Sunday 29 January 2017

JCC Disentanglements and a Reason for Celebration

Hi guys, today I am very very grateful to the Puzzlemad Hawaiian correspondent, Mike Desilets, for helping me out whilst I am really busy - he has produced yet another really high quality guest post. This just happens to be the 400th post on the Puzzlemad website since starting out in March 2011 which is quite an achievement - I don't think I have ever stuck at a hobby for so long and I have to say that it is very much down to the wonderful community that I keep at it. Jerry has overtaken me by posting his 401st post a couple of days ago for which I give my hearty congratulations. At the bottom of this post is another reason for me to celebrate.

Mike seems to be uncannily aware when I need him and swings into action with a marvelous informative article for you (and me) to read - it is only fitting that I let him have post number 400. This article was going to be posted last weekend when Shane stepped in with his fabulous and pleasantly painful Viper which I was pleased to read also bit Allard.  The puzzles reviewed in Mike's article are some of the wonderful selection of disentanglement puzzles available from my friend Tomas Linden's Sloyd puzzle store which you really should check out (I have bought some more from him as a result of Mike's post). So without further ado I hand you over to Mike....

Aloha Kākou readers. Let me start this post by noting that, without any prior planning, Kevin and I are usually pretty well synchronized in that my occasional guest blogs arrive when he is at wits end with work and home responsibilities (Ed - indeed - I am on call today and so may well be unhappily ensconced in an operating theatre when I would much rather be reading and writing about puzzles). Unfortunately, this was not the case over the holidays. I’ve kept myself offline over the last few weeks (except for some puzzle shopping, of course), and during that time, I now learn, Kevin had one foot in the grave with his lovely (Ed - and violent) wife soon to follow (Ed - she's still there!). Seems like things have corrected themselves now, but I can’t help feel that I should have been more attentive. I also feel sorry for all his patients who had to forgo anaesthetics (Ed - corrected spelling) during their operations (Ed - the screaming was awful - I had to put my earplugs in). Anyhow, maybe this post will give Kevin a few hours to catch up on everything that was left undone during his illness.

Half Clover by Jean Claude Constantin.

Sunday 22 January 2017

Shane's Viper Bit Me and my Balls are Too Big!!!

Viper
I bet that title got you reading!!!! Continue right to the end for a full explanation!

This week, much to my surprise, having had a few very very bad days at work, I came home to a surprise package! Now that always makes my day but it especially is fun when the name on the postage label tells me it comes from my good friend Shane Hales. I am aware that he has lots of new ideas and plans to produce quite a few new puzzles in 2017 but I wasn't expecting anything quite so soon. I am so SO SO grateful that I have been chosen to be "Agent 001" and pretty much always receive the second puzzle in each line (000 remains in his ownership).

Characteristic signature
Viper is a special puzzle which shows off several things - firstly, as always, it shows off Shane's characteristic craftsmanship skills. He claims never to be up to the standards of Scott Peterson, Eric Fuller or Pelikan and I have to say that there are very few people in the world as good as that. However the drop in finish quality is not due to lack of skill, it's more due to lack of time and different priorities - I know that given time and lack of other distractions, he could produce incredibly accurate work - he has, after all been awarded The Master Carpenter Award by the Institute Of Carpenters (as a fellow of the Institute), The Master of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters, The Master of the Worshipful Company of Joiners & Ceilers, and The City & Guilds of London Institute - very few people achieve this! Second, his designs are always very novel and very interesting (Viper is pretty unique as far as I know). They are often very simple in their basic premise but beautifully implemented and well hidden which makes them all the more enjoyable. Finally, the other feature that is totally unique is his sense of humour! There are very few puzzle makers out there who actually make me laugh out loud when I attempt to solve something. This puzzle really did that just like his Haleslock 2 which also had a lovely bit of misdirection which made me laugh after I solved it.

The puzzle is made from Oak and Walnut and to my eye is beautifully made. There are tiny flaws but they are a natural part of the wood. Shane said this about it:

"Only 10 Viper puzzles will ever be made (come on, I have increased the number!)

I got the idea for this puzzle from another 80's film, Gremlins. But also if anyone ever bothered to read the notes on "my collection" page that I've attached to each photo (I know at least one person did as I had to make corrections thanks Bernhard!) then on one of them you would notice maybe a strange comment if you have a mind like that!!! (I do like a easter egg if you hadn't noticed?) But no, it gave me this idea, so from these "VIPER" was born.

I really like this puzzle, and I hope so do you !!

-------------

WARNING!!
This puzzle can BITE you. it's not recommended for anyone under the age of 21, anyone with heart problems or a pacemaker, anyone with ophidiophobia, bad nerves, pregnant, or wanting to actually have children full stop. If you are a bag of nerves (a wimp) and you get the offer please turn it down.
(no offence will be taken! Refusal will NOT mean I won't offer you something else later)
NOTE:
Please do NOT stick anything inside the holes that you are definitely not supposed to........

You have been WARNED........

--------------

I have been asked several times how can I get one of your limited edition puzzles?

THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY. DIRECTLY FROM ME. IF ANYONE EVER SAYS THEY CAN GET YOU MY PUZZLES THEN THAT IS A LIE.

(Any puzzles that I have for sale will only be sold by me or my official resellers. Always check with me FIRST on who they are if you do not know them. If you get an unlikely issue with a puzzle I will only look at ones I or my resellers have sold, I have good reasons for this, DON'T get ripped off :-)

All my limited puzzles are and will always be gifts from me. With the exception of Nick Baxter's auction this year, but you all know why I did this, and I'll probably never do it again unless it's for something special, it will also only ever be auctioned or offered by me.

I have strict rules with these gifts for good reason, I spend lots of my free time and cash creating these for you, so, they can never be sold, swapped, even given away. If someone decides they don't want a puzzle anymore, just return it (I'll cover postage) and I'll send onto someone else. That's the RULES.

I'm a collector to. There are so many puzzles I want, so I feel everybody's frustration. I'm very sorry and sad about it, but its a hobby. I do it for the joy of doing it only. I don't need pressure, I give that to myself. If I didn't do what I can do then I wouldn't make any, so something is better than nothing, right?

I try to get things all over the world, to collectors I know meet others, so my stuff can be shared.

I've had people email me to nominate others (which I LOVE) for a puzzle. I chat with the very top brass of the puzzle community, with some of the founders of our community of today, and also with the newcomers, anyone and everyone. I have even been asked how I could be inspired by them, and in fact this person's inspiration went into The Goblins Door, and I thank them for that.

So far I have not receive any pressure or selfishness from our community, and thats why I am proud of being a very small part of it.

These are my gifts, because it's my way of giving a little something back to others that give us ALL so much.

I will notify the (lucky?) people I have chosen to care for this new puzzle very soon.

Have a great, safe, and puzzling 2017

Shane
"
The other feature that always accompanies Shane's puzzles is spelling and grammar errors and I love him for it! With little schooling, he has worked his way up to the top of a very successful building company and now is one of the most sought after puzzle makers in the world. The letters that come with the puzzles always add a smile to my face for the humour and the errors and Viper is just the same!

Sunday 15 January 2017

Severely Restricted Twisting

Or SUNE to the rescue!

Bermuda cube Venus
Triangles on opposite faces with different rotations
Back in April last year I wrote about a little trip to Bermuda where I began puzzling with a variant of the Megaminx (a dodecahedron shaped twisty puzzle) and actually had some luck solving at least the first few. This was a desperate attempt to prove to myself that I wasn't as stupid as I felt because I had owned a Bermuda cube (Mars variant) for over a year at the time and had singularly failed to solve it. In the end it turned out that having the freedom provided by 12 faces makes the Bermudaminxes much more of a planning challenge and less of an algorithm restriction challenge. At the time I went back to the Bermuda cube that I owned and tried again and again to complete that last face to no avail.

In a FB message 3 way conversation with Marty (proprietor of the wonderful Puzzlestore UK and another friend,Paul (who was at Edinburgh Uni at the same time as me) I ended up getting taunted about my Bermuda failure. In the end they convinced me to try another cube in the series which they assured me would be easier and hopefully provide me with the skills required to solve my nemesis. So alongside the Very puzzle Mini geranium plus and the Hex shaper puzzles, I also added another cube! Damn those guys for being so convincing! Damn me for being so gullible/stupid! So in my pre-Xmas box from Marty there was the above puzzle a Bermuda cube Venus edition all very reasonably priced - thank goodness because my present from Mrs S had cost me an arm and a leg and kidney and part of my liver (luckily I have no children to sell!)

Sunday 8 January 2017

Turning Madness - Probably the Best Ever!

Tronc Commun 4
The plague that afflicted me has started to wane - I basically spent the best part of 2 weeks in bed and barely ate or drank anything and consequently lost quite a bit of weight. I now weigh less than I did when I got married 22½ years ago - I bet there are very few men who can claim that! Unfortunately the illness has prevented me from doing any significant puzzling and even though I am back at work, I am so knackered when I get home that I haven't managed much puzzling since. I also am extremely sleep deprived - first, a week or so of coughing at night and now Mrs S has converted the HeBola into the far more virulent SheBola and she has basically coughed continuously ALL night for the last 5 days. My puzzling strength has left me! This is one of the reasons that if you have attempted to correspond with me recently I have failed to reply - I am quite behind in my emails but will hopefully catch up in the next few weeks. There have, however, been a couple of toys that kept me occupied at the tail end of 2016.

Just before New Year I received another lovely package from Brian Menold. Inside was a lovely copy of his wooden Puzzle crafting crafting book (nicely signed) and the puzzle above which I just could not resist! It is Tronc Commun 4, another fantastic design by Gregory Benedetti). I have quite a few of Gregory's puzzles from various craftsmen and the overwhelming feature of his designs are that they require some very special and interesting moves - it may be coordinate motion or unexpected rotations but always something unusual. So with a fairly mundane level description of 3.3.4.7.9.4, I knew that this was going to be something very special.

Sunday 1 January 2017

Happy New Year - My top puzzles of 2016

Hi everyone, I hope you have had a great time over the festive season? Unfortunately for me in Chez Sadler, the Xmas period and week after has been rather poorly. In fact so poorly that I have actually lost quite a few pounds in weight and have really pissed off Mrs S with the sounds of gargling green mucus! At one point I actually asked on Facebook for a volunteer to shoot me because I had developed a severe viraemia associated with meningism. It was very nice to hear from fellow puzzlers (and local colleagues) with lots of useful and creative ways to end my suffering and a number of them kindly volunteered to take my puzzle collection/burden off my hands! Mrs S was so upset with me that she went shopping on the old internet and the Mulberry sale received some more of my income - I was too sick to put up a fight! Now does anyone want any green ectoplasm? I have lots to spare even after a week!

And now I'm really in the bad books......she has got it too. We now have stereo mucus and bilateral coughing fits! Aaargh! It's been 9 days and it's still not gone - this is truly a plague!

For the last few years, on New Year's Day (or thereabouts) I have posted my top puzzles of the previous year. I have always made these the top puzzles that I have actually solved that year which is different to the collection of ratings by my friend Peter Hajek, who for his "End of Year Puzzle Party" in London collects the top 3 from many eminent puzzlers around the world and collates them into an e-book. I sent my selection off to him just before Christmas and that started me thinking about what I should do for New Years day. I think I will align with him and put up my top 10(ish) puzzle acquisitions of the year rather than solves. My rationale for this is that there are many tremendous puzzles that I acquire that are of such complexity that they can take months and months to solve (in fact some I have never managed to solve) which may mean that they never get highlighted in my years end post. To ensure fairness, there may be the odd puzzle that I acquired in 2015 but only solved in 2016 but this should be the last time that will be necessary.

Honourable Mention
Big Steve's version of the Coffin 12 piece separation

At one of this years MPPs I was chatting with Big Steve (who's much bigger than wee Steve and both are bigger than me!) and was admiring some of his 3D printed output including some Coffin reproductions. He showed off the 12 piece separation by handing me a bag of pieces. Needless to say, I couldn't assemble the damn thing at the MPP but was very pleased that he also couldn't assemble it! That makes him a man after my very own heart! His generosity was such that he let me take it home with me whereupon I spent several days trying with little success to make an interesting shape, any interesting shape would have done as long as it stayed together! In the end I had to resort to the internet to at least find out what it was supposed to look like and then began to work on it properly. In the end Jim Storer provided the solution. After that I proceeded to learn it by my usual repeated assembly and disassembly. It is a fantastic design and Steve's skill with a 3D printer and acetone vapour has made a wonderful addition to my collection. Almost in my top 10 but something just pipped it out!

So here we go....on to the top 10(ish)



10) No top 10 is complete without a Hales Puzzle
Shane's Lock is a brilliant design - I am proud to be agent 001!
I consider Shane to be one of my best puzzle friends. There is no favour he could ask that I wouldn't move heaven and earth to try and fulfil. He has provided me over the years with many many hours of fun with his designs and also kept me entertained when we carry out dual solves of Wil Stribos' fabulous discovery designs. I was delighted when he sent me his Haleslock 1 (as well as number 2 later in the year) and duly set to work on it. The workmanship in metal is just as good as his skills in wood and this was a very nice little challenge. Shane would be the first to agree that it is not in the same league as the masterpieces from Rainer Popp (I still haven't solved my Popplock T10 which is sitting next to me on my desk and taunting me) but his aim is not to compete in that arena. The Haleslock 1 is a masterpiece in lock tampering (not lock design) and took me quite a while to work my way through the several steps. Thanks mate - I can't wait to see what you have instore for us all in 2017!

9) A Wild Animal of a Puzzle - Maahes
A lion - the king of the puzzles
No top 10 of my puzzle collecting year could possibly be complete without a contribution from the amazing Stephan Baumegger. Maahes was another of those collaborations with Terry Smart and proved to be a really fun excursion into the burr world. I am not particularly good at high level burrs and tend to stick to puzzles in this group with either a special attribute that makes them interesting or puzzles in the category without too many blind ends and a medium solution level (30s-40s). Maahes is just perfect with level 15.2.4.1.2.1.1.2 and a brilliant shape. Some of the moves were truly difficult to find but really great fun. This one was actually grabbed by Mrs S and put on display in our living room! She is a crazy cat lady and this is perfect for her (even if she will never try to solve it).

8) The Bagua Cube - twisty of the year
Looks just like an innocuous cube
After just a couple of turns - Gulp!
Holy CRAP!!!
Peter added a category to his list this year, a mass produced puzzle. This was very easy to decide. MF8 have outdone themselves to produce one of the most fun twisty puzzles in several years, The Bagua cube. This is based on a 3x3 Rubik cube but has the ability to make 45º face turns and split the centres and edges into smaller pieces. The puzzle looks horrific when scrambled but relies on mostly intuition to solve it and 3x3 methods. It's brilliant! I must have spent nearly a month working on this almost to the exclusion of all else - it completely took over my life and was not just the best mass produced puzzle of the year but earns a very well deserved place in my top puzzles of 2016. Simply stunning - I cannot wait to see what the twisty designers and manufacturers do next in 2017. We truly live in a golden age of puzzling!

7) NOS series.....so far
4 seemingly simple 6 piece burrs
Eric Fuller's work is always stunning and he has an uncanny way of choosing some of the most enjoyable puzzles to solve without them being too complex. The NOS (New Old School) series were designed by Gregory Benedetti and made to look outwardly simple but because of the use of amazing coordinate motion movements, they become objects of wonder. In fact one of these was so good that I made a YouTube video showing it off. The 4 NOS puzzles are marvels of woodworkers and designers skill and are just so different from everything else that I did say they were a possibly a new category of their own. There are more in the series which Eric did not think would be possible in wood but he's now hoping to make them in 2017 - they will not be cheap but I still intend to buy them because they will be amazing.

6) Brian's Incredible SMS Telephone
One of the hardest puzzles of the year
Most years Brian Young produces a stunning limited edition puzzle that has reached my top 10 because of sheer genius, sheer beauty and because they are totally unique. I reviewed this puzzle in November having owned it for 4 months. I had hesitated to buy for just a microsecond because this was a VERY expensive puzzle but as with all of Brian's creations I haven't regretted it for an instant because it is simply stupendous. The release number was up to 130 this time (I got my usual number 28) and hence they are still available here if you would want one. I have had to list this as far down my list as number 6 for the simple reason that I am simply deficient! The incredible complexity of this puzzle coupled with my lack of brains meant that I was stuck on the second step for many months. I just could not work it out myself and needed a definite clue from Brian before I could proceed. After that I whizzed through another 2 steps before hitting another brick wall in my head and needing further help. It is probably the most complex designs ever made and if I was more clever then it would be higher up my list. I cannot wait for the next LE puzzle!

5) Laszlo and Brian's Packing Puzzles
Not only stunning but several tremendous challenges
This is a bit of a cheat because one of this series was released and solved the year before but as a series they are truly incredible. I am not usually good at packing puzzles and generally don't collect them. However, this bunch are very different and require some real thought rather than trial and error despite being just 3x3 cubes in a box. They also have the added twist of requiring rotations of one or more pieces during the solution to add to the complexity. Brian completely outdid himself in the workmanship here - my particular set is made from Marblewood and Holly and looks absolutely wonderful on display. Thank you the pair of you for some wonderful additions to my collection. My previous reviews were here, here and here.

4) Johan sent his wishes and made me delirious
Johan's wish cube - It's even more stunning in real life

All the pieces - there's even a fun (and rather tough)packing puzzle inside!
I'm going to cheat here and put two separate creations together in one slot. My good friend Johan Heyns has been making fabulous puzzles for many years and last year he made it into the top 10 with his version of the Really Bent Board Burr designed by the genius that is Derek Bosch. In 2016 he turned to making puzzles as his full time job and has produced some simply amazing creations. He started with the Wish cube. It was the culmination of much work by himself and finally with the aid of Jack Krijnen and finished off what was originally supposed to be his contribution to the fabulous Apothecary chest. This was a simply stunning creation and in many years would be at the number 1 spot but I just have too many brilliant puzzles this year.

Delirium 13

An N-ary puzzle to go mad over
Later that year Johan made available an N-ary puzzle that was stunning in design as well as in his implementation. He used local South African woods as always and using his own unique woodworking techniques he made a beautiful burr in a block with an N-ary solution and a rather unique reset mechanism. The original design was by the amazing Stéphane Chomine and Johan made an amazing version. At 5461 moves to take out the first piece and with me being not terribly bright and getting turned around several times, this puzzle took me over a week to solve and left me with a wonderful sense of relief and admiration at the same time. Johan is still trying to make woodwork his main job and has set up a wonderful website at intellectualcraft.co.za to sell his creations - he also is making incredible turned wooden pens. You will never be disappointed in anything you buy from him - please go there and spend! I certainly plan to do so in 2017!

3) The Flying Scotsman Burr
Probably the most stunning burr I have ever seen!
Number 3 is probably the most beautiful puzzle I have seen in a long time, the Flying Scotsman Burr. Jakub and Jaroslav's New Pelikan Workshop have gone from strength to strength producing stunning puzzles that are just the right difficulty to be fun to solve as well as display in a collection. The first copy of the Flying Scotsman was made by my friend Stephan Baumegger but Stephan doesn't have the setup to mass-produce many complex puzzles and so Terry approached Jakub to see whether it could be made more generally available. They have produced something absolutely gorgeous here, only 50 have been made and I am delighted to be one of the lucky ones to have gotten a copy. It is just stunning and I hope to solve it soon. It is still available from their store here.

2) The Pachinko box
A wonderful aluminium discovery puzzle
Number 2 for me has to be a sequential discovery puzzle which I bought from the amazing Wil Strijbos, the Pachinko box. This beautifully machined creation consists of 4 challenges which require lateral thought, dexterity and a bit of blind maze negotiation. Wil never disappoints and every year one of his puzzles manages to reach my top 10. I have also had a lot of fun providing support to other puzzlers around the world who are stuck on it.

1) The Stickman Burl Tile Puzzle
Just look at the sheer beauty and complexity! Stunning! 
My top acquisition of the year is my Xmas present from Mrs S. The Stickman Burl Tile Puzzle is a gorgeous thing (limited to just 50 copies) which is effectively a mixture of a twisty puzzle and sliding tile puzzle (sequential movement) and because it happens to have a cavity is also technically a box. The fact that it is only incidentally a box is the reason that I can own it. After Xmas I will be allowed to play and hopefully solve it. I have put in only an hour or so at it due to illness and whilst I am making slow progress, I suspect this will take me many more hours yet. It is simply stunning and has several very ingenious mechanisms in it - a masterpiece from Robert. Thank you my friend and thank you also to the ever watchful and ever loving Mrs S for probably the best Xmas present a man/puzzler could ask for. xxx