Yet More Pelikans!

The bumper crop of puzzles from Pelikan Puzzles

Wow! What a pressured week! Not only did I have an enormous set of puzzles from Jakub and Jaroslav, but I also worked about 80 hours this week as well doing some rather stressful stuff. Luckily for me, I find that puzzling is quite a nice way to relax. It doesn't matter to me if I am failing to solve the puzzles - the process of admiring them, the beautiful wood and playing with them to admire the genius of the designers. I just find the whole process rather soothing. It made a difficult week much more palatable.

Today I need to finish my reviews of the remaining puzzles - some of them have already sold out but there might be a possibility that if people contact them about these then a further batch might be made.

The Horns of Booth

Interesting delivery arrangement

5 pieces to fit in the box

Who can resist a new packing puzzle from Dr Latussek? This gorgeous creation using highly grained Acacia and Purpleheart has a box with 5 very interesting pieces to be fitted inside. The opening in the box is not big enough to have a piece enter sideways - there will have to be rotations at some point during the solution - why doesn't this surprise me? Volker is the master of restricted rotations. Looking at the pieces it looks like there should be lots of room with maybe a number of large gaps between pieces but despite this, the L shapes of the pieces interfere with each other and the required rotations don't seem to be possible. This should be fun. First, I had to read the thought processes that the good Dr went through during the design process. He said:

"When I experimented with the tricube v some time ago to find a suitable box for a certain number of v’s, I stumbled across some surprises. I was thrilled with the new ideas that I hope to publish one day with Pelikan.

I will start with a particularly nice experiment: I wanted to put six broken v’s into the FRITZ-FLOP box, into which six v’s fit without much challenge. When a v is broken in the middle two identical parts are created, which I wanted to put back together in a staggered way. The result should be six parts that look as if the two ends of the Tetra cube L have been cut off. As so often happens, I was unable to solve the task I had set myself. I couldn’t find a move that would convince me and would have given you a headache in the search for it. But when I left out a piece and experimented with only five pieces, THE HORNS OF BOOTH was quickly found.

 

I found the movement convincing, especially because this puzzle has a feature that I appreciate: the box and the pieces have to be turned and tilted to fit. This is the only way to ensure that the pieces move harmoniously around the box without getting stuck. I really like that. THE HORNS OF BOOTH is not suitable for a solution video with a rigid focus on the opening in the box. Discover and enjoy the interplay of the five pieces and the box with me. Then you won’t need a solution video either."

As usual, I started with searching for a 3x3x2 assembly and found a couple quite quickly. Obviously, the shape created can be rotated 90º 4 times as well as inverted giving a lot of possibilities to search through. With most of these types of puzzles, working in reverse from the assembled shape is helpful for me - several of the starting positions are obviously impossible with no piece even remotely removable if it began in that state. After an hour or so, I had honed my search down to 2 possible assemblies (I have to say that the insertion and removal of the last piece to go in the box is rather lovely. Having done that, finding a way to insert them through the reasonably large but not quite large enough hole is a fun challenge. I did bear in mind the Fritz Flop puzzle and some of the moves required for that which did help. If you have done a few other packing puzzles with angles of 45º then you will have a head start but there is quite a lot to do. When I found the required move, all I could do was sit back and gasp at the beauty of the sequence. This is a stunning puzzle - unfortunately sold out just now but hopefully another batch will be made. Dr Latussek is a genius!

PSI

PSI by Girish Sharma

This beautiful burr designed by Girish Sharma is still in stock as I write. It is a classical 6 piece burr shape made from absolutely stunning Bubinga that Girish has altered to make a whole lot more interesting. He has taken the standard 2x2x6 burr sticks and added an extra voxel or two along one of the short axes to make a few of the pieces 2x3x6 and yet still assemble into the standard shape. You can see that there is something rather different from the outside by the presence of odd extra cubies visible where you wouldn't expect them. The upshot of Girish's alteration is that it makes the burr much more interesting to explore. Parts get blocked when you think that you are making progress and also the level increases enormously.

I managed after a couple of evenings of play to get to a fairly widely separated bunch of pieces but nowhere further to go. I went back and forth (creating a muscle memory for later reassembly) and really struggled to find the next move. Finally, after a lot of work changing the orientation of the puzzle in my hands and searching inside the shape I had, I found a lovely clever move that effectively split the puzzle in half. After that, I was able to fully dismantle it and take a photo:

Not "just" a six piece burr!

Only the very best of you will be able to assemble this from scratch (you know who you are). I had to resort to Burrtools to tell me the placement of the pieces but was able to reassemble it from there by muscle memory. This was a wonderful little challenge.

It would appear that there is a second challenge"

"By the way, another side goal of the puzzle is to figure out the full form of PSI"

 I'm afraid I have no idea what this means - to me PSI means pounds per square inch but that's not really helpful. 😱

Sym Duo

Sym Duo by Frederic Boucher

This delight from Frederic Boucher is also still available for sale. It was originally sent out to me in the assembled state but I have convinced Jakub that it should be sent out with a false assembly to give you all an extra challenge. It is very nicely made from Limba, Ovangkol and Cherry woods. I originally thought that the primary aim is a packing puzzle to place all the pieces in the box so that the entry is filled. This part of the challenge is fun and not terribly tough for those of you who are used to TICs or doing the amazing packing puzzles by Osanori-san and Alexander-san. There is a rather clever little move to get the pieces in correctly which is rather satisfying.

The real challenge from Frederic is to use the two shapes to make a series of symmetrical shapes. I have found 1 rotational symmetry and 5 mirror symmetries - I am not particularly good at these types of challenges but with these shapes they are remarkably fun and tactile to play with. It will keep you going for a good couple of hours.

Yes U Can

Yes U Can by Frederic Boucher

My goodness! Frederic Boucher is having a good time these days! This is yet another puzzle designed by him in this release. Made from a particularly beautiful combination of Wenge, Padauk & Mahogany, this will be delightful to fiddle with. Unfortunately it is now sold out but maybe it will be recreated if enough people ask jakub. Like the Sym Duo, this is a two-fer - there were two challenges in one puzzle.

The obvious challenge is to place all the pieces in the box. It is made significantly more difficult by the present of 2 glued cubies inside the box. Rotations are required and add to the challenge. I found two assemblies that would fit in the box but I think the aim is to place them all inside with the single tetromino hidden by the pentominos. Make sure that you look for and find both.

The next, and to my mind, much more difficult challenge is to take the 6 pieces and arrange them in such a way that the red tetromino is completely surrounded by the U-shaped pentominos. This is possible in several ways and is a fun thing to try but much more difficult is the challenge to completely surround it so that the red piece cannot be seen through from any angle through any of the drilled holes. I have never tried puzzles like this and find that I do not have the skills to do it. Embarrassingly, this took me a good hour of trial and error. I do not know if there is a good method for this sort of thing - let me know if you have any techniques.

5 Balls

5 Balls by Frederic Boucher

Don't you love a puzzle that has an instruction sheet?

OMG! Yes, another incredible design by Frederic! This wonderful series of challenges is made from Wenge and Maple with 5 nice large chromed steel ball bearings - it has it's own case to store the pieces and will keep you occupied for quite a long time.

The first challenge is to use the 4 L shapes to hide all 5 balls with a mirror symmetric shape. Yet again, I am terrible at these puzzles. he first thing that occurred to me was that the hollows in the wooden pieces should be placed next to each other to enclose a ball bearing but there are only 8 hollows to enclose 5 balls. That requires some thought© which is a weakness of mine. I spent a good hour searching and did manage to hide ask 5 balls but there was absolutely no way I could do it with a mirror symmetrical shape. There are only so many ways to put the pieces together into an effective ring shape but none of them were symmetrical. After more than a week of trying I have gotten nowhere near solving that part of it.

Challenge two is to create a symmetrical shape using the 4 L's on their sides with the balls sitting in the cavities. To make this particularly hard, the shape created by the L's should be mirror symmetrical but also the position of the balls should be symmetrical too. I do not know whether the whole thing should be a single symmetry or the wood and the balls are different symmetries. Yet again, I have been at it for a week and haven't got even close to a solution. My brain just doesn't work this way - I remember that the 2 piece Symmetrick puzzle from Tomas Linden took me many many months to solve. I just don't stand a chance but it is fun to try.

The final challenge which I did have more success with is to take the pieces from challenge 2 and to created a 3x4 rectangle with the balls assembled into all of the 11 shapes in the diagram above. Some of them are relatively simple but a few are a huge challenge and I think some might be impossible! At least I have completely failed at a few of them so far. There is a lot of puzzling for you money with this one and who can resist a puzzle with a storage box?

Serial Squares NTC

Serial Squares NTC by Lucie Pauwels

This gorgeous tray packing puzzle by Lucie has been made from Ash, Wenge, Acacia and a vibrant Padauk. It also remains in stock. When I first took it out of the box, I wondered whether it was a sliding piece puzzle but in the configuration it arrived in that was impossible and after that I thought it might be a packing puzzle. A little thought told me that would be trivial. There must be something more to it. I then decided that the aim was to pack the pieces in the tray in such a way that no single colour shared an edge in common. This was a fun challenge but did only take me about 10 minutes:

No edges of the same colour touch

I have played with many of Lucie's puzzles and none of them are as trivial as that! It was time to read the instructions! Oh boy! She wanted the pieces to be packed in with no adjacent pieces matching colours on either edges OR corners! That was going to be a massive challenge - there are apparently 2 solutions but I have completely failed to find them myself. I do not have any idea how you go about doing this sort of thing. If you do put by trial and error then how do you keep track of what you have attempted after a few failed tries? I also have to ask, how do we know that there are only 2 solutions? 

This is a beautiful and frustrating challenge that will keep you all busy for hours if not months!

Making 2D Patterns With 3D Objects

Or George Gets it Right Again!

Blockistry

Look at this...yet another easily available puzzle for you to read about. By now, most of you know that I am really rubbish at pattern forming puzzles and seldom buy them so why on earth would I add this to my collection? I saw the Blockistry puzzle described by Roxanne Miller on Facebook and she described how her husband, George was enthralled by it. Over the years I have come to realise that George and I share very similar tastes in puzzles and a similar approach to puzzling as well. Like me doesn't like exhaustive searches for solutions and has a huge enjoyment working out how to get 3D puzzles modelled in Burrtools. So if he gets deeply embedded in a puzzle that would not normally be his thing (and certainly not mine) then I sit up and pay attention. Then Michel van Ipenburg sent out his monthly newsletter describing his recent puzzling acquisitions and also seemed to like this puzzle. I went to their site and was slightly surprised at the price ($49.95) for 4 blocks of wood and a booklet - with a gulp, I purchased and trusted George.

This is a far cry from the usual craftsman made work that I buy and write about. The site describes the pieces as hand made from the native tree of Finland (Birch) giving an "authentic feel of the North". Ignore the advertising hype - this is just a plain block of a white wood (it may be Birch but it doesn't really matter) and it is nicely cut with smooth surfaces, two of which have been coated with a black layer. What this is NOT, is "finely crafted"! That doesn't actually matter - the fabulous Symmetrick puzzle that I bought from another Finnish craftsman and puzzle store owner was also made from a plain pale wood and became one of my favourite puzzles of all time. But of course, Tomas does not make any claims about it being special wood.

It arrives very nicely packaged in a square cardboard box in which the blocks are nicely arranged along with a booklet of 50 challenges and a felt cloth which is the "playing board". It is actually a very nice package (certainly very portable) and quite enticing to play with. 

The 4 identical blocks are an odd rhomboidal shape with only the top surface coated in the black film. The stated aim is to make the shapes in the booklet which get progressively tougher - so what is so special? why would this interest such a seasoned puzzler like George or someone less experienced like me? Here is where the twist comes to play - the aim is to make the shape when visible solely from above i.e. to create a 2D shape using 3D objects. To make this even more challenging all 4 blocks must be used and the shape must be self supporting. This last factor really does turn up the challenge a notch. I am not sure how to describe the shapes so here is a photo that shows them of:

4 identical "blocks"

The first few in the booklet are not too tough and are really just there to give an idea about how to think about looking at the finished shape and the colour scheme from above:

These aren't terribly tough

Number 4 looks like this when solved:

Easy peasy yes? Indeed, that one was but before long the need to think as a projection onto a 2D plane began to get quite challenging...and very enjoyable. It is not something that can be done easily on your lap - you need a flat surface and certainly having a cat in the way really does make it impossible.

A later challenge like the one below requires the blocks to be piled up and yet still be stable and self supporting and the successful shape is only obvious when viewed from directly above.

Nice easy shape

Solved it - piled up pieces

One thing that the pictures above do show off is that these are not a finely crafted puzzle. They are good enough but the edges are not sharp, the coating does not go right to the edge and it makes it look ever so slightly poorer quality. BUT once you get past this, the puzzling challenges are really quite pleasant.

Viewed from in front - it doesn't look like the diagram

I have almost finished all 50 of the challenges in the book (it took me a good few hours to work them out) and will soon be heading to their Facebook group where they have been posting extra challenges each week - this puzzle will have some decent longevity, I think.

If you do get stuck on one of the challenges or want to check your solution is correct (I did because my solution did not seem to be particularly stable) then their website has a solutions page (password protected) that has cute little animated videos showing how to assemble each puzzle. Beautifully done.

Should you buy this puzzle? Despite the craftsmanship claims not quite being met, this is actually a pretty good puzzle with a really decent set of challenges. The price of $49.95 (they will quote in a currency local to you) is supposed to be a reduced price from the usual $79.95. I do not think I could ever justify the higher price but the reduced one is acceptable. If you enjoy pattern making puzzles and like the idea of using 3D shapes to make 2D patterns then you will enjoy this. Like George, I was quite enthralled.