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.