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!