Stephan Baumegger
progressed very rapidly a few years ago from a just a hobbyist puzzle designer
and wood worker to one of the best in the world. He has been producing some of
the most beautiful creations in the Burr, N-ary and Sequential discovery
categories that I have ever seen. Each time he reveals a new set of creations on
his
PuzzleLeisure FB page, I add quite a few to my list and every time, I fail to buy before they sell
out because quality doesn't come cheap and by the time I have scraped the money
together, it's too late and I have to be aware that I am walking a very wobbly
tightrope with Mrs S and if too much arrives in a short time then I am in for a
stern talking to and possibly a Whack! Ouch! or
three. The Moonage M5 SD puzzle was released for last years IPP in Houston,
Texas and entered into the
2024 design competition where it
won a prize
in the top 10 vote getters section. Looking at the other winners, I can see that
it was a VERY good year for puzzling that year. The available copies sold out
fairly quickly when it was released for general sale in January - indeed they
were all gone on the day of release. After the IPP success that should have been
no surprise but I had run out of money at that time and had to pass.
Luckily Stephan knew that I was interested and when he had created a new batch
fairly recently, I was offered a copy for a sum that made Mrs S glare at me.
Luckily, she has been on a bit of a household stuff spending spree and
couldn't really chastise me too much without drawing attention to her own
profligacy. Maybe I should try to coincide my puzzle arrivals with her
spending in the future?
I got a bit of a shock when I first saw it (someone actually brought it to
the last MPP just before my copy arrived). I was expecting it to be
beautiful and wasn't disappointed but I hadn't realised quite how big it
would be. This Behemoth is 19cm tall, 7.5cm in diameter across the main body
and 15cm across the tail fins. It weighs in at about 517g. When it came out
of the box I was expecting she who must be feared to take one look at the
size of it and land a hefty Whack! Ouch!
on me but all she said was that it was very pretty. I haven't tried to put
it on display yet but I am not sure whether it will actually fit on my
shelves which may be a bit of a problem. I'm not allowed to display puzzles
in the living room any more after she had the room decorated and she
realised how nice the room looked without a large batch of puzzles on every
surface. Sob!
Once the launcher has been jettisoned then it is possible to look inside
and understand the mechanism properly - it's pretty clever and very precise.
In achieving launch you have used 3 important elements - water, oxygen and
energy and they are absolutely vital. My usual too and fro method here did
cause me a little problem but not one that Houston would have suffered. I put
some pieces back into place to try to get back to the beginning and suddenly
found that I couldn't then remove one of them. Doh! Maybe I should pay
attention to where the magnets were and not get mixed up. Luckily I had a pair
of tweezers and with a bit of a struggle I managed to remove the errantly
placed tool. I really am not terribly bright!
There are obviously other tools now needed and one is even visible but
seemingly not reachable until I thought about what I had done before. After I
had "thunk" again, I had my next tool and a place to use it and the second
stage rocked was released leaving me with the passenger compartment in the
nose cone:
Still not finished
The aim is to take the rocket to the moon and therefore I needed a lunar lander
and maybe a bit more. After all, when they reached the moon, they got into their
space suits and planted a flag on the surface of the moon. Releasing the next
items was a fun odyssey. The mechanisms are varied and clever - every single
step is beautiful with such attention to detail from the designer. I landed on
the moon and took my photo which I have hidden behind a spoiler button. It
really isn't a spoiler but if you don't want to see what the ultimate aim is then don't click it.
One small step for man!
Lunar lander, spaceman, US flag on the moon
That was a real fun challenge. Not too hard and only a couple of times when I had a small heart attack. Then it was time to reset the puzzle and, Houston, I had a problem! I had not paid full attention to how everything came apart and when I started to reassemble it I found that part of it wouldn't go together properly which was going to prevent the rest fitting. Aargh! Panic ensued and after a frantic opening and closing of parts that I had done it made me look very closely at the construction. I had missed noticing a critical part of the design and once I realised and a quick fiddle to get things correctly aligned, I was then able to put it all back together and admire the beauty of it all.
It wasn't cheap but, my goodness, it's beautiful and once I have found a place to put it, it will look beautiful on display. If you get a chance to play with one then enjoy. If you get a chance to buy a copy then jump at the chance, you won't regret it.
