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".