The MPP Forced Me To Look For A Loophole

Loophole Lock from Boaz Feldman

Yet another success caused by the recent MPP - I am on a roll! I am absolutely terrible at lock puzzles but I am attracted to them like Icarus to the sun! I guess that I have not been killed by a lock like Icarus was but when Mrs S noticed that a new lock migrated into the house on my return from the MPP, she was distinctly unimpressed and that dangerous violent gleam could be seen in her eyes.

I bought the Loophole lock (currently sold out direct from Boaz but still available from PuzzleMaster) way back in December 2023 at the same time as the simply amazing PicoLock (available here from Boaz and also from PuzzleMaster). Having had such fun and great success with the PicoLock, I expected to have similar success with the Loophole which was supposed to be considerably simpler (indeed, it is rated only a 9 in PuzzleMaster's 5-10 scale). But here I am over a year later and only just managing to write about it. In retrospect, I have to admit that it's not because it is incredibly tough, it's because I am awful at locks! I should be ashamed of myself really.

The MPP stimulated me to try again because someone had brought in the Ant Hunt which had been released just a few months ago and I had had similar complete lack of progress. 

I asked a few people at the MPP about the Loophole and whether they had found it particularly difficult. Yes, they all agreed that it was a lovely but not too difficult puzzle. Damn! I really needed to go back to it and try again. Mrs S had made me rationalise my pile 'o puzzles to be solved because the weight was marking the carpet and I needed to hunt for it in a secondary storage area. It arrives in a nice bag with instructions to "open the lock" - well duh!

One thing I did manage to do correctly was the obvious removal of the key and ring from the shackle by unscrewing the ring. 

Yes, I know that it is a cliché but you simply have to insert the key and try to open the lock. I don't know why we always do it, we know it won't work and sometimes it gets us into trouble by locking the key in place. At least this time I inserted the key and tried the inevitable and it wouldn't even turn a little bit. At least the key was removable afterwards. After that, it's time to explore. The first thing to notice is that right in the middle of the 'O' of Loophole there is a hole. All the way through - you can create a loop by passing the key ring through it:

Now that looks nice but doesn't help you one little bit!

The other thing to be seen is that there is a fairly decent hole in the side of the lock which allows you to see inside and reveals...nothing! I could see into the depths of the lock and even poke about with the open end of the keyring. That does nothing either. Hmm! Turning the lock shackle downward reveals a bulky pin or something that shifts back and forth to cover the hole. It looks completely innocuous and doesn't have anything that could be engaged with the keyring. Looking through the hole in the front shows that the pin is so big that it impinges a little bit on that hole - enough to prevent me putting the keyring through the hole again. 

A pin visible in the side hole

This was the point that I had gotten stumped a year ago and on and off for months afterwards.

Having started again this time, I had a little think© and sort of wondered to myself: "self, why has Boaz knurled that pin?" Time to investigate the pin and suddenly I found a new detail that had evaded me completely for months. It didn't really help me initially but something new is always good. I moved the pin about up and down and tried to see more of the details of it. Suddenly I found a second something and this sent me up a new pathway that got me nowhere. I tried to screw the keyring inside and needless to say, that was a fruitless attempt but I then had a wild thought! What if I???

Opened

AHA!

The thing that really helped me here was to be sitting in a quiet room with no TV, radio or chattering complaining wife in it. This allowed me to listen to what was going on inside and whilst it's pretty subtle, there is a distinct extra unexpected sound that helped me work out what was the next thing to try and it worked. I have to say that it is very elegant. The quality of the workmanship is incredible. It isn't the voyage that PicoLock was but it is stunning and fun. This is one to show colleagues - they may actually think it through given enough time.

Thanks Boaz - now I need to go back to Ant Hunt (not even found the first step) and Andrew Coles' Clutch Lock which I have made some progress but am now all "locked up" with. 😱

Revitalised By An MPP!

Bicolor 1365 by Koichi Miura
Purchased from Mine

I've been in a bit of a puzzle slump recently. Too busy and too tired to really play with much. It's only been the constant pressure of the blog that has kept me working on solving stuff and often I find myself leaving it until I have just a day to go before publishing to start playing. I really need to cut down the amount I work. I'm getting too old for it - I discovered yesterday, to my horror, that I am older than Frank, Big Steve and Allard! Damn! I'm old! 😱

That's quite something!

I received a bunch of puzzles from Mine at the beginning of the year and have put them in my file of puzzles to be played with and just left them there. Part of the reason for not playing was the strange warping that happened to the lid of one of the puzzles which occurred between the time they were manufactured and the time they were sent/received. Whenever I looked at it, I just got a disappointed feeling. Mine had apologised to everyone and it is an unfortunate side effect of the use of two different woods side by side. 

Every time I looked at the pile I felt guilty and picked one or two from the Mine delivery up and played a little before failing and putting them back... Until last night and this morning when I had a sudden rush of something to the head!

Yesterday was the 55th MPP (at least that's what LCVX seems to mean even if it is completely invalid Roman Numerals). I managed to work my way through 1 or 2 burrs in the shape of locks and even some in the shape of a tetrahedron and also worked my way through 4 or 5 of the Karakuri Xmas presents which was fun. I really got quite badly stuck on the set of Demonticons and needed quite a lot of assistance. I really must buy them soon. One fun thing to watch was Big Steve and Amy working on the Bicolor 1365 from Mine. It's a brilliant design by Koichi Miura which looks to be deceptively difficult based on the two of them working on it for ages and bickering at each other like an old married couple! The whole group of us got a LOT of entertainment watching them fail for a VERY long time. Needless to say, this motivated me to get my copy out when I got home and whilst watching TV that evening with the present Mrs S, I experimented and saw just how difficult it was.

Instructions

When the lid is placed, the colours will not match

I am not allowed to show the pieces but it is interesting because it consists of a box with a 3x3x2 voxel cavity with a fixed cubic on the base of the box and another fixed on the lid. The pieces completely fill the cavity and consist of 3 full voxel pieces and 4 more made with ½ voxels. It arrives in a solved state but in the "warmup state". I tipped the pieces out and examined them - the split pieces all fit together nicely to make whole ones and obviously I walked right into Koichi-san's trap! I spent the whole evening managing to create quite a few of the 1365 possible assemblies.

Every single time, I managed to fail to create the one single correct assembly that would allow the lid to be placed the correct way around. Finally, it was bed time and I put it down with relief. Sunday morning bright and groggy, I went back to work on it. Doing the same thing over and over again like Steve and Amy eventually got frustrating and I had a little think©. That hurt quite a bit and after recovering from the shock, I had a little fiddle with the split pieces to see how else they could be assembled and how they might then interact with the whole pieces. At some point after a couple of hours there was a really big Aha! moment and I tried something new. It wasn't quite right but I could tell I was nearly there. All I needed to do was fiddle a little bit and yessssss!

Take my word for it - the pieces are inside!
It's still a shame about the warping but the puzzle is great!

Having actually solved something thanks to the MPP, I figured that I should keep going whilst I was on a roll:

Bram's Hinged Cube
3D printed by Allard

The whole world is aware of Bram Cohen for a number of reasons. We all know of him as a brilliant puzzler and designer. Very recently he showed off a new design and allowed the puzzle to be made freely available by releasing the stl files for printing. When I arrived in Birmingham, there were a bunch of these available for grabs and I couldn't resist a lovely lilac copy (maybe Mrs S might like it? Whack! Ouch! That will be a no then.)

As you can see, each cube has a hinge on it attaching it to an adjacent cube and 3 of them are attached to 2 cubes. 2 of the cubes have a "blocker" on them which will interfere with adjacent hinges. The aim is to manipulate the hinges to assemble a 2x2x2 cube in such a way that the blockers don't clash. The rotation of the chains of cubies cause them to interfere with each other and there should be no force involved. This looked so good that I picked up another couple of copies to give away to colleagues at work. 

Two more copies to give away.
Notice that there're quite a few flat shapes to be made.

Playing with this is fascinating and reminiscent of the old Rubik's snake. It gets blocked very quickly and the temptation is to force pieces to move past each other. Resist that temptation as you don't want to pop a hinge. It is a fun thing to play with - several times I created a 2x2x2 cube with just one cube out of place and, after a good hour, I got an almost there solution but we all know that "almost" is not solved.

Blocked from achieving the solution

Finally after a couple of hours I had an Aha! moment and could see the correct cube assembly but getting the pieces into place was a big challenge. It required me to undo almost the whole thing to move pieces out of the way before trying again in a different order:

Bram is a genius!
Thanks to Allard for making me a copy.

Undoing it is also a bit of a challenge - I could not for the life of me work out how to return to the starting flat shape. To my shame it took me a good 20 minutes! And now I can't repeat the solve which means I didn't understand it at all - time to keep 

I even managed to solve an easier puzzle that Allard gave away:

Stella Octangular Puzzle

I couldn't resist this - straight away I realised that this was a version of the Triangular star puzzle. In fact, as far as I can tell it is identical and creates a very pleasing shape when assembled

Very pleasing - Just pull opposite vertices to disassemble

I am now busy working on a copy of Stewart Coffin's Diamonds puzzle (STC #269) which looks fairly simple but so far the full assembly has eluded me:

Diamonds (STC #269) printed by Allard

As you can see, attending an MPP has revitalised my puzzling - it's not an entirely solitary pastime this. Playing with friends and watching others struggle is very good for the motivation.

Don't tell Mrs S but I might have acquired a new lock whilst there. Andrew Coles is about to release a new lock to the world. The Clutch Lock is beautifully made and so far, I have done one thing and discovered why it has that name. It might be years before I make the next discovery!

Clutch Lock by AC puzzles

Looking forward to the next MPP in May - it may be the next time I solve anything! 😱

Is It A Broken Record?

Record 6 by Yuu Asaka

This is a real quickie - I have been working my proverbial arse off this week (including Saturday) and had very little time for puzzling. 

I did put this puzzle from Yuu Asaka in my work bag and played with it at work. It comes in his usual flat white box and arrives in the above configuration with one piece clearly unable to fit.

The instructions on the back of the box say to fit all pieces in the frame and informs the puzzler that this is a level 1 out of 5 and should only take 10 minutes.

There must be something wrong with me because it took me a LOT longer than 10 minutes and left me effing and blinding quite a lot.

It consists of 3 notched and tabbed rings which fit inside each other with the notches and tabs interlocking and also having a tab in the outer part of the frame and a single notch in the centre part of the frame. The confounding feature is that the notches and tabs are a varying angle around the ring for each of them and to make it MUCH harder the third largest ring has 2 tabs to insert in another two tabs in the fourth ring.

Details of the rings and frame can be seen

As always, I started by randomly inserting pieces into the frame - I chose to start with the outer ring but I don't think it makes any difference whether you start from the inner ring or outer. At each insertion there are two choices for the orientation of the ring as it can be flipped over and changing the position of the inside tab. Every single time I made choices, I ended with the final ring impossible to place. I tried again and again and again!

The problem with this one was I tried over several sessions whilst at work and had absolutely no way to recall what I had done previously. I may have actually attempted the same assembly 4 or 5 times - who knows? Eventually, I started to get bored and had a think© and a count. Each The outer 2 rings each have 2 choices for placement and the next 2 have 4 choices as there are two notches and tabs (the ring can be rotated as well as flipped to fit. Finally the inner two rings have 2 choices each for positioning.

With my rather ancient maths skills, I reckon the number of choices is 2x2x4x4x2x2 = 256 possibilities.

AAARGH!

I couldn't see any other way of solving this other than to do it systematically and use pen and paper to keep track of the orientations I had tried and ensure that each piece was always put down in a way that I knew how it had been used before. I couldn't do this at work because I cannot concentrate on a puzzle for extended periods and take notes during an operation.

In the end I had time at home to do it systematically and managed to get it assembled flat in the tray in about a ½ hour!

Whilst it was satisfying to get it assembled, I was left a little empty - it was very much a brute force approach and did not really rely on thought other than to work out the systematic approach. I dare say that the mathematicians amongst you could use the angles of the respective tabs and notches to calculate the solution but that is way beyond my skills.

This puzzle is available direct from Yuu himself or can be bought from PuzzleMaster here.

So, I ask the question to you all - is there a better way to solve this than systematically going through all the options? Please let me know in the comments below. 

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!