Probably The Toughest Pelikans Ever!

Upcoming puzzles from Pelikan

10 days ago, I received the latest batch due to come out from Jakub, Jaroslav, Simona and the team and managed to solve just one of them (Petit Albert) in the time to review it for last Sunday's blog post. Since then, I have been slogging away at them to try and have something to help you decide what to buy when they come out. I suspect it will be later this week. The amazing bunch is from a very talented bunch of designers:

Social Distance Soma Cube by Lucie Pauwels

Antislide 2L by Lucie Pauwels

Smuggler by Lucie Pauwels

Out of Center by Alfons Eyckmans

Minima 2nd Drawer by Frederic Boucher

Apotheca by Dr Volker Latussek

Slider H by Benjamin Heidt

Petit Albert by Dr Volker Latussek (reviewed last week)

Social Distance Soma Cube

Social Distance Soma Cube

I couldn't resist starting with this one - it is simply gorgeous! My version is made from Purpleheart and Maple and I am told that there will also be versions with Bubinga and Maple as well as Wenge and Maple. A very nice playable size at 78mm in each dimension. It arrives assembled in the cube shape but don't fret about the solution being given away. Tip it out of the packaging and it will quickly fall apart into the constituent pieces:

OMG! Not JUST a Soma cube!

Lucie has taken the Soma cube and separated the 27 individual voxels by a bridging piece. Taking it apart reveals that the constituent parts are still the standard Soma shapes but you can see that the bridges appear to be in specific places on each piece. As usual, the challenge is to assemble the puzzle into the standard cube again (I do wonder whether any of the other Soma challenges are possible as well and I may well attempt to put these into Burrtools to see if that is the case. The cube shape of the Soma cube has 240 solutions but the version designed by Lucie has just one.

I am terrible at assembly puzzles and do not expect to solve this any time soon without help from Burrtools. It is still a very compulsive puzzle and I couldn't stop trying as many assemblies as I could find. My problem is keeping track of what I have tried. Given more time I think that the placement of the bridging pieces will allow a more logical approach but I haven't found it yet.

This is well worth buying - it is beautiful, very difficult and compulsively addictive.

AntiSlide 2L

AntiSlide 2L

Another compulsively beautiful puzzle design from Lucie Pauwels. This one will join the others in her series of tray packing puzzles with anti-slide challenges (Minimal Frame, Open Frame and Trimini Frame).They are all wonderful challenges with effectively 2 levels to the puzzling. First of all take all the pieces and pack them into the tray - the fun thing with this one is that it is now a 3D packing puzzle and you need to form 2 layers on the tray and then second, much MUCH more difficult, the assembly needs to be made in such a way a way that the pieces cannot slide out sideways if turned on its' side.

This is a nice pocketable puzzle with a tray that is 6cm square and has just 2 retaining cubies in opposite corners and the pieces are all made from various attractive woods. This one accompanied me to work for a day or so and kept several people amused. Even finding one assembly is tough. It took me several hours before one was found and of course, it wasn't the anti-slide solution. The presence of an L shaped piece makes that challenge very tough. Placing the pieces into Burrtools reveals that there are 41 assemblies. It took a careful trawl of the 41 solutions before I found the correct solution.

NOT the final solution - just one I found on the way!

Smuggler

Smuggler by Lucie Pauwels
As delivered it doesn't look like much!

This lovely puzzle from Lucie Pauwels looks very straightforward when delivered. Just a tray packing puzzle with some very attractive pieces made from Ovangkol to be packed into a standard Maple tray. It is a lovely size to play with at a table (11.5cm across in a 3 layer deep tray). Only when you look at the pieces closely do you realise that there is something odd about some of them - they are 3 layers high and when they are looked at from a particular direction, there seems to be notches in them each of which is a single vowel in size. There are 8 pieces each having 1 voxel missing and then four 2 voxel bars to be inserted alongside them. Tipping the pieces out of the tray reveals the full extent of Lucie's madness and what is going to be required:

Interesting tray packing pieces with 4 "gold" bars to hide

This was the easy bit

Now we understand the name. Smugglers have often buried their treasure to keep it away from competitors and the authorities so that they can come back to it at a later date. Here we need to place all the pieces in the tray so that they lie flush with the edges. Then we need to find a way to repeat it but with the gold bars inside and hidden. To do this will require solving the packing with the notches in the middle layer to be organised so that they line up with 4 2x1 voxel gaps.

I first of all set to work on just the main pieces and ignored the gold bars. I found quite a few assemblies for this and, after playing with Burrtools, discovered that there are 168 ways to do this. I then worked on adding first one and them progressively more of the bars. Placing just one was relatively trivial once a packing for the main pieces had been found. Placing a second one, at least for me, did not seem much tougher. I have been trying to assemble the packed tray with 3 of the 4 bars now for a day or so and have so far failed. I am sure there is some logic to it but I haven't yet worked it out. Burrtools tells me there are 30 solutions. The final challenge with all 4 bars has just one solution. I expect this to take me the rest of my life! For you tray packers, this might just be an essential purchase.

Out Of Center

Out of Center

I am a sucker for a good burr! I am not good at assembly but that is why Andreas gave us Burrtools! The disassembly, I find a delight of effectively exploring a hidden internal moving 3D maze as you slide pieces about. I have quite a few burrs, both stick and board versions and as the number of pieces go up, they get much much more difficult. My 18 piece burrs are always a huge challenge and this one by Alfons Eyckmans is something very different to everything else I have ever seen - this is the first time I have ever seen an 18 piece board burr! It certainly is not for beginners. Jakub and team have made this beautifully from Wenge, Maple and Bubinga. They have made it a decent size at 10cm across.

This is a huge challenge but also a lot of fun. From the very beginning there are quite a few possible moves but the pathways aren't very long to get lost in. It will be important, as with all board burrs, to ensure everything stays aligned and no rotations happen. I don't think there are any early rotational shortcuts but small rotations will block the required moves. As I got further and further into the puzzle, I realised there was a repetitive locking and unlocking sequence which gradually made space for pieces to be further and further extended out of the puzzle. The burr has a level 22.3.6.1.2.1.1.1.1.1.1.2.2 disassembly which is just perfect for most experienced burr-istas and remains pretty stable right through to the final pieces being removed.

Looks horrific to reassemble?

Having taken it apart, there was no way that it was going back together from memory. Burrtools to the rescue again and despite being a board burr and despite the huge number of pieces, it was a nice easy assembly to follow. It will look lovely on display.

Minima 2nd Drawer

Minima 2nd Drawer by Frederic Boucher

It took a while to open the drawer!

This incredible design by Frederic Boucher is the next in the Minima Drawer series. I reviewed the first one here in July. Like the first one, this is a "must have" for any serious puzzler. But be warned...it is MUCH tougher than the first one. 

Pelikan have made this with an Elm box and Wenge pieces. On arrival, only one of the pieces is outside the box and the drawer will not slide to release the others. It takes a bit of experimenting with gravity and rotation to release the drawer enough to release any pieces. Once you have them, the difference from the first puzzle is clear - the dowels are captive inside and actually prevent the drawer sliding completely out. There are 2 L shaped triominoes, 2 dominoes and one single voxel piece. All have holes drilled through in various positions.

I have not yet managed to solve this one despite several hours of attempts. It is clear that an assembly will be needed outside the drawer first and then a sequence of insertion and moves will be needed to get them inside. Make sure that you keep track of the movements that you use during the insertion because it is quite easy to get blocked up and unable to move. At one point I had to shake pieces about inside to release a blockage and nearly had a heart attack! This is an incredibly tough challenge! Let's also just say that Burrtools will NOT help you with this. Good luck!

Apotheca

Apotheca by Dr Volker Latussek

The second puzzle in this release by Volker is another one that reveals that he has a very devious mind!  It has been beautifully made using a lovely grained Limba Frake for the pieces and American Walnut for the box. The box is 7x7x6.5cm and, as always with Volker's puzzles, it arrives in a special delievry configuration. This one looks solved when it arrives but notice that the pieces are protruding from the box. Obviously when packed they will be flush with the surface.

Shallow notches and dowels on each piece and in the box

Taking the pieces out reveals the madness in his head! The pieces are really fairly simple with 3 and 4 voxel L-shapes to which shallow holes and dowels have been added as well as a single dowel on one wall of the box.  This one looks very similar to the Farmacia puzzle from April's release but the are bound to be some special differences.

Having taken my photo of the pieces, not only could I not assemble the cube, I also couldn't put them back in the box into the delivery position! Having worked on so many puzzles this week, my head was broken!

The intention is to create a 3x3x3 cube inside the box. The presence of the dowels means that this has got to be done in a certain order and only one orientation. Again, Burrtools is not useful for this puzzle which really adds to the difficulty. 

Volker was very pleased with how this puzzle design worked out. he said this about it:

"When working with the usual v's and developing FARMACIA, I had to learn that some very nice moves are not possible. However, from my experience with FILLING V, I know how powerful L's are. So what could be more obvious than turning four v's into three L's and filling the 3x3x3 box together with the remaining five v's? And suddenly, the previously impossible moves become possible.

I really hope that you too will see that the price of losing the simple and clean construction principle of the 9 v's of FARMACIA is not too high and that the beauty of the solution in the APOTHECA solution justifies the mixture of eight v's and L's. In fact, the mixture is so powerful that I can offer another puzzle with APTEEK. Perhaps Pelikan will once again show how perfectly crafted ideas in wood enrich the world of mechanical puzzles."

With this description, who can resist? I have still not solved the Farmacia puzzle! I thought it was related to the Logical progression puzzle which ultimately took me a couple of years to solve. Whilst the Farmacia is solvable using Burrtools, the Apotheca has been deliberately designed such that "impossible moves" become possible and I suspect this one will forever be a nemesis. It will be fun to keep trying over many years!

Slider H

Slider H by Benjamin Heidt

Finally, a stunning looking puzzle from Benjamin Heidt. This chunky 7.5x7.5x8cm puzzle has been beautifully made by the Pelikan team from Padauk, Acacia and Peruvian Walnut. It is a good solid heavy puzzle and arrives with one piece outside the box which has an H shaped opening. Benjamin has taken the basic Soma cube pieces, one has been glued inside the box and another pair have been altered and combined into one complex piece.

Pieces outside the box

One is captive inside

The aim is to insert the pieces inside so that the coloured pieces are not visible from above when finished. There is a second solution that does not have this restriction and this will be a nice extra challenge for you. I started placing pieces inside the box straight away and failed to pack the cube before I realised that something was amiss. Have a close look at the trapped piece inside and you quickly realise that there is a gap underneath that cannot be reached by sliding pieces in from above. There is something very interesting built into the mechanism of this puzzle which Pelikan have made with extreme precision - it is a marvel to play with and once you have realised what is possible then you are on your way to a solution. It might take you a while! I still haven't solved it!

So we have an incredible set of puzzles coming from Jakub and team soon. These are significantly tougher than many of the usual puzzles and may keep you going for a very long time. I have yet to solve  all of them with some I have only partially completed.

My favourites are:

Petit Albert - a stunning idea and beautifully produced.

Slider H - an interesting twist on a classic

Minima 2nd drawer - it's just so clever (or it will be if I ever complete it)

Social distance soma cube - so gorgeous on display and a huge increase in difficulty for a classic puzzle.

IPP Is Over So It Must Be Pelikan Time

Petit Albert by Dr Volker Latussek

I did not get to go to the IPP this year but the photos and videos I saw looked amazing. There were some amazing puzzles entered into the design competition and hopefully I can ignore the threats from "she who must be feared" and purchase one or two (or may be even loads) of them. In the middle of the week I was contacted by Simona from Pelikan (Jakub must be away) to get my phone number as they are using a new courier who needs that. A nice big blue box arrived on Wednesday and I got to unpack it after work on Friday. Oh boy! There are some stunning and very tough puzzles coming your way!

The next batch will include:

Out of Center by Alfons Eyckmans

Social Distance Soma Cube by Lucie Pauwels

Apotheca by Dr Volker Latussek

Petit Albert by Dr Volker Latussek

Slider H by Benjamin Heidt

Minima 2nd Drawer by Frederic Boucher

Antislide 2L by Lucie Pauwels

Smuggler by Lucie Pauwels

It's going to take me a while to get through them - I will post reviews as soon as I can.

I started on the Petit Albert by Volker and that's the only one I have managed since opening the package (I spent all Saturday doing a list of trauma surgery). I couldn't resist it because the pieces look so enticingly shaped and it is clear from the curves on the tetrominoes that some interesting rotational moves were going to be needed. Also, Volker has an incredible eye for interesting ideas that puzzlers love and I had to go straight for it. My first challenge was to take the pieces out of the box from their packing position. The first 3 came out quite easily but after this removing the final 2 is a challenge just by itself. I needed a light source to see inside and about 45 minutes of increasingly desperate fiddling with my finger poked into the hole before I had all the contents on display. This is another fabulous bonus puzzle from Volker.

Beautifully made and interesting shapes

The Petit Albert consists of a 3x3x2 voxel box made from a nicely grained Oak with an L shaped hole in one side. There are 4 tetrominoes and a 1x2 stick made from Wenge. There are a total of 18 vowels to be fitted in the box so there will be no gaps. On each of the tetrominoes one of the edges in rounded off - this is obviously intended to facilitate rotational moves of those pieces. Fascinating!

Volker said this about it:

"A while ago I was reminded of a deformed Tetracube when I was looking at a sculpture by the Spanish artist, Carlos Albert. Perhaps that's not that surprising, given that Carlos Albert forges his sculptures from solid square steel. While for PETIT SUCRIER I had set myself the task of incorporating as many openings as possible into the 3x3x2 box as a tribute to Frederic Boucher, when playing with the deformed Tetracubes it quickly becomes clear that the lack of edges allows for rotations that enable new movements; so the task was to find an opening that would allow for an exciting solution. 

With the opening of my SIXPACK design, this task was solved. I am delighted every time something new emerges from the interplay of the familiar and observations, but I am especially delighted when you discover and enjoy the dance of the pieces while playing with PETIT ALBERT."

It is clear that all the pieces can fit through that hole in one particular orientation but if they are all placed like that the cavity gets filled and blocked up very quickly. Creating a 3x3x2 shape from the pieces is exceedingly easy and there are 4 different ways to create that shape with the tetromiino but with the curve on one edge there are 2 ways each piece can be oriented which increases the number of possible arrangements significantly. Starting outside the box I found a solution that would fit and then tried all the orientations of the solution that might allow one or two pieces to just fall out without rotation (it is impossible for the final 2 pieces to rotate due to the interior being blocked up). 

having found a set of placements that would allow 2 pieces to drop out then it was time to work on the others to see whether I could form a shape that was correct. This was a huge challenge - Volker mentioned a "dance of pieces" so I knew there would not be a nice easy rotation and placement. There was going to be a sequence of moves of which one or more might be rotational.

When only one is inside quite a lot of rotations are possible and almost any orientation is possible. Positioning the second piece was already much more difficult and I ended up discarding several possible arrangements due to being unable to position that piece. I did find a few placements that would work and by pure luck after multiple hours of work on it, I managed to get 3 pieces in leaving a nice gap to drop the last 2 in. The packed puzzle is pictured below. There is a very minor clue so I have put it behind a spoiler button - don't look if you don't want a hint.

That is incredibly clever!

 

 Having solved it and taken my photo - I really struggle to get it apart! I could not remember how I had oriented the pieces and how they rotated in the box. If you buy this, I suggest that you take notes as you solve it - I got quite fraught for a while trying to remove al the pieces. Now, of course, I have the only slightly easier challenge of placing it in the delivery position.

This is another essential purchase from Pelikan and Dr Latussek. You will not be disappointed! Now, I had better get back to work on the rest! 😱

Jakub and team have decided to make another run of the Safe puzzle that I reviewed here. If you are interested in obtaining a copy then you should contact the Pelikan team via their website or by email if you are on their mailing list.

OMG! Yellow!!

It says "my head hurts" - it certainly does!

Keebox Yellow

Yes, you knew this was going to happen. I have the final Keebox (so far) in the series solved and can write about it... sort of! This one is a huge step up in difficulty from the first ones and even a good bit tougher than last week's orange one. It is level 4 out of 5 and estimated to take 45+ minutes to complete. Needless to say, during my week of play, I spent a LOT more than 45 minutes on it. There were several steps I got very stuck on. To be perfectly honest, I only finished the solve this morning and I have not yet reset it and there are a couple of steps that I don't really understand very well. It is still available from their Etsy store or from PuzzleMaster and is well worth investing your time and money in. I do know that at least one friend is taking my name in vain for encouraging him to fall into the madness.

Initially there is very little that is possible and when you do it nothing seems to happen. The one thing to say about the yellow version is that there are lots of pieces that move that you wouldn't expect to. So for this reason, it's important to push and pull everything if you cannot find the next move and do this in combination with pushing or pulling other things at the same time. Eventually there is a nice Aha! moment to speed you on to the next stage. After that first step there is a cavity revealed and a couple of coins with nowhere obviously to put them. With a little trial and error I found a place to put them but that was no help at all - no further steps revealed themselves - I was missing something. Turning the puzzle over and over and poking my finger inside gave me another Aha! moment and the customary early move of removing the faceplate happened and showed the usual "Always Keep playing" motif embossed inside. At this point the heart starts to race as something obvious can be seen. Another tool and the coins suddenly make sense. This feels like a very big step but it's only the early easy stuff! Yes, my head was already beginning to hurt!

The next step is reminiscent of the Purple one but even better! The implementation is wonderful and I actually laughed out loud. I had my next piece of information to use in the next section and suddenly a large item was available for use elsewhere. There is no obvious place to use it so more exploring is required. At this point I got very stuck and only managed the next step by brute force of all the possible arrangements of the pieces before revealing where to use the large item I had used before. I have to be honest, Having solved it, I went to the solution page to try and understand how this step had been intended and I still don't understand the clues given. I can do the required step but have no clue why I should do it that way. This only slightly detracted from my enjoyment of the puzzle.

At this point I had a clue for how to use the large item and I tried it. Yet again I got stuck here. I couldn't do anything - something had got stuck. I did notice that a sliding piece inside had wedged diagonally and would not return to the place it had come from - A sharp kitchen knife was require to lever it back into position and I carried on trying the same things over and over again. Suddenly something changed and I could rotate something inside and then I couldn't. I had no idea why I couldn't but it was stuck again. Cue, lots of shaking about and pushing and pulling on everything I could reach...

Something fell out!

Aha! Except I have no idea where this came from.

I retrieved the yellow token and have only a vague idea how or where it came from - I was fiddling with a couple of mechanisms at the same time and turned it over to find the token fall out into my lap. When I turned the puzzle over the "place/drawer/hole" that it had come from had closed up under the influence of gravity and I had no idea where it came from! Aargh. 

After about an hour of turning it over and over again I noticed something inside a hole. and my final Aha! moment was there. This was a MASSIVE odyssey - I got stuck on several different places but always managed to eventually progress. The reset was fun as well and I gained a full understanding of the mechanism. It's not a cheap puzzle this one but still worth every penny. 

My only criticism of this and the orange one is that there are several combination type locks during the solution and the hints for the numbers to use are really quite esoteric and I don't really easily manage to understand the clues. The final one in this puzzle remains incomprehensible to me even now. I'd be interested to hear how you get on with the combination locks.

I know these are "only" plastic puzzles but this is an incredible set and you should buy them. Don't think about it - just do it! The sides of the boxes have a hint of a fifth Keebox with a level 5/5 and a description of "#*%#!". When that is released it will be arriving straight away!

Orange Is Almost Always Better

It says a real challenge!

Keebox Orange

I know it's not Apple's Cosmic Orange (where do they get the names?) but, by and large, things that are orange are always looked on favourably by me! Last week I embarked on a Keebox odyssey and managed the first 2 with a small struggle and a bit of luck. I did manage to solve part of it by brute force before noticing where the clue to the method was amongst the myriad of pieces that I accumulated during the solve.

I had begun work on the third in the series before I wrote last week's post but had not gotten very far and in fact was completely stuck after just a few moves. This one is level 3 out of 5 on their scale and apparently should have taken me about 30 minutes. I know the site states 30minutes + but a puzzler of my experience would hope to be at the bottom end of the time requirement. However, let's not forget that I'm not terribly bright and I certainly am pretty rubbish at puzzles so maybe a bit more than 30 minutes? I was astounded, however, that this one took me several hours spread over an entire week! It is a significant jump in difficulty. It is a vibrant orange and a bit bigger than the first 2 at 8 x 8 x 6.5cm in size. 

Looking at it there is obviously a lot more to it - we have 4 knobs on it, 3 sliders, some kind of tab and a ball bearing visible at the bottom with a maze embossed in the back (presumably to navigate the ball bearing through.

One trapped ball bearing

Just as with the last two there is almost nothing possible apart from one fairly obvious move at the start and you are quickly on your way. The first step immediately reveals a whole lot more "stuff" but whilst you can look at it, you cannot yet manipulate it. Only one new step is possible - I was beginning to have hope - a bit of early hand-holding seems very inviting. The second step leads to another and a tool is a suddenly in your hands. I like to go back and forth to make sure that I have understood what I have done and to assist with the later reset. I did find it took me a good 10 minutes to understand how the tool had been locked in place. It is very simple but very ingenious. 

The tool is flat and looks like there might be quite a few places to use it but only one actually does something. Yay! A big breakthrough - a new tool that looks like there's an obvious place to use it. I am on my way as the ball bearing gets released into the first part of the maze.

A rather complex maze map

After my initial surge of pleasure. I got stuck at this point for a whole week.

The ball bearing was in the first section of the maze (see the bottom of the map to the left) - I needed to get it into the next area and could not do so. I went back and forth with the bearing and even right back to the start of the puzzle. There is always the promise of a hint but you know me, I like to suffer for months or years. So I continued to go back and forth for days doing the same things over and over again.

Two portions of maze and a button

The ball bearing was able to freely enter the right hand slot above but could go no further. There is a flush button that I used one of my tools to press and this produced a little cavity for the bearing...and trapped it! Bugger! Pressing the button in would release the ball back to the right hand slot but nothing would let it proceed on its merry way. In fact, having pressed that button, it was no longer flush with the surface of the box. It remained partially depressed. Days went by and I despaired. I was obviously missing another tool but despite using everything I had in as many ways as I could think without causing harm. Then something made me think© again and I had a wonderful Aha! moment as I realised that tools can do more than one thing at a time. 

Symbols on the sliders

After this, I was able to start work on the maze with my map. This was a little challenging because the map is on the back and a lot of the time the manipulation of the ball with gravity required the puzzle to be facing the other way. The ball gets navigated mostly by sound as you hear it drop down short or long paths. It does intermittently appear at the front of the puzzle. 

I managed to negotiate the full length of the maze and realised that at the end it could be used to manipulate something else but despite this it did nothing useful. Looking at the puzzle, it was obvious what it was doing but I could see that one final tool remained unfound and it was critical for the next step - I could see what I needed to find but how on earth did I get it?

There were a few elements on the puzzle that I had not utilised yet - the sliders on the sides have a bunch of symbols on them and there was a knob on top. I had no idea what to do with the symbols and I did end up cheating by part brute forcing the trial and error and also a little lock picking. This gave me the tool I needed and I was able to combine this with another mechanism to release my final piece. In retrospect, I now realise that the symbols on the sliders were not random and paying attention throughout the solution would have just given the code. However, having found my final moves I had the third token in the series:

Yet another brilliant creation!

In total I think this must have taken me about three or four hours to complete. Definitely 30 minutes PLUS! The reset is just a matter of navigating everything in reverse. The maze is still a challenge to navigate and it took a while to realise there is a step in the middle that I had solved by accident in my turning it back and forth.

Should you buy this? Hell yes! This one is stunningly fun and a real challenge for any puzzler. The side of the box tells you so. It is still available on the Keebox Etsy store and also from PuzzleMaster if you live in North America. If I were you, I would buy the whole set and solve them in difficulty order. You really won't regret it.

I have a little annual leave the next couple of weeks and hopefully will manage some puzzling amongst all the chores and DIY that Mrs S has planned for me.  😱

The Keys To The First Two Boxes?

Keeboxes - all of them!

Oh dear! Yes, yet again it's Allard's fault! I had seen the Keebox puzzles at the MPP in May (Allard is the organiser so it MUST be his fault) and even spent a happy 10 minutes playing with the Blue one before quickly deciding they were so good that I needed to stop solving and buy the bloody things. I was sitting next to Ali who was playing with one of the others and we both simultaneously decided the same thing and put them down. I opened the webpage on my phone and left it there in my Safari tabs as a reminder that I HAD to buy them soon. I went home at the end of the puzzle party and promptly forgot about them as the tab containing the webpage got buried amongst others about Sci-Fi and fantasy as well as work stuff. I think I currently have about 60 open tabs! The Keebox ones got buried and forgotten (I think it is still there on the phone now). I wasn't reminded at the last MPP in July due to having to spend the day with the present wife instead of puzzlers and only a few weeks ago was I reminded when Allard posted his review. Much to the disgust of Mrs S, I immediately fired off an order via the Swiss boys' Etsy store and, of course, I had to have the whole set - there are four currently but I am certain there will be more eventually. For those of you who are unfortunate enough to be subject to the whims and stupidity of the orange buffoon and are now either being charged huge tariff charges or even unable to purchase from abroad then PuzzleMaster may be helpful to you (I am not sure how Canada post has been affected) - some of the Keeboxes are available from PuzzleMaster here.

Unfortunately I got hit by a big customs bill plus the Royal Mail hostage fee. I paid this and a few days later a nicely packed box of boxes of keeboxes was unpacked. Mrs S was "delighted to see more plastic in the house but I pointedly ignored her.

They seem to have updated their packaging since Allard got his (something I didn't notice until the last MPP when I saw Allard's boxes and noticed that mine were much more colourful. I also received the purple one which may not have been available until recently.

Blue box - easy peasy?

It is really quite attractive for a plastic puzzle

Being rather rubbish at puzzles I started on the blue/"easy" one. The box is perfectly designed to contain and show off the new toy. There is a leaflet inside that tells you (in multiple languages) to find the hidden token. There is a QR code to get you to a webpage that can provide hints and solutions but I am hoping not to use it. You all know me by now that I tend to keep trying at these toys for months or even years until I eventually get there. Reassuringly, the leaflet says that the blue one is level 1 out of 5 which should take me 10 minutes. The puzzle is 6.2 x 6 x 6cm in size and made from PLA - it's a perfect tactile size and weight.

Always keep playing

Whilst I agree with the difficulty level - it is a nice fun introduction to the series but it certainly took me more than 10 minutes. Watching Tamsin play with it and get stuck in the same places that I did was fun and I would hope that you would also be challenged the same way. There is a whole sequence of moves which have to be done in the correct order. Various protuberances on the puzzle interact with each other and release tools to be used elsewhere. At some point in all the puzzles in the series the front plate is released and reveals the message to "always keep playing". There are threaded parts, reverse threaded parts, sprung parts and a short maze. The progression is very enjoyable with getting stuck at various stages for 5 minutes or so providing just enough challenge to not make one give up. It is plastic and care is needed not to use too much force when trying certain moves but it's pretty clear when what you are attempting to do is not the right thing. I think I found the token after about 20 minutes - lovely to do and actually lovely to do repeatedly. I think I will take this to work to torture my ODP with on Wednesday during my usual orthopaedic bloodbath! I think he will have some time between intubation and running the cell saver to play with my torture device!

Blue token found

Having reversed the process to reset the puzzle it was time to move on to the next and bamboozle myself again. The next in the series for me (I don't think Allard got to try it because it is the latest one).

Purple box - tricky

Even more attractive than the last one

The purple one is level 2 out of 5 and should take expected to take 30 minutes by the creators. They put a plus sign after the 30 minutes on the webpage and it certainly took me that plus amount of time above the 30 minutes! There are a couple of steps in this one that are really quite hard to find.

Having solved the blue, I was aware of the types of things I could/should try and the first couple of steps proceeded very nicely with little Aha! moments and a grin indicating that I had this. And then I was stuck for a while - probably about 10 minutes before I found my next step and received another tool which I didn't know how to use. From here I was stumped for yet more 30 minutes "plus". I actually did one aspect of the puzzling to find the tool by brute force of trial and error. It didn't seem right and I put it back to have a rather long think©. There were a few puzzle pieces and some arrows on the puzzle which indicate what is needed to do. The Aha! moment for this is delightful - they really have thought every step through.

I now had more tools and no idea what to do with them. Stuck again! Eventually, I did what I should and LOOKED at the puzzle properly. There is a feature that stares you in the eyes and dares you to try something without you realising that it was making fun of your inability to see it. 

If you are bright then you will see it straight away (I didn't feel too dopey when Tamsin also couldn't see it straight away). I think the "plus" on the timescale here took me to a total of an hour of puzzling. It's perfect and also very clever:

Purple token found

This one is even more fun than the last one to reset. 

I have started on the next most difficult in the series - orange is apparently "a real challenge" - it says so on the box. I'm about an hour in to that one and completely stuck after just a few moves. I can see what needs to happen but I don't have the tools yet to do it and am not sure where to look. For the moment, I am going to hold off on getting clues.

If you haven't considered getting these yet then stop considering and buy them - they are perfect little challenges and suitable for all levels of puzzler. I am sure that PuzzleMaster will restock soon for those of you in the USA and Canada. Otherwise the rest of the world can go to the Etsy store and buy direct. Do it now!

Did Juno Con Me? No Way!

The Con Way Puzzle by Juno

Frame assembled

A little while ago Yukari sent out an email to the puzzling world offering Juno's latest creation, the Con Way Puzzle, for sale. it was made from gorgeously grained wood so how could I turn it down? Also it was a design by Juno so how could I turn it down? On top of that, it came with a stand and I am a sucker for a puzzle with a stand for display so how could I turn it down? Fear of the present wife could have made me turn it down but I hit buy before I had time to think about what "she who must be flinched from" even impinged on my mind! Only a few minutes later did I wonder about the Whack! Ouch! that I might receive....again!

This gloriously beautiful thing arrived within a week from all the way across the globe and I lined up all the pieces for my photos. It was beautiful made from New Guinea Walnut and American Cherry. I admired the grain and then looked with horror at the shapes which appeared to be random and then the frame which unexpectedly came in pieces. I have a long history with Johan Heyns' puzzles having wonderful frames to display them on and me finding the assembly of the frames being a huge first challenge! I managed the frame after a few minutes of offing and blinding and had a look at what I had to play with:

This puzzle is based on a design by the famous mathematician, John Horton Conway who many of us have followed as teenagers interested in recreational maths. I remember programming the Game of Life into my Sinclair ZX81 - sigh, good times! The Conway puzzle was a classic packing puzzle that appeared in Stewart Coffin's Puzzling World of Polyhedral Dissections and has been made in some beautiful woods by various creators. It turns out that the original version was not that tough once the puzzler made a certain realisation. Juno had decided to take the initial idea and make it better by making all the cuts skewed. He had been worried that the challenge was too easy but when people tried out his 3D printed prototype they had really enjoyed it. As a result I have another piece of glorious wood in my collection.

I knew nothing about the original puzzle and set to afresh. There are 6 pieces that seem to be based on a 2x2x1 basic shape and then 3 mini cubes that are 1x1x1 voxel in size apart from the fact that only one of the pieces has been cut with orthogonal cuts. Everything was at an odd angle and looking at the pieces, they were all slightly different meaning that finding a basic assembly pattern wasn't going to do it. Juno showed off the solution to one of the versions way down at the bottom of his product page but I was determined not to look at it. 

This is not one to solve on your lap (especially with cats around) - you need a flat surface and I would suggest a ruler or tape measure as well. Knowing that the cube is going to be 60mm in each direction was going to be very helpful. The grain of the wood was not going to be helpful - Juno was careful to ensure that you didn't solve it as a 3D jigsaw with the picture being the grain. I found that the constructed frame was very useful to find corners that were 90º in all dimensions. This helped narrow down what pieces could go where. After finding a few corners (unfortunately several pieces had 2 corners that could have been external and needed a trial and error approach with the ruler. I had sort of decided on what I thought was the only possible basic arrangement of the basic shapes but not workout which ones exactly went where.

I did take it to work a couple of times but got no where with it apart from to make a couple of arthropods laugh at my failure. Home it went for me to have a proper effort on. My basic idea was right but I needed to find which slanted cuts would match with each other - there were not going to be any odd corners internally which definitely helped.

Finally after a couple of hours of thought and a bit of trial and error, I had my Aha! moment and had a rather precariously assembled cube to pick up and place on the display frame, hopefully without it falling apart. I have put the photos behind a spoiler button so as not to inadvertently give any clues but I suspect that the grain in my version will be very different to yours and the pictures will to be helpful.

One Con Way Puzzle assembly

The single voxel cube is in the centre

I love a puzzle with a stand!

There are still 5 of these left in stock as I type. If assembling cubes is your thing then this will not disappoint you. It is a thing of beauty when on display, the frame is a puzzle in itself and this might be a really good puzzle to give to "normal people" to play with! it's very tactile and compelling to play with.

Thank you Juno and Yukari for yet another lovely fun challenge!