Sunday, 9 February 2025

Rainer Nearly Killed Me...Again!

Popplock T14
T13 unsolved
Every few years, Rainer Popp lets loose on the world the latest edition of his incredible series of beasts. It had been almost 3 years since the T13 was released and I (as well as the rest of the eager puzzling fraternity) had begun to anticipate the next one. This does remind me that I have so far completely failed to do anything with that one and it has been sitting on my puzzle tray next to my armchair for over 2 years. In fact it has been responsible for a significant part of the weight of it and upset Mrs S by marking the carpet. I really should get a move on and start work on it again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is absolutely nothing given away in this picture
I have taken a photo of all the pieces that I had at the end and it is breathtaking! This will definitely be in my top ten(ish) of 2025.

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

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



Sunday, 2 February 2025

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".


Sunday, 26 January 2025

He Risks A Whack! Ouch!

But He "Creeps" Past It! Phew!
This required wine...LOTS of wine
When Mine offers puzzles, most of us say yes and we wait for a bit for hime to manufacture said puzzles and postage occurs when you least expect it. My package went into my tracking app and for some reason went from Japan to China and then on to India. I have no idea why - my knowledge of shipping lanes and flight paths is sketchy to say the least but even I know that is an odd path to take to the UK. The tracking stopped in India for a week or so and I resigned myself to waiting for a long time. The app and the Yamato website had no further updates. In the meantime...

Tye Stahly also manufactures some new toys and puts them up for sale. The UK puzzlers have a good thing going as he combines them all together into what I imagine is a shipping container which heads towards Allard's house and very forgiving wife (Gill is an angel!) I knew the shipping container had set off but I didn't know more. It must have been a very fast ship or maybe even one of those airyplane things because after just a few days from going on sale to somehow being forwarded on by the PuzzleMan himself to arriving at PuzzleMad HQ was incredibly fast. 

Both boxes arrived on the same day and due to work commitments, I didn't get to open them straight away. I have worked yet another 6 day week and "she who must be feared" got fed up having two medium sized boxes sitting in the porch cluttering up the place. She obviously hadn't thought it through properly because boxes in the porch don't really count as clutter. It's only when you open said boxes to find a total of 16 new puzzling toys on the kitchen work surface that you realise what clutter is! Whack! Ouch!

Yes, she actually opened the boxes for me and laid out the pile o' puzzles on the kitchen granite for me. When I got home from work on Saturday, she stood there glaring at me and menacingly tapped her foot whilst I made excuses. In the end I couldn't really think of any decent excuses and offered her wine to make up for it. This mollified her a little bit so I tried more wine but it didn't help much and I suspect I'm going to suffer in the near future. To try and improve the situation, I have taken my photos and have endeavoured to stash them somewhere not cluttered until I have had a chance to play. Phew! I might have got away with it. Whack! Ouch! Maybe not...

The first one I have tried was one by the amazing Yuu Asaka. I couldn't resist the Creep 2 puzzle which looked so different from his usual packing puzzles:

Creep 2 pieces

The stated aim on the box (the puzzles from Yuu-san are always beautifully presented) is to insert the two sliders completely inside the tray.

It is only a level 2 out of 5 and the expected puzzling time should be about 20 minutes according to the designer. Well we will see about that! I am famous/infamous for taking days or weeks instead of minutes.

This puzzle reminded me very much of a wonderful puzzle by Robrecht Louage, the Cerradura Doble.

Off we go...

The gaps in the frame at each edge are different sizes which should give a clue to which pieces go where and indeed, I was able to quite quickly determine then final position of the two sliders. There's nothing else to do other than to slide them each inside in turn and look at how they will interact as you move the pieces back and forth. At this point, I realised that Yuu-san is what is known in the trade as a "sneaky bugger"! I spent the full amount of time (20 minutes) trying the same thing over and over again but it just wouldn't work. Did I have the wrong pieces? I actually checked the pieces against on-line photos and there was no mistake - silly me ( or...I'm an eejit).

Time to think© and it hurt a bit. Eventually, I had an aha! moment when I realised my initial supposition had been incorrect. Once I had made my discovery, I had my solved puzzle and it's really quite satisfying. The whole puzzle seems to be about misdirection. The design makes you think the wrong thing and if you are anything like me, you will be stuck on that wrong thought for a while before eventually forcing yourself to look further. It is really very clever and almost perfect for newbies or visitors to the house who you would like to bamboozle. I think I will take it to work to torture people for a while. Hopefully Mrs S will not murder me when she sobers up/regains consciousness from the barrel of wine I have had to ply her with!

If you are wanting to buy a copy then PuzzleMaster has it for sale here and you could even buy the rest of Yuu-san's puzzles at the same time. In the UK you could try JPGames or Crux puzzles.


Sunday, 19 January 2025

Jagsaw VI - An Exercise In Logic

Jagsaw VI by Alexander Magyarics

I received a nice big package from Alexander at the end of the year and when opened I was delighted to see a whole bunch of interesting challenges in the box - Mrs S was not quite so delighte, however.

I was intrigued to see something that is new to Alex's repertoire, a jigsaw puzzle. As you know I have been a little fixated on Jigsaws recently having had very mixed success at the wonderful jigsaws in trays designed by Haym Hirsh

The interesting thing here is that it is only a six piece jigsaw with no frame and instructions to make a 3x2 array of the pieces:

Instructions that give away nothing except a very big clue...only 1 solution!
 Having seen that there are only six pieces and no restriction of a frame, I decided that this was to be my next challenge this year. After all, how hard can it be? Have I learned nothing from these blasted puzzle designers yet? Apparently not! 

The pieces are standard jigsaw pieces with all the protuberances or orifices being either rectilinear, singly curved or doubly curved which restricts which pieces can intersect with each other. I started initially with random pairing of pieces to see which pieces could interlink and how many possibilities for each piece there was. It quickly became apparent that it would not be possible to solve this with random trial and error. The pieces were too similar and with six of them I could not keep track of what I had tried. Time for a little think©ing. This was going to hurt!

This might make things much harder!
I spent a good couple of days fixated that there would be no interior gaps (i.e. the single curved protuberances would only interact with single curved orifices. I thought that this would significantly limit the number of possible interactions that I needed to try and would leave me with a pure logic based solution. Two days wasted on that - it certainly helped with the logic but, of course, Alex would never make it quite that easy! Eventually the realisation whacked me over the head that there were going to be gaps and irregularities in the outline. The only stipulation in the instructions was that they should fit together in the 3x2 grid. The shapes would restrict the way they could fit together by preventing some fits completely but if there was a gap then that would still be allowable. This then helped me find one piece that could ONLY be oriented in one way on the outer edge. From this, it was possible to work out several possible pieces that might go next but walking this pathway seemed to end in dead ends fairly fast (I was hoping that this was the sort of approach that Alex had intended because my head was hurting quite a lot at this stage). I did need to keep track of 2 or three possible pathways and eventually narrowed it down to decide on another definite external edge.

Once I had worked out this, it became a little bit more logical but still a fair bit of trial and error as every piece had several possibilities.

Finally, after about 5 days, I had my solution. It was very satisfying. This is a rather clever puzzle which needs thought and planning rather than trial and error. It certainly is good for beginners to show them that simple looking puzzles might not be as simple as they appear. Having said that, I think most beginners would give up long before they found the solution. I very nearly gave up myself. I think my Jigsawing period might have to stop for a little while due to brain-ache!

Having found my assembly, I had a fun time putting this into Burrtools to prove to myself that there was indeed only one solution and that it did not fit together with no gaps. Thank you Alex, it was a lot of fun! Plenty more challenges left to do from your box (although Mrs S is threatening to hide the box away 😱.



Sunday, 12 January 2025

Perseverance Pays Off...

Finally!

The Snowman Puzzlebox by Kyle Chester-Marsden
Someone has stolen the poor snowman's nose
I hadn't managed to attend many MPP's last year and also don't really have time to lurk in the Discord and hence missed out on a few of the beautifully made puzzles from Kyle and from what I have heard, I have really missed something special. In mid November he put out a little announcement on the Mechanical Puzzle Community Facebook page that he was making some more of the Snowman boxes available again as potential Xmas presents. He had made these as presents for Xmas 2023 but as usual, I had not seen them and missed out. They had been reviewed back in February by Steve and looked fabulous. This time around I saw them announced and contacted him immediately! Phew! For once, I had not let it get by me. The handy thing was that he had one available at the last MPP of the year and I picked up a nice brown box and sneaked it into the house. "She who must be feared" saw it amongst all the other acquisitions on my return and, luckily, it didn't register when I told her that was going to be her present to me at Xmas. 

We don't tend to do Xmas presents much because, by and large, we each buy whatever we want throughout the year and it seems pointless to buy something just because of the time of year. I know "she" will be buying clothing etc and "she" knows that toys will be arriving. We just try not to complain about it too much unless the clutter escapes into the shared areas.

Nice box with magnetic closure
Beautifully packaged
I hid the brown card box box in my study and totally forgot about it! I'm an eejit! I blame work mostly because I ended up in the operating theatre through most of the holiday period and just didn't seem to have much time. Finally just in time for New Years Day, I remembered it and unpacked. Marvelling at the packaging, I was delighted  to see something just beautiful inside. We have a small box with a disfigured Snowman on top. The top and bottom plates of the box are made from vibrant Padauk and the main body along with snowman, made from what looks like Maple. When turning it upside down there is an interesting clicking noise.

Time to explore and I quickly found that the snowman could swivel on his box but only a fraction of a turn before stopping dead. It could return but that was all that was possible. Examining it from all angles showed me that things moved inside and sometimes they allowed the snowman to turn further or turn back further... and sometimes turning it didn't allow any turning. Hmmm!

Why would the extra rotation be allowed sometimes but not other time? Time to think© and listen. After a little while I made a crucial discovery and I could rotate at will in any direction that I wished. At least I could do that for a few turns until I couldn't any more. It seemed to be very tight and I didn't want to use force. Time to search for something else. I looked and looked and looked, and...found nothing. I was stuck!

This being stuck seems to be something that happens to me a lot. Mrs S says it's because I'm an eejit and rubbish at puzzles. She is starting to insist that I shouldn't ever get any more. Sob! I thunk for 10 days until it occurred to me to have a proper close look at the puzzle using a magnifier app on my phone. At this point I had an idea and tried to implement it. I was so certain that I was right that I put the puzzle in a room with a dehumidifier and after 24 hours my suspicion was confirmed. The puzzle seemed to be rather tight and loosened slightly with the dehumidifier. This then allowed me to carry out the next movement and with a bit of a squeak, I was able to see the rather clever mechanism inside. There was no nose to be seen but part of the mechanism dropped out and looked like something that had an additional function. A few minutes later, after nearly 2 weeks of trying, the snowman and his nose were reunited:

Even Mrs S thought this was delightful!
Thank you Kyle, I love it. It's a clever mechanism with a nice added extra step. My only excuse for how long it took me was being busy and the humidity in the UK just now made it really quite tight. This will look lovely on display.

If you get a chance to try it or buy it then you will not be disappointed. Unfortunately, I missed out on the Reluctant Drawer from Kyle which won accolades at the End of Year Puzzle Party as well as in the Mechanical Puzzle Discord. Hopefully I'll get to play at an MPP in the future.



Last week, when I mentioned Juno's incredible Tornado burr, I showed off (one of my) trays of shame:

A LOT of unsolved puzzles here
After another 24 hours of playing with the Tornado burr, I finally did manage to reassemble it and even did it again a second time. It's a bit fiddly but certainly very approachable for a lot of you geniuses out there. Don't be put off by the "burr" in the name. It's really not a burr in the traditional sense - I would recategorise it as an interlocking puzzle. Juno still has a few for sale here if you are interested.

The white bag at the back of the tray pictured above has been there for 18 months! I bought the incredible Euroka 10x3 puzzle from Juno in Feb 2023 and put it on display on a windowsill for nearly six months when a moment of madness made me disassemble it. I thought I could do it piecemeal and take sequential photos which would help with the reassembly. I wrote about it here

Lovely on display
Unfortunately the puzzle doesn't really come apart sequentially. I took it apart from the top and removed 3 layers before my Aha! moment collapsed in a heap on me leading me to the epithet below:

You Stupid Boy!


Over the subsequent 18 months I have repeatedly attempted reassembly only to be surrounded by pieces, a very high blood pressure and a new-found reliance on swear words. I have access to an unlisted video from Juno showing the assembly as well as the picture on his info page about it. Multiple attempts have failed and after last week's success with the Tornado burr, I was determined to assemble the bloody thing.

held by rubber band
This time I had a new advantage! I had a rubber band! These wondrous items have never been allowed in our house due to the fascination that our cats have had with them. They adored chewing them and once broken would swallow them. It all sounds perfectly reasonable and slightly funny until 24 hours later they reemerge from the cat at the opposite end. Picture the cat zooming all around the house with an itchy bum and a rather hideous springy brown kebab emerging from his back end. Then add to this wonderful image add a picture of me chasing him around with a piece of kitchen paper to try and catch and extract said kebab and rubber band. Whilst this seems funny to most blokes, it is not funny to Mrs S and as a result rubber bands are VERBOTEN! 

Our last cat unfortunately left us last year and I felt brave enough to keep a band or two in my study for emergency puzzling situations. This was just such a situation and I put said rubber band to good use. I managed to assemble the bottom 5 pieces and placed the band around them. I then built up the next 2 layers on top and it suddenly became stable. After this, I just had to work out how to place subsequent middle layers and finally, after several hours of attempts, I got them all to engage with a click. 

Hooray!

I'm not taking that apart again!
Mrs S was actually impressed when I showed her that it was finally assembled and threatened for a moment to take it apart for me. I snatched it away! I now think I could do it again but not for a while!

My other tray of shame has been removed from the living room! The weight of it has marked the carpet and I am told in no uncertain terms that I must redistribute them so that there is less weight on the tray. Some of these puzzles have been there for several years, unsolved but with a vague hope that I might one day mange them:

Marks on the carpet? Whack! Ouch!

Some fabulous and difficult puzzles here
In particular the Popplock T13 remains unsolved as well as Brian Young's Ages sequential discovery burr (not even found the first hidden move! Sigh! I must try harder!


Sunday, 5 January 2025

Oops! I Did It Again!

Happy New Year Everyone 

Tornado Burr from Juno
It has been a very long time since I bought anything from Juno. I missed out on the fabulous Hippo puzzle due to cash flow issues and he has been quite quiescent recently whilst carrying out house renovations. But...he has found time to create some new unique burrs. I couldn't resist them and the flight around the world with them on was the fastest I've ever seen! Mrs S was really unimpressed to see 3 packages arrive in 2 days. The first was the parcel from Juno and Yukari along with a package of a "second" quality Xmas tree from Dee Dixon and then there was a rather large box from Alex Magyarics - I think he is intending me to suffer a painful death from a blunt teaspoon at the hands of Mrs S. She can scoop at parts of anatomy with the teaspoon and cause intense pain and harm as well as death should the fancy take her. Note that we only allow blunt teaspoons in the house as I wouldn't want the damage to be done without at least some effort on her part so that she has to think about it before inflicting it.

We have LOT of toys from Alex - I hope that I can solve just one or two (if I survive)
He is an evil genius wholeheartedly has been equipped with a 3D printer and let loose on the world 
The Tornado burr is not actually a new creation. The original was made by Brian Young in 2008 before I started my puzzle madness. There is a video of Brian making pieces on YouTube and the sheer amount of work is incredible. This does explain why this burr is not particularly cheap. For the workmanship in it, it's a bargain. Brian wrote this about it:
"This ingenious burr was designed by Junichi in May 2007 with “head and hands; no computer”. Junichi had the idea for a multiple rotational movement but did not get to finally apply it to a puzzle until he came up with the Tornado Burr.

People often ask puzzle designers “What was going on in your head to design this puzzle?” What was going on in Junichi’s head when he designed the Tornado Burr? Visualising things going up and down and back and forth at the same time is one thing, but things going up and down, back and forth and around as well is quite another! Junichi says the Tornado Burr “has very eccentric movements” and challenges puzzlers to “Try your luck, and stop this fierce tornado.”

Needless to say this puzzle is not solvable in any computer program that we know of.

This interlocking burr puzzle was recognised for its innovation, design and the amazing puzzle solving experience it provides in the 2007 Nob Yoshigahara Design Competition with an Honourable Mention. Until Brian tackled his Limited Edition of this burr the puzzle had not been commercially available and now Brian knows why. Making the jigs, the number of and complexity of them, was more difficult than making the puzzle itself. As well as conventional check-outs there are routed check-outs and a further 16 sections that must be hand-turned on a lathe."

After reading this, who could resist such a fabulous challenge? I took my photos and put it down to explore. To be honest, I had not seen anything like this before. It very much reminded me of the Kamikaze burr that I bought years ago which also cannot be solved by computer but is coordinate motion rather than rotational.

Pushing and pulling at the sticks immediately reveals that this is not even close to the right approach. After fiddling with it a little bit, the pieces sort of settled into a shape that would give a hint of the approach. I should have realised from the name - what does a Tornado do? It spins!


The pieces just settled like this
A strong sense of foreboding hit me!
Having seen this movement begin of its' own accord, I felt that it was my duty to continue it and the whole thing very rapidly gets warped out of cubic shape. Having moved some pieces (I was very careful to ensure all 4 moved at the amenities time),  I realised that is they were turned enough then it would free up others to also turn. OK, challenge accepted! 

OMG! I backtracked very quickly at that point as the puzzle became very distorted and pieces started to move independently of each other. It was very stable, there was no chance it was going to just fall apart but it became obvious that I needed to concentrate and be aware of what I was doing. The intrepid puzzler started again and very rapidly got himself into trouble - somehow I had turned one of the sticks 90º independently of the others in the same plane and then nothing else was possible. It took me a while to realise what I had done and attempt to backtrack. The heart stopping moment where I realised that the solo rotated piece could not be returned in synch with the others stopped me a bit and in ever increasing panic I tried various moves to extend the gaps that appeared to allow the piece to turn back. Only after about an hour of swearing at myself did I manage to get it back to the start and calm my nerves again. It's very exciting stuff this puzzling isn't it? Why to I scare the crap out of myself so often?

After a rest for an hour or so, I started again and found a combination of moves that seemed to open up the grooves a little bit. A little bit of shookelling about (it's a Scottish term) and I had a wonderful Aha! moment. Oh that moment was wonderful - I took a photo and jiggled the puzzle only to have a slow motion moment of horror! I had a whole lot of pieces in a pile and only a vague idea where they should be. Bugger! Having reached that point and gone beyond the point of no return, I pushed everything together for a couple of photos and now I am wondering what to do next.

Aargh!

Look at the workmanship in those pieces!



It's always good to see Juno's mark.











This reminds me very much of the situation from July 2023 when I thought it was a really good idea to dismantle the Euroka puzzle (also from Juno). I ended up with a pile of pieces and absolutely no idea how to reassemble it. I did get sent a video of Juno showing the assembly but I cannot for the life of me manage it and it remains in a bag as a puzzle to be attempted soon. It is so important that it is in my current to be solved pile in the conservatory. It really needs to go back together and displayed. Sigh, one day maybe!

Euroka
Oops! That was stupid
I really hope that the Tornado burr doesn't end up next to the Euroka over here:

The white bag of shame!

Thank you Juno for the fabulously beautiful puzzles, for the wonderful Aha! moment and also for showing me up yet again!


Tuesday, 31 December 2024

Happy New Year! My top ten(ish) puzzles of 2024

Happy New Year to you all! I have no idea what happened to 2024. Actually I have a vague idea that I worked my way through it with not enough breaks for enjoying what I love. I only managed to get to 2 of the MPP's of the year which is a bad sign that I am working a lot of weekends. New Year resolution to work less!

Welcome to my customary end of year post looking back at my puzzling highs of 2024. As always, thinking about it was triggered by Peter Hajek's request for the top 3 acquisitions of the year. Peter wants to know the best arrivals in the collection and I always write about my best puzzles solved which makes it a little harder to come up with a good list. I have had a pretty good year of puzzle purchasing much to the disgust of the current wife, but it has felt like a bad year for me in terms of puzzle solving. Having looked back through my year of posts, there have been some absolutely amazing creations. 

Nowhere near solving!

Smack-n-Moles by Stickman - this has been sitting in my conservatory next to me for over a year now and I picked it up regularly throughout 2024 and got absolutely nowhere. I have made a few discoveries but nothing is useful. It remains in my naughty pile and is not getting put away until done!

The coloured plastic version of the Crazy double circle cube was refought towards the end of 2023 when the black version began to have issues with the inner circles catching on me. I duly scrambled this version and whilst it has worked flawlessly, I don't seem to be able to solve it. I get really close to the end game and then lose it - sigh! Another one I will keep going on.

Vertigo from Dee Dixon - it looks and smells lovely! It remains in my kitchen (much to the disgust, yet again, of Mrs S) and to my eternal shame, I have not even managed to find the first move. The top inner disk spins freely and that is it - Aargh!

Blinded, also by Dee Dixon. Another one in my kitchen and if this continues then I am going to get a Whack! Ouch! very soon.

Box of Celts - this won quite a lot of votes at the last EPP and I was very lucky to manage to get one early in 2024. I haven't even found the first step yet.  OMG! I am so bad at puzzles!

I missed out on Juno's tour de force (the Hippo) but at the beginning of the year I did manage to acquire this gorgeous puzzle, the Dual Meanders Box. There are a lot of moves possible with so many maze plates that can move as well as the centre of the walls. I seem to make progress in two possible directions but always seem to hit a dead end no matter what I try. This has been shelved for a while due to frustration.

The Fibonacci box from Jesse Born. Having collected and solved the Pi box, I had to have the next in that series - it is simply gorgeous and has a very complex mechanism with some serious brass inside. I have managed to make things slide but absolutely nothing seems to lead anywhere and I cannot find any connection to the Fibonacci number series. 

Of course, let us not forget that Shane has been quiescent for a while (note that I did not say quiet because Shane is NEVER quiet!) He produced, in collaboration with the Two Brass Monkeys, the Who Dares Wins lock. I am not very good at locks but this one is kicking my butt - yet another puzzle I haven't even found the first move for. I can see something that I'd like to try to do but I don't have anything to do it with - sigh!   

Finally managed to solve with a good bit of assistance

Orbit by Dee Dixon. This took over a year to solve and was only possible with a decent hint at the last MPP. Maybe there is something about Dee's puzzles? There is a massive challenge to them and I just cannot seem to solve them easily. Very good value for money!

Almost made it

There have been so many great puzzles that I had to relegate a few - this doesn't mean that they aren't good - they still deserve a mention and here's a few almost there puzzles:

Mibinity designed by Michel van Ipenburg and beautifully created by Jack Krijnen is a delightful and unusual manifestation of the N-ary puzzle group. It's a lovely little delight, not too hard and fun to fiddle with and, of course, beautifully made. It has reminded me that Stephan Baumegger has created a whole bunch of new N-ary puzzles that I haven't bought yet due to funding constraints. Sigh!

Every year I buy a whole bunch of disentanglement puzzles from Aaron Wang and most of them bamboozle me for the whole year before I give up. This year, Aaron helped produce some wonderful wire only puzzles which had just the right difficulty level and some wonderful Aha! moments. I have not yet managed the string puzzles but I'm hopeful!



Finally...On with my top ten(ish) puzzles solved in 2024:

Every top ten needs to start at least at 11 because I cannot count! So here we go.

11) Incredible Packers

Over the last few years I have been delighted by some truly wonderful packing puzzles with something very special about them. It may be the wood or it may be the odd technique needed to solve them. In either case they all share a fantastic delightful Aha! moment. Here's a few that I had to mention:

Persistence of Memory by Alexander Magyarics
Made by Brain Menold
Nested Soma by Dr Volker Latussek with Lucie Pauwels
Made by Pelikan
Also from Mine-san:
Perfect entrance
3L x2
Sukiyaki by Frederic Boucher
Made by Pelikan

10) 234 Puzzle Cube

When Mike Toulouzas designs and makes something you know that it is going to be very special and a perfect challenge. This came out of the blue as a gift at the beginning of 2024 and delighted me with it's sheer beauty as well as a challenge that is just tough enough to make me feel foolish and yet smile at the same time. Thank you Mike!

9) Chained Key

Luke Waier had a really good idea
Lots and lots of people have gushed about this beautifully crafted puzzle this year and, as usual, I was late to the party. I quickly saw why so many people loved it - there are lots of steps and each one needs some careful logic and thought©. I have had to put it further down the list because one part of mine had a step that had been overtightened and I could not progress until I received reassurance at the MPP and then had to use an external tool to loosen that bit before continuing.

8) Minima Puzzles - so so many of them!

Frederic Boucher had an idea - he created a 2x2x3 box with holes in various places and odd pieces to fit inside. Sometimes it needs odd rotations, and sometimes there need to be odd holes to allow these rotations. It is soooo good that he made quite a lot of them. I haven't gotten around to solving them all yet but I am working my way through them. 

Minima Tower by Frederic
Recently Minima Smiley
Minima Domino by Frederic
Minima Texas
Minima Ludique
Minima Twig
I think the world thinks it was a good idea based on great reviews from others and the fact that so many other people jumped on this bandwagon to produce their own variants.

The great Laszlo Molnar designed some
Lucie Pauwels couldn't resist it
Even Dr Latussek added something special

7) Vertigo Puzzlebox

Yes, I actually solved a Vertigo puzzle (just not one from Dee Dixon
This is the second of the puzzle boxes made from Lego that I have from Quizbrix. Every time I see a Lego box, I am sceptical but every time I am amazed at the incredible complexity and fun mechanisms that can be fitted into an amazingly small volume. I adored this one and it is still available here.

6) Oleg's Wardrobe

Oleg's Wardrobe by Dee Dixon
I have this here because it is a fabulous puzzle and beautifully made by Dee Dixon. The mechanism was incredible and really fun to solve. It isn't higher up the list because I just cannot seem to reset it at all. I will need to take it to an MPP next time and see if anyone can do it for me!

Whilst I am thinking about Dee's creations, I have to include the Uplift puzzle here. I received it in 2023 and spent months and months spinning the damn thing around. I then finally made progress this year and solved it with a wonderful Aha! moment and a silly grin at the end!

Uplift

5) Twister Box

When Pelikan produce a box it's a "must have"
Jakub and Jaroslav appear more than once in my top ten(ish) of 2024 because they produce some gorgeous puzzles and work with some of the best designers in the world! However, when they produce one of their own designs, everyone should sit up and take notice. Also when they produce a box, it will be something special. Their craftsmanship is second to none and their ideas are amazing! This box made me laugh out loud! I solved it by accident as most people will but the understanding of the mechanism is the fun part - then you can do it easily every single time! Brilliant!

4) Free Me 9

Joe produces an amazing challenge
When Joe Turner sends out an email about yet another of his brilliant Free Me puzzles, the puzzling world really pays attention! I said yes as soon as the email arrived and was not disappointed. The aim wasn't just to free one coin but 3 with a whole series of mechanisms. It really took me some time and needed a little hint.


Three coins this time!

3) Picolock

Boaz Feldman does it yet again!
This amazing puzzle lock by Boaz Feldman won a huge number of accolades at last year's EPP. I finally stopped buying wood for long enough to pick one up and loved every moment of the solve. It's classic Boaz with beautifully hidden mechanisms that are a delight to find.

2) Matchbox playground

The Matchbox Playground by Pelikan and Peter Gal
I adore a puzzle set but I seldom actually attempt more than a few challenges from them. This wonderful set is a fabulous collection of matchbox challenges stunningly made by Pelikan comprising the exhaustive analysis by Peter Gal. I keep returning to it. Even the box looks like a matchbox. Amongst all of the beautiful puzzles that I received in 2024, this is probably the most beautiful item on my shelves - it is simply stunning.

So many pieces - it's a challenge to put them in the box
The simplest challenge

1) Brass Monkey Sixential Discovery puzzle

You knew it had to be this one!
This is an absolute masterpiece of puzzle design and manufacture by Big Steve and Ali. It's a fitting end to the Brass Monkey series. I doubt it can ever be beaten - it might be the best puzzle ever made! There are so many beautifully made mechanisms that lead to one Aha! moment after another. I wish I could solve it all over again. I hope the guys are feeling the pressure because I want another tour de force like this again.

Solved after so many steps!
All six Brass Monkeys


Do you agree with my top 10? If you have any different thoughts then please comment below or even use my Contact page to tell me how wrong I am. I look forward to your thoughts. 

Happy New Year to you all!

I really hope that you all have a fabulous year in 2025 with good health, success and plenty of wonderful puzzling. I look forward to entertaining and maybe helping many of you in this year.