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!

Is It Safe In Your Hands?

Safe from Pelikan Puzzles

This new sequential discovery puzzle box is due to be released by the amazing Pelikan team this coming Friday. It will be limited to a small release of 64 copies so you will need to be quite quick.

Instructions and a certificate

It is a stunning creation made from various woods - it looks like Acacia and Walnut at least. There are also metal components and magnets. It must contain something valuable because it is quite large and quite heavy. Dimensions are 11 x 11 x 15.3cm (4.3 x 4.3 x 6") and weighing 985g (2 lb 3oz) making it very tactile to play with. 

The story is that this safe belonged to George Thomas, a wealthy factory owner, and many robbers have attempted to get into it to steal the huge treasure that is inside. Your task is to get into it and retrieve the haul for yourself. It does not need any shaking, spinning or banging.

There is a door on the front held by an ornate hinge and a dial on the front for the combination. The dial clicks as you turn it to get to the combination. Apart from this, nothing else seems to move at all. The hinge is not a fake hinge and doesn't come apart. There are some interesting brass pins on the side of the puzzle as well. It did occur to me that the feet might be useful but they don't come off to reveal an alternative locking mechanism:

Those feet look like a possible tool or entry?

Small coin
NOT the treasure though

Once you have finished exploring what you have and getting nowhere then you need to think© about alternative approaches. I had my first Aha! moment after about 15 minutes - there is no hint from the outside that what I tried would work but I couldn't think of anything else to do. I was in the safe and found my first small prize - a small coin. Was this a hint at vast treasure still inside? There was clearly more to do. Maybe more coins further in?

I got stumped for a little while at this point. The temptation to shake it and spin it was there but I was a good boy and decided to use my tiny brain on it. The next few mechanisms were beautifully created and a delight to discover. I had my treasure after an hour or so!

Or did I?????

This is a wonderful creation designed by Jakub and brought to life by the Pelikan team. You won't be disappointed in this one. I suspect they will sell out very quickly - make sure you are ready on Friday 5th September.

---

I blame Allard! Look what he made me do:

I got by a big customs fee but it should be worth it!

The Half Voxel Confuses Me!

Marble Cake +

The last few weeks have been rather poor puzzling weeks for me. The case mix at work has become rather challenging as I have been presented with quite a lot of really challenging cases. For 3 weeks in a row, I have been up to my eyeballs in blood which has a marked tendency to leave you just a little fatigued by the time you get home. At one point, was also a connection on a pice of equipment that had not been tightened adequately and when some salvaged blood was connected, there was a ...erm... leak. I have to tell you that a little blood goes a long way! Especially when it trickles up your arm inside your clothing! Aargh! 

One puzzle that I have been carrying around with me for a few weeks has been another packing puzzle from Frederic Boucher, produced by the amazing Tye Stahly, is the Marble Cake+. It is currently sold out but, again, if enough of you make enquiries, Tye might be convinced to make it again. In this one, Frederic proves his mastery of 3D puzzle design - he abandons the usual 2x2x3 container to be packed and uses a 2x4x4 box which has a giant 2x2 hole in the top (plus a small 1 voxel hole in the front. No rotations are allowed. So what makes it a challenge? 3 of the pieces have ½ voxel overlaps which effectively means that it is not a 2x4x4 packing puzzle - it is, in reality a 2x8x8 puzzle and my brain doesn't work well at that scale.

I have spent at least a month searching for a way to assemble the pieces that fit the space (there were going to be gaps) and I really struggled. Having the ½ voxel pieces messed with my head. In fear that I would need to work my way through dozens of assemblies to pack, I entered the pieces into Burrtools and, much to my relief, I saw that there was only one way to assemble the pieces in the 2x4x4 space. All that I needed to do was find it and then work through 16 possible orientations with the box to find one that worked and finally, work out the order and move sequence of the pieces. I deliberately did not memorise the position of all the pieces but had a vague memory of where 3 of them went with respect to each other. I know it is sort of cheating but I was getting desperate for some success. 

Even knowing the start positions of these pieces did not make it easy. I really struggled to assemble my shape and after a month, I finally found it. Next, place it inside the box. Easy peasy? Nope! I always start by trying to see whether I can remove the pieces from the box rather than put them in. Here this was made a little easier by the fact that the front wall of the box was detachable. I don't know whether this was deliberate but it really helped me! I pulled off the front and stuffed the assembly inside and attempted to take the pieces out.

Make sure you take your photo of the assembly because you will forget it almost immediately after you take it apart to place individual pieces in the box! Quite a few of the orientations of the shape can immediately be discarded because there is absolutely no way to get even a single piece out.

I spent all morning today with my assembled cuboid and systematically worked until I found which one was possible and with great relief, just before it was time to write a blog post I had my solved puzzle. Talk about cutting it to the wire! It's a brilliant design by the absolute master of packing puzzles. A slight spoiler in the next picture so I have hidden it behind a button.

Finally after a month!

This is a huge challenge for such a simple idea and with no rotations. The half voxel pieces seemed to confuse me so much. Maybe you will be better at it than me? Ask Tye about making more and hopefully you can try it yourself.

More Mathematical Beauty

Which Teaches Me To Count From Zero

Fibonacci Box from Jesse Born

Under surface is stunning too

Way back in 2018, I bought my first box from Jesse Born, the Pi Box which was reviewed here with huge pleasure. You all know that I "don't collect boxes" but if there is something else about a puzzle box that draws my attention then I bend my rule just a little bit - with the Pi Box, it was the connection to mathematics that did it for me. I have always loved mathematics (especially the abstruse pure mathematics) and have collected lots of recreational maths books and even attended the Open University for quite a few years to study maths before the job got so busy that I couldn't keep it going. So the mathematical connection of the Pi Box forced me to make a purchase - I was delighted and called it "possibly the most beautiful puzzle in the world". To be honest, having watched the incredible puzzles being made by Jesse, it took quite a lot of willpower to keep to my collection down to just the one box. However, I was ever mindful that I really cannot afford a divorce and Mrs S would not want hordes of bank balance busting boxes being brought to the door, I stayed with just the one.... until the Fibonacci Box was announced and I placed an order almost straight away. I hope that none of you blame me for buying another box? It again has a strong mathematical connection. It did take a very long time for Jesse to make them and it wasn't until March 2024 that it arrived. Complete with a certificate of authenticity - I am fairly certain that fake ones are not going to be possible!

To my shame, I took my photos and admired the manufacturing skill. It is another simply stunning creation to rival the Pi Box for beauty. It is made from Holly, Katalox, Cherry, Poplar, Brass, Richlite. I attempted to open it straight away and for some reason, I could never work it out. You all know the reason - I am not terribly bright! The description by Jesse claims that it should be easy but I was being dopey and not getting anywhere. I put it down on my desk after a week or so and it has been sitting in my study on the desk amongst an ever increasing pile of puzzles and was forgotten about until Mrs S forced a minor tidy and it was seen again. I spent another week or so before it was put down.

More recently, I did some more tidying and saw it again. I went back to the Pi Box and had a Think©.

Two of the most beautiful puzzles in my collection

One thing I noticed when I opened the Pi Box again, was the way I started counting and I had not been doing that with the Fibonacci Box. The important thing to realise is that mathematicians (and computer scientists) begin counting at zero! I should have realised that this might be important because the Fibonacci series starts at zero:

0   1   1   2   3   5   8.....

Looking tat the number of leaves/petals on the top of the box, I would not need to go that far along the Fibonacci series. Having worked it out and performed the series and unlocked the box and backtracked immediately. I then hit a snag. I had back-tracked and should have a locked box but it was still open. Very odd. Then I could not perform the sequence to re-open it. The last move wouldn't work. It was time to contact Jesse and receive some very nice support  via WhatsApp complete with a video of what he thought was happening. A quick click of the interior locking mechanism and I had it. Phew! Now I was able to open and close it at will.

Amazing work of art in the locking mechanism!

It was finally possible to have my two mathematical boxes open side by side:

Amazing mechanisms and beautiful workmanship

I would absolutely love to buy more puzzles from Jesse but fear for my life prevents it. Maybe I will get to try some more at an MPP in the future. It is not as if I have too few puzzles to play with. What I have is far too little time and not very much brain power to solve them!

I have made barely any progress on the Twins box:

Strijbos boxes

Think Like It's String

But Sometimes That Doesn't Work

Summer on the Xiaoshang Bridge

You all know that I can't resist a good disentanglement puzzle (actually, I can't resist a puzzle!) and the king of good wire and string puzzles is Aaron Wang. Every year he sends out a nice new list of impossible challenges which I spend several years failing to solve. I have learned that I need to focus on the ones that don't have string if I am to have any chance at all but some of the releases every year are clearly ultra-complex N-ary puzzles and nobody can resist owning at least 1 (or 50-100) N-ary puzzles. I can't afford to buy the whole set but I always buy a good selection.

This release had four lovely looking challenges based on the Xiaoshang bridge and I bought the Summer version thinking that I might actually understand it and be able to solve one for once. In this version there is a fish swimming under the bridge that has been caught up and needs to be brought in to dry land. It didn't look that hard to me and so I started early on it.

The fish has a very particular shape to its' mouth and this provides the clue for how to proceed. The first thing that you notice is that there is very little wiggle room with all the links of the chain and the fish. The moves will need to be quite precise. After a little play it quickly became apparent that this was actually a string puzzle! The way to solve it is to think like the chain is made of string - if you can see how the string version would solve then the chain version is going to be the same....with a little bit extra. It needs a little fancy manoeuvring to get the fake string into position and then it does the required move. Unlike with the string version, the fish is not released in a single move - it just moves the fish to another part of the puzzle and then it's quite simple to remove the fish for a photograph:

I'm better at fishing than puzzling!

I was feeling really good about myself - I would have a subject for the blog today! Time to throw the fish back in the pond as you are supposed to. Just reverse the sequence that I did earlier. Move one hooks the fish onto part of the chain and then fancy reorganisation and unhook and...

Tadaaaaaa!

The fish is back on the bank of the river! Huh! How did that happen? It's very odd, I could have sworn that I did the exact reverse of the initial set of moves and it didn't put the puzzle back to the beginning. I tried again and again with the same result. Very odd! This was a cue for a minor panic. I couldn't possibly fall down on the very first puzzle in the batch! Aaron had rated this a level 10 and, after the disassembly, I did wonder how he came to that conclusion. When I failed multiple times at the reassembly, I realised that there was more to the puzzle than I had initially thought. Great fun. Time for some think©ing.

After another 15 minutes or so, I realised that the disassembly requires a very specific positioning of several parts of that chain and it's really important that the same positioning is repeated when doing the reverse. Once realised, I had it back together. The fun thing here is that I have repeated the disassembly and reassembly a number of times and the initial false start in the reassembly happens to me every single time! Maybe you will be better than me?

Trumpet - design by Shuai Chi and made by Mr Gao

There are a few puzzles in this year's release that are musical instrument themed. This one, Trumpet, looks very compelling and not terribly tough with no string and a shuttle to be removed from a relatively simple shape.

It's "only" a level 8 on Aaron's scale so maybe actually achievable? I think in all the years I have been buying from him, he has never released anything simpler than level 8. I thought that PuzzleMaster had a very odd difficulty scale of 5 to 10 but Aaron only has a scale of 8 to 10! If you missed out on buying his puzzles direct then a huge number are available from PuzzleMaster here.

There are a couple of very obvious things to do with the shuttle straight away and they do look like they are going in the right direction. The only trouble is that when you perform one or other of those "obvious" moves then nothing further seems to be possible. Literally, each time you do it you can do one sequence and then are stopped in your tracks! Level 8? Lord help me!

The Einsteinian approach of doing the same thing many dozens (hundreds?) of times doesn't work as usual and I was stuck. I took it to work with me and failed there, much to the amusement of a few colleagues. I didn't let any orthopaedic surgeons near a wire puzzle as they have access to bolt cutters and power saws! Eventually I tried something silly combined with what I had done before and suddenly the shuttle was somewhere new. That was unexpected. A few moves later and I had my solved puzzle:

I can solve a level 8 puzzle!

I was on a roll! I now had 2 puzzles solved - was I going to get a lucky third? Sob! The answer to that is a resounding NO! 

I continued with the musical theme with Double-barre

 

Double-barre - design by Shuai Chi and made by Mr Gao

My first issue with this one was that it's not actually terribly clear which pieces get removed. I think that it splits into 2 halves but I cannot actually completely certain. It's a level 8 and supposedly simple.

Just as with the Trumpet, there are a couple of obvious moves to try which moves the double shuttle to link up with another part of the chain of rings. After that, I cannot seem to find anything to do that doesn't get things either very badly tangled (even without string) or need to force the wire to bend which is not right.

After a few days of doing the same thing multiple times, I saw a post on FB that had olved this puzzle. I reached out for a clue and received a nice photograph of a partway state and a comment that I should solve it like the Chinese Lantern 1 puzzle. The only problem is that I have singularly failed on that one too.

I have tried to get my version into the same configuration as my advisor and nope, I cannot do it. I have put it down for a while and will come back to it when I have some new ideas. Or maybe get some more hints. Sigh - I am rubbish at puzzles!

Whilst you are here, I have to tell you that most of the puzzles from Pelikan's latest release are still available. Don't miss out... they are really good.