An Incredibly Satisfying Twisty Variant

Pretzel by "AndEleven puzzles" aka Kiernan Anderson

I had not seen anything like this until I saw the Pretzel puzzle at the IPP design competition table and everyone around the tables seemed to be fascinated by it. The interesting thing was that even people who would normally shy well away from twisty type puzzles would still pick this up and fiddle with it. Yes, very few of them would go on to solve it and, in fact, most would just fiddle, chortle to themselves and put it down. The tactile nature of it was something that everyone was delighted by. I myself spent a fair bit of time at the table trying to solve it but whilst I made progress, I couldn't manage it in the time that I had. However, it was something that I had said to myself that if I could find a way to buy then I would definitely spend some money and add a copy to my collection and spend more time on. Luckily Hendrik had a whole bunch for sale at his IPP table and also a few other designs which had not appeared in the competition.

Orb-it

Hungarian Rings

Those of you who frequent the Twistypuzzles forum will have seen Kiernan introduce a bunch of these fancy new bead puzzles over the last year. They seem to have been very well received and many people have played and solved them. I personally have had an on off fascination/relationship with bead type puzzles ever since my dear departed friend Felix encouraged me to attempt the original Orb-it puzzle. After my success with the Orb-it, Felix encouraged me to other bead puzzles like the Hungarian rings which I reviewed in the same post.

Interestingly, I had found these very challenging despite their apparent simplicity and had very much enjoyed them. For people who can't work out their own solution the amazing Jaap still has his website up giving solutions to lots of these combinatoric type puzzles. The Orb-it is here. and the Hungarian rings is here.

After those, I eventually moved on to more and more complex twisty puzzles and was entirely unaware of new bead puzzles until the IPP. Having bought a couple of these from Hendrik, I brought them home and immediately got too frightened to scramble them. I was very frightened that there would be absolutely no way that I would ever be able to solve them. I experimented and took some photos to show the moves:

1 rotation

1 rotation and a slide

There is something wonderful about fiddling with these. The beads move smoothly around the track which includes an "underground" section and the spinner section is aligned using magnets so it clicks into place so nicely. Anyone picking this up will just fiddle with it for the sheer tactile delight of it. I watched lots of people do that very thing at the IPP. Eventually, having fiddled with it for a few days I got up the courage to scramble it. 

What have I done?

There is only so much that you can do with this. Move the balls around the full track or twist the spinner to isolate 18 of them in 2 long and 2 short tracks. The easy thing to do is build up sets of three and then sets of six and store them in the isolated sections until you need to use them. It's not actually difficult to get to an almost there point until you suddenly discover that all the balls are grouped together but they are just one or two positions out of the alignment that you need. I was stuck with an almost there position for quite a long time until I suddenly saw a way to shift them along one step at a time. Aha! I am now able to save this one very time I play with it.

On Kiernan's Etsy product page about this puzzle he states that this is difficulty level 5 out of 10 and I personally would say that it should be a 3 or 4 compared to most other twisty type puzzles. He says:

Rubik’s Cube enthusiasts with algorithmic experience typically solve it within a few hours and afterward consider it a modest challenge. Focused adults or teens with general puzzle experience—but no cube-solving background—should find it quite challenging, but solvable.

If you’re brand new to puzzles or aren't used to logical / sequential challenges, consider one of my easier alternatives.

Looking at his store front, the puzzles that are lower difficulty level look horrifyingly difficult to me but you should take his word for it - he should know.

I did also purchase from Hendrik the Delta puzzle (3 colour version) which Kiernan has assigned a difficulty level of 7/10 and I have not had the courage yet to scramble it. Every time I play with it, I get the shudders and the urge to put it down quickly before I do something I can't undo!

The Delta (3 colour)

one loop and one ∞

This can have all of the beads on a single trefoil track or by turning the spinner (as usual with a very satisfying magnetic alignment) it can be split into 1 ring alongside an infinity shaped track opposite. What could possibly go wrong?

Kiernan's own description rates this as a level 7 or 8 and says this about it:

The 3-Color Delta is special — it's my favorite design so far and my personal go-to puzzle. It’s a serious challenge, yet still highly intuitive to explore. As you experiment, you gradually begin to feel the kinds of moves the puzzle wants, developing an understanding of its mechanics through intuition as much as logic. Because you can separate it into two tracks and cycle only some of the beads, it feels more intuitive than the Infinity with 3 colors.

But with three colors to solve simultaneously, planning ahead is still quite complex. Even experienced twisty puzzle enthusiasts and seasoned Rubik's Cube solvers should expect a substantial challenge.

The claim of being highly intuitive really does mean that I should just go for it. Gulp!

If you are interested in these bead puzzles then you really must go to Kiernan's Etsy store - I probably should add a few more to my collection!

Finally, I did purchase another puzzle that I did not expect to. I love twisty puzzles but haven't actually played with any for over a year due to lack of time and being distracted by other stuff. But almost as soon as I entered the IPP puzzle party room I was confronted by Diogo Souza and some of his absolutely incredible 3D printed twisty puzzles. My previous experience of 3D printed twisty puzzles has been very variable. The original Shapeays twisty puzzles always dropped black powder all over the place (Puzzle Maestro's 3x5x7 cuboid was one of the first). But then later home printing improved things a lot until TwistyTex's version of the same cuboid was so much more usable that I should have started buying more of this type of puzzle. I had fallen out of the scene a little and was staggered to be confronted with Diogo's amazing designs. I spent a god 20-30 minutes chatting to him before going agains what I had originally thought because I couldn't resist buying a copy of his Sprout cube which is a combination of an edge turner and corner turner.

Sprout cube by Diogo Souza

This also frightens me to death because the pieces interchange/jumble. The movement is so smooth that it is wonderfully tactile to fiddle with. The discussion of the solving process on the TP forum is just a little frightening!

What should I do? Scramble the Delta or the Sprout Cube? Hmmmm! 

Diogo's puzzles are for sale via his Instagram page - I probably should buy some more. Shouldn't I?