution mostly down to random trial and error. There would always be a good amount of think©ing involved and this puzzle is no exception. Using this thing called thought© it is possible to completely discount a significant number of assemblies and then home in on what is possible. This finally requires to thinking inside the box and getting fiddly with it.

The box has 5 strategically placed square holes in the side which must be there for a reason. The reason may be either that a piece needs to be protruded through to allow others to move or that the hole facilitates a rotation of a triomino within the tower. The dimensions of the box are tight enough that the required rotations are completely impossible without utilising at least one hole in the cage wall. There are luckily a finger holes in every other position to allow you to manipulate the pieces inside. It is still a bit fiddly. Interestingly, some (in fact almost all) of the rotations that look inviting are impossible to achieve despite the holes. This means that the orientation of the cage when you begin the process is also critical and gives you 4 possible ways to try what you want to do. I had to take some notes to keep track of what I had done.

After 3 days, I had hit a brick wall and wondered whether I was ever going to solve it and then I noticed something very clever. The placement of the holes allows a very interesting move to be carried out and suddenly a whole new area of the assembly was available to me. Oh boy! That Mr Boucher is an evil genius! I can formally pronounce that he joins Derek in the hall of geniuses. I am rather ashamed to say that solving this puzzle took me a whole week of attempts and a fair bit of swearing under my breath. The solution is nothing short of beautiful. Even the great Dr Latussek has agreed that utilising holes in the side of the box for fun puzzle assembly adds an interesting dimension to solving a puzzle and if he says so then everyone should agree.

Finally I can show off the completed puzzle:

Solved at last. No real spoilers here.

This puzzle is absolutely fabulous! If you didn't buy it because I hadn't managed to review it properly then I apologise. Go back to the Pelikan site and add it to your collection. 

Now, I really must get hold of a few more of the Minima series - Frederic has said that he is designing a whole bunch more.