You cannot have too many Turning Interlocking Cubes! Especially made by
Brian Menold or
designed by the "Master of the TIC" - Andrew Crowell. Brian's last update had 4
TICs in it and I picked these 2 because I already had copies of the other two
(SkepTIC previously from Brian and remaining unsolved as well as XiTIC from
Bernhard:
XiTIC pieces
XiTIC assembled
I really need to find my copy of SkepTIC and solve the damn thing - I seem to
remember that I bought it in March last year and could not assemble it and
have put it down somewhere - who knows where!
SkepTIC pieces still to be assembled
When Brian offered these puzzles that I did not have in my collection, I could
not resist. Well, you all know that I struggle to resist many puzzles that are
put on sale and have really annoyed Mrs S by continuously increasing the size
of my collection and failing to put them away. She was distinctly unimpressed
when they arrived. I had been hoping to intercept their arrival without her
noticing whilst I have had a few days of annual leave over the last 2 weeks.
Unfortunately, she had me doing DIY and gardening for much of the time off and
I couldn't get to the door in time to intercept before she got there. I was
wiring in replacement smoke and fire detectors and up a ladder when the
package arrived! I nearly fell off the ladder in my haste to get to the door
first but she's too damn quick!
In the evenings after finishing my enforced chores and (for once) not
electrocuting myself, I set to playing with these fascinating TICs. The fun
thing about both of the new arrivals is that they have only three pieces in
each:
TripTIC made from Paduak, Canarywood and
Angelique
wood
NeuroTIC from mixed woods
I started with the "easy" one, TripTIC, as it only had 2 rotations and 11
moves. and quickly found the end positions for each of the pieces and
individually found the rotations but when trying to put all three pieces
together the pieces interfered with each other's moves. until I found a very
nice little position for one that opened up a hole for the introduction of
the other and after about 15 minutes I had a lovely little cube:
See! I can solve the odd puzzle occasionally!
Time to move onto the harder one...NeuroTIC also has 3 pieces but despite
having only 2 rotations, it has a higher level of 13.3 and as Brian puts it:
"some interesting moves". I definitely struggled on this one. I quickly
determined the final resting positions but putting any third piece into the
mix quickly blocked me. I couldn't seem to work out which piece to use first
and I ended up having to solve this over 2 days. Yes, I forced Mrs S to allow
me a little puzzling time during my time off.
Whack! Ouch! Sorry dear. As Brian said, there
are some really clever moves involved here and the final rotation that allows
the rest of the puzzle to slide together is absolutely delightful.
Absolutely wonderful assembly process
Disassembling the puzzle caused me a little trouble. I got all caught up and
had a piece trapped and unable to release it despite working out the correct
rotation first. This could easily also be a disassembly puzzle.
I really never know how to store these puzzles - should I keep them
disassembled? Or should I keep them as lovely looking cubes to be taken apart
- this would help with storage but decrease the repeatability of the
puzzles.
Of course, I couldn't buy just 2 TICs from Brian. I had to make the postage
worthwhile - I also couldn't resist a third one being released by him from
the amazing
Haym Hirsh, the Green T-Box:
Green T-Box
I had already bought the original T-Box by Haym back in December 2021
and thoroughly enjoyed the sole process of packing 6 T-shaped bars into a
beautifully designed box so how could I possibly resist a reworking of the
original idea with another 6 T's of different dimensions and a different set
of obstructions in the box? Again, it was beautifully embellished.
What is next for Brian and Haym? Will we have Black T-Box? Oolong T-box? Who knows! Whatever it is, I will not be able to resist.
Thank you, Brian for a week of delightful puzzling to take my mind of the DIY and gardening. In fact, I have had quite the roll this last couple of weeks - I look forward to showing the completed puzzles off to you over the next couple of weeks.
A rather large box arrived earlier this week and an annoyed Mrs S muttered "not
again" to me. I gritted my teeth, kept my head down and promised not to leave
them lying around once I had solved them (there is a rather embarrassing number
of puzzles just strewn all over the house just now and I need to put some away
before there's a bloodbath in PuzzleMad HQ.
This time there is a huge selection of puzzles from your favourite designers
and a variety of different types of puzzle with varying difficulty levels to
suit everyone.
From top left above:
Zack Die Krone by Stephan Baumegger (2 versions available)
The Horns of Booth by Dr Volker Latussek
PSI by Girish Sharma
5 Balls by Frederic Boucher
One Match Left by Jorgos Anastasou
Serial Square NTC by Lucie Pauwels
LOL by Frederic Boucher
Sam Duo by Frederic Boucher
Heavy Lifter by Girish Sharma
Yes U Can by Frederic Boucher pictured separately
Jakub has asked for me to give some reviews as quickly as possible and so I
will be spreading them over two weekends of blogs. Expect them to go on sale
quite soon.
Zack Die Krone
There will be 2 versions of Zack Die Krone by Stephan Baumegger, both are
absolutely beautiful. This fabulous puzzle is not for the faint-hearted. When
I first picked it up, I thought it was a 6 piece burr in a frame and expected
a huge struggle as a result. When I had a closer look I was relieved to see
that it is "just" a mere 3 piece burr within a cage that has a big hole in the
top. How hard could it be? OMG, it is a serious challenge!
There are a few possible moves at first but after that the possibilities open
up quite a bit as there is plenty of space to look at what is happening and
also plenty of space to move the pieces around each other an around the frame.
Initially the frame really gets in the way of what you want to do but after a
bit of fiddling a way method of getting around it can be found. Once this has
been done, you will need to carefully control the pieces as they appear to
become quite unstable. Rotations won't happen easily but are possible and you
will need to prevent that. I managed to unlink one side of a piece from the
others and then got very badly stuck being completely unable to progress and
needed to backtrack to the beginning again. Luckily, I found that it's usually
pretty easy to backtrack if you paid attention but I dare say some of you
might get lost at some point.
I remained stuck at the same position for a whole evening before I managed to
find a possible move. It's a huge advantage being able to see more or less
everything that is going on and sort of planning what you can do. With great
satisfaction I found a path to release a piece from both the others and then a
simple matter of releasing it from the frame. I had my 4 pieces and could take
a photo. At level 21.8.3 for the complete disassembly, this is a huge
challenge for anyone and only the very best of you will be able to reassemble
it without Burrtools (I certainly needed it)
An incredible challenge The magnets hold it stable when assembled
One Match Left
Looks just like a matchbox
As expected - one match inside
A new designer I've not heard of before,
Jorgos Anastasou seems to have been designing for a few years but this is the first of
his that has been mass produced. This beautiful cute little puzzle is made to
look like a matchbox (very reminiscent of the
matchbox playground
from last year). It's made of Jatoba, Wenge, Maple & Cherry. Only two of
the woods are visible from the outside of the box. There appear to be two but
pieces inside the box which can slide and reveal a lovely little single match
left in the box (hence the name).
After six moves the match can come out but the tray formed by the two but
pieces still won't slide out. A further 7 moves leads to one more part removal
and a further 2 to complete disassembly. It's not terribly difficult but it's
lovely and really quite cute. I suggest that you leave the pieces for a couple
of days before attempting the reassembly. It will keep you nicely for a little
while. Not hard but just right for a little light puzzling. Indeed,
Jorgos wrote about it:
"Sometimes the simple things can be the most enjoyable! The "One Match
Left" is a moderately difficult level 6.7.2 disassembly challenge with a
unique solution reassembly. It's fun to determine the position of the
small match piece trapped inside the seven unit burr pieces and frame.
Τhanks to Pelican for making my design a reality with their high quality
construction and materials! Have fun!"
He's right, it is a simple thing compared to may others that have been made but
it is a delight and very beautiful.
Leave it for a few days and assemble from scratch
Heavy Lifter
Arrives incorrectly assembled
5 pieces
This wonderful interlocking 4x4x4 cube puzzle is by the amazing
Girish Sharma. It has been stunningly produced in some lovely woods - Zebrano, Acacia,
Wenge, Maple and
Massaranduba. It has been incorrectly assembled for transport and quickly comes apart
into 4 rather complex shapes and an L. I did not receive any instructions and
from the start assumed that it was a TIC. As a result, I set to work looking
for the position of all the pieces and then rotational moves to get them
interlocked. The process took me about an hour whilst watching TV with Mrs S.
It was really very satisfying to work it out and seat the pieces into place. I
was so delighted that I did it repeatedly that evening.
The following day I got my instructions from Jakub and was stunned to realise
that it was not meant as a TIC...he wrote:
"Over the last few months, I have been tinkering with the idea of high
level 4x4x4 IC which form a full visible cube. So far, I've known the
highest level to be 11 by a few designers. The challenge I took on
myself was to design something with a higher level. This is first of the
many designs that I have coming up in future.
Heavy Lifter is a level 12.2.2.2 IC with 5 pieces. The puzzle comes
disassembled and the goal is to assemble the pieces into a 4x4x4 cube.
Once you have assembled the cube, you might realise the importance of
the name of the puzzle."
Amazingly, it was actually an interlocking cube very similar to many of the
wonderful Microcubology puzzles I bought way back at the beginning of my
puzzling odyssey but MUCH MUCH tougher. The following evening, I just had to
try again and do it without the rotations. This was a huge challenge as the
TIC part had given me some preconceived ideas that I needed to get rid of.
Girish has created an absolute monster of an interlocking cube which is
absolutely wonderful to work on. The "proper solution" took me well over an
hour and was joyous - this might well be my absolute favourite of the bunch.
This was an absolute joy to solve
LOL
Laugh out loud?
This made me laugh when I managed it
How can anyone resist a new puzzle designed by Frederic Boucher. I certainly can't and if it's called LOL then there is guaranteed to be something sprecial about it. This puzzle is very reminiscent of the Galette by Osanori Yanamoto in that there is a small flat box with a limited entry and a set of pieces to insert inside. There's no window in the front so it will all need to be done with dexterity and gravity along with quite a lot of thought. The puzzle is beautifully made from Jatoba and Cherry with the puzzle name on the surface which I think might be Marquetry (it's something I've never seen from Jakub before).
The 5 simple pieces are to be put inside to make a 4x5 voxel rectangle. It's made more complex by the fact that the largest piece can't even fit through the 2 voxel opening - it requires a rotation to get inside and maybe there will be rotations needed inside the box without easy access?
Subsequently I received the instructions and found there was another challenge to be had:
Frederic wrote about it:
"LOL is an assembly puzzle with a very simple goal: Assemble the five pieces to make the acronym LOL, respecting the following rule: the 3 characters must have the same size (height and width). Will you discover the trick and succeed in the challenge? Exclusively for the PELIKAN version, a box is included. As a second challenge you must pack the pieces completely into the box. I hope this puzzle will make you laugh out loud!"
It appeared that I had only done the secondary challenge. The primary challenge still awaited me. This took me another hour or so yesterday and the important thing is to assemble the letters standing up on a flat surface. There is a very special trick that has had be done during the manufacture of the pieces to make it work. Another laugh out loud moment!
Finally for today, I have a wonderful caged 6 piece burr from Tyler. He has been quite prolific over the last few years and has designed several different kinds of puzzle. This is a caged 6 piece burr which has had 2 opposite corners chopped off to allow quite a lot more freedom of movement for the burr sticks. It really adds to the challenge and allows it to reach quite a high level. I loved it but it might be too difficult for many of you if you are nor big burr fans. It has been beautifully made by Jakub and Jaroslav in Mahogany and Acacia. The angles of all those cuts must have made manufacture a bit of a nightmare to produce but the effort was well worth it. Obviously, it needs disassembly and then reassembly.
Tyler wrote about it:
"Sierpinski's Burr is a variation on the traditional framed 6 piece burr, in which 2 opposing corners have been removed. The resulting shape is one I hope you find quite interesting! It adds a few extra moves to the puzzle, and also provides small windows through which possible moves can be deduced. At level 40, it may sound a bit daunting, but keeping track of the solve is manageable, without too many dead ends. I don't think this one will be the hardest burr out there, but it should be a lot of fun to work out. Of course, the puzzle is named after the Sierpiński Triangle, which the triangular faces of the burr resemble. Pelikan's build of my design adds a lovely tactile feel, as well as being a beautiful wood combination. I hope people enjoy it! :)"
He is absolutely right! This is a huge challenge but is definitely manageable.there is a particular sequence that recurs several times and each time it is done it allows further progression before being undone and moving other pieces. The entire disassembly is level 40.6.3.1.2.2 so once the first piece is out then the rest will follow quite easily by looking inside and working out what is possible.
A fabulous burr
Having taken my photo there was absolutely no way I could reassemble it myself and off to Burrtools I went. So much fun in one small cube!
I have only had 5 days with the puzzles so far and managed to solve 5 of them in that time. I plan to work on the rest for next Sunday - come back for them.
My pick from this bunch is the Heavy Lifter and the LOL puzzle but all are absolutely fantastic!
Twisted Rabbit by Girsh Sharma made by Brian Menold
Last week
I reviewed a fabulous assembly puzzle designed by
Girish Sharma
(Shiba Inu) from Pelikan (2 still in stock) and marvelled at the amazing way he is able
to create burrs as assembly puzzles that are accessible to the average puzzler
(although still very difficult) and very interesting in their challenge and
design. Shortly before the Pelikan puzzles arrived, I received a lovely little
batch of beauties from
Brian Menold's
Wood Wonders store.
When they were announced, I had to force myself to decide on just a few to add
to the collection because I can no longer see even a hint of my desk and the
piles of puzzles to be solved are starting to get embarrassingly large in
several other rooms of the house much to the disgust and anger of "someone else"
who lives here. She has just said that I remind her of those hoarders that we
see on TV occasionally living in filth. I did have to protest that they are all
very clean which earned me a stare and an implied threat.
Not only does Girish design burrs but he also designs Turning Interlocking
Cubes (TICs) which have gotten more and more complex over the last few years.
Some of them are quite fearsome in their complexity. There were 3 in Brian's
recent release and I got them all.
First up was Snake Eyes - I had thought that having only 2 pieces, it might be
a nice starter, slightly easier puzzle to begin with having not done any TICs
for a while. The copy I received was made from
Cerejeira
and
Movingui which made a beautiful contrast. The international postal service had
broken a joint on mine and I was delayed in my play by having to glue it back
together again. Interestingly, there is only one way the 2 pieces can be
interlocked into each other which is always helpful at first and then I
realised that there were lots of possible rotations that can be done. I
started moving them about and getting increasingly worried that I will never
get them apart again when I found that I had gone in a full circle and they
fell apart on me. That was unexpected! Try again and yet again they rotated
around each other in a full circle before finding myself at the beginning. I
was obviously missing a move (or 2 or 3 or ...). In fact, this reminded me
very much of quite a few of the wire disentanglement puzzles I have played
with over the years. Lots of moves that I struggle to remember before ending
up at the start. Frustrating but fun. Having done Einstein proud by repeating
the same thing over and over again, I finally had enough memory of my moves to
be able to recognise my path and also explore ways to get off that path.
Several of them ended up nowhere but finally after about 2 days of fiddling, I
got my Aha! moment. It is lovely - just 2 pieces and yet so very clever:
Two Twisted rabbits intertwined...at last
Next up was the 3 piece TIC released at the same time (also by Girish) - Snake
Eyes
Snake Eyes by Girish and Brian
This version is made using Cerejeira, Wenge and
Sipo. I expected this to be a significant step up in challenge and was not
disappointed. Brian wrote this:
"Lots of moves and rotations. I think I lost track of the rotations at 9
and the moves at 30! A really fun challenge always has lots of rotations.
This puzzle holds up its end in that regard."
3 pieces make my cube - the Snake eyes are visible
I have some serious concerns about being able to take it apart again. I have
absolutely no idea how I did it! Yay! Brilliant fun - always looking for more
from this great pairing of craftsman and designer.
Yesterday was the last MPP of the year and for once I wasn't working. I headed
down to Birmingham and joined the boys for a day of fun, puzzling and a kebab.
I am sure that Allard will be writing a story about it soon. Mrs S immediately
commented on my arrival home that I had left with 1 box of puzzles and arrived
home with 2! Whack! Ouch!
Here is what I got:
Not a bad puzzle haul - it includes what Ali brought back from IPP for
me The cardboard box is a new one from Kyle Chester Marsden with a
Xmas theme (I'm saving it for then)
When I took the photo, I actually missed the extra gift from
Stefan
- he has perfected Micro 3D printing and made a Soma cube with box that are so
small that you need tweezers. The one I got was the big one because age made me
fearful of not being able to focus on the even smaller one!
When
Brian Menold offers
new puzzles then I jump at the chance and place an order. Now, I am sure that a
whole lot of you will be about to say that the Clutch 1 puzzle is NOT a new
puzzle and you would be absolutely right in shouting that at me. I noticed way
back in 2022 that the Clutch 1 was the winner of a Jury Honourable Mention award
in the
IPP design competition. I took note that it looked like Brian's beautiful work and then promptly
forgot about it. Shortly after that Brian began to offer it up for sale and I
was either busy or ill or away or something because I completely missed it when
they were released. Sheepishly, I contacted Brian to ask if he was planning to
make any more and, phew, he said that he was planning at least one more set in
the future.
When it came out, I pounced and got my copy ordered (I think it was at the end
of 2022 that I put in my order). Why am I only writing about it now? Because I
am eejit! I realised that ordering only one puzzle would make the postage as
much as the puzzle itself and I asked Brian to hold it for me. Then in 2 or 3
subsequent puzzle releases, I added one or two more of his gorgeous creations
to the ever increasing set that he had held until a few weeks ago with the
last release, I finally decided to brave the postal service and the wrath of
"she who frightens the universe" and get them actually sent to me. They
arrived whilst "she" was out and I managed to smuggle them in without her
noticing. My desk is a huge mess again and she didn't notice the extra ones on
it - hooray! I managed to nab both Clutch 1 and Clutch 2.
The Clutch puzzles were supposed to have been sent out in disassembled form to
torture me more but Brian had a little brain slip. I received the Clutch 1
that had been intended for Rox and George's collection and they had
specifically asked for them to be sent assembled (I suspect it is to prevent
pieces getting lost in the sheer enormity of their collection and the vast
numbers of arrivals) - it would appear that they will have the extra challenge
intended for me as my copy went to them! Maybe Rox will chime in to let me
know how she gets on?
To be perfectly honest, assembly puzzles make me very very nervous. I'm really
not very good at them but these TICs have become some of my absolute favourite
challenges and my skills have improved over several years of attempts. I set
to on the assembled puzzle and realised that there are only 3 pieces to come
apart so how hard could it be? Cough!
Blush! It would appear that Girish is a
master at the art of puzzle design and yes, it's VERY hard. There is quite a
lot of possible movement and quite a few possible rotations as well. Except
none of them seemed to go anywhere that I wanted them to. This was fabulous.
I'm always anxious about the glued joints on these sorts of puzzles but the
ones that might get a little force on them have been reinforced with
attractive dowels. This sort of attention to detail is what keeps me buying
from Brian.
I am embarrassed to say that the disassembly took me 2 days to work out! I am
actually grateful to Brian for his mistake - I might have been at it for weeks
if it was sent as an assembly puzzle. Poor Rox and George! They both are much
better puzzlers than me and I am sure that they will have assembled their copy
in just a few minutes.
Three rather complex pieces!
Luckily for me, I also managed to nab a copy of the Clutch 2 follow up puzzle
which Brian released last year. Yes, it was utter torture waiting for it but I
did have erm, one or two other toys to play with whilst I waited for these to
arrive! My backlog is horrific!
Clutch 2 also designed by Girish
This was correctly sent out to me in the disassembled form. 3 rather complex
pieces to be made into the usual 4x4x4 cube. It really is stunningly made with
lots of gorgeous wood which you know I cannot resist!
Having struggled for quite a long time with just taking Clutch 1 apart, I was
expecting this to be a significant challenge. It may only be 3 pieces but I
was expecting a fight! My confidence soared quite quickly when I saw that
there was only one possible way the pieces could make the required shape. I
thought to my self: "self, this will be much easier than the last one". It is
really easy to assemble into any 2 pairs and none of those pairings require
rotation. I should have realised at that point that I had been lulled into a
false sense of security.
Having established the only possible assembly and having seen how they could
all be put together, I then hit a brick wall. Trying to move/rotate one piece
out of the way to allow the third to be introduced proved impossible for me. I
just couldn't seem to find a way to interlock all 3 at the same time. In fact
when any two were assembled, the third could not be introduced to the puzzle
in any meaningful way. It was always blocked.
I spent a few days failing with this approach and then had a rest with another
couple of the bandaged cubes for "light relief" and returned to it with the
aim of working it out as a disassembly in my head. I could find the first 2 or
even 3 linear moves of the disassembly but then struggled to visualise how to
go further. Another day went by! My goodness! Maybe Rox and George are correct
in their demand to have everything sent out assembled? In the end, I took each
of the pieces as pairs and worked out what possible moves were available for
all of them. This led me to take the 2 most complex of them and plot out a
really complex sequence of possible moves. It did not appear to be terribly
helpful because there seemed to be no point where the third piece could be
introduced until...
AHA!
Suddenly I had found a rotation that left the perfect gap. Piece number 3
was inserted and I realised I was lost. I could not remember the complex
path that I had walked down. Backtrack and start again. This time I took
some notes and I let out one of my annoying shouts of success earning me a
glare with the laser-burning stare and the warm aroma of burning flesh!
Clutch 3 assembled in all its' glory No spoiler here -
establishing the piece positions is trivial
I have to say that I am absolutely delighted with these wonderful puzzles -
Brian has made them beautifully and the challenge is fabulous. They are
suitable as either assembly or disassembly puzzles (I think the latter is best
but either is good). If you get a chance to play with or buy these then don't
hesitate - you will love them! Thank you Brian and Girish.
I still have a few more from Brian to play with and gulp, may have some more
currently in the post. Whack! Ouch! Sorry
dear! I'll make it up to you later this year for our big anniversary.
I saw
Neal show
these off on a Mechanical Puzzle Facebook group a few weeks ago and I asked
about them. The shapes are freely available to download and print but I have
been told that the purchase of a 3D printer is grounds for divorce (which I
cannot afford) and I really do prefer my puzzles in woof where possible. Luckily
Neal was open to selling the set to me and for a very reasonable sum the whizzed
across the Atlantic to chez Puzzlemad for me to marvel at. I have not had much
contact with Laszlo for a while and had no idea that he had taken his
unbelievable puzzle design skills into the TIC world - let me say that yet
again, he has done something wonderful and designed some beautiful puzzles with
just the right challenge level.
The beautiful wooden sticks were all made by
Jeff Baz and
he also assembled 4 of the puzzles. For a while Jeff was also selling stacks
of wooden sticks for puzzlers to assemble into their own toys and Matt
Hochberg made the other 2 puzzles for Neal. Jeff's usual items for sale are
gorgeous wooden chopsticks and other wooden art and he seems to have stopped
making puzzles for the moment and also is not making the sticks either but
hopefully he will restart sometime in the future.
Neal very helpfully disassembled the 6 TICs for me prior to sending them and
they were well packed with no glue calamities in transit. I had a bunch of
challenges to play with. I have often in the past hesitated to do assembly
puzzles because I am generally bad at them. But over the last year or so, I
have gotten a little better due to the TICs I have attempted from various
designers. I was very glad that these had been sent to me disassembled. They
are all a very nice challenge level with only one of them being exceptionally
difficult. Neal suggested that I start with Cookie, then Cake, then Scone and
then Macaron. Off I went - I took them to work to play with in the odd moment
of down time. Staring in the ascribed order.
CookieTIC was a beautiful way to start. These are all a pair of ring shaped
larger pieces that have the interlocking then rotation to be done before sliding
together into a 4x4x3 cuboid and then having the smaller pieces to filling the
gaps. Sometimes the filling of these gaps requires a partial disarticulation and
the sliding back together with the piece inside. The rotational aspects are very
like a disentanglement puzzle in reverse with the possible movements highly
constrained. This one took me just 15 minutes and left me with a smile. On to
the next...
CakeTIC had a much bigger gap to slide the 2 ring pieces together but this did
not make the assembly into place any easier due to the large paddle shapes at
the end of the rings. This fun one took me a little while longer but had a
fabulous Aha! moment when it did come together.
Scone proved troublesome! I attempted it and failed. I could not get the two
ring pieces to interlock. I was always blocked in doing what I needed. Time to
move on before frustration sets in and I push too hard and snap a joint...
MacaronTIC had some absolutely gorgeous dark woods and a very interesting
initial assembly and then a little more of a challenge to place the 3 smaller
pieces. There were a couple of possible assemblies but one was not actually
possible.
BaklavaTIC was next and was not a disappointment (I cannot resist Baklava!).
Another fun entanglement phase which was extremely blocked up by the very
large face on the larger open ring and then more interesting insertions. This
probably took me about 30 minutes to find the full solution and on to the last
one...
MuffinTIC was oddly very easy for me and I managed it in just 10 minutes - it is
beautiful and a satisfying solve. It was time to go back to the SconeTIC... as
an Englishman, I should be very good at devouring scones as it is part of my
cultural heritage but maybe the absence of clotted cream and jam was affecting
my abilities? There was something about this one that was really preventing me
from finding a solution. I had developed a small audience whilst I was working
on the others and they were all beginning to think I was some kind of genius
until SconeTIC. At this point they saws me struggle and get nowhere for quite a
while and realised that I am really a bear of very small brain and after a
little mocking had occurred they all lost interest.
I had to take it home again and analyse it properly. I finally realised what
was causing me so much trouble. Looking at the two large interlocking pieces,
I realised that there was at least 2 ways that these could be assembled into
the base cuboid shape and clearly only one of them was going to be correct.
Maybe I had spent all my time attempting the wrong one? I changed my
orientation of the two pieces as they attach and tried again. Still no luck,
maybe a different orientation. Aha! I managed to get them interacting nicely
and after a very fancy move but definitely not using any force I made a cuboid
and set to inserting the final pieces. BUT they wouldn't go. No matter what I
tried, I could not get the U-shaped piece inside. Then after looking very
carefully I realised that the gaps left in the assembled cuboid could not
possibly fit the remaining shapes. The wonderful thing with this particular
TIC was that not only were there two possible frame assemblies but they were
both reachable. So how do I get to the other one? I then realised that there
were four possible ways to introduce the two frame pieces to each other and I
assume that one of them allows the incorrect assembly. Time to try the other
3. Even knowing this, it was a huge challenge to get the other assembly. I
think it must have taken me over 2 hours over a couple of sessions and kept me
partially occupied during yesterday's coronation. Finally I had it done and
could take a group photo:
Scone finally solved!
Stunning as an assembled set
I have assembled and disassembled them all now a few times and they are wonderful. The sticks are beautifully made and finished and the woods are gorgeous. I think I will keep them in the assembled state for storage and display. It might be too easy to lose a piece if I don't (I do have a single tetromino in my living room and I have absolutely no idea which puzzle it came from - I guess that I will eventually find which one has a piece missing!
Time to get back to the SD puzzles that I have had no luck with!
