Jukebox - Another Top Ten(ish) Candidate?

Hell Yes!

Jukebox from Moontree Puzzles

This masterpiece is the creation of Daniel Czuriga and Tibor Folytán’s Moontree Puzzles. It won the Jury grand prize in the 2024 IPP design competition and at the time was immediately on everyone's list to try and get hold of a copy. At the time it won, no-one knew that the puzzle would be produced in any significant numbers. It was very gratifying when the pair decided to set up a business to mass produce this incredible creation. Many avid collectors put our names down as pre-orders and I was amongst them to put down a deposit. Just looking at it, you could see that this was not going to be a cheap puzzle and Mrs S, to this day, doesn't know how much it cost. If she ever found out then I'd be a dead man! If you would like a copy of it then it is currently sold out but still in production. Applications for future copies can be made here. Don't tell your significant others!

There's a lovely certificate!

I do promise that there has been no collusion between me and Allard with this. Allard's review is a bit late because he received his copy of this incredible puzzle quite late in the year and was forced by the lovely Gill to put the box under the Xmas tree and wait for Xmas day to actually get his hands on it. I have a much more feeble excuse - I received my copy back in July and put it aside due to sheer pressure of work and only managed to get it out to play in September. Apart from work, my main excuse for not publishing anything about it is that I am rubbish at puzzles! I got stuck on the second step for an embarrassingly long time and kept putting it away in the hope that I would have a breakthrough in my sleep! At Peter Hajek's EPP, I was rather embarrassed that Daniel was present and I sheepishly had to present the Jukebox as one of my top 3 acquisitions of the year but had to admit that I hadn't yet put in enough time to solve it. I was far too embarrassed to admit in front of some of the best puzzlers in the world (as well as one of the creators) that I had been stuck on step 3 for several months!

The aim is to find the Wurlitzer token to put into the slot and play some music. There are apparently at least 15 steps to do this and I was stuck on step 3!

It is absolutely beautifully made from anodised aluminium and stainless steel with magnets dotted about and when you get inside some plastic parts as well. When it was being manufactured, the boys were very good at posting photos and stories about how the process was going. I am amazed that they were able to hold down their full time jobs as well as produce such a gorgeous flawless creation. The attention to detail is unbelievable. There are certificates, instructions and even a cleaning cloth - not just any old cloth! It is a chamois! I would argue that any puzzle that includes a chamois is going to be amazingly well made.

Side view - one compartment visible

Looking at the Wurlitzer, there are obviously multiple compartments which will have either tools or mechanism inside and I assumed that the sequence would be seamless. 

This was reiterated at the EPP when several attendees gave this puzzle in their top 3 and specifically mentioned that the solving sequence was beautifully logical with every part leading to the next and a really lovely finale.

Sob! I was still stuck on step 3! 

When you are presented with this sort of puzzle, after you have read the instructions and admired the beauty of it, the only thing that you can logically do is poke at everything with your finger and see what moves. When nothing moves, you do it in various different positions - the puzzle, not you! I was obviously poking wrong because I didn't find the first step for a good ½ hour. Eventually I realised that something moved and wondered if it would release anything else. This set me on the wrong path of looking for that something else. I should have carried on focussing on what moved but I was fixated on all the other compartments and thought that one of them would have been unlocked by what I had done first. Needless to say, I was wrong and it took me an embarrassingly long time to realise it and do the next move. I had a tool eventually and had absolutely no idea what to do with it. I tried to place it in various places over the whole surface of this very large puzzle. Because the tool was steel, I found a number of magnetic parts inside but nothing seemed to change. Yep! I'm either an eejit or not very observant.

Here I stayed for quite a few weeks! I tried everything I could think of but I had not noticed something crucial. If you have the puzzle then LOOK AT IT! Notice everything and then notice what changes when you move bits or place bits. 

Eventually, I realised that I had unlocked something without realising it and could hear something inside. After this, it is crucial to notice a particular clue - it's blatant! Daniel and Tibor might as well have hit me over the head with the clue. I, of course, hadn't noticed! I am embarrassed to admit that I must have performed the requisite next sequence of moves many many times and not realised what I was doing. I think that after several weeks, I realised what I had been doing and I had a "what if" moment. OMG! AHA! All of a sudden I was making progress.

After this I was able to join the other puzzlers in their wonderful sequence that was beautifully logical with bits of thought required and holding me up periodically but not getting me truly stuck for anything more than an hour or so. Quite a few new pieces accumulate and more locks are released. Some of the mechanisms are truly beautifully implemented and each step provides more.

At one point I received my Wurlitzer token but couldn't use it straight away. There were more mechanisms to navigate before it can make music. The last steps are fabulously ingenious and before I knew it, I was listening to the music from the Jukebox. Expect this to be elevated from a "not solved yet" to very highly rated in my Top Ten(ish) of the year. It is:

Absolutely Brilliant!

There are a lot of pieces in this puzzle and I was worried that resetting the puzzle might prove difficult but it's actually beautifully easy to do. If you need it, there is a video to help. Having reset the Jukebox back to the start, I was able to go back to that step 3 that had fooled me for so long and realised that it had all been right in front of me but I was too stupid to notice!. I am sure that all of you great puzzlers out there will have no problem working through that tip that held me up for so long. You will enjoy a brilliant sequence of logical moves.

Mrs S won't allow it to be put on display in the living room (she has moved almost all my puzzles out of that room) but it will be front and centre in my puzzle display cabinets and shown off to anyone who visits!

Thank you Daniel and Tibor - I am amazed at your design and production skills. I don't know if anything else is planned but you can sign me up straight away!