Yes, I am working yet again this weekend! For that reason, this is a rather
quick blog post to show off something fun that will make a nice gift for the
puzzler in your life or for someone who you would like to entice into becoming a
puzzler.
This is the second release this year of puzzles by the Grabarchuk
family. I was too busy to participate when those ones came out but the
puzzles are still available and you can read about them on
Ken's blog here. This time I was still too busy but felt bad for not helping the last
time. Peter contacted me last week to ask if I was interested in showing off
his newest creations to the world. He gave me a nice discount which was
eaten up by the postage fees but it was worth it. The puzzles arrived
earlier in the week and I was delighted to have a play for a couple of days
this week. As you can see, Amenadiel was also very keen to play! Both our
cats (the girl is called Mazikeen) seem to love 3D printed plastic as well
as metal puzzles. They lick them which becomes very unpleasant and have been
known to run off with pieces.
This release includes a burr/assembly puzzle (12 piece), a cubic assembly
puzzle with multiple challenges and an entanglement puzzle. They range in
difficulty from very easy to extremely challenging! Today I will be showing
off the two that I managed to solve before having to go to work again.
Flower Coaster
This is a nice little toy for any beginner puzzler which can double up as a
drinks coaster should that suit your taste. It is available in a whole bunch
of different colour combinations. The oval rings are interlocked and sit on
a tray for transport and use as a coaster. A quick shale will separate them
into 2 interlocked rings with 4 grooves in each of them. It is worthwhile,
rotating them about and swivelling them a bit before trying to reassemble.
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4 grooves in each
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Having done that, the reassembly is a nice quick challenge. It is not hard for
any real puzzle enthusiast but for a child, this might be fun and make them
think. I am not certain that I would actually use it as a coaster as I don't
know how it would deal with hot items or liquid spills but for a small amount
of money it is quite nice.
It is presented in a circular acrylic box with a stand which I very nearly lost to the cat!
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| He picked it up and ran off with it! |
Checkered Chairs
Now this one was a whole lot of fun as well as a significant challenge! It
arrives as a 2x2x2 (or 6x6x6) cube in an acrylic box with a booklet of
challenges. I adore a puzzle with multiple challenges to keep me occupied.
After the cat licked it a bit, the cube fell apart to reveal the reason for
the name. The pieces (8 of them) are all variants of chair shapes with 2
colours forming different portions. When you purchase these puzzles there are
a bunch of options for the colour combinations as well as the ability to
choose a custom combination of colours.
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8 Chairs
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Obviously one of the challenges is to recreate the cube for storage but the
booklet provides 17 challenges of varying difficulty. The first 9 puzzles are to
use all 8 pieces to create various shapes that are shown in the book like the
one to the left.
Initially I found this really quite tough but after a half hour of fiddling
and experimenting I began to get my thought processes into alignment and
started to solve the challenges. Once you have managed the puzzles that use
all the pieces then it is time to move on to the next section where you make
smaller shapes but using only a few of the pieces (no, they don't tell you
which ones to use. The starter for this section needs only 4 pieces to make a
2x2x1 (or 6x6x3) tile:
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| 4 piece challenge |
Then you move to 3 challenges of 6 pieces and these are significantly more
difficult. The last one must have taken me an hour!
The final challenges (which I have not had a chance to try yet) show only the
positions of the dark cubes and expect you to create those shapes with the
lighter pieces arranged wherever possible to allow it to all fit together. My
few minutes of trial and error with this one has revealed that despite the
ability to put one colour wherever you want, it is significantly harder to
solve these than the other challenges. I have been quite surprised about this.
12 Logs
I have not yet had time to try this one but it looks like a significantly
challenging assembly puzzle that uses logic to put together. Again, it is
available in a lot of different colours. It will come apart quite easily to
reveal 12 notched logs with the notches in different configurations on each
of them. The aim is to put it back together into the cube that fits in the
storage box by working out which ones interlock in different directions and
in what order they need to be inserted. The booklet contains the solution if
you need help. It fell open when I opened the box for the photo and it would
appear that the logs sometimes need to be inserted in pairs or even clumps
rather than one at a time. I suspect that there is some real logic to
working this out and I will need some time to sit and try it.
Ken managed to assemble
his copy by using an illegal rotation so this potentially gives you an extra
challenge to try
This puzzle is not for the beginner although the presence of the solution
means that it could be given to a newbie with confidence that they could
assemble it with some help.
These are very nicely made 3D printed puzzles with the designs by Serhiy
Grabarchuk beautifully recreated and presented. They are very favourably
priced and well worth adding to your collection.
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