Pelikan Summer Bonanza Part 1

Upcoming release from Pelikan puzzles

Thank heavens for Jakub and Jaroslav and team! I have received quite a few fabulous puzzles over the last few weeks and thought that I had lost my mojo (yet again!). I had not managed to solve very much at all and for some of the recent arrivals, I had not even managed to find the first move! I must be really dim! Then along comes Jakub with a beautiful package of 6 lovely puzzles giving me at least a hope of solving a few of them. I cannot do it all in a week and so have split the reviews over this week and next.

In the picture above starting at back left:

Lapsus 2 by Alfons Eyckmans

Kamelle by Volker Latussek

Petit Sucrier by Volker Latussek

3 Candles by Osanori Yamamoto

Commotion by Tyler Hudson

Brick Wall by Lucie Pauwels

Jakub has been slightly worried about the fact that some of the creations are not selling as well as he would hope and wondered why. Whilst I adore burrs, I am aware that many puzzlers don't love them and prefer a different challenge. The puzzles in this release are a bit different from the usual and hopefully will be of interest to all you addicts out there. There is one burr but even this is different to the usual.

Commotion

Commotion by Tyler Hudson

Tyler has been quietly working in the background designing very interesting puzzles. They have tended to be various burrs or maze type interlocking puzzles and all have been really good. Certainly they have been good enough for the guys at Pelikan to mass produce and they have always sold out. This one is something totally new and an absolute delight. When it arrived, I took all 5 pieces out of the tray and wondered what I was supposed to do with it. I had to ask Jakub for instructions and Tyler also chipped in to tell me. My initial photo had been with the pieces removed and I had no idea how they had been arranged. 

I was instructed to reassemble it in the above conformation (Tray made from Garapa, 4 flower petals made from Wenge and leaves made from Padauk - it is really quite vibrant). There is a small gap in the tray at the top left and an obstruction to right. The aim is to slide the pieces around in the tray ending with the removal of the red leaves through that gap. 

I tend not to be a huge fan of the usual run-of-the-mill sliding piece puzzles because they end up being a huge amount of toil and trial and error. I usually solve them but in many times the number of moves that is the optimal. This creation by Tyler is totally different to these classic sliders. There is not a set move number to aim for - the challenge is being able to remove the piece at all! The movements can get really very restricted due to the size and shape of the pieces and some of the moves are coordinate motion (something I have not seen in one of these before) and a fair number of rotational moves involving one or more pieces simultaneously.

This was the first puzzle from the batch that I started with and really struggled for quite some time as it locked up again and again. Each time I backtracked and tried something different and found a new path opening up and sometimes being able to take it further. It took me 2 days of real concerted effort to find what I needed and removed the piece. This is an absolutely wonderful new take on a classic genre and is a significant challenge. Well worth buying when it goes on sale.

3 Candles

3 Candles by Osanori Yamamoto

Osanori-san features very heavily in this blog! He is an incredible designer - so much so that Pelikan use one of his creations in almost every single release. He specialises in packing puzzles with limited entry boxes but has designed in many other categories. This one is something rather special and fun. It is absolutely perfect for a puzzler of any level. I guess that I could now be considered an experienced puzzler (even if I am not very good at them) and this challenge really enticed me and I found it to be great fun.

Jakub and team have made the 6 pieces in this puzzle from a lovely rich and deeply grained Merbau with a single block of Maple. Initially, I thought this was a version of the Soma cube but the pieces are larger and there appear to be 28 voxels in total (one more than in the Soma cube's 3x3x3 requirement). I again, had to ask for instructions and was told that these pieces can be assembled into a cube with a single voxel protrusion and the aim was to do this with the protrusion being the white Maple cubie - the flame of the candle. There are 3 challenges for this puzzle: that flame can be in one of three different positions - centre, edge, corner.

I am not particularly good at assembling shapes from polyominoes - the Soma cube still is difficult for me despite having many solutions and I have so far completely failed to solve the Sisu puzzle from the last release (it is still in stock if you want a challenge). This challenge really gripped me - the premise is so simple and there is a major clue to start off with knowing the position of the flame. It is still a fabulous challenge which took me several hours before I had found all 3 solutions.

3 possible solutions

This, again, was so different to Osanori-san's other challenges and so accessible that it is a no-brainer purchase. Perfect to challenge yourself as a puzzle addict or to challenge e the significant others in your life.

Brick Wall

Puzzle face

Storage tray face

I have been watching Lucie Pauwels' designs with great interest over the years. She seems to create them in her head using simple home-made blocks and always manages to produce puzzles that are very different to those of the other designers out there today. There does not seem to be a computer used in the design process and this means that the puzzles that she creates are human solvable and require proper thought and logic to do so.

The Brick wall is a chunky puzzle (20.5x15x3cm) made from a gorgeous vibrant Bubinga and Maple. The reverse side of the puzzle is a tray which holds the pieces (Maple) which are to be the grout in the tiled wall. There are 11 differently shaped pieces of grout which need to be assembled inside the wall. The premise is very simple but the actual solution is not. I started as I always do with a random insertion of pieces in positions that looked good. With Lucie's puzzles, this approach really doesn't tend to work well and it ended for me several times with an almost, but not good enough assembly:

Well that didn't work

After a whole 2 days of failure, I decide that it was time to think© and use some logic. The pieces are shaped in such a way that there can be only one solution and the best way to go about it is to restrict the positioning of a certain few pieces from the very beginning. Once that has been done, the sequence for insertion is really pretty logical - there is a little trial and error where a piece has a little vertical symmetry but it only requires a quick test to see which way around it goes to allow other pieces in.

Despite the fact that this looks like an impossible trial and error challenge, believe me, it is not. Like most of Lucie's puzzles, this is a test of logic which you will really enjoy once you have decided to go that path. It will also look absolutely gorgeous on display.

That is it for this week - hopefully I can solve the other 3 for next weekend. There is a very challenging puzzle from Alfons Eyckmans and also something ferociously tough from Dr Volker Latussek. I know they are tough because it took me ½ an hour just to remove the pieces from the delivery configuration in the boxes! 

The upcoming puzzles will probably go on sale after 16th June.

Here We Go Again - Spring With Pelikan (part 1)

Pelikan offering for April

Hello again everyone! I'm a bit behind with my puzzling this week - it's been a bit hectic and I have had to do extra work to cover sickness and other "stuff" at work. I was hoping to have all the reviews for the latest offering from Jakub, Jaroslav and team all done in a week but I will have to split it up into two posts. We have some terrific challenges on offer here:

From the back left:

Euclid for Bernhard by Dr Volker Latussek

Stefka-flop from Dr Volker Latussek

SISU by Benjamin Heidt

YLEM by Benjamin Heidt

Airlock by Pit Khiam Goh

Xmas Stocking by Osanori Yamamoto

These should be going on sale on April 15th hopefully. I can review four of them today and plan to have the rest of the reviews up next weekend. Here we go...

Airlock

Airlock by Pit Khiam Goh

Pit is an incredible designer - I have seen his puzzles do very well in the design competitions and I have a good few of his designs in my collection which have appeared in this blog. This one is wonderful as well because of a series of really nice Aha! moments.

I had been certain that I had seen this somewhere before but a search of the internet only found a few pictures that did not ring any bells. It is a tray packing puzzle with a restricted entry hole. It has been beautifully made by the Pelikan team from Wenge, Purpleheart, Mahogany, Maple and Limba with an acrylic grille over the top. The delivery placement is useful to keep the pieces together and shows that certain moves will be required. removing the pieces reveals that all the pieces will need rotation and that 2 of the pieces are really quite restricted in how they move and can be placed.

The aim is to place them all back in the tray without any of them appearing in the entry hole and this is a real challenge. I started with this because it looks so enticing and I was hoping would not be too horrendously difficult. My solving success the last couple of weeks has not been great and I wanted something to boost my confidence. Erm... whilst I did solve it, it was not a quick easy solve. The pieces can conveniently be placed on top of the grille for planning purposes and it quickly becomes apparent that almost everything you try ends up blocked. Planning to get the most awkward pieces out of the way was an interesting challenge and taught me a lot. Random placement will not work for you here. You will need to think© and plan ahead. There are several of these Aha! moments and the solution is delightful. This is a fabulous puzzle that will delight experienced puzzlers as well as newbies alike. I will be taking this to work to torture colleagues and medical students during the day.

Xmas Stocking

Xmas Stocking by Osanori Yamamoto

An odd time of the year to have this one brought out but delightful nonetheless. I would suggest that you all buy this as either a belated Christmas present to yourselves or as an advance one for December for the significant other puzzler in your life. Hopefully you can stash it away for long enough and still remember where you put it. It is a rather pocketable size - perfect for your own Xmas stocking. As delivered there are 3 little feet inside the stocking already and 2 outside. Time to work out how to get them all inside.

Like many of Osanori-san's creations, there will need to be rotational moves but the box has very tight tolerances and the pieces can only rotate in certain ways (even with the box empty). Add in a few of the feet then the restriction gets significantly worse. As usual, I would suggest that you work this one in reverse - find out how they can be packed and then see if that packing is removable. This approach gives a couple of great Aha! moments again to help you on your way but even then, more thinking© is required. Gravity may be helpful to you at times and less helpful at other times - there is very little room inside for poking a finger in. Planning is everything with this one!

YLEM 

YLEM by Benjamin Heidt

This is the second time the Benjamin has appeared here and the second Pelikan release that includes his designs. There is something very clever about his designs which are delightful to see on display and also brilliant to explore and solve. This stunnning creation in Acacia and Purpleheart appeared to me initially to be "just" an 18 piece burr but with an odd configuration of the pieces leaving a hole in each of the 6 faces. But...this is not "just" another 18 piece burr - it can quickly be seen that it is a 19 piece burr (something I have never seen before) and it requires a fair bit of exploration to work through. 

These high piece number puzzles always frighten me because they often either have an incredibly complex/high level disassembly or after a couple of pieces are removed, can become very unstable and collapse on you. I can reassure you that this wonderful burr has a fantastic and almost logical unlocking mechanism which is an absolute delight to work through. There are a few moves available at first and the easy ones don't appear to lead anywhere. After some exploration and a nice Aha! moment, a new move becomes available which is very helpful in revealing the beginning of a locking sequence. The disassembly is a wonderful and very achievable level 19.2.2.3.2.3.2.2.1.1.2.1.1.1.1.1.2. giving a total of 46 moves to take it completely apart.

19 pieces - beautifully made by Pelikan!

This monster was beautifully stable right down to the last few pieces. I very much doubt that many people can assemble this from scratch but a few of you will be able to. Some may be able to remember what you did and be able to backtrack. I, on the other hand, barely remember my own name and therefore had to resort to Burrtools for the reassembly. Entering the pieces into that wonderful program and then adding the colour restrictions for the assembly was also great fun and a nice part of the challenge. The assembly required quite a bit of dexterity initially but was a delightful part of the challenge. If you like complex burrs but are frightened of too high a level then this is perfect.

I hope to finish the rest of the puzzles this week and get my reviews up for you next weekend.

Keep an eye out for these - they are fabulous for all levels of puzzler.

Truly Something to Behold

Soon to be released by Pelikan

At  the beginning of the week before last I took delivery of a VERY large box from Jakub and Jaroslav containing 7 puzzles and a request to have reviews as quickly as possible. I am just human and with my simple brain cannot possibly solve all of these in that short time (especially when you realise that there are hundreds of challenges here and some are really very difficult indeed.

Here we have:

Back row:

    Matchbox Playground - an extension of Oskar's original design by Péter Gál

Middle row:

    Filling V by Dr Volker Latussek

    Flummox by Benjamin Heidt

    Appletree by Benjamin Heidt

Front Row:

    Parallel Burr Cube #2 by Osanori Yamamoto

    Rattle Twist Duo by Osanori Yamamoto

    MRI by Benjamin Heidt

My picture does not do justice to the beauty and quality of them all (for that, you should wait for the official photos from Ivan Danik which appear on the Pelikan site.

Pelikan 2024 Feb

Stunning series this time with what looks like one of the most gorgeous puzzle sets I’ve ever seen.

Filling V 

Fillin V by Volker Latussek

Sent with just the triomino left out

Dr Latussek returns to challenge us with another of his wonderful packing puzzles that look much easier than they actually are. This one made of ????? comprises 6 L tetrominoes plus an L Triomino giving us the required 27 voxels to make up a solid cube. I could instantly see that there were several ways to make the cube and each of these could be attempted in several orientations with respect to the box. This box has a nice large slotted entry hole which looks like it shouldn’t be much of a hindrance to inserting the pieces. Dr Latussek said this:

"While working on the FLOP series, I had some fun working with completely filled boxes. I ‘d already done some preliminary work using L-shaped tetracubes, so it made sense to me to work on Lazlo Molnar and Alexander Magyarics’ six Ls puzzles and to combine them with the V-shaped tricube to make one of the 65 possible cubes and then put them in a box with only one opening. Of course, I started with my usual CASINO box, only to learn that this recipe doesn’t produce a sufficiently challenging puzzle, and neither does a FLOP box. Actually, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. Given the filling of a cube-shaped box, the actual design task was to find the correct, single, continuous opening.

Despite the numerous specifications, FILLING V is a challenging puzzle whose solution still surprises me. But there will never be a FILLING I."

Having found several possible cubes, I quickly noticed that many could be discarded because of the requirement to place an L shape (or even more than one) in at the end as a last piece. This cut down the options considerably and then left me with the need to place 5 pieces in the box. Here lies the challenge for this puzzle. There seems to be plenty of space to place 5 pieces but with lots of wiggle room and all you can do is wiggle and I needed quite a bit more space than that. At this point it’s a request to think© and notice what the box does allow you to do. There is a really lovely Aha! moment here and suddenly the wiggle room becomes room to really do something. Burrtools told me that there are 65 possible ways to assemble the pieces into a 3x3x3 cube but I found something pleasing quite early on.

I placed my last piece in the box with a huge grin on my face! This is, on the face of it, a much simpler puzzle than the Flop series but I think is better for it. The best description is “elegant” - it’s almost as elegant as the classic Casino which won so many accolades.

It’s an essential purchase!

Flummox

Flummox by Benjamin Heidt

This beautiful and rather diminutive creation was designed by a new name on the scene, Benjamin Heidt. If this is a typical example of puzzles from him then I hope that Jakub and Jaroslav make more. It is a fabulous variant on the classic 6 piece burr with length of 6 voxels (pieces made from a vibrant Purpleheart). The addition of little additional pieces (made from Maple) added onto the sides of the burr sticks which interfere with the the usual movement of the pieces and make the solution much more interesting.

The solution level is: 13.4.2.3 which is just right for all but the most masochistic of burr solvers and is delightful to explore. From the start position there are 4 or 5 possible moves and then further exploration after some of them. This took me about an hour to solve using my usual to and fro method which also meant that I could reassemble it from memory. The really good solvers will disassemble it relatively quickly and then have a really nice challenge assembling from scratch.

Beautifully made pieces

Appletree

Appletree by Benjamin Heidt

Here we have another very interesting design by Benjamin Heidt. It is a beautifully burr made in the shape of an Apple tree complete with apples amongst the foliage. It has been stunningly created using American Walnut, Acacia with Padauk apples.

This takes a bit of fiddling and exploration in every direction to find the first piece to move and after this, if you’re anything like me, it’s followed by an “Oh my God!!!” moment as all of a sudden a whole LOT of pieces move in various directions. Slight panic ensued and I quickly decided to return to the beginning and discovered that it wouldn’t go - aaargh! It took a frantic few minutes to sort of scrunch it back together and breathe a sigh of relief. I had to gird myself before trying again. This is fun! For me it’s a puzzle version of a rollercoaster.

Having done that several times and worked out how it locked and unlocked, I proceeded to explore and quickly found that several pieces were removable. I kept them in a place where I could tell the position and orientation. After removing 4 or 5 the trunk fell off and it sort of scrunched up again. I was lost! Despite this, the puzzle remained pretty stable even if everything was jiggly. I actually struggled to remove the remaining pieces, they did not just fall apart. Over the next 20 minutes I gradually disassembled it piece by piece and, oh boy, there are a lot of pieces.

Appletree pieces

After all of that, I had not even done the main challenge! This is not a stunningly designed sequential disassembly puzzle as I alluded to above…it is actually an assembly puzzle - the tree, as received, is in a "transport configuration" - the actual aim of the puzzle is to assemble the tree again but with 4 red apples on each side of the tree. There is no way that I was going to reassemble the transport solution without assistance let alone the main challenge and so I am off to Burrtools for a happy time sketching pieces out. Great fun!

Rattle Twist Duo

Rattle Twist Duo by Osanori Yamamoto

My friend's version

This beautiful interlocking puzzle designed by Osanori Yamamoto is made from Maple (pieces) with 2 different frames: one Jatoba and the other Zebrano. This one was so good that it was made for me by my greatly missed friend and mentor Tsy Hung Chein (aka Felix). Felix had one of the best eyes for a fabulous puzzle and if he took the time to make a copy and send it to me then you can be assured that there is something special about it. I had absolutely adored the copy sent to me - and I am delighted that many others will now get to experience a puzzle that looks simple but has significant challenge to it. 

Osanori-san’s documentation that he sent to Jakub said that the 2 interlocking pieces should be sent out locked on one frame with the aim being to remove them and place them on the other and then return it to the start position. Like many of his creations, rotations are both possible and required. For a puzzle with only 2 pieces to be fitted on a relatively simple frame, this should not be so difficult. Despite having done it before, it took me a good hour to disassemble one and assemble the other. 

Then going back the other way after a delay to allow forgetting was just as much of a challenge.

Parallel Burr Cube #2 

Parallel Burr Cube #2 by Osanori Yamamoto

Another challenge by Osanori-san, this consists of a Frame made from Bubinga and a set of 6 board burr pieces made from Limba. It is strikingly beautiful. Initially I thought that this was just a framed 6 board burr but it’s not quite this. The boards are held apart from each other by the frame making sure they interact loosely with each other being trapped by just the end-plates of each board. At the beginning there are several possible moves but the paths are mostly dead-ended after just 1 or 2 moves. This means no huge long fruitless pathways to explore. It requires a search for something that goes somewhere and for me, took quite a while to find the required move that opened up the puzzle for further exploration. The first piece can be removed quite quickly after just 6 moves which then allows you to peek inside and gain some more understanding of the interaction of the pieces. Having removed the first piece, it does not seem to get any simpler and the puzzle transforms into almost a disentanglement puzzle - it is like unravelling a knot inside a box whilst you can only see a small section of the knot at a time. It is at times frustrating, sometimes fiddly as the boards can catch on the edges as there is a little wiggle room, but is always an enjoyable exploration. The move count is not particularly high but it is still fun to explore and work out at each stage how to make room for the next piece to slide.

You can see how the pieces are locked in place

Having dismantled the puzzle over about an hour or more, I had kept the pieces in order of their removal and remembered which position they had come from. All with the aim of facilitating reassembly without resorting to Burrtools. I was feeling quite proud of myself as I inserted the first three and then for some reason the fourth one just couldn’t be inserted. What was I doing wrong? A careful look at the shapes of the pieces revealed that the second piece had been inserted upside down followed by the third correctly and this couldn’t leave room to insert the next. OK, having realised this, take it apart again…except I couldn’t dismantle it! Aargh! Minor panic ensues and I have to work out all over again how to undo the interior disentanglement puzzle I had created for myself. After a frantic 10 minutes, I had all the pieces and admonished myself for being an eeejit and not keeping track of piece orientation as well as order. After this it went back together nice and smoothly. This puzzle is wonderful - it looks great, is sort of a burr and disentanglement puzzle at the same time and, if you are good enough, it can be a really tough assembly puzzle as well.

MRI

MRI by Benjamin Heidt

This new rather quirky and very attractive puzzle design by Benjamin Heidt is a new type of puzzle for Pelikan and I am not certain how to categorise it. Apparently Benjamin is a technician who works on MRI machines in hospitals. He must be very used to working with magnets and there are several of them inside this puzzle. It looks just like an MRI scanner complete with a patient (he has hair and a nose!) on the scanning platform inside the magnet. The aim is to remove the patient from the scanner by unlocking the hidden interior mechanism. One thing Benjamin should know is that you must NEVER bring another ferrous metal object inside the Faraday cage walls of an MRI room because it will turn into a missile if released in the room (believe me, I have seen it with an old Molybdenum steel oxygen cylinder - it moves very fast and does a LOT of damage!) but here he has disobeyed all the rules. The puzzle has a magnetic ball bearing on the floor held by a magnet embedded inside it and obviously this magnetic bearing is used to somehow unlock the patient from the scanner and remove him. 

I do not know how many steps is required because I have so far not managed to do much more than make interesting clicking noises as I move the bearing over the surface. I am making things happen inside but so far I have made no progress with the release - my patient may well starve to death in the MRI! I may be reduced to having to take it to work and asking a kind radiographer to take an Xray of it for me.

This is certainly something interesting which we have never seen before from the Pelikan workshop. Well worth adding to your collection for the quirkiness and the considerable puzzling challenge.

Matchbox Playground

Matchbox Playground - an extension of Oskar's idea by Péter Gál

This rather large puzzle set must be one of the most beautiful puzzle sets that I have ever seen! It is simply stunning and an amazing scope of work by the designer and by the craftsmen. It is the result of an epic amount of work by the incredible puzzle designer, Péter Gál.

The box opens like a matchbox
There are puzzle sheets and an explainer inside

Cubic dissection version

I have quite a few burr sets and this one ranks up there alongside the very best of them and will take pride of place in my collection. It is not a burr set but a set of increasingly difficult assembly puzzles based on the wonderful and clever Oskar’s Matchboxes puzzle that has been produced by several craftsmen over the years as well as 3D printed. Oskar's original puzzle had 5 pieces and I found that one pretty challenging. Later the idea was extended by Alexander Kapkan with 6 pieces and again by Onno Hein with 6 pieces in a different configuration. Over more than a year Péter had performed an exhaustive computational analysis. A smaller version of this had been released in the IPP design competition in 2016. Péter's analysis was restricted to a 3x2x1 matchbox with the matches attached at the gridlines giving 14 possible match/matchbox pairs. This puzzle set is contained in a gorgeous box shaped and sliding open like a matchbox itself to reveal the full set of 14 possible pieces and an envelope with an explanation and puzzle challenges ranging from using just 4 pieces up to the maximum of 13. 

Just look at the presentation here - it is amazing!

There are effectively hundreds of challenges here as each one has multiple solutions to find. The individual boxes are stunningly made out of Maple, Wenge and Jatoba and the case made from Maple, Wenge and Oak.

This picture will be essential if I am going to put them back!

When I took a few out to admire them, I realised straight away that I would need a photo of how they were arranged in the box! If you do just tip them out then an additional challenge for you will be to pack them back in again - I was not brave enough to do that! The challenges are really fun to do and require considerable thought. The cards show just the required pieces and not the eventual shape that you need to use. This means that simple entry into Burrtools is not possible. I have managed the first couple of challenges and really look forward to spending real time with this set. This is absolutely fabulous! I have put 3 of my solutions to the first challenge behind a spoiler button - if you plan to buy the set then don't look at it:

Should you buy this set? Hell yes! It's stunningly gorgeous, a whole lot of puzzling challenges. I absolutely love puzzles that come with a booklet of challenges e.g. the Peanut puzzle, the cubic Mazeburr, Rhombic Mazeburr and Split Mazeburr and this new one from Pelikan is just amazing!

A Bumper Pelikan Crop!

The biggest bunch of Pelicans ever!

From back left:
Egg - Pelikan (mixed woods)
Hooks - Alfons Eyckmans (Wenge & Cherry or Bubinga & Cherry)
Octopus - Pelikan (Limba, American Walnut and Wenge)
Infinite - Alexander Magyarics (Mahogany & Wenge)
Captain Hook - Alexander Magyarics (Maple, Wenge & Padauk)
Tigridia - Alexander Magyarics (Limba & Ovangkol)
Gem - Osanori Yamamoto (Purpleheart)
Den 3 - Osanori Yamamoto (Acacia & Padauk)
Waltz - Osanori Yamamoto (Wenge, Maple and Zebrano)
3 Piece Burr Flower - Osanori Yamamoto (Wenge & Limba or Wenge & Jatoba)
Dick-Flop - Dr Volker Latussek (Walnut & American Walnut)

In no particular order but mostly the order I worked on them or solved them in:

Octopus

Octopus complete with 8 tentacles!

It seems that no new Pelikan release is complete without one of their own designs, beautifully visualised as some kind of animal. We have had Turtle, Snail, Ladybug and Crab so far, all of which reside on display in my living room. The arrival of the Octopus in the PuzzleMad asylum/loony-bin was greeted by me with a whoop of delight and by Mrs S with a groan of "Oh no, not more!!". She did admit that it was very beautiful. 

This was the one I began with because it's just irresistible. It's pretty big at 13.3x13.3x9.8cm and made of Limba, American Walnut and Wenge. The beady eyes just look at you. Like the crab, it is not just a simple slot together Kumiki puzzle. It is a burr with pieces that interlock in all directions. It all fits beautifully together and the first sliding move is easy to find but after that it gets more awkward. I was able to remove the first two pieces quite quickly and realised that I had not really paid attention to the orientation they came out - the shape of them meant that they rolled off the cat who sleepily acted as my tabletop. Having realised I was going to be stuck soon, I just proceeded with the disassembly. Usually after half the pieces of a burr have been removed it suddenly gets easier but not with this one. I really struggled for another 20 minutes to find the way to remove the final pieces. The main challenge with this will be the reassembly after scrambling the pieces. I almost gave up and went to Burrtools but luckily before I lost the last remnant of my mind, I finally found the correct assembly. 

This puzzle is an essential purchase if you collect Kumiki type puzzles or if you have the rest in the series. For the rest of you it's worth getting because it's adorable and very clever.

Egg

Egg by Pelikan

I had to check with Jakub about this one as it looked familiar but I barely remember yesterday, let alone something I saw in 2016. This is a re-release using European woods of the beautifully turned Egg puzzle. It comes complete with its own lovely turned stand. These puzzles from Pelikan are wonderfully tactile things to hold and caress. The egg is NOT coordinate motion like some of the other spherical puzzles made previously. When it comes to disassembly, the puzzle is not particularly difficult - it is just a matter of finding the correct places to put your fingers to hold it and and push/pull in the right directions. It is not immediately obvious where to put your fingers to do it and it is so wonderfully smooth that you get no clue from running your fingers over it. If you have it just right then you are rewarded with a beautiful sliding motion as it smoothly separates. After a few minutes you have four pieces which look nearly identical and which will only fit back together in one way. Re-assembly is just a matter of thinking it through. This is a joy to fiddle with and looks lovely on display.

Dick-Flop

Dick-flop by Dr Volker Latussek
It's just 6 tetracubes from the Soma cube

Here we have another masterpiece from the warped brilliant mind of Dr Volker Latussek! This is what he had to say about it:

"When Dick Fosbury died in March this year, I had no idea that I would find a small series of packaging puzzles and name them FLOP after the high-jump technique named after him. A sports journalist ran the headline "Fosbury Flops Over Bar" after his 1968 Olympic win, comparing the jumping style to a fish flipping onto its back and curling its body after being caught."

DICK-FLOP with its six tetracubes follows FRITZ-FLOP with only five pieces. The boxes are each completely filled and the opening is restricted so that some of the pieces have to flop out of the box.  This is the fourth in his Flop series in which he takes a subset of the standard Soma cube pieces and insists that we stuff them into one of the standard shape challenges that come with the Soma cube. Except.... he makes it much more fun by making us do it into a box through a limited entrance hole. And then, not completely happy with that restriction, he ensures that the entry hole is not a whole number of voxels wide which forces some very interesting and difficult to find rotational moves on the non-planar pieces. It looks like the entrance is 2mm too small to allow two voxels through.

The assembly configuration (Volker always stipulates the assembly shape) is a "near miss" and when you take the pieces out of the box, you get a small hint at the deviousness of that man! Some of the moves just to get the pieces ready for play need them to be perfectly placed before it can happen. The incredible precision of the manufacture by Pelikan is simply stunning - when some of the pieces move and you can almost feel the suction holding them in place as the tolerances are perfect to a tiny fraction of a milimeter.

A quick play with Burrtools told me that there are 78 possible ways to assemble a 2x3x4 cuboid from the pieces provided and I was definitely going to struggle to try them all from memory. I then scrolled through them to find only the ones that have a planar piece arranged vertically along the end (i.e. it can be dropped in last) and after about 15 I stopped counting and decided to peek with squinted eyes at the solution. I just managed to restrict my view to 2 piece positions in the end shape and from here restricted the number of assemblies to be tried down to just 3. I was rather surprised at one of those piece positions that I had peeked at but it really helped me. Even having just 3 assemblies to choose from, actually getting them inside the box was still a massive challenge. It took me about 3 days!

This puzzle is an essential buy for anyone enthused by packing puzzles or the Soma cube. It has been stunningly created by Jakub and team and will be a huge challenge to any puzzler. The Aha! moment is wonderful. 

The Fritz-flop and Soma-flop are still available from the Pelikan website and you should definitely buy the whole set for an amazing challenge!

Captain Hook

Captain Hook by Alexander Magyarics

Captain Hook is a very interesting board burr made from Maple, Wenge & Padauk. The tolerances are absolutely perfect - this puzzle slides so smoothly. It is something quite new from Alexander Magyarics, whom I am beginning to wonder whether there is anything he cannot turn his hand to and master. I know that you are all familiar with his amazing 3D and 2D packing puzzles and he has designed a few burrs with frames or boxes over the years but I am not aware of any board burrs from him. This looks very like a standard 6 piece board burr when viewed assembled but within a few moves it quickly reveals that it is not what it seems. The movements are interesting and in one case a little unexpected with a very nice pathway to be found. No big blind ends to get caught in and after 10 moves the first piece can be removed. After that 2 moves each for the next 2 pieces and the fact that it is a 5 piece board burr is revealed. I don't think I have ever seen one before. I tried to reassemble it immediately after I had taken it apart and, whilst I had memory of the relative positions of the pieces, there was a critical tricky step that I could not achieve straight away. There is a very well hidden essential move to allow the disassembly and reassembly and if you haven't memorised it then it will cause you to think© for a moment. 

Infinite

Infinite by Alexander Magyarics
That left side when viewed straight on looks like an infinity symbol

Here we return to classic Alexander Magyarics and it is really, REALLY, REALLY good! It is a beautiful packing puzzle made with a very chunky Mahogany box and just 3 lovely Wenge pieces to be packed. Just 3 pieces? They aren't even that complex! How hard can it be? Oh boy! This is a TERRIFIC challenge. The entry-ways into the 3x3x3 voxel box are quite restricted and must be completely occluded once packed. In fiddling with the pieces I was able to find quite a few arrangements of the pieces into a 3x3x3 cube but none that I found would fit through the openings. 

Not solved but fun

Retrospectively, I found 59 cubes with the relevant solid areas using Burrtools but this was unknown to me at the time. Usually I start outside the box and find the required shape but there were too many possibilities and I needed to combine the very restricted entry requirements with my assemblies to narrow it down. The fascinating thing for me is that the smallest piece has the most limitation and ultimately is the reason for a very interesting solution. I found 2 "almost there" solutions with single holes visible through the entryway and I got stuck for quite some time at this point. I then went to Burrtools in desperation and found that it was unable to find a solution which means something special. I relaxed my rules and started again - it took me another whole day of play to find the solution with a wonderful Aha! moment. This is one of Alexander's best designs - make sure that you find all the near solutions as well as the correct one.

Hooks

Bubinga & Cherry

Wenge & Cherry

Hooks by Alfons Eyckmans

I am always delighted when a Pelikan release includes something from Alfons Eyckmans. There are two versions of this beauty - one made from Wenge & Cherry and another from Bubinga & Cherry - they are gorgeous! Alfons is the absolute master of interesting burr design. Many people are not keen on burrs and cannot understand why I (or anyone else) love them. I always say that it is like exploring a maze that changes as you work your way through. Often there are hidden pathways that are tough to find and sometimes blind alleys or loops. I do agree that many of the very high level burrs are beyond most human's abilities to follow but this is where Alfons is a master...the designs are always interesting and fun to explore. The Hooks burr is one of my favourite types - a caged 6 piece burr which takes the idea of a standard burr and extends it. The cage is incomplete being formed from 4 "hooks" on a base and looks like it should not make a huge difference. The pieces are 3x2x7 voxels which allows for much more interesting interaction. There are a few moves possible early on and no long blind alleys. Quite quickly some complex fun compound multi-piece moves occur and this opens up even more possibilities. Process seems swift until suddenly it's not. After 11 moves, I was stuck and could find no way to progress. I must have either missed something along the way or be missing something crucial to progress on my existing path. I got stuck here for a few hours going back and forth - at least it was creating a muscle memory to help with the reassembly. With only 6 pieces and such an open frame/cage it is possible to see inside the maze quite well. Eventually after multiple failed attempts I realised that I had left a single piece in the wrong position and it had blocked the next move. Having worked that out, the progression was fast and fun and the first piece was removed after a total of 18 moves. The remaining pieces remain stable in the frame for the rest of the disassembly.

Having spent so long searching for the pathway, I was able to reassemble it without help but making a Burrtools file is always fun. I think that most burr aficionados should be able to reassemble this without help.

3 Piece Burr Flower

Wenge & Jatoba

Wenge & Limba

3 Pice Burr Flower by Osanori Yamamoto

This stunning design by Osanori Yamamoto has been beautifully created by Pelikan in Wenge & Limba or Wenge & Jatoba. As the name states, it looks like a flower on each face of the cube structure but it has been made from 3 rather complex burr sticks which interlink with each other inside the cube. Once you have found the first piece to move, the pieces then slide on each other and the flower opens up to reveal the interior. Over a rather delightful 6 move sequence the pieces get further and further apart until the first one comes out and then the other two can be separated. It is not terribly hard to find that sequence but then the real challenge begins - can you put it back together after scrambling the pieces? There are only 3 pieces and the way they fit together at the end looks straightforward but it took me a good hour to find the correct order and position for the pieces to fit back together. This is a very clever puzzle utilising what feels like a knot inside the faces to control the movements. 

Waltz

Waltz by Osanori Yamamoto

Another fabulous design by Osanori Yamamoto, stunningly visualised in Wenge, Maple and Zebrano. This one is almost as if Osanori-san has seen the wonderful 3 piece challenge by Alexander Magyarics and said to himself: "I can beat that"! It is another packing puzzle with a limited entrance and a requirement to block the entry once solved....but this time, just to make it even more interesting, there are only 2 pieces to be packed in the 3x3x3 cavity and filled the 2x2 entrance. Not only are there only 2 pieces but it quickly becomes apparent that one of them HAS to be the entry blocker. I was rather over-confident with this one and thought it would  be relatively easy. Oh no! it wasn't easy for me! I spent a day failing completely and did wonder whether I was going about it wrong - I looked at the name and thought about the cardinal feature of the Waltz and then decided to explore rotational moves. I was successful and managed to assemble the puzzle with the entry filled but something didn't feel right. This was especially true when I found that I couldn't take it apart! Aargh! In a bit of a panic, with a fair bit of dexterity and swearing, I was able to unravel what I had done and decided to try again the more conventional way. But this time I was determined to think© about the name as well but not be so stupid. The cardinal feature of a Waltz is rotation with minimal rise and fall. The 18 moves to achieve the assembly are a masterpiece. The gauntlet has been thrown down and is there anyone who can design something more simple with more beautiful moves than this? Over to you Alexander-san!

Gem

Gem by Osanori Yamamoto

This gorgeous gem of a puzzle by Osanori Yamamoto  is simply stunning made here from Purpleheart. I have previously bought and solved this in April where it was an extra puzzle that I chose to "make up the postage" from Japan! Osanori's version was a gorgeous creation and Pelikan have lived up to the same very high standards. When I bought the original, Osanori-san told me how pleased he was because it was his favourite puzzle.

The original was sent out as an assembly puzzle but this one arrived already assembled. Either way, it is a fun puzzle to explore. If you are good at assembly then it might be a good idea to get someone to dismantle it for you before you play. It consists of 3 rings of wood that are interlocked and  inserted into slots in the cube with one at 90º to the other 2. When disassembling it the sequence it is fun that you cannot see the shape or how the rings are interacting inside the cube. The sliding of the pieces over each other shows off the extreme precision that this has been made with. Having taken it apart, leave the pieces scrambled for a while and then try it as an assembly puzzle

The solution took me only about half an hour but again a lovely aha! moment made better by the silky smoothness of the pieces and how they glide over each other. I could see why this was one of Osanori-san's favourite puzzles. It is delightful. Another piece of Japanese puzzling heaven.

Den 3

Den 3 by Osanori Yamamoto

In this packing puzzle designed by Osanori Yamamoto the aim, as usual is to assemble the pieces (3 of them this time, made from Padauk) into the nice chunky Acacia box. I must point out the incredible detail that Jakub and team have put into the box - Acacia is a relatively plain wood in terms of colour but with having very nice grain and shading. To make this one even more spectacular the top and bottom faces have been assembled with a diagonal line of differently placed cubes of wood - this makes this wonderful puzzle even more precious for a man addicted to gorgeous wood! The cavity of the box is the usual 3x3x3 cube but, with this one, the areas that must be occluded by the pieces are quite extensive over quite a lot of the puzzle which should limit the number of possibilities to go through. I used Burrtools to count the possible assemblies after I solved it and there are 124 ways to assemble a cube from the 3 pieces of this puzzle but when restricting the positions to allow the occlusion of the holes, this number shrinks down to a more reasonable 22. This number is still too high for me to go through and try them all (I find that I can't remember what I have tried after just 3 or 4 attempts) and necessitates using the restricted entry to significantly decrease the cubes to be tried. 

The solution of this took me an embarrassingly long time to find. I think I played with this on and off for 4 or 5 evenings before I found a cube that met all my criteria and then really struggled to place the pieces inside the box. I ended up solving it outside the box starting from cube shape and attempting all the moves that should be possible and gradually dismantled the cube. It should not be that difficult with just 3 pieces but I kept getting stuck 10 or 12 moves in. The disassembly of this puzzle has an incredible level 26 (19.4.3) - if you do manage to solve this then you can be very chuffed at your puzzling prowess. 

Tigridia

Tigridia by Alexander Magyarics

The final puzzle I played with in this new batch was Tigridia by the amazing Alexander Magyarics (last, mostly because my initial play revealed it to be a very difficult challenge). Beautifully made from Limba & Ovangkol, it consists of 4 pieces to be placed as a 3x3x3 cube inside one of the most complex boxes I have seen in one of these puzzles. The entryways are very limited but there are 3 of them to be used. There are lots and lots of holes in the box which need to be covered by the final filling. Your usual approach outside the box quickly reveals that there are a LOT of possible cubic assemblies (Burrtools later told me that there were 64) and obviously each one that you find will need to be tested in every possible orientation. I very quickly got quite confused and lost track of what I had been trying. Most of my potential assemblies, when I found one that also fit the brief to cover the holes, quickly revealed themselves to be impossible to move inside the box and could be discounted. After a couple of days trying and a deadline to hit, I went to Burrtools to at least give me the correct cubic assembly and then I could work out the method to place it inside the box. Even this proved to be a problem! I had the correct cube made but I really could not work out how it could be inserted inside the box, After a very frustrating and then satisfying hour, I found the critical move and it was something rather special that is only possible with a box with this many holes in it. The Aha! moment is wonderful when you find it but that might well take you a VERY long time.

I am rather humbled by the fact that Ivan Danik (the Puzzle Guy on YouTube) managed to solve this one and did not find it terribly difficult! I found this one amazingly hard. I agree with him that the frame is stunning!

Pick what you love guys and get them all tomorrow (6th November at 10am central European time) at the Pelikan store