This was how your intrepid puzzler and his feline overlord left it last
week
At the end of
last week's blog, myself and Mazikeen had managed to randomly move everything we could find in
every possible position we could think of and luckily, due to the extreme
flexibility of the cat, we were able to remove two panels from the Gravity cube
by Alex Owens.
After this we were both rather badly stuck. Interestingly, i was unable to put
the panels that I had removed back on to the cube - I/we literally had managed
this by chance with minimal understanding of what we had achieved. My usual to
and fro approach really wasn't working here as I achieved things without knowing
what I had done. Was I enjoying the puzzle? I don't know. It was interesting and
obviously very clever but the lack of understanding was decreasing my enjoyment.
Also, the inability to progress any further at all despite a good few hours of
play was making the puzzle lose its shine.
After writing things up last week, I was determined to continue and the cat
and I continued to swear and fiddle. Actually, I did all the swearing and she
seemed to sleep a lot. I took it to work and carried on playing (no, the cat
did not accompany me to work - for some reason, surgeons aren't too enamoured
with the idea of a cat wandering around the operating theatre!) I was forced
to work on it alone. Somehow I made more progress. I have no idea how! Are you
getting a theme here? After a further couple of days another 2 panels had been
removed and yet again, I could not put them back. Nothing for it other than to
try to move onward. With the two panels left, I found a few more possible
moves and thought I was making progress. After another 3 days of doing the
same thing back and forth multiple times, I was able to do and undo those
things consistently and almost understood what I was doing but could go no
further. Now what?
After last week's blog post,
Goetz contacted
me to offer help if I needed it. He had apparently received a copy of this
puzzle quite a long time ago and had solved and reassembled it many times. It
had been his EPP recommendation as top mass produced puzzle for 2025. I
admitted that I had progressed to 2 remaining panels and Goetz offered a hint
which included finding and using an L-shaped piece from inside. I didn't have
an L-shaped piece and could not make the move that he had used to get it.
Apparently Alex had improved the design since Goetz received his version. OMG!
Was I doomed to be stuck at this point. After a bit of to-ing and fro-ing we
established that I had everything that I needed and I was encouraged to do
something that I had toyed with trying for a while but had been too frightened
that I would lose the only tool I had. There are lots of horror stories about
puzzlers inserting things into holes and not being able to remove them! 😱
I worked with Mazikeen to screw our courage to the sticking point and used the
tool. There was a click and suddenly a whole new direction of panel movement
was possible. A 5th panel came off - hooray. we were ecstatic. One last panel
to go and I now had a new tool that had been released by that panel. The next
steps were actually fun - it was almost obvious what I had to do and after
another 5 minutes we had the inner cube released to explore:
She looks delighted!
This inner cube seems to have a single sliding lid but it is locked in place.
With the tools I had, there was only so much to try and there was a delightful
Aha! moment and the lid was open revealing yet another cube inside. Was this it?
Mazikken thought there would be more:
A new cube? Hooray!
Still more to be done...
That innermost cube did not seem to be the final step and I was encouraged to
play further - luckily the final mechanism was not too troublesome - even fun!
Alex has put a rather pretty fidget toy inside for you to play with when you
eventually get in. I didn't dare leave the cat to play with that or it might
have ended up inside the cat.
All rings can spin
Can I eat it?
I was so delighted to have solved it eventually but now petrified. Almost all of
the mechanisms were navigated without really knowing what I was doing and now I
am thinking that there is no way I will be able to reassemble this incredibly
complex puzzle. There are quite a lot of pieces here (hidden behind a spoiler
button:
OMG! Now what?
I am hoping that now that I can see what I am doing, I will be able to
backtrack my way through the assembly and then see whether I understand it
enough to redo the whole thing without too many random movements in the
process.
So, the title of the blog post mentions a dilemma... I need to think about
whether this is a candidate for my top ten(ish) of 2026. Whilst this is an
incredibly ingenious design and the manufacture is unbelievably good, I am
currently left feeling that I solved it with a whole lot of random moves and
no understanding at all apart form the final moves. I also have the worry
that it will be left in pieces forever more. Over the years, quite a few of
my puzzles have been solved by random moves and that has not detracted from
them as I eventually did understand the pathway through the puzzle solution.
I think that if I manage to reassemble it and that process helps me with a
proper understanding of the mechanisms involved then not only will it be in
my top ten, then it may head towards the top! I'll keep you all informed.
Overdrive assembled
Thank you to George who recognised the Stewart Coffin puzzle as Overdrive in my recent post about what I brought back from the MPP. I had received this last year from Steve and was aware that it was a six piece coordinate motion puzzle. I had been trying for many hours to get it together in the correct assembly and had given up. George mentioned that there is an easier assembly which involves a minor CoMo move of 3 pieces to create 2 halves which slide together. It was with much relief that I assembled the above (less than attractive) assembly and could put it away finally. Thanks George!
I keep buying complex puzzles. I can't resist them. Especially when they
are
recommended by another puzzle friend. I had to wait a while for the Gravity box by
Alex Owens to
come back into stock but as soon as it did, I quickly hit buy and started
playing when it arrived.
It is beautifully made and turning it over in your hands reveals the enticing sounds of all sorts of
things moving around inside. I have been working on several SD puzzles at the
same time (Twins box, I need my lunch, Emerald vault and Rune lock) recently. Unfortunately, I bought all these complex puzzles and can't seem
to get anywhere with any of them! Partly I seem to be working too many days
every week but also because I am rubbish at puzzles.
The gravity box accompanied me to work for a couple of weeks in the hope that
I might get somewhere with it. The instructions don't really give much of a
clue. I found the first move rather promptly because it's fairly obvious but
after that I couldn't seem to find even a second move. OMG - this was going
to make me very sad. The panels of the box look like they should slide but
which direction? and which ones? I turned the damn thing over and over and over
and pushed, pulled, poked and shook all the panels - NADA!
I tried it in every position and still nada. Then I did it all over again and
suddenly it moved. I have no idea why it moved this time. Having moved a
panel, I was able to try other panels. Sometimes they moved and sometimes they
wouldn't. I put it all back to the beginning because I prefer my to and fro approach to give me a memory of a pathway. But I got stuck again with a closed puzzle. More
fiddling about for an embarrassingly long time and I eventually got it moving again - still no idea why. Progress was
made over a good few days and a panel came off revealing an inner cube and
hints of "stuff" inside. Nothing possible for another day or so apart from
undoing what I had done with the panel still off. Lots more turning it over and over
whilst trying to slide bits. Nothing worked until suddenly it did. No idea
why! Oddly, I couldn't undo what I had done until suddenly I could but then
not be able to redo it. I was beginning to worry that if I was ever to solve this I
wouldn't stand a hope in hell's chance of putting it all back together! At some point I had been forced to abandon the to and from approach! I was hopelessly lost despite having achieved very little.
Several more days of play without a clue what I was doing when I was able to
slide something new and then move other panels. At least I think it was other
panels but I couldn't keep track of what I had done. Yesterday, after an operating list
of hip and knee replacements, I was feeling lucky. Try again. Have some
feline help and anything is possible. Stuff moved again and I had a second
panel removed and the logo fell off. I'm on a roll:
This is promising! Everything in the start position with the two panels removed
Today I have continued working on it. I have no idea how I got to this point and
I certainly can't undo it. I have a few things that move (apart from when they
don't) and I have managed to slide all the moved panels that remain in place
back to their start positions. Nothing new has opened up. I haven't found any of
the promised tools yet and I struggle to go back to the position I had when the
second panel was removed. I can get there sometimes but not every time. I have gone back and forth many many times and failed to find anything new. I have a few ideas for possible moves I'd like to try but they are all blocked.
This is incredibly frustrating! So many random moves that I cannot keep track of. The complexity of the design is incredible but I have no idea what I am doing. At this moment in time, the cat has just as much chance of opening this as I do!
