Great Puzzling Comes in Twelves!

Time For More From Pelikan

Minima puzzles no 5 to 12

Number 1 to 4

It was only a month ago that I wrote about the last release from Jakub, Jaroslav and team's Pelikan puzzles. At that time they had beautifully reproduced the first 4 in the Minima series designed by the incredible Frederic Boucher. This time the next 8 are here in yet another gorgeous selection of woods and you really need to add them to your collection. The four from the last release that I have written about are still available as individual puzzles or a set of four. There is a Minima 13 but only so far only released by Frederic himself and Tye Stahly) it is possible that will also become available in the future as well.

From Nothingyetdesigns

Original from Frederic XIII

If they are going to be released like the last set then they should be in sets of four as well as single puzzles. The wood choices are perfect:

Minima 5 - Limba and Bubinga

Minima 6 - Ash and Ovangkol

Minima 7 - Wenge and Maple

Minima 8 - Ovangkol and Zebrano

Minima 9 - Acacia, Padauk and Wenge

Minima 10 - Zebrano, Purpleheart and Maple

Minima 11 - Merbau and Padauk

Minima 12 - Bubinga and Acacia

Obviously, like the rest of the Minima puzzles, the aim is to pack the pieces into the box and leave it so that no gaps are visible through either the large holes, small finger holes or slots that facilitate rotational moves (if the number of voxels is less than the 12 that would completely fill the box). Continuing with the pathway that the first four took, these get progressively more difficult but are always very fun to solve. The rotations are beautifully facilitated by the various holes and slots cut into the box and no force is needed. Some of the rotations are really quite tricky to work out and in several puzzles there are multiple rotations for one piece. As before, the wooden box makes the challenge much more difficult as you cannot see what is happening inside once a piece or two have been placed. I had not managed to solve Minima 8 in the acrylic box version despite months of trying after receiving them in September last year. Minima 8 doesn't look like too much of a challenge with 3 simple L-shaped tri-ominos and a single 3 voxel straight stick but there I had huge problems with it and was gratified when a couple of correspondents agreed that it was a really difficult puzzle.

Minima 9 and 10 are slightly different having pieces of 2 colours and whilst packing is the aim, the difference is that with Minima 9 the puzzler has to place them so that only one of the colours is visible through the holes in the box (for that one there are 2 solutions - one for each colour). Interestingly, I found one colour quite a bit harder than the other. Minima 10 has only one solution and needs to have only the vibrant Purpleheart visible from outside of the box. Minima 11 and 12 are very deceptive having relatively simple pieces and quite a lot of large holes in the box but they are also a huge challenge - almost as difficult as number 8. They both took me 2 or 3 days to solve but at least not the several months of the former. 

These puzzles are so much fun and this explains why I have a HUGE collection of these Minima puzzles of varying types and from various designers. Basically I will purchase any of them when released to add to my collection. I would say that these are ESSENTIAL purchases for anyone seriously into packing puzzles - they are stunningly beautiful and a fabulous challenge and the Pelikan team have made them so well!

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Empire

Empire by Jorgos Anastasou

Bottom view

The other puzzle being released by Pelikan alongside the 8 Minimas is the Empire burr by Jorgos Anastasou. This beautiful and complex 11 piece burr is presented as a rather dense block structure with a sort of dome on the top as would be seen on an emperor's palace. It has been made with a lovely set of woods (Padauk, Wenge, Acacia, Purpleheart and Maple for the vertical sticks forming the dome and a very warm Cherry for the walls). The first move is very well hidden partly because the pieces are quite snug and it required a good bit of pushing, prodding and pulling to find what could move. Once you have found the first move then it is quite quick to remove the first piece (there are just 5 moves required to separate it from the puzzle) but removing the next piece will prove a considerable challenge. It is only another 7 moves but finding the correct ones was very difficult for me. I went round and around in circles for a long time failing to find a critical move until I found it quite by accident. Unfortunately I did not notice what I had done until I realised that new positions were available to me and I was completely unable to backtrack! After a good half-hour of trying to return to the start, I gave up and continued with the disassembly which was great fun as it remains pretty stable right to the end. The final disassembly level is 5.7.1.2.3.2.2.2.1.2 which doesn't look terribly challenging but for me it is just right!

Reassembly required me to have a lot of fun with Burrtools but I think that those of you who remembered your pathway might manage without it and the genii amongst you might just manage to put it together from scratch. 

Jorgos is really designing some fantastic puzzles and I am so pleased that Jakub is agreeing to make them available to us in such fancy woods. This one will look stunning on display in your collection.

Don't Be A Coward!

If You Dare - You Will Probably Win!

Who Dares Wins aka Haleslock 6
A fabulous design by Shane Hales in collaboration with the Two Brass Monkeys

Today is a day for locking metal stuff or unlocking it.

The first thing I should tell you all is that Big Steve and Ali (the Two Brass Monkeys) have released their latest creation, the Bag O'Tangles and you should all go there and buy it/them. I saw the pre-production version at the last MPP and immediately decided that I needed to buy a copy when I saw it there - it has just gone up for sale and I have placed the order to pick it up at the next MPP at the end of the month. If you aren't sure then read Allard's review to be convinced. Apparently they can all be nested together for a final master challenge - if nothing else convinces you, then that certain should!

In August last year, I purchased the 6th in Shane's series of lock puzzles. When you have all the others it would be rude not to continue collecting and Mrs S definitely agreed with that. Whack! Ouch! or maybe not! 😱 

The Who Dares Wins puzzle is still available from the Two Brass Monkeys site and you definitely should get one whilst they are still available. I had no idea what a rim cylinder lock was until I got this. I had always called the classic door lock on a British front door a "Yale" lock but that is apparently a trade name for the type of lock I grew up with on my front door and certainly in retrospect, from the top this thing would not be out of place embedded in a door. Shane had created a prototype puzzle from one of these and showed it to the monkey boys and they all colluded to create something that did not require a puzzler to carry a door around with them (Mrs S would definitely have disapproved quite strongly had I brought in an extra door!). As soon as they were available to purchase one arrived and I took me customary photos. It is nicely shiny in brass and some anodised aluminium with a key on a keyring and a helpful tag with the instructions - open the lock and find the golden padlock. It is all delivered in a Jute bag. This thing is pretty weighty at 380g with dimensions of 36mm diameter and 88m long.

I'm glad this one was so attractive as it stayed on display in my pile o' puzzles to solve for many many months! I played and played and played with it daily, then weekly then monthly since August last year and got absolutely nowhere! At some point during the 9 month wait I even retrieved the jute bag and turned it inside out searching for hidden tools in the sewn edges. I've been caught by that sort of thing before and refuse to be caught again - at least until the next time!

Looking at it, there is not much to really see that gives any immediate clues. Putting the key in the lock and trying to turn does the usual nothing at all - it won't turn but at least the key comes out again. Fiddling with the brass collars gives a teeny hint that they might be involved at some point as there is a fraction of a mm movement in one of the three but no rotation. After discovering that, there is nothing else to be found for a VERY long time. I am sure that all of us do the usual of trying to insert the key to varying depths and attempting to turn it - no, that doesn't work either. Then it's time to attempt it with the puzzle in a whole lot of different positions. I am getting a bit too old to be doing handstands with a puzzle but at least I didn't hurt myself.

Looking very closely at the puzzle does give a small hint at one of the things that Shane has done to the insides of this thing to convert a standard lock into something that won't open with a key but seeing it doesn't really help. At least it didn't help me! Remember, I am not terribly bright.

Right from the very beginning there was something that I wanted to do but didn't have what was required to do it and with these you are not allowed to use anything that you haven't been given. This was one of the reasons I went to the jute bag at least 3 or 4 times to see whether I had missed anything. I really wanted to do one particular thing but never had the courage to do it. This was a deliberate part of Shane's devious design! He knew that no puzzler would be happy doing what he knew was necessary, hence the name of the puzzle - if you were going to win with this one then you had to be daring and try something special. I was a coward! Month after month I didn't dare to try it until in desperation I did the unthinkable. 

AHA!

OMG! I cannot believe that he did that! All of a sudden after 9 months of cowardice, I was daring for the first time and I managed my first step. Now it was time to explore further. Don't solve this puzzle anywhere where you might lose small pieces because after a further 10 or 15 minutes you will find some "stuff" dropping out (in my case into my lap and into the grooves of the sofa cushions). 

Solved the bloody thing - I had my golden padlock!

Once the lock is open you can see how simple and yet ingenious the design is. Shane is relying on people not having the courage to do what is necessary and, from what I can gather talking to other puzzlers, he is absolutely right - not many of us are willing to be daring. at least not until we get absolutely desperate. That man is a genius! I texted Shane when I had finally solved the bloody thing and he actually wrote:

"I wanted to psychologically f..k people over      I guess it worked perfectly!"

 It certainly did! B.st..d! But finally after all this time I can place it on display in the lock section of my display cabinets, much to the pleasure of Mrs S.

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MW Puzzles keyring

I had missed out on the whole of Matthew Williams' puzzle designs as they seemed to go viral via the Mechanical puzzle discord and I just don't have time to get involved in that. I saw a few of his incredible creations at the MPP and they all looked fabulous but I resigned myself to only getting to look at them at puzzle parties. I even missed out on the second run of Pinball Wizard puzzles because they went up for sale whilst I was anaesthetising a weekend trauma list and they sold out in about 5 minutes - I was 2 hours late! 😭. 

Get that key out

My only experience of MW puzzles' creations was the Keyring 1 (I have heard that a Keyring 2 might be released sometime soon). I managed to acquire this at a Midlands puzzle party and I think I received it as a gift from Matthew (thanks mate!) This lovely little thing is made of steel, brass ands a few acrylic bits as well. It has been in my work bag for over a year! The aim is to remove the key from the lock and then put it back and trap it again.

The key is inserted in the keyway at one end and doesn't move much at all. There is a very small amount of wiggle room but it certainly won't turn or pull out. Looking at it you cannot see what mechanism inside might be preventing the movement.

The only thing that you can do is move the brass collar - it can rotate and it can be pulled a few mm towards the far end to pushed back. At some point during the movement of the collar you can see a red something inside.

Red insert inside?

There appears to be a pin

Fiddling with this collar eventually reveals a pin and it feels like that pin can be moved but when the collar is rotated back to the start position the pin is always back in place. It feels like that pin needs to be extracted outwards into the brass collar to release something inside.

I spent over a year trying to get that damn pin to do something and failed. Now, with many puzzles there are lots of things to try and you keep attempting different combinations of various things until you get enough information to progress to the next step. Both of today's delights have none of this progression - there is absolutely nothing new to try and only one or two tiny little movements which don't get you anywhere. I sometimes think that these puzzle designers are out to drive me crazy......crazier than I am already!

After a year of fiddling and doing the same 1 or 2 things over and over and over again, I noticed that something had changed. It would appear that Einstein was wrong - sometimes doing the same thing again and again for a very long time does actually make something happen on one occasion. Or maybe it happened every time but I failed to notice it.

That was rather interesting; if only I actually knew what was the cause. Determined to put another puzzle away, I continued with my repetition and before I knew it, there was a major change inside. More repetition was required until I had yet another of those

AHA!

moments!

I had no idea how this was working but I finally had my key:

At last! Another puzzle I can put on display.

Could I put it back to the start? Yes I could. It's very clever and I am slightly ashamed of myself that it took me so long to work out what was required. Thank you Matthew for keeping me occupied for a year! I need some easier puzzles for a while!

Good Puzzling Comes in Three's?

Three Pieces? Or Three Puzzles?

TripTIC

NeuroTIC

You cannot have too many Turning Interlocking Cubes! Especially made by Brian Menold or designed by the "Master of the TIC" - Andrew Crowell. Brian's last update had 4 TICs in it and I picked these 2 because I already had copies of the other two (SkepTIC previously from Brian and remaining unsolved as well as XiTIC from Bernhard:

XiTIC pieces

XiTIC assembled

I really need to find my copy of SkepTIC and solve the damn thing - I seem to remember that I bought it in March last year and could not assemble it and have put it down somewhere - who knows where!

SkepTIC pieces still to be assembled

When Brian offered these puzzles that I did not have in my collection, I could not resist. Well, you all know that I struggle to resist many puzzles that are put on sale and have really annoyed Mrs S by continuously increasing the size of my collection and failing to put them away. She was distinctly unimpressed when they arrived. I had been hoping to intercept their arrival without her noticing whilst I have had a few days of annual leave over the last 2 weeks. Unfortunately, she had me doing DIY and gardening for much of the time off and I couldn't get to the door in time to intercept before she got there. I was wiring in replacement smoke and fire detectors and up a ladder when the package arrived! I nearly fell off the ladder in my haste to get to the door first but she's too damn quick! 

In the evenings after finishing my enforced chores and (for once) not electrocuting myself, I set to playing with these fascinating TICs. The fun thing about both of the new arrivals is that they have only three pieces in each:

TripTIC made from Paduak, Canarywood and Angelique wood

NeuroTIC from mixed woods

I started with the "easy" one, TripTIC, as it only had 2 rotations and 11 moves. and quickly found the end positions for each of the pieces and individually found the rotations but when trying to put all three pieces together the pieces interfered with each other's moves. until I found a very nice little position for one that opened up a hole for the introduction of the other and after about 15 minutes I had a lovely little cube:

See! I can solve the odd puzzle occasionally!

Time to move onto the harder one...NeuroTIC also has 3 pieces but despite having only 2 rotations, it has a higher level of 13.3 and as Brian puts it: "some interesting moves". I definitely struggled on this one. I quickly determined the final resting positions but putting any third piece into the mix quickly blocked me. I couldn't seem to work out which piece to use first and I ended up having to solve this over 2 days. Yes, I forced Mrs S to allow me a little puzzling time during my time off. Whack! Ouch! Sorry dear. As Brian said, there are some really clever moves involved here and the final rotation that allows the rest of the puzzle to slide together is absolutely delightful. 

Absolutely wonderful assembly process

Disassembling the puzzle caused me a little trouble. I got all caught up and had a piece trapped and unable to release it despite working out the correct rotation first. This could easily also be a disassembly puzzle. 

I really never know how to store these puzzles - should I keep them disassembled? Or should I keep them as lovely looking cubes to be taken apart - this would help with storage but decrease the repeatability of the puzzles.

Of course, I couldn't buy just 2 TICs from Brian. I had to make the postage worthwhile - I also couldn't resist a third one being released by him from the amazing Haym Hirsh, the Green T-Box:

Green T-Box

I had already bought the original T-Box by Haym back in December 2021 and thoroughly enjoyed the sole process of packing 6 T-shaped bars into a beautifully designed box so how could I possibly resist a reworking of the original idea with another 6 T's of different dimensions and a different set of obstructions in the box? Again, it was beautifully embellished.

After spending a few minutes trying to rearrange the pieces in vertical positions from the placements they arrive in, I quickly realised that vertical placement was definitely not going to cut it! This one is damned fiddly - the tolerances of the woodwork is astonishing! Even a tiny amount of tilt to a piece will get it wedged in amongst the other pieces and require a frenzied shaking and tapping of the box on your palm to free them up. After ½ an hour of repeated attempts in the box, I had to start to think© outside the box and realised that it was not quite a case of simply shoving the pieces inside in the correct order and orientation. The pieces needed to be placed and some of them slid into position inside. It's a very satisfying feeling when the final piece drops in and the lid fits on top snugly.

Trust me, all the T's are inside

What is next for Brian and Haym? Will we have Black T-Box? Oolong T-box? Who knows! Whatever it is, I will not be able to resist. 

Thank you, Brian for a week of delightful puzzling to take my mind of the DIY and gardening. In fact, I have had quite the roll this last couple of weeks - I look forward to showing the completed puzzles off to you over the next couple of weeks.

Smacking Moles Is Fun But...

After A While I Had To Use Some Pliers!

Smack-N Moles by Stickman

In 2023, Chinny collaborated with Robert Yarger to make a fabulous exchange puzzle, the "Smack-N Moles" puzzle box. Chinny gave it away to about 100 people in IPP40 at which I was not present. Luckily for a whole bunch of us who couldn't make it, there were more available direct from Stickman's website and I eagerly jumped at the chance to buy. My copy arrived in October of 2023 and has been in my second (or maybe third or fourth 😱) pile of puzzles to be solved. This time, my pile in the conservatory at the back of the house. I tend to sit there in the mornings at weekends and when off work and play with puzzles in the south-facing warmth. Sometimes I fall asleep, sometimes I play...I seldom seem to solve anything! The Smack-N Moles has been in that pile, played with weekly for about 18 months! I was beginning to get desperate. I felt a little bad for my failure but, in my defence, remember that I really seldom do puzzle boxes and don't really have a repertoire of the types of moves that they often need. Also in my defence, I note that Allard received his at the IPP in August and the write up was only published in December. Now, Allard is a huge Stickman aficionado with one of the few complete collections in the world and I am absolutely certain that despite receiving a lot of puzzles at the exchange, he will have made a beeline straight for this one and if it took him a few months then I can feel OK about taking 18 months!

This is a nice diminutive little box at 3.5x3x2.5" in size and my copy is made from Walnut. The aim is to open the box and release the moles. These cute little critters are engraved on the top of some Maple dowels that appear to be locking the sliding lid. Poking at a mole makes one or more of the others pop up when that one sinks down. You are given a tethered hammer to Smack/whack the moles but I doubt very many people are going to solve it by using the hammer that way. The hammer is tied onto the box by a loop of wire that is the perfect length to prevent the hammer being removed. Initially all you can do is poke at the moles and see whether there is a sequence of presses that will allow all the moles to be sunk below the surface of the lid.

I am slightly ashamed to say that I pushed and poked and even grabbed and pulled at the various moles for quite a long time trying to work out the sequence to release the lid. When I say a long time, I mean months! BLUSH! Remember that I am not terribly bright - it says so all over this website, so it must be true. At some point, I can't remember when, I managed to find a tool to be used but absolutely nowhere to use it so I carried on poking at moles and achieving nothing. I grew desperate - it's really quite frustrating to have a tool and nowhere to put it! I ended up shaking the box gently which also did nothing until I shook it in the right direction.Suddenly something happened and I was able to notice another "feature". After playing with said "feature" for a few minutes, I managed to manipulate it to get me a hole. At last! I had somewhere to put my tool. Now, now, keep your minds out of the gutter (especially you, Steve). I stuck my tool in the hole and wiggled it about and even rotated it for a while. Nothing happened, but it was very satisfying. Eventually, sticking your tool in a hole and swivelling it starts to get boring when there is no response - maybe it is my technique?

Here I stayed for over a year! On almost a weekly basis for a very long time I played with my tool to no good effect. I was getting to the point of maybe asking Shane for a clue when I had one of those rare thoughts© - maybe I should try this thing...   Nope, that didn't work and I stopped trying for another few months. 

Last week after continuing to think© I reached the conclusion that I had tried everything possible and something was stuck. I decided it was time for the big guns. Well actually a medium pair of pliers. Yes, I know, no external tools allowed but I had come to the conclusion that the next part of the mechanism was stuck solid on my copy and I had nothing much to lose. Needless to say, When you use brute force and pliers, things tend to loosen. Once my heart rate had settled a little, I found that I had a new tool and also a new set of things to try. Exploring with this tool revealed something very interesting and a possible way to make the two tools I now had interact with each other.

After a few moves something interesting was happening to all the moles and before long I had my wonderful long-awaited Aha! moment! Such a relief.

Moles are free and the box is open

I was now free to look at the mechanism properly and it is really quite clever. It really isms terribly difficult but the movement of the moles is designed to make you think all the wrong things and lead you in the wrong direction. 

The reassembly is significantly fiddly but knowing how it works means that a bit of perseverance is required. I then had a look at the piece that needed pliers and realised that some lacquer had gotten onto it and effectively fused it in place. There was absolutely no way that I was ever going to shift that without using my tool. This means that you can stop berating me! 

I can finally put another puzzle away and this will join my small, but well-loved, Stickman collection. I have missed out on the subsequent releases but I am ever-hopeful that Robert will let me buy another one sometime. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

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A little underwhelming?

Finally, with a little encouragement (but no real clues from Goetz) I can finally say that I have completed the Ages sequential discovery burr having found the compartment that contains the piece of Lightning Ridge opal. The opening of that compartment requires construction of a very clever tool and using it to manipulate the cover in a counter-intuitive way. It is classic Brian! Thank you my friend. I can finally put it away after so many years!

In the right light the pearlescent opal colours do shine

OMG! This One Took Me Ages...

And I've Still Not Finished It!

Ages by Brian Young

This blog post is a mark of shame or a mark of how bad I am at puzzling - you decide which. 

The Ages sequential discovery burr was released way back in October 2019 as a series of 200. At the time it was a relatively expensive puzzle but completely sold out within a month. Of course, I was one of the poor addicts who helped relieve Brian of his stock with mine arriving at the beginning of November. The instructions were simple enough:

"The ultimate goal is to find the piece of Australiana inside the puzzle.
At the end of the solve you will find a small compartment that holds a piece of Lightning Ridge opal. This may not be the hardest puzzle in the world but if you think about the Coming of Age MkII combined with the SMS Box with fewer pieces and fewer tools. You have it!

The puzzle has trick locks, tools, elements of sequential discovery but essentially it’s a very hard burr puzzle. If you’re looking for a walk in the park don’t buy this one.

Brian has included ideas in this puzzle that he’s never seen in a puzzle before. Solving a new puzzle often draws on previous puzzle-solving experiences so having lots of puzzles in your collection can be a big help. But the inclusion of ideas not seen before instantly bumps up the difficulty a lot."

So, it is a burr - just my thing. It's a sequential discovery puzzle - just my thing. It is a tough one - erm, that might be a problem as I am not terribly bright or, for that matter, good at tough puzzles.😱 But I will give it a go and hopefully it won't take too long. Except here we are nearly 6 years later and I still haven't quite finished it. In fact I only managed to make any progress at all in the last 2 weeks.

Why did he call it the Ages burr? Was it because he knew how long it would take me? I suspect that is not it because he surely wouldn't name a puzzle after my inadequacy. Plus, of course, other puzzlers have been successful in a much shorter time than me (I know that Ali solved it within just a few days). The real reason for the name was a quirk of the way Burrtools works. When Brian first plugged some pieces into BurrTools to check for solutions Andreas Röver’s wicked sense of humour was immediately obvious. Time left: ages

Burrtools tells all!

In fact, the full analysis of the selection of pieces has never been completed in BurrTools. Time left: unknown -> days -> years -> millennia -> ages Who knows how long it might take?  

This puzzle looks gorgeous made from Queensland Silky Oak, Western Australian Jarrah wood and including magnets and brass parts. It is a decent sized 11cm in each axis. I have kept it on my tray of shame for 5 whole years! 

This was the point a couple of months ago when Mrs S insisted I tidy up

Initially I played with this every evening when sitting down with Mrs S to watch TV. It was daily for a month or two and then every few days and then less and less often. After a year or so, I would religiously pick it up every month and persistently get nowhere at all.

Only two pieces can move

There were only two moves possible! One of them would pull a long way out but no further and another would move by a single voxel. Trying to move the mobile piece different amounts in the hope that there would be an opening for other pieces proved fruitless. Nothing else sprang to mind - I was stuck on two moves for a long time (yes 5 years!)

A rotational move?

Spot the pin

Quite early on, I found a rotational move. Now you might think that was a stupid thing to try but I was desperate and the information page admitted that BT would be unable to completely solve the puzzle due to the presence of a rotation. The rotation pictured above looked quite nice and it seemed to be caused by the presence of a metal pin bridging from one stick into the cap on the adjacent one. No matter how hard I tried (without undue force) I could not get the rotation to go any further and no additional moves were freed up by it. I asked Sue if I was going about it the correct way and received a definitely not reply. Sigh! Barking up the wrong tree again. Time to put it back on the tray and go back to my monthly attempts.

There was always something that bugged me about the puzzle - one of the pieces was adorned by a little face which poked its tongue out at me whenever I did my first move:

Being rude or telling me something?

For 5 years I stared at this face and pushed and pulled at every piece of this damned burr and got absolutely nowhere......until a couple of weeks ago.

It was my monthly attempt at a miscreant puzzle and I had a little bwain-wave! I only have a little bwain so can only generate small waves with it. I tried something that I had not tried before in the entire 5 years and suddenly an Aha! moment! After that amount of time that is worth a:

AHA!

Not only had I gotten a step further but I had found something useful. Not wishing to lose my thought© processes, I tried a number of newly possible things and some very unusual moves were possible. The burr started to move more and more and I needed to be careful to keep track. One thing that became apparent quickly was that what I thought was a single vocal was much bigger than that. The grid that it was built on was significantly more complex than I had expected and a good few moves were very hard to keep track of.

Over about 3 days, I got further and further with my to and fro approach allowing me to always return to the beginning. I progressed a little at a time and suddenly a very large movement was open to me that would lead to the removal of the first piece - Hooray! except I found myself unable to undo one of the moves that got to that point. I must have made a complex multi-piece move at some point and could not recall what it was and thus, could not return. Cue a set of panicky attempts which got nowhere until suddenly I found myself able to backtrack again. I had no clue what I had done but with some relief I reset the puzzle completely. I put it down for a day.

The following day, I tried again and got so far before being halted. I couldn't find that crucial move that allowed me to progress the previous evening. I spent a further 2 days at that point before I miraculously passed it without knowing how. There is quite a lot of too and fro with key pieces during the solve - it is not quite N-ary but there does seem to be an N-ary aspect to part of it. Even now when I take the burr apart, I struggle to get past the point at which the key move happens. I sort of move pieces around and then for no good reason, I can progress in whatever direction I am aiming for. Sigh - I am rubbish at burrs!

Having removed the first piece, I was a little stuck. The remaining burr sticks are quite stable and won't fall apart but there is a lot of rotational movement now in the puzzle. I fiddled with the burr for another hour before finding a lovely clever rotational move that would allow another piece to be removed. From here the sequential disassembly proceeded quite nicely and if it's held in the right orientation, it remains stable until fully apart:

A gorgeous 9 piece burr
(no spoilers here and putting the pieces into BT won't help you)

I then put it back together again and disassembled a few times to get used to the process. Every single time I get hung up on that critical move halfway through. I guess that several pieces must move simultaneously to let it happen and I manage it each time by accident after a struggle.
 
Does this mean that it is solved? Hell no! There is the matter of the compartment with the small piece of Lightening Ridge opal. I know where it is (I can hear it rattling about). I can see where the compartment is and what is closing it up. I know there is a strong magnet as part of the locking mechanism but nothing I can do will shift the locking mechanism. I've been trying for days but again there are only so many things I can think of to do - I might be another 5 years or even "Ages".

I think at some point I will need to ask Brian and Sue for a little help so that I can finally see the opal and then put the miscreant puzzle away on my MrPuzzle shelves. This would please Mrs S immensely! I did think that Brian would release the solution some time after the last one was sold but I have not seen it anywhere. A burrtools file for the linear component would be really helpful if it existed.

Despite there being 200 of these in circulation, I have only seen a few of these up for sale at auction and quite telling is the fact that a good few of them have been sold without having been solved. If you see one up for sale and are up for a challenge then go get it - it is seriously tough and seriously good. Thanks Brian and Sue for a fantastic and LONG challenge!

Pelikan Goes Minima(l)

Pelikan upcoming puzzles in April

It's always a great but scary day in the PuzzleMad HQ when a big blue box arrives from the Czech Republic! I am always delighted to see the delivery man (and he seems pleased to see me too) but Mrs S is much less happy about it. She knows that there will be a pile of puzzles lying around for a while to be solved and me making funny noises and pained faces as I struggle to solve them within a deadline. She always complains about the progressive buildup of toys but I think they look gorgeous and also they keep me out of mischief which should make her happy. Whack! Ouch!....or maybe not!

The delivery this time included:

Minima 1 to 4 from Frederic Boucher

Minima Smiley from Frederic Boucher in Acrylic as well as a re-release of the wood version

L'Escargot from Jorgos Anastasou

Farmacia by Dr Volker Latussek

Minima One to Four

The first four Minima puzzles

Now this is very exciting! I have previously written about the Minima series from Frederic Boucher. I do seem to have reviewed quite a lot of his puzzles over the last year or so - he is just so talented at creating designs that are simple looking but having a tremendous yet still accessible challenge. Here is another chance for you to get a copy of the whole set of 12 Minima puzzles over the next few releases. They were originally released by Tye Stahly and sold out completely more than once. Apparently these are quite difficult to manufacture and both Tye and Jakub have stated that they are really tough. 

Jakub and Jaroslav plan to create these in batches of 4 to be bought as a set or individually. This month will start with the first 4 which are definitely a great challenging introduction to the series. They have been created with a bunch of different woods which make them stunning on display. They are made with the following wood combinations:

Minima 1 - Elm and Wenge

Minima 2 - Walnut and Acacia

Minima 3 - Purpleheart and Ash

Minima 4 - Jatoba and Padauk

The aim is to pack all the pieces into the boxes with all holes covered when packed. Like most of Frederic's puzzles, some very interesting and hard to find rotations are required. They get progressively more difficult from Minima 1 to 4 and are made all the harder with the Pelikan versions because having a wooden box which you cannot see through means that you really have to plan your approach before starting to place the pieces inside. After the second piece is inserted it gets increasingly difficult to place others and you cannot see what is causing the blockage. Also the precision of the manufacture and the fact that the wooden box is less slidey than acrylic ones means that any rotations need to be very precisely placed or they will not work. 

I had to solve all four of them again from scratch as I had no recollection of the solutions from before (don't tell Mrs S that I only need about 10 puzzles to be solved over and over again!) They are such fun and this explains why I have a HUGE collection of these Minima puzzles of varying types and from various designers. Basically I will purchase any of them when released to add to my collection. I would say that these are ESSENTIAL purchases for anyone seriously into packing puzzles - they are stunningly beautiful and a fabulous challenge!

Minima Smiley

Acrylic version

Re-released wooden version

The Minima Smiley was first released in December of last year and along with the rest of the Boucher Minima's made it to my Top 10 puzzles of the year. It was so good I actually spent several paragraphs gushing about how it challenged me and scared me half to death as the magnets inside caused various things to clack together unexpectedly. This time the Pelikan team are re-releasing the original version in wood (Mahogany and Maple with a Yellowheart smiley ball) and also an identical one with a see-through acrylic box and Bubinga pieces. They both solve the same way but obviously one is solved blind by deduction and the other is entirely visible. The solution is fabulous and classic Boucher with a wonderful set of Aha! moments.

Which should you buy? The wooden one is the most puzzling but the see-through version is wonderful to watch as you manipulate the pieces. You obviously need both in your collection!

L'Escargot

L'Escargot by Jorgos Anastasou

This is the second puzzle for Jorgos Anastasou and is a wonderful animal shaped burr. We have a wonderful snail which is asymmetric  like the delicious escargot we can eat. This is different to Pelikan's earlier snail puzzle of their own design which is more of a sequential assembly/disassembly puzzle. 

Pelikan have made this with a wonderful smooth and tactile Walnut and Zebrano shell and an Ash body (there are some Wenge eyes too).

Obviously, the aim is to dismantle it and then reassemble it. Of course, the next part of the fun is creating your own Burrtools file for it as well. Maybe you can manage the reassembly before the BT file? The disassembly is a fun sequence of moving parts of the shell as well as the body around and gradually you can see an opening come into play which will allow the first piece to be removed. Even after removing the first piece it is still a challenge to remove the next and then the others are much simpler. The disassembly sequence is a perfect level 14.11.4.3 giving you some rather complex looking pieces:

Huge fun

I actually managed to keep the pieces in a reasonable orientation and position to be able to reassemble without resorting to a BT file but I doubt I could do it if I had scrambled the pieces. I am sure that all of you would easily manage to do it though.

Farmacia

Farmacia by Dr Volker Latussek

This is not even a complete disassembly

The Farmacia by Dr Latussek is absolutely gorgeous with a box made from Acacia and vibrant Padauk pieces to be placed inside.

It arrived with the pieces formed into a cube that slotted into the box but did not fit flush to the bottom. The aim is to remove the cube of pieces and reassemble it into the box so that they all sit flush with the top of the box.

 Only when I took the first few pieces out did I realise why it was standing proud - each of the packing pieces are L-shaped Triominoes. Each of these triominoes has a central cubie which is solid and attached at each end to two others. One end-cubie has a hole drilled into one of the faces and the other end-cubie on the other end has a protruding short dowel which fits inside the drilled holes (these are also at varying positions on the faces). There is also a single hole in the centre of the base of the box and a single dowel in the centre of one wall (pictured left).

This puzzle is not for the faint-hearted! Having taken the pieces out of the box for my photo, I couldn't actually recreate the cube shape to get them all back in again. So far I have been experimenting with the various ways that these can be assembled into shapes and how to build up bigger shapes. I suspect that this will be a huge logic puzzle very similar to the Logical Progression puzzle from the late Eric Fuller which took me over a year to solve. This will require some proper thought and planning to solve. So far I have not managed anything yet but I will keep at it. So should you, it is beautiful and a very tough challenge.