Pelikan Waits For No Man!

Having returned from the IPP, sneaked my new puzzles in (in their rucksack) and secreted them around my study, I started to work my way through them. I thought I was doing pretty well and felt I might just manage to get a few blog posts in before anything else arrived (I might have a couple on the way). Just when I thought I was safe, Jakub contacted me to say that he was ready with the next batch of Pelikan wonder. My first thought was: "Hooray! More gorgeous beauty and fabulous, difficult challenges" This thought was rapidly followed by another: "She's going to kill me!" Luckily, this time, the box arrived, and it was smaller than the previous ones. She who must be feared thought there were fewer puzzles in there, but don't tell her...they have just been packed tighter. Gulp.

Matruschka

Matruschka by Benjamin Heidt

3 tiny pieces make a stand

There have been quite a few creations on this blog from Benjamin. He designs interlocking puzzles and burrs that are just the right difficulty level for most puzzlers, with some very interesting design features and a lovely sequence to explore. Many burrs are much too complex for most due to multiple long blind dead ends, or alternatively have too simple a sequence and no challenge. Benjamin always gets it right, and Matruschka is a beautiful example. This chunky puzzle is made from Wenge, Cherry and Acacia with a diminutive stand made from Merbau. Looking at it, I was slightly confused as there only appears to be Wenge and Cherry visible, but after a couple of moves, the reason for the name and the extra wood type becomes apparent. A matryoshka doll is the name for the Russian nested dolls, but here Benjamin and the Pelikan team have taken the idea and altered it a little bit to make a nested burr.

The initial exploration reveals quite a few possible moves, and I was worried about having lots of long blind ends to explore, memorise and discount on my way to the correct solution. You can be reassured that, as usual, Benjamin has got it just right. There are quite a few possible ways to start, but the sequences are short before they stop, and you are forced to look elsewhere. The tolerances of the burr manufacture are superb, with everything sliding beautifully. The correct sequence is very well hidden, but once found, you are quickly on your way to the disassembly, and more and more pieces can be removed after you look for the unlocking sequence. The burr within a burr is revealed nicely:

Acacia burr nested within the final 3 large burr sticks

Once the inner burr is released, it can also be disassembled into 6 very beautiful sticks and then the whole lot displayed. 

 

That's a LOT of burr sticks!

The reassembly would actually have been possible for me without the use of burrtools, as I had sequentially removed pieces and placed them in their correct order and orientation on a table. I think most puzzlers should also manage the reassembly if they are careful to do this. Unfortunately, a cat decided to run across my carefully arranged table and scatter the sticks widely. A few unsafe for blogging words were uttered, and Burrtools was going to be my next step.

Once you have done the reassembly that you found then it is time to do it all over again! The 3-piece stand that is interestingly burr shaped can actually be reassembled inside the 6 piece burr so we end up with a burr in a burr in a burr! This is simply amazing!!!

This is a wonderful challenge for all burr aficionados, just the right difficulty level! With an extra twist at the end.

Surround Wil

Surround Wil by Frederic Boucher

There seems to be no end to the puzzle design skills of Frederic Boucher - there are several of his designs in this upcoming Pelikan release. This delightful packing puzzle is fun and should be perfect for all puzzlers of all levels. The puzzle is made from Acacia and a very vibrant Purpleheart. It is quite reminiscent of some of the packing puzzles by Yuu Asaka. There are 4 longer pieces with curved ends, and half-circles cut out, plus 5 disks, all to be fitted into a tray that is too small to take the long pieces side-by-side. If you look at my photo, the top-most large piece is tilted as it doesn't fit in.

This inability to fit the pieces side by side is a big clue that you need to get inventive with how the big pieces can be organised. I found a lovely way to get them all in the tray, but then the half-circle cutouts had been filled, with no space left for the disks. Time to think© and get creative. There is a lovely Aha! moment in this one, and it is very satisfying to pack them all in. This will be coming to work with me to challenge my colleagues - it's perfect for casual puzzling..

T Time!

T Time! by Frederic Boucher

This wonderfully clever packing puzzle by Frederic had me fooled for most of the week. It looks like a simple tray packing puzzle, but there is MUCH more to it. There is a 5x5 space inside the tray and 5 T-shaped pieces to be fitted inside alongside a 2x2 smiley disc. That doesn't look too difficult until you realise that the tray is covered by an acrylic cover with a T-shaped hole in it, in one corner. This explains the nicely curved corners on the pieces - they need to be inserted and manipulated using the holes in the bottom of the tray, plus some use of gravity, until they are in position. There will obviously need to be some rotational moves as they cannot possibly be arranged in the same orientation as the hole in the lid. It doesn't take long to find at least one (if not a few) possible arrangements of the pieces in that 5x5 space, but then the fiddly task of actually getting them into place begins, and, OMG, it's difficult! I spent several days trying everything I could to pack them all in. Nothing would work, and I had to stop for a bit and think© again. 

Finally, after several days of work, I had a special thought (unusual for me!) and realised that there was something very unusual about the design. My jaw dropped when I finally succeeded - Frederic is a genius!

Convolution Cube

Convolution Cube by Stewart Coffin

Convolution ball

Over the 15 years of this website, I have reviewed several versions of the Convolution puzzle by the amazing Stewart Coffin. This incredible interlocking design is not solvable by Burrtools due to the requirement for a rotational move with one of the pieces (does that make it a TIC?). I have a version from Brian Menold and a fabulous spherical version from Pelikan.

I personally would say that a Convolution (as well as its associated cousins, Involute and Involution) should be part of every serious puzzler's collection. All 3 are essential. If you don't have this, then you owe it to yourself to buy a copy. The Pelikan team have done a wonderful job creating this out of multiple different beautifully vibrant woods and the fit is just perfect!

Only 7 pieces but great fun!

The next bunch of puzzles will be reviewed next week - they include more from Dr Volker Latussek, another from Benjamin Heidt and then yet another unusual puzzle from Frederic Boucher. Wish me luck solving them!

Pelikan Puzzling Continued

Cabinet - a Pelikan design

Yes, it's time to continue the reviews of the upcoming Pelikan release. I have been playing all week and have just finished them this morning. 

Cabinet

Every now and then Jakub releases a Pelikan in-house design. They are usually boxes with clever mechanisms and you really won't be disappointed by this. At yesterday's MPP, one of the topics of comnsversation that I had was about the Karakuri puzzle boxes and how beautiful they are with simple(ish) short but very elegant solutions. I lamented that I didn't dare get into Karakuri collecting as it would be the death of my marriage and my bank balance but I agreed with the elegance and simplicity. I have to say that the Cabinet puzzle by the Pelikan team is worthy of this same admiration.

It is beautifully made - and wonderfully tactile. There are 2 drawers and one knob. As it arrives, there is a good bit of rattling from inside. The challenge is to open the drawers of the cabinet and find the gold bars and the jewel inside (plus an extra treat). Nothing moves at all at first but it won't take very many of you long to get the first drawer open to find a treat inside. After that a little exploration will reveal the first of the prizes. Aha! Real care and attention in every part. At this point you have what looks like it can be used as a tool...you will have done it countless times before on other puzzles and been able to manipulate the mechanism. I tried this repeatedly and had no luck. I began to think that maybe the mechanism was stuck. I tried variants of my manipulation many many times with alterations in the orientation of the puzzle and got absolutely nowhere. I tried this again and again and again. Nope! Nuffink! I then had another thought and tried that but still no luck. I tried for a whole week. Eventually, I contacted Ivan Danik to ask for a hint. He didn't say much but did manage to tell me that my original thought which I had been trying for a whole week had been wrong. Grrrr! I am not very bright. Having abandoned that completely I had a little feel about and had a wonderful Aha! moment. I had actually used the correct move but needed to do it properly. After another try my treasure was all available. 

The Cabinet is just like a Karakuri - it is beautifully made with perfect tolerances and a simple but very elegant mechanism. All of you collectors out there will need this.

Teapot

Teapot by Lucie Pauwels

Another tray packing puzzle by the incredible Lucie Pauwels! There is no limit to Lucie's skills! I reviewed an interlocking puzzle coming from her and Pelikan last week which was fascinating and here she turns her hand to a rather lovely and clever tray puzzle. This is very ingenious and a good bit harder than it looks. What goes in a teapot ? Tea of course! What goes in tea? Sugar lumps! Here we have a pot and 8 different varieties of tea (T) made from Pink Oak to be placed inside the pot. Two other variants will be on sale: Wenge/Maple and Purpleheart/Ash. There are 4 single voxel holes left after all the teas are inside and these can be filled by sugar made from Maple. Normally you'd put your sugar in your cup but here it gets added to the pot.

This is a deceptive puzzle - it really doesn't look that tough but the lengths of the stems of the T's make it difficult to pack the cavity efficiently leaving only small few gaps. I worked for a long time (hours) to find the solution and it was very gratifying to eventually manage it. I dare say it can be solved by brute force but the best approach is to experiment with how the T crosses and stems can interact with each other and then plan what you need to do to keep the gaps to a minimum. There is only one solution to this and it might take you quite some time to find it. Perfect for all levels of puzzler.

Olympic Rings

Olympic Rings by Lucie Pauwels

Yes, another tray packing puzzle by Lucie. This follows a totally different premise than the Teapot puzzle. Instead of having to fill a cavity with shapes that get in each other's way, the aim is to fill a pathway with relatively simple pieces but a very limited length to the paths. The complexity and the logic comes from the constraint formed by the intersection of the paths. This one has pieces made from Pink Oak but it will also be available in Merbau.

I started placing the larger pieces in the lengths of the paths and then trying to fill the smaller gaps that were left after that.This seemed like a really good idea but it did not lead me even close to a solution. My next approach was to take the  3 more complex pieces and place those at the path intersections and then work from there. This definitely improved the situation but did not get me all the way. I ended up resorting to Burrtools and just peeking at the position of those complex pieces. Once I had them placed properly, I was able to progress quite logically with the rest of the puzzle. If I had not been time constrained then I might have managed this without cheating. It is a very challenging but logical puzzle which should only need a little trial and error. It is very attractive when complete and looks great on display.

Fatino

Fatino by Dr Volker Latussek

Another masterpiece from the master of the packing puzzle! Dr Latussek has been challenging us with restricted entry packing puzzles for years now and every time a new one is released, I think that he cannot have found something new but he has. This one has been beautifully made with a Mahogany box and Wenge pieces.

This time it looks like the puzzle should be possible without rotations because the limited entry hole is still a whole number of voxels in each dimension. BUT don't let that fool you. The pieces are all pentominoes and hence quite long. Any of them that have to go sideways perpendicular to the hole will need rotating into place once inside or tilting slightly through the gap. The hole to be filled is a 4x4x2 space and we have a total of 30 leaving 2 gaps to be hidden somewhere inside. This is going to be fun and VERY difficult!

Volker said this about the development of the puzzle:

In the past, I’ve combined some of the 12 flat pentacubes with other polycubes to design packing problems. In addition to the well-known pieces of the SOMA CUBE, I’ve also used spatial pentacubes - which are described by a 3x2x2 envelope - in a rather unobtrusive way. There are 15 different shapes of these, based on a rather casual remark by George Miller I’ll call them Fats. The Fats possess a harmony that is indescribable to me when they are combined. I will present my special discoveries to you at Pelikan. 

I’ll start with FATINO, six Fats in the box so familiar to me with a centered slit opening. In fact, I already had this CASINO-like box and, with FATINO, the name of the puzzle for the first time before I began finding the six matching Fats that describe a unique solution. The Fats are really bulky, as if they didn’t want to fit into the box. Ultimately, however, six of them took pity on me and gave me a truly beautiful solution. I really hope you enjoy the game of the Fats so much that you look forward to the discoveries to come.

I had to use Burrtools to find me some assemblies and then experiment with them to try and get one of them inside the box. Even using BT this way, isn't a panacea as each shape that is found (there are 6 of them) will have 8 possible orientations to try and of course, then you will need to see whether the disassembly is possible through the slot in the top of the box. Once I found a possible assembly it was a lovely dexterity and sliding problem to get the solution.

Damn! That is tough!

This is a stupendously good challenge. It is definitely possible by normal human beings (many of you might need BT to systematically find the possible assemblies and try them) but after that the puzzling is wonderful.

Yasya-Flop

Yasya-Flop by Dr Volker Latussek

Another puzzle in the "Flop" series is one that is not to be missed. There have been quite a few so far and this one is by far the most difficult. Jakub and team have made this from a wonderful Saman wood (aka Monkeypod) and Purpleheart. It arrives with all but one of the pieces packed in the box and took me quite a bit of fiddling to actually remove the pieces. This bodes for a very difficult solution to get all of them back inside.

The box has a 3x3x3 cavity and a 1½ voxel wide slot in the top through which all the pieces of a standard Soma cube need to be placed. I have mentioned many times that I am terrible at assembly puzzles. My appreciation of this occurred many years ago when I bought my first Soma cube. So here, I need to find one particular assembly of the Soma cube and then work out which orientation to try and then how to get the damn thing into a box through a small hole using rotational moves! Does this sound like fun to you? Yes, it does to me too.

Volker wrote this about it:

Fritz Pingl (FRITZ-FLOP) and Dick Fosbury (DICK-FLOP) are the namesakes of my FLOP SERIES. The rotation of individual pieces in these unique packing puzzles is reminiscent of their high jump techniques.

While I was recently playing with my STEFKA-FLOP, named after Stefka Kostadinova, I unexpectedly found a new solution. This is, of course, terrible, since every FLOP is supposed to have exactly one solution. But this new solution is so beautiful - not least because, just like with the FRITZ-FLOP, the opening can be compressed to exactly half of one of the square sides - that I don’t want to keep this experience from you. A production by Pelikan was a must. 

While searching for a suitable name, I learned that Stefka Kostadinova’s long-standing world record in the high jump from 1987 was surpassed in 2024 by Yaroslava Mahuchikh with a jump of 2.10 meters. So I dedicate my YASYA-FLOP to this exceptional Ukrainian athlete, who is affectionately called Yasya by her friends.  While solving the YASYA-FLOP won’t let you set a new world record, I hope you understand why this solution has remained undiscovered until now.

There is an immediate way to cut down the possible assemblies as the final pieces to be placed have to be able to drop straight in through the opening as there will be no room for rotations at that stage. This helps considerably but if I was you, I'd have a BT set of Soma solutions available to search through.

Not for the faint-hearted!

In the end, due to time constraints, I had to get the solution from Pelikan to give me the intended assembly and orientation and then work out how to get it inside the box. The movements are very complex and require considerable dexterity as well as judicious use of gravity to place pieces. Make sure that you know what you have done as taking the pieces out will be almost impossible. This is an amazing challenge but definitely only for the most expert of puzzlers.

Less is More

Less is more by Dr Volker Latussek

This gorgeous puzzle from Volker has been beautifully made from Wenge and American Cherry. It is stunning to look at and beautifully made. I thought that it had been sent out in the solved position but reviewing the instructions revealed that there is much more to this puzzle than meets the eye. Yes, it is a tray packing puzzle with a 7x7 tray and there are quite a few assemblies in the tray.

Having taken the pieces out for the photo, I found even packing them back in the tray very difficult. Finding the one that left me that nice square gap was almost impossible for me. But, for all of you who want something more interesting than a simple square tray packer, there is a LOT more to do - this is also an anti-slide puzzle. In fact, it is a multi level anti-slide puzzle. This will keep you challenged for a VERY long time.

Volker said this about it:

Nine pentominoes in a square grid (7x7). So what. The idea behind this particular anti-slide puzzle - simple in concept - kept me occupied for several years, and its implementation proved too challenging for me. I had to seek advice from Andreas Roever and Peter Müller, an algebra professor at my university in Würzburg. In the end, Peter Müller calculated the solution sequences. Unfortunately, my knowledge of Fortran wasn’t sufficient. But now, after an initial prototype with 6 pentominoes instead of nine for the Nob-Yoshigahara Design Competition 2025, Pelikan can release a small series for enthusiasts of such puzzles, and I’ve met a mathematics professor whom I can now call Peter. Peter, thank you so much for your great support, which allowed LESS IS MORE to come to life. 

LESS IS MORE contains various challenges, but in particular sequences of stable arrangements: Pack the nine pentominoes into the frame so that they do not slide. Remove one piece - the remaining eight pieces still cannot slide. Repeat this step until there are only three pieces left that cannot slide. 

When I play LESS IS MORE today, I am still amazed by the interplay of the pentominoes in the sequence from nine to three pieces, which still surprises me with its length.

Another goal of LESS IS MORE: Select three or more pieces so that they do not slip, and no further piece can be added without slipping, and no piece can be removed without the remaining pieces slipping.

I preferred to do the puzzle in the reverse order to the suggested one by Volker. Take 3 pieces and create an anti-slide placement with them (that isn't terribly difficult to do). Then add another piece from the unpaved ones and just add it to the shape already made in such a way that the new shape also cannot slide (this took me a little while). You will probably need to experiment with a whole bunch of 3-piece placements before you find one that works when adding a fourth piece. It was quite gratifying to find a four piece anti-slide assembly. Next, try to add another piece in and still have it not slide. keep doing this until all 9 pieces are placed. This will be a huge challenge! I am not entirely sure that a human can achieve this. I did manage to create a 5 piece non-sliding assembly but that is as far as I got. The computer programmers amongst you might manage to create a program to do this. If anyone is actually able to do it all without computer assistance then I would love for you to tell me.

If you manage the primary puzzle then there is a secondary challenge: Find 3 pieces to create an anti-slide assembly but in such a way that it is not possible to add any more pieces that are anti-slide. This is not terribly tough but having done that, do it again with 4 pieces - none of the 4 can slide but it's impossible to add a 5th piece that doesn't slide. Keep doing this up to 9. So many challenges in one beautiful tray puzzle.

All of these are amazing puzzles! They should hopefully be going on sale later this week. My picks from them are Cabinet (who can resist a Pelikan design puzzle and this has a very ingenious mechanism), Swan cube (it's just beautiful logic) and Fantino for the elegance. But you cannot go wrong with any of them. 

Let The Pelikan Puzzling Begin

Five Helicopters by Tibor Mikloš

This is a rather quick blog post. I have just spent 45 minutes on the phone trying to provide computer support to my 86 year old Mother-in-law for her 10 year old iMac. To my utter horror, TeamViewer no longer supports her ancient operating system and everything had to be done by her describing what she saw on screen over the phone and me trying to give instructions. She is not very computer savvy (unsurprising given her age) but she does try and manages reasonably well for the most part. I am not sure who was in worse condition at the end of it all. I think she was a bit frazzled but had mostly managed to achieve what she wanted and I had chest pain. As a result of this, plus the puzzles only arrived on Thursday, I only have two little reviews for you.

Yes, it has been a few months and it is coming up to the IPP so it is time for Jakub and team to release the next batch of puzzles. There are a good few, including one of the greatly anticipated Pelikan design puzzles.

Five Helicopters

Amongst this release are a few tray packing puzzles which is one of the less common types for Pelikan to release. Of course, they won't do one with plastic pieces, they make theirs out of an assortment of rather lovely woods which have been laser cut and a wooden tray as well. This one was designed by Tibor Mikloš who was last featured on this blog and from Pelikan back in December 2023 with a padlock burr that one was a very nice design and this also doesn't disappoint. 

Usually, I am terrible at this sort of puzzle - I find that I spend most of my time performing lots of random trial and error packings and can't keep track of what I have attempted. This means I go round and round in circles before giving up in disgust at how rubbish I am. I have many many puzzles from Mine that I haven't managed to solve for this reason.

In this one there's a lovely large space to fill and 5 identical helicopters to place it it. The thing about this challenge is that the helicopters, with their blades and tails are very spiky and take up a large space and don't seem to interlock together in any intuitive ways. I played with the pieces outside the tray for a while and found a nice way to put 3 together which didn't leave a lot of space between them. Maybe there would be a fun mathematical tiling to use? I placed them in the tray and picked up my 4th piece only to find that if I tried to continue the logical sequence, it wouldn't fit. I tried the same thing many times and singularly failed. maybe it's not a mathematical solution? I then looked at the pattern on the side of the tray to see if I could place some pieces closer to the edge and make more space as a result. This was a key thought! Unusual for me to have thoughts but I had better make the most of it. After another 30-40 minutes of playing I had a major breakthrough and had my 5 helicopters in the tray and a photo taken. Hooray! Ive solved a packing puzzle without just trying random things! It's pretty good this one - perfect for a beginner or an expert!

Swan Cube

Swan Cube by Lucie Pauwels

The wonderfully talented Lucie has appeared on my site many many times and I have gushed every time about her designs. She has not disappointed here either. The Swan cube is made using Wenge, Maple and wonderfully vibrant Merbau. It arrived assembled as a sort of cuboid structure with gaps in it so obviously not correctly assembled. Obviously, the aim is to dismantle it (quite an easy feat) and then assemble it as a proper cube shape with no gaps/holes. In the assembled shape above there is no indication of the reason for the odd name, but once the 6 pieces have been separated the reason immediately comes clear:

Six swan shapes

The pieces all have a hole in the side and a swan shaped neck and beak that clearly needs to engage with the hole. Once all beaks are in all holes then we should have a completed cube - easy? Nope! Luckily, I did have the forethought to take a photo of the assembly orientation so that I can store it in the transport configuration.

I began looking to see how the walls, holes and beaks would interact and quickly made some good progress...until I had a piece where the beak wouldn't reach the hole. Damn! I knew it had been going too well. Starting afresh with a different set of beaks and holes and I had something that really looked promising as it would make a nice half cube around one corner. The problem here was that whilst the three pieces should interact nicely, it would require a coordinate motion to achieve it and that wasn't possible with these shapes. Sigh! After yet more failure, I realised that two of the pieces had an extra cubic on them. That was getting in the way of what I wanted to do. Time to think©.

After a little more time I had a rather good idea. I worked on my idea for a while and made progress gradually until my last piece fitted perfectly into place.

Oooh clever!

This was very gratifying and a perfect logic puzzle. I dare say that it can be solved by randomly putting pieces together until you get the right assembly but this should be solved as a pure logic problem. It is very clever and looks lovely in both assembled and false assembly positions. Probably best for the more medium experienced puzzler rather than absolute beginner.

I will be working on the rest of the puzzles over the coming week or so and get my reviews out to you as soon as I can. However, my experience with providing remote computer support has given me the overwhelming urge to lie down for a while! 😱😱😱

Ze Next Ones From Pelikan Are Just As Much Fun

Diasafe by Lucie Pauwels

Last week I reviewed the amazing Minima-Ze series about to be released by Pelikan and saved the others for this week (yes, I didn't have time or ability to solve them all in a single week). I managed to get to the remaining wonderful puzzles this week and even solved some of them.

Starting with the rather unusual looking Diasafe by Lucie Pauwels, I couldn't work out whether it was a maze puzzle or a packing puzzle and eventually settled on the latter. We have a rather attractive set of Wenge pieces each of which has a rather colourful jewel on the top and a box made of Pink Oak which has an S-shaped path in the top surface. Clearly the aim is to fit the pieces in one layer inside the box via the 3 voxel opening in one side. The interior of the box forms a 7x7 square and the jewels are expected to protrude into the path. 

I started by just forming squares with the pieces and quickly realised that my usual approach with packing puzzles of starting outside the box was not going to work. I found rather a lot of square assemblies very quickly and a quick play with Burrtools revealed that there are 2004 possible squares. Time to make squares in the box using the pathway in the top and you will quickly realise that there is quite a lot of thought going to be required. I started randomly and found that it is possible to place many of the pieces somewhere inside quite easily but the larger ones are either very rapidly blocked from moving along the path and two of the shapes cannot physically be placed with out rotating them at some point whilst in the box. This forces the perplexed puzzler to think about the order of placement. These pieces that need rotation need space to do so. Maybe they need to be placed early before the pathways gets too blocked up?

I got stuck after 2 days of trying and was forced to go to BT to at least look at possible final square assemblies which ended having the jewels protruding into the pathway. Interestingly, there are only 3 possible ways to create a square with the jewels still in the S-shaped track. Of these 3 assemblies, just one can be physically completed. It is very clever and a fun puzzle to think about. This is perfect for advanced puzzlers and beginners alike.

Shrine

Shrine by Lucie Pauwels

Shrine shows off the breadth of Lucie's skills. Not only does she design amazing packing puzzles but she also can design very clever interlocking puzzles. The Shrine has been made from a vibrantly gorgeous Bubinga and an Acacia block which needs to be held securely inside the assembly. There are 6 pieces which are 1x3x7 voxels in size and each has a 1x3 voxel slot in it. They all have ½x1 voxel protuberances and cutouts at various points in them. Counting them reveals that there are just enough to have all holes filled. The end result shape is not terribly obvious and I thought that this might be a significant difficulty in the solution of the puzzle but in reality this is a really clever sequential assembly challenge. Finding which pieces cane interlock with each other shows that there are not many possible assemblies to try and it is just a matter of thought© to assemble one piece into another and progressively build up a pleasing shape. After a few have been put together the addition of a 4th or 5th (depending on which you start with) becomes impossible. Having met an impossible to finish position several times, it occurred to me that I might need to make two assemblies that fit together rather than each one after another. Once I had realised this, then the assembly is a fun exploration of which pieces fit together in which order. Another beauty by Pelikan which is suitable for all puzzlers.

I have put the final assembly behind a spoiler button:

This doesn't really tell you how to assemble it

Thyor

Thyor by Dr Volker Latussek

This rather stunning creation made from Wenge, Padauk and Maple by Dr Latussek is called Thyor. Was this something to do with the God of thunder? I was rather mystified at the name until I received an explanatory email from him with an explanation. This puzzle is a tribute to one of the original German puzzle manufacturers: THYOR is short for "Thirty Years Of Rombol". Volker wrote this:

"The Kröger family runs a small game publishing company in Paderborn, Germany. My friend Bernhard - whom I still addressed as Mr. Schweitzer back then - recommended my SOMA PACK for publication there. It was my first mechanical puzzle to go into series production at Rombol.

Recently, after the relaunch of rombol.de, I read that the Kröger family had already begun publishing designer puzzles in small series as early as 1996. With the company’s 30th anniversary this year and the handover to the next generation in the family, I also wanted to personally express my gratitude for the great collaboration. Since the Kröger family now also distributes Pelikan puzzles here in Germany, I asked Pelikan to publish my puzzle THYOR: Th-irty Y-ears O-f R-ombol.

For THYOR, I experimented with 1.5x1x1.5 instead of the usual 1x1x1 voxel. As always, even changing just one parameter opens a whole new world. In THYOR, I break down a 1.5x1x52.5 rod into 18 sections for the 6 pieces that need to be packed into the box. I’m very confident that the solution will be unique even after you’ve played THYOR; at least, some of my fellow metagrobologists have confirmed this."

Volker always defines a specific setup position for the transport of his puzzles and this alone can be a huge challenge. I removed just one piece for the initial photo and stopped there. The other pieces did not seem to want to come out terribly easily. I backed off for a while as I did not want lots of pieces lying around with me unable to put them back into the box again. 

When I did come to trying to solve this one, I was not disappointed! I managed to remove 3 of the 6 pieces without too much trouble but the remaining 3 just would not come out of the box. The lip of the box stopped them from just dropping out and it became clear that rotations were going to be needed just to get access to the pieces. I'm slightly ashamed to admit that it took me a good 30 minutes just to get access to the pieces and begin trying the full assembly.

This challenge is very different to most of Volker's previous puzzles. It does not require rotations to achieve the main aim (the rotations are only needed to get the pieces out). This one can be solved by Burrtools and creating the BT file after you have solved it will add to your fun. It's not an easy one to create (at least for me) - at one point it was going to take 860 millennia to find the solution! Maybe that will give you an idea of how tough this challenge is?

The Secret Of Two Friends

The Secret of Two Friends by Pelikan

This stunning Puzzlebox is a new design by the Pelikan team. It has been beautifully made from a rather dark oak and a metal lock, keys, hinges and decorations. The aim is to open the chest and see what is rattling around inside. 

The lock can be opened using one of the keys and the chest will still not open. Something odd is going on inside. There is no movement where you think it should be. Time to investigate further and something interesting shows up quite quickly. There is then a need to use what you have in creative ways. I did have to let the Pelikan team know that one piece is too fragile and they have assured me that they are aware and will be fixing that.

I have only found the first small part of the mechanism and have failed so far to complete the task. I have tried using all the pieces I have in ever more creative ways but cannot seem to unlock the chest. I do know how it should open but I seem to be missing a step in the solution. This is definitely a lovely puzzle for anyone's collection and as a rare Pelikan design it is worth getting hold of.

Zese Are Not For Ze Faint-Hearted

Minima-Ze Series by Frederic Boucher
Produced by Pelikan

Damn! I never thought I would say it, but I wish we hadn't had a sunny day yesterday! The UK has basically had rain almost every day for the whole year so far and it has been thoroughly miserable. But, you all know that us Brits love to discuss and complain about the weather. The garden has been growing wild due to all the rain and the rapid approach of spring. So yesterday, when the forecast was good, I was ousted from the house by "she who frightens even the Gods" and given instructions to tidy up the garden. After 6 hours, I was allowed back in the house and knew that pain was coming. I was not expecting it to be mental as well as physical pain. This morning I awoke with pain - everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. My fingers hurt, my thighs hurt, my shoulders hurt. I hate gardening! The garden looks great but I am in too much pain tp appreciate it! Little did I know that I would add brain pain would be rapidly added to the collection of aches.

I received a nice big box of puzzles from Jakub, Jaroslav and team on Monday and after unpacking, I had to put them away for a few days due to work. The presence of ball bearings bouncing around in an operating theatre is not a good idea so I daren't take them to work. I finally got to investigate on Friday and unfortunately wasn't allowed to play yesterday due to fear of reprisals if I didn't get into the garden. As a result today I have started work on the Minima-Ze series by Frederic Boucher.

These are an interesting variant of his Minima puzzles with a totally different aim.These are not packing puzzles...they should be classified as either Maze puzzles or sequential movement puzzles. The aim is to either remove the/one of the ball bearings that is trapped inside the usual 2x2x3 box or, in the case of Minima-Ze Rally, to run the ball bearing through the maze from entry in one side and and exit on the other.

These diminutive puzzles are perfectly pocket sized and can be carried about without worrying about losing a ball bearing. However once you have started you probably need to be careful because loss is a distinct possibility.

Minima-Ze 1

Minima-Ze (1)

Number one in the series has been made using Leopardwood for the box and Acacia for the pieces. A blue marble is visible in the hole in the top. There is another smaller white marble just visible to the right of it. The aim is to manipulate the pieces to allow the removal of the white ball bearing via the exit hole at the front. Should be easy? Hmm! maybe for you it might be but I struggled. There are two square holes to facilitate movement of the wooden blocks (none of which can be removed) and there is a slot in base which serves no there purpose other than too allow the puzzler to examine the shape of the pieces that are being slid around. After a few minutes of fiddling a couple of oddities can be discerned. It is obviously going to be key to work out what those "oddities" are there for. 

Being a bear of very little brains who was hurting all over, my thought capacity was at a rather low ebb. I am embarrassed to say that it took me well over an hour to realise what was required and actually carry out the required moves. A ball fell out much to the alarming interest of a cat. I retrieved it as quickly as I could before someone swallowed it.

I'm sure it shouldn't have taken me over an hour!

Returning it to the start was another challenge. I was able to place the balls back inside but the once I thought I had them back inside, I either couldn't slide the wooden blocks back inside or the balls were in the wrong order. Another 10 minutes required to get the dexterity to do what was needed. Lovely clever challenge and a nice warm-up for the others in the series.

Minima-Ze 2

Minima-Ze 2

This one is made by Pelikan using Mahogany for the box and Garapa for the blocks. Inside, there is a single ball bearing visible through a hole in the base. The aim here is to manipulate the pieces and navigate that ball bearing through the maze and out through one of the holes in the front. It's not clear at first how this is going to work nor which hole is the exit.

Rocking it back and forth reveals that internal pieces slide around and at one point one of the pieces covering a hole pokes out and has a drilled hole in it. Aha! This would imply that there is a moving path inside the pieces trapped inside and the aim is to work out where the holes are, how they can be manipulated into a pathway and then how to get the ball bearing through it. 

Simple? Ha! Many years ago, I spent months working through the variable mazes inside the Revomaze puzzles and it took me months and months to solve them. I hate to say it but this may happen to me again. So far I have worked out how some parts move but it's very difficult to understand what's happening inside as there is minimal visibility. I have spent a good ½ hour with the ball bearing lost inside somewhere with no idea where it went and absolutely no idea how to return back to the beginning. Shaking it about is no use here! Somehow I have got it back to the start with little idea how. This is a frightening little puzzle and will require a lot of thought in a silent room. I think listening as you go is going to be quite important here.

Minima-Ze 3

Minima-Ze 3

Number 3 in the series has a Limba box and Wenge pieces. It looks rather complex by the presence of a full circumferential belt of holes which are there to help you control the pieces by squeezing fingertips through to prevent parts from moving when you don't want them to. Again, the aim is to remove the silver ball bearing from the puzzle (it is visible through a very small hole in the back wall of the box). 

The clue to the presence of a drilled pathway comes when you manipulate the internal pieces to find that the single piece covering the square hole pokes out with a cavity in it, obviously to deliver the ball bearing to you. There is no other part of the internal maze visible inside and you are expected to build an internal visualisation of the maze by listening to the pieces move and using gravity to control the movement of pieces and ball whilst using your fingers to control which blocks can move.

For 2 hours today I have been playing with this and the ball was lost inside. I had no idea where it was and could not return it back to the beginning. Panic began to set in. Time to put it down and think©. That didn't work for me so I fiddled with it blindly and returned it to the beginning. After the palpitations had settled, I tried again and suddenly the ball was out. 

Solved it - not sure how!

Having taken the photo of it, I now have to return it to the beginning and I am not entirely sure how to go about it. I think I will need to draw a picture of the shapes and where I think the holes/paths might be. 

These are beautiful puzzles and terrific challenges. they are NOT for the faint-hearted! These will keep you challenged for quite some time, require a lot of thought and a very good 3D visuospatial ability to understand and solve.

Minima-Ze Rally

Pelikan version

Nothing yet designs version

I have not yet had time to play with this one. It was also available from Tye Stahly's Nothing Yet Designs store (almost everything seems to be available from him) and maybe if you badger him, it might be available again. I haven't gotten around to it yet but my backlog is out of control just now. I need a long holiday with no gardening to do or even to retire to catch up.

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What else will be available at the next update? I should have reviews ready for next week for you.

The secret of two friends - a design by the Pelikan team - beautifully made from Oak (here) or "sub-fossil" oak

Shrine by Lucie Pauwels - made from Bubinga and Acacia

Diasafe by Lucie Pauwels made from Wenge and Pink Oak

Thyor by Dr Volker Latussekmade from Padua, Maple and Wenge