Yet More Pelikans!

The bumper crop of puzzles from Pelikan Puzzles

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

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

The Horns of Booth

Interesting delivery arrangement

5 pieces to fit in the box

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

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

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

 

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

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

PSI

PSI by Girish Sharma

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

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

Not "just" a six piece burr!

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

It would appear that there is a second challenge"

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

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

Sym Duo

Sym Duo by Frederic Boucher

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

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

Yes U Can

Yes U Can by Frederic Boucher

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

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

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

5 Balls

5 Balls by Frederic Boucher

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

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

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

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

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

Serial Squares NTC

Serial Squares NTC by Lucie Pauwels

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

No edges of the same colour touch

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

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

A Huge Selection Of Pelikans!

Upcoming release from Pelikan

Couldn't fit into the grid 

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

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

From top left above:

Zack Die Krone by Stephan Baumegger (2 versions available)

The Horns of Booth by Dr Volker Latussek

PSI by Girish Sharma

5 Balls by Frederic Boucher

One Match Left by Jorgos Anastasou

Serial Square NTC by Lucie Pauwels

LOL by Frederic Boucher

Sam Duo by Frederic Boucher

Heavy Lifter by Girish Sharma

Yes U Can by Frederic Boucher pictured separately

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

Zack Die Krone

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

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

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

An incredible challenge The magnets hold it stable when assembled

One Match Left 

Looks just like a matchbox

As expected - one match inside

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

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

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

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

Leave it for a few days and assemble from scratch

Heavy Lifter

Arrives incorrectly assembled

5 pieces

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

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

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

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

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

This was an absolute joy to solve

LOL

Laugh out loud?

This made me laugh when I managed it

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

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

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

Phew! That took a while.

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

Frederic wrote about it:

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

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

Sierpinski's Burr

Sierpinski's Burr by Tyler Hudson

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

Tyler wrote about it:

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

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

A fabulous burr

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

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

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

Lulled Into A False Sense Of Security By Frederic

...And Tye

Haeckel Sphere designed by Lee Krasnow

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

12 identical pieces

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

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

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

Artefacts side A

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

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

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

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

Artefacts side B

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

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

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

Rainer Nearly Killed Me...Again!

Popplock T14

T13 unsolved

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Self, that cannot be possible!"

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

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

There is absolutely nothing given away in this picture

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

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

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

Clawing Back From The Edge...

Or Can You Have Too Much Of A Good Thing?

A Tetralogy of Tetra-Claws

When the genius (yes, it's Derek Bosch again!) produces something for the IPP, everyone should sit up and pay attention. Derek, has an ability to visualise and create 3D structures better than anyone I know (probably the only person who comes close is Lee Krasnow and unfortunately I cannot really afford any of his wonderful toys. 

Derek had discussed with me the design woes as he developed the Tetra-claw puzzle and I was delighted for him when he created a really clever puzzle which falls into the N-ary/Gray code genre as well has having a bit of a dexterity aspect to it as well. I wasn't able to attend the IPP last year in Texas but I heard that the exchange went well and Derek duly risked the wrath of Mrs B when he acquired about 80 extra toys to squeeze into his already crammed house. Oh boy! I definitely know the pain of trying to squeeze more toys in than I have space for under the baleful eye/whip of a pissed off woman!

I had absolutely no expectation of receiving one myself but did hope that I'd get to play with one at an MPP sometime. To my grateful surprise, Derek told me that he would print me a copy when he found some time. I was, of course delighted and a box arrived last week much to the displeasure of "she who causes the seasons to change from fear". I was even more surprised to find a group of 4 very similar looking puzzles of different sizes. 2 of them are made from the most amazing plastic I've ever seen - they have an iridescent sheen to them and they have a colour gradient from one end of a piece to the other. I have no idea how this works as they show no sign of interchanging spools of plastic.

On questioning, Derek told me they are small Mini-claw, 4 colour standard Tetra-claw, Purplish Tetra-claw plus and monster sized Tetra-claw extreme. He suggested I work up in size with the mini really just being there to show me how the initial piece assembly was organised. Of course, I couldn't resist and set to work almost straight away in front of the TV.

Mini Tetra-claw has lots of movement and comes apart in just 4 moves. I didn't know that until it fell to bits in my lap! OMG!

Whilst it was all very exciting to see that happen, I had absolutely no idea how they had been organised or what order they went back together in. I was texting with Derek as it happened and he was helpful enough to send me a trio of photos showing the order and general organisation of the pieces for assembly. Thanks mate! 

Without those photos I would still be fighting with the mini Claw!

Well, that was a shock!

With the photos and his text in front of me I was able to gather the pieces into an appropriate shape to have it fall to bits in my lap again and a wild expletive got Mrs S' attention. She said I had gone rather pale. The reason for this was that I had a sudden thought that I might have 16 pieces of plastic and no way to put them back together again! In some trepidation, I asked Derek how much dexterity might be needed and also how many hands. Unfortunately in PuzzleMad HQ there is only one pair of hands that will work on puzzles - no assistance is available. Derek reassuringly told me that all that was needed was 1 pair of hands and a table. Maybe I should not be attempting this on my lap?

In the end it took me another 6 or 7 attempts before I had the little orange monster back together. After this, I at least had a rough idea how the pieces needed to be held to get them to begin their interaction.

I immediately set to work on the exchange puzzle/basic Tetra-claw. I was vewy vewy bwave and continued in my armchair whilst watching TV and not a table in sight! 

This one, straight away, revealed itself to be N-ary in nature with the legs moving in and out around a hidden maze and after one sequence, the moves of another leg becomes available. Fun and interesting. 

The sequence is not very long and I did not need to take any notes. I went back and forth multiple times to lay down a muscle memory of the moves but with it on my lap I did not dare actually take it fully to bits at that time. I left it until the following day to attempt the full disassembly:

Almost there

Different mazes and pin count visible

Having taken it fully apart, I was able to appreciate the extent of the genius design. It becomes obvious that there are pins on the ends of the claws with one having 3 pins and no mazes, 1 having 2 pins and one maze and so on until there is one with 3 mazes and no pins. Brilliant!

I had not actually paid enough attention to how the pieces were actually oriented when they came apart and so, even though I knew from derek's pics how they should be aligned for initial assembly, I did not know which claw should align with which part of the next claw. Time to Think© which hurt me a lot. Even though I think my 3D visuospatial ability is pretty good because of what I do for a living (converting a 2D ultrasound image to a 3D knowledge of a space for nerve blocks should be useful), I really struggled to work out how the pieces needed to interact initially.

Reassured that I could do it with one pair of hands and a table, I sat down and after a few false starts, I managed to created my widely separated shape which could then be collapsed down using the reverse of the sequence that I had learned and I had it back to the beginning in about an hour - Phew!

It's gorgeous!

Did I even dare try the Tetra-claw plus? I wasn't sure at all but I knew I had a potential blog post with this and I had to be a bwave boy!

The Plus version started off fine with me learning the sequence gradually but I began to catch glimpses of the mazes and realised this was going to be a huge undertaking. I had better return to the beginning and take notes as I explore. Except...

Aargh! I managed to do something odd. I found myself going round and round in circles and not managing to get back to the beginning. What was I doing wrong? I have no idea! It obviously is not a good idea to multitask whilst doing these. Eventually I managed to reset and then started the sequences on each arm and developed my own notation to describe what I was doing. It probably took me an hour to find the final moves to release the claws for disassembly (it would seem that the final part of the sequence is different to the rest and quite well hidden. I fully explored back and forth a few times and then screwed my courage to the sticking point and took it apart. Oh my! It is a beautiful thing to behold:

Nearly apart

Much more complex mazes!

Whilst it was fully extended and rather rickety, I was very careful not to jiggle it and ensured that my notes included the rough orientation of the pieces. Even though you can work out the orientation of the pieces from scratch as you try to assemble, I did not feel terribly confident and just noted which maze was visible on each claw. Of course, this didn't help me at all!

After taking the photos for my records and the blog, I started to put it back together again and full of confidence, managed to get the 4 claws interacting with each other. Hooray! Maybe I am less of an eeejit than I think? Nope...I'm a fully qualified eejit! My notes did not take into account how I had turned the puzzle during disassembly and whilst they stacked with the tips all engaged, they would not actually interact with each other. Bugger! Back to square one and work it out from scratch. 

The working out didn't actually take very long - After about 15 minutes, I had the tips ready to go and the puzzle started to be slid together. The sequence was going well until I found that I could not get one of the claws to engage with its' maze - oh hell! I went back and forth with increasingly strong swear words (I can swear like a trooper in Tagalog much to the amusement/horror of the Filipino nurses I work with and this was less alarming to Mrs S who was sitting with me). I ended up returning to the beginning many many times and trying different orientations of the 3 maze claw before realising that I had that correct all along but had missed my entry point moment for that particular maze. Derek, I don't know whether you did that on purpose but it scared me to death! Finally after about 2-3 hours I had reassembled the Tetra-claw plus! I was petrified of the next challenge. I went to bed last night considering writing only about the first 3 but I knew you would all be disappointed in me if I did.

It's extreme!

This morning I bwavely decided to "go for it" and maybe be left with one unasssembleable puzzle.

I started out as I did before with a quick exploration to see which pieces moved. I have worked on a technique where the first 2 claws to move are kept as back left and back right and then the third piece to move becomes front. After that the last piece to move will be oriented at the top. Those in the know would quickly tell me that this is not a very good choice as inevitably the first piece to come out seems to be one of the back claws. I probably should make it that the first removed piece is the top claw but I had my technique and my notation and did not dare change anything. 

The exploration of this showed me quickly that the mazes were significantly more complex and a couple involved a sort of loop/hook which made the sequence more of a dance as several pieces deeded to go back and forth multiple times. I got lost a few times initially before I properly started taking notes. Here is what my notes look like for the extreme:

Yes the writing is bad! I can understand it...sort of!

Eventually, I was getting towards the exit with one claw fully extended but this time, there was still quite a lot of work to be done to actually release the first piece despite that fully extended claw not taking part any longer. I got lost a couple of times trying to find the moves to open the exit - it was well hidden in the maze. Once I had found it, the whole thing was fully extended and rather unstable (hence no photo) and I took it apart for the obligatory photo:

Some very complex mazes on this one!

I was feeling a bit cocky by now! This was the fourth one - I MUST be able to reassemble this one. I had not taken note of which way the mazes were facing when disassembled. I figured that I had had to work them all out so far and this would be just more of the same. I was right but it took me quite some time to get the bloody thing back together. I had the same problem as the previous one getting the claw to engage in its maze. Multiple attempts and backups finally got me there! Phew!

I have had 4 days of fun with these - they are amazing. Thank you Derek for the gift and the opportunity to bask in your genius again. I can conclude that the answer to my question at the top of the post is that you CANNOT have too much of a good thing!

If you get a chance to play with one or maybe even buy them for your collection then jump at the chance. They are NOT just an N-ary puzzle. There are multiple sequences and then the work required to find the way the pieces will interact to get them assembled. Of course, a bit of dexterity too but not so much that you need to "phone a friend".