JCC Disentanglements and a Reason for Celebration

Hi guys, today I am very very grateful to the Puzzlemad Hawaiian correspondent, Mike Desilets, for helping me out whilst I am really busy - he has produced yet another really high quality guest post. This just happens to be the 400th post on the Puzzlemad website since starting out in March 2011 which is quite an achievement - I don't think I have ever stuck at a hobby for so long and I have to say that it is very much down to the wonderful community that I keep at it. Jerry has overtaken me by posting his 401st post a couple of days ago for which I give my hearty congratulations. At the bottom of this post is another reason for me to celebrate.

Mike seems to be uncannily aware when I need him and swings into action with a marvelous informative article for you (and me) to read - it is only fitting that I let him have post number 400. This article was going to be posted last weekend when Shane stepped in with his fabulous and pleasantly painful Viper which I was pleased to read also bit Allard.  The puzzles reviewed in Mike's article are some of the wonderful selection of disentanglement puzzles available from my friend Tomas Linden's Sloyd puzzle store which you really should check out (I have bought some more from him as a result of Mike's post). So without further ado I hand you over to Mike....

Aloha Kākou readers. Let me start this post by noting that, without any prior planning, Kevin and I are usually pretty well synchronized in that my occasional guest blogs arrive when he is at wits end with work and home responsibilities (Ed - indeed - I am on call today and so may well be unhappily ensconced in an operating theatre when I would much rather be reading and writing about puzzles). Unfortunately, this was not the case over the holidays. I’ve kept myself offline over the last few weeks (except for some puzzle shopping, of course), and during that time, I now learn, Kevin had one foot in the grave with his lovely (Ed - and violent) wife soon to follow (Ed - she's still there!). Seems like things have corrected themselves now, but I can’t help feel that I should have been more attentive. I also feel sorry for all his patients who had to forgo anaesthetics (Ed - corrected spelling) during their operations (Ed - the screaming was awful - I had to put my earplugs in). Anyhow, maybe this post will give Kevin a few hours to catch up on everything that was left undone during his illness.

Half Clover by Jean Claude Constantin.

Shane's Viper Bit Me and my Balls are Too Big!!!

Viper

I bet that title got you reading!!!! Continue right to the end for a full explanation!

This week, much to my surprise, having had a few very very bad days at work, I came home to a surprise package! Now that always makes my day but it especially is fun when the name on the postage label tells me it comes from my good friend Shane Hales. I am aware that he has lots of new ideas and plans to produce quite a few new puzzles in 2017 but I wasn't expecting anything quite so soon. I am so SO SO grateful that I have been chosen to be "Agent 001" and pretty much always receive the second puzzle in each line (000 remains in his ownership).

Characteristic signature

Viper is a special puzzle which shows off several things - firstly, as always, it shows off Shane's characteristic craftsmanship skills. He claims never to be up to the standards of Scott Peterson, Eric Fuller or Pelikan and I have to say that there are very few people in the world as good as that. However the drop in finish quality is not due to lack of skill, it's more due to lack of time and different priorities - I know that given time and lack of other distractions, he could produce incredibly accurate work - he has, after all been awarded The Master Carpenter Award by the Institute Of Carpenters (as a fellow of the Institute), The Master of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters, The Master of the Worshipful Company of Joiners & Ceilers, and The City & Guilds of London Institute - very few people achieve this! Second, his designs are always very novel and very interesting (Viper is pretty unique as far as I know). They are often very simple in their basic premise but beautifully implemented and well hidden which makes them all the more enjoyable. Finally, the other feature that is totally unique is his sense of humour! There are very few puzzle makers out there who actually make me laugh out loud when I attempt to solve something. This puzzle really did that just like his Haleslock 2 which also had a lovely bit of misdirection which made me laugh after I solved it.

The puzzle is made from Oak and Walnut and to my eye is beautifully made. There are tiny flaws but they are a natural part of the wood. Shane said this about it:

"Only 10 Viper puzzles will ever be made (come on, I have increased the number!)

I got the idea for this puzzle from another 80's film, Gremlins. But also if anyone ever bothered to read the notes on "my collection" page that I've attached to each photo (I know at least one person did as I had to make corrections thanks Bernhard!) then on one of them you would notice maybe a strange comment if you have a mind like that!!! (I do like a easter egg if you hadn't noticed?) But no, it gave me this idea, so from these "VIPER" was born.

I really like this puzzle, and I hope so do you !!

-------------

WARNING!!
This puzzle can BITE you. it's not recommended for anyone under the age of 21, anyone with heart problems or a pacemaker, anyone with ophidiophobia, bad nerves, pregnant, or wanting to actually have children full stop. If you are a bag of nerves (a wimp) and you get the offer please turn it down.
(no offence will be taken! Refusal will NOT mean I won't offer you something else later)
NOTE:
Please do NOT stick anything inside the holes that you are definitely not supposed to........

You have been WARNED........

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I have been asked several times how can I get one of your limited edition puzzles?

THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY. DIRECTLY FROM ME. IF ANYONE EVER SAYS THEY CAN GET YOU MY PUZZLES THEN THAT IS A LIE.

(Any puzzles that I have for sale will only be sold by me or my official resellers. Always check with me FIRST on who they are if you do not know them. If you get an unlikely issue with a puzzle I will only look at ones I or my resellers have sold, I have good reasons for this, DON'T get ripped off :-)

All my limited puzzles are and will always be gifts from me. With the exception of Nick Baxter's auction this year, but you all know why I did this, and I'll probably never do it again unless it's for something special, it will also only ever be auctioned or offered by me.

I have strict rules with these gifts for good reason, I spend lots of my free time and cash creating these for you, so, they can never be sold, swapped, even given away. If someone decides they don't want a puzzle anymore, just return it (I'll cover postage) and I'll send onto someone else. That's the RULES.

I'm a collector to. There are so many puzzles I want, so I feel everybody's frustration. I'm very sorry and sad about it, but its a hobby. I do it for the joy of doing it only. I don't need pressure, I give that to myself. If I didn't do what I can do then I wouldn't make any, so something is better than nothing, right?

I try to get things all over the world, to collectors I know meet others, so my stuff can be shared.

I've had people email me to nominate others (which I LOVE) for a puzzle. I chat with the very top brass of the puzzle community, with some of the founders of our community of today, and also with the newcomers, anyone and everyone. I have even been asked how I could be inspired by them, and in fact this person's inspiration went into The Goblins Door, and I thank them for that.

So far I have not receive any pressure or selfishness from our community, and thats why I am proud of being a very small part of it.

These are my gifts, because it's my way of giving a little something back to others that give us ALL so much.

I will notify the (lucky?) people I have chosen to care for this new puzzle very soon.

Have a great, safe, and puzzling 2017

Shane"

The other feature that always accompanies Shane's puzzles is spelling and grammar errors and I love him for it! With little schooling, he has worked his way up to the top of a very successful building company and now is one of the most sought after puzzle makers in the world. The letters that come with the puzzles always add a smile to my face for the humour and the errors and Viper is just the same!

Severely Restricted Twisting

Or SUNE to the rescue!

Bermuda cube Venus

Triangles on opposite faces with different rotations

Back in April last year I wrote about a little trip to Bermuda where I began puzzling with a variant of the Megaminx (a dodecahedron shaped twisty puzzle) and actually had some luck solving at least the first few. This was a desperate attempt to prove to myself that I wasn't as stupid as I felt because I had owned a Bermuda cube (Mars variant) for over a year at the time and had singularly failed to solve it. In the end it turned out that having the freedom provided by 12 faces makes the Bermudaminxes much more of a planning challenge and less of an algorithm restriction challenge. At the time I went back to the Bermuda cube that I owned and tried again and again to complete that last face to no avail.

In a FB message 3 way conversation with Marty (proprietor of the wonderful Puzzlestore UK and another friend,Paul (who was at Edinburgh Uni at the same time as me) I ended up getting taunted about my Bermuda failure. In the end they convinced me to try another cube in the series which they assured me would be easier and hopefully provide me with the skills required to solve my nemesis. So alongside the Very puzzle Mini geranium plus and the Hex shaper puzzles, I also added another cube! Damn those guys for being so convincing! Damn me for being so gullible/stupid! So in my pre-Xmas box from Marty there was the above puzzle a Bermuda cube Venus edition all very reasonably priced - thank goodness because my present from Mrs S had cost me an arm and a leg and kidney and part of my liver (luckily I have no children to sell!)

Turning Madness - Probably the Best Ever!

Tronc Commun 4

The plague that afflicted me has started to wane - I basically spent the best part of 2 weeks in bed and barely ate or drank anything and consequently lost quite a bit of weight. I now weigh less than I did when I got married 22½ years ago - I bet there are very few men who can claim that! Unfortunately the illness has prevented me from doing any significant puzzling and even though I am back at work, I am so knackered when I get home that I haven't managed much puzzling since. I also am extremely sleep deprived - first, a week or so of coughing at night and now Mrs S has converted the HeBola into the far more virulent SheBola and she has basically coughed continuously ALL night for the last 5 days. My puzzling strength has left me! This is one of the reasons that if you have attempted to correspond with me recently I have failed to reply - I am quite behind in my emails but will hopefully catch up in the next few weeks. There have, however, been a couple of toys that kept me occupied at the tail end of 2016.

Just before New Year I received another lovely package from Brian Menold. Inside was a lovely copy of his wooden Puzzle crafting crafting book (nicely signed) and the puzzle above which I just could not resist! It is Tronc Commun 4, another fantastic design by Gregory Benedetti). I have quite a few of Gregory's puzzles from various craftsmen and the overwhelming feature of his designs are that they require some very special and interesting moves - it may be coordinate motion or unexpected rotations but always something unusual. So with a fairly mundane level description of 3.3.4.7.9.4, I knew that this was going to be something very special.

Happy New Year - My top puzzles of 2016

Hi everyone, I hope you have had a great time over the festive season? Unfortunately for me in Chez Sadler, the Xmas period and week after has been rather poorly. In fact so poorly that I have actually lost quite a few pounds in weight and have really pissed off Mrs S with the sounds of gargling green mucus! At one point I actually asked on Facebook for a volunteer to shoot me because I had developed a severe viraemia associated with meningism. It was very nice to hear from fellow puzzlers (and local colleagues) with lots of useful and creative ways to end my suffering and a number of them kindly volunteered to take my puzzle collection/burden off my hands! Mrs S was so upset with me that she went shopping on the old internet and the Mulberry sale received some more of my income - I was too sick to put up a fight! Now does anyone want any green ectoplasm? I have lots to spare even after a week!

And now I'm really in the bad books......she has got it too. We now have stereo mucus and bilateral coughing fits! Aaargh! It's been 9 days and it's still not gone - this is truly a plague!

For the last few years, on New Year's Day (or thereabouts) I have posted my top puzzles of the previous year. I have always made these the top puzzles that I have actually solved that year which is different to the collection of ratings by my friend Peter Hajek, who for his "End of Year Puzzle Party" in London collects the top 3 from many eminent puzzlers around the world and collates them into an e-book. I sent my selection off to him just before Christmas and that started me thinking about what I should do for New Years day. I think I will align with him and put up my top 10(ish) puzzle acquisitions of the year rather than solves. My rationale for this is that there are many tremendous puzzles that I acquire that are of such complexity that they can take months and months to solve (in fact some I have never managed to solve) which may mean that they never get highlighted in my years end post. To ensure fairness, there may be the odd puzzle that I acquired in 2015 but only solved in 2016 but this should be the last time that will be necessary.

Honourable Mention

Big Steve's version of the Coffin 12 piece separation

At one of this years MPPs I was chatting with Big Steve (who's much bigger than wee Steve and both are bigger than me!) and was admiring some of his 3D printed output including some Coffin reproductions. He showed off the 12 piece separation by handing me a bag of pieces. Needless to say, I couldn't assemble the damn thing at the MPP but was very pleased that he also couldn't assemble it! That makes him a man after my very own heart! His generosity was such that he let me take it home with me whereupon I spent several days trying with little success to make an interesting shape, any interesting shape would have done as long as it stayed together! In the end I had to resort to the internet to at least find out what it was supposed to look like and then began to work on it properly. In the end Jim Storer provided the solution. After that I proceeded to learn it by my usual repeated assembly and disassembly. It is a fantastic design and Steve's skill with a 3D printer and acetone vapour has made a wonderful addition to my collection. Almost in my top 10 but something just pipped it out!

So here we go....on to the top 10(ish)

---

10) No top 10 is complete without a Hales Puzzle

Shane's Lock is a brilliant design - I am proud to be agent 001!

I consider Shane to be one of my best puzzle friends. There is no favour he could ask that I wouldn't move heaven and earth to try and fulfil. He has provided me over the years with many many hours of fun with his designs and also kept me entertained when we carry out dual solves of Wil Stribos' fabulous discovery designs. I was delighted when he sent me his Haleslock 1 (as well as number 2 later in the year) and duly set to work on it. The workmanship in metal is just as good as his skills in wood and this was a very nice little challenge. Shane would be the first to agree that it is not in the same league as the masterpieces from Rainer Popp (I still haven't solved my Popplock T10 which is sitting next to me on my desk and taunting me) but his aim is not to compete in that arena. The Haleslock 1 is a masterpiece in lock tampering (not lock design) and took me quite a while to work my way through the several steps. Thanks mate - I can't wait to see what you have instore for us all in 2017!

9) A Wild Animal of a Puzzle - Maahes

A lion - the king of the puzzles

No top 10 of my puzzle collecting year could possibly be complete without a contribution from the amazing Stephan Baumegger. Maahes was another of those collaborations with Terry Smart and proved to be a really fun excursion into the burr world. I am not particularly good at high level burrs and tend to stick to puzzles in this group with either a special attribute that makes them interesting or puzzles in the category without too many blind ends and a medium solution level (30s-40s). Maahes is just perfect with level 15.2.4.1.2.1.1.2 and a brilliant shape. Some of the moves were truly difficult to find but really great fun. This one was actually grabbed by Mrs S and put on display in our living room! She is a crazy cat lady and this is perfect for her (even if she will never try to solve it).

8) The Bagua Cube - twisty of the year

Looks just like an innocuous cube

After just a couple of turns - Gulp!

Holy CRAP!!!

Peter added a category to his list this year, a mass produced puzzle. This was very easy to decide. MF8 have outdone themselves to produce one of the most fun twisty puzzles in several years, The Bagua cube. This is based on a 3x3 Rubik cube but has the ability to make 45º face turns and split the centres and edges into smaller pieces. The puzzle looks horrific when scrambled but relies on mostly intuition to solve it and 3x3 methods. It's brilliant! I must have spent nearly a month working on this almost to the exclusion of all else - it completely took over my life and was not just the best mass produced puzzle of the year but earns a very well deserved place in my top puzzles of 2016. Simply stunning - I cannot wait to see what the twisty designers and manufacturers do next in 2017. We truly live in a golden age of puzzling!

7) NOS series.....so far

4 seemingly simple 6 piece burrs

Eric Fuller's work is always stunning and he has an uncanny way of choosing some of the most enjoyable puzzles to solve without them being too complex. The NOS (New Old School) series were designed by Gregory Benedetti and made to look outwardly simple but because of the use of amazing coordinate motion movements, they become objects of wonder. In fact one of these was so good that I made a YouTube video showing it off. The 4 NOS puzzles are marvels of woodworkers and designers skill and are just so different from everything else that I did say they were a possibly a new category of their own. There are more in the series which Eric did not think would be possible in wood but he's now hoping to make them in 2017 - they will not be cheap but I still intend to buy them because they will be amazing.

6) Brian's Incredible SMS Telephone

One of the hardest puzzles of the year

Most years Brian Young produces a stunning limited edition puzzle that has reached my top 10 because of sheer genius, sheer beauty and because they are totally unique. I reviewed this puzzle in November having owned it for 4 months. I had hesitated to buy for just a microsecond because this was a VERY expensive puzzle but as with all of Brian's creations I haven't regretted it for an instant because it is simply stupendous. The release number was up to 130 this time (I got my usual number 28) and hence they are still available here if you would want one. I have had to list this as far down my list as number 6 for the simple reason that I am simply deficient! The incredible complexity of this puzzle coupled with my lack of brains meant that I was stuck on the second step for many months. I just could not work it out myself and needed a definite clue from Brian before I could proceed. After that I whizzed through another 2 steps before hitting another brick wall in my head and needing further help. It is probably the most complex designs ever made and if I was more clever then it would be higher up my list. I cannot wait for the next LE puzzle!

5) Laszlo and Brian's Packing Puzzles

Not only stunning but several tremendous challenges

This is a bit of a cheat because one of this series was released and solved the year before but as a series they are truly incredible. I am not usually good at packing puzzles and generally don't collect them. However, this bunch are very different and require some real thought rather than trial and error despite being just 3x3 cubes in a box. They also have the added twist of requiring rotations of one or more pieces during the solution to add to the complexity. Brian completely outdid himself in the workmanship here - my particular set is made from Marblewood and Holly and looks absolutely wonderful on display. Thank you the pair of you for some wonderful additions to my collection. My previous reviews were here, here and here.

4) Johan sent his wishes and made me delirious

Johan's wish cube - It's even more stunning in real life

All the pieces - there's even a fun (and rather tough)packing puzzle inside!

I'm going to cheat here and put two separate creations together in one slot. My good friend Johan Heyns has been making fabulous puzzles for many years and last year he made it into the top 10 with his version of the Really Bent Board Burr designed by the genius that is Derek Bosch. In 2016 he turned to making puzzles as his full time job and has produced some simply amazing creations. He started with the Wish cube. It was the culmination of much work by himself and finally with the aid of Jack Krijnen and finished off what was originally supposed to be his contribution to the fabulous Apothecary chest. This was a simply stunning creation and in many years would be at the number 1 spot but I just have too many brilliant puzzles this year.

Delirium 13

An N-ary puzzle to go mad over

Later that year Johan made available an N-ary puzzle that was stunning in design as well as in his implementation. He used local South African woods as always and using his own unique woodworking techniques he made a beautiful burr in a block with an N-ary solution and a rather unique reset mechanism. The original design was by the amazing Stéphane Chomine and Johan made an amazing version. At 5461 moves to take out the first piece and with me being not terribly bright and getting turned around several times, this puzzle took me over a week to solve and left me with a wonderful sense of relief and admiration at the same time. Johan is still trying to make woodwork his main job and has set up a wonderful website at intellectualcraft.co.za to sell his creations - he also is making incredible turned wooden pens. You will never be disappointed in anything you buy from him - please go there and spend! I certainly plan to do so in 2017!

3) The Flying Scotsman Burr

Probably the most stunning burr I have ever seen!

Number 3 is probably the most beautiful puzzle I have seen in a long time, the Flying Scotsman Burr. Jakub and Jaroslav's New Pelikan Workshop have gone from strength to strength producing stunning puzzles that are just the right difficulty to be fun to solve as well as display in a collection. The first copy of the Flying Scotsman was made by my friend Stephan Baumegger but Stephan doesn't have the setup to mass-produce many complex puzzles and so Terry approached Jakub to see whether it could be made more generally available. They have produced something absolutely gorgeous here, only 50 have been made and I am delighted to be one of the lucky ones to have gotten a copy. It is just stunning and I hope to solve it soon. It is still available from their store here.

2) The Pachinko box

A wonderful aluminium discovery puzzle

Number 2 for me has to be a sequential discovery puzzle which I bought from the amazing Wil Strijbos, the Pachinko box. This beautifully machined creation consists of 4 challenges which require lateral thought, dexterity and a bit of blind maze negotiation. Wil never disappoints and every year one of his puzzles manages to reach my top 10. I have also had a lot of fun providing support to other puzzlers around the world who are stuck on it.

1) The Stickman Burl Tile Puzzle

Just look at the sheer beauty and complexity! Stunning! 

My top acquisition of the year is my Xmas present from Mrs S. The Stickman Burl Tile Puzzle is a gorgeous thing (limited to just 50 copies) which is effectively a mixture of a twisty puzzle and sliding tile puzzle (sequential movement) and because it happens to have a cavity is also technically a box. The fact that it is only incidentally a box is the reason that I can own it. After Xmas I will be allowed to play and hopefully solve it. I have put in only an hour or so at it due to illness and whilst I am making slow progress, I suspect this will take me many more hours yet. It is simply stunning and has several very ingenious mechanisms in it - a masterpiece from Robert. Thank you my friend and thank you also to the ever watchful and ever loving Mrs S for probably the best Xmas present a man/puzzler could ask for. xxx

Burr Noose

Burr Noose

I did have some plans for a more detailed puzzle review for Xmas but a colleague came to work with a really bad cold and spent time discussing cases with me and coughed and spluttered all around me! As expected, the lurgy has migrated across mucus membranes and I have a delightful case of pneumonic plague just in time for Xmas. I usually tend to shrug these things off quite quickly but this time, being the plague, I am totally poleaxed by it and don't expect to survive beyond Boxing day. Mrs S has instructions on what to do with my collection so don't turn up at my door for handouts!

I have decided to publish a quickie (but a real goodie) for you. Alongside the Tricolore puzzle from Brian Menold I also received a wonderfully colourful copy of Burr Noose designed by Tom Jolly (I really couldn't order just one puzzle could I? That would be bad manners). This is beautifully made and finished by Brian using a wonderful variety of woods - Ash, Osage Orange, Iroko, Lacewood, Padauk and Tzalm with Holly rings for the noose. It is a good size at 7.6x6.7x6 cm and will look great on my shelf.

Interesting burr designs

Inaccurate Burr

Over the last few months I seem to have bought very little from Eric Fuller - this has mostly been due to the timing of his updates being whilst I was asleep and missing out on the ones I was particularly interested in and then also because I had spent my money elsewhere shortly beforehand. I'm sure that you must think that I buy everything in sight but unfortunately it's not true! If I did buy everything I wanted then Mrs S would murder me, skin me and bury me in pieces before dancing on the various burial sites before burning all my toys! I think she's being very unreasonable but I'm terrified of her and so always think twice before adding to my collection!

Eric has recently completely redesigned his site and split his offerings into some new groups including his Signature puzzles which is the bunch we were all buying before and the Artisan puzzles which used to be called the Raleigh puzzles as more affordable and slightly simpler puzzles. Newly added to the site are the Gem series (smaller wood and acrylic puzzles) and a special Limited edition group which are similar quality to the Artisan group but only made twice a year in limited numbers and never to be repeated again. When the new site update went live again a few weeks ago, I happened to be in the kitchen doing the washing up after dinner and immediately stopped what I was doing and browsed the newest toys. There were lots that I lusted after but having just bought the Stickman twisty puzzle for an eye-watering sum (not that I regret it for a nanosecond), I felt that I had to be circumspect and avoid the wrath of she who must be flinched from. In the end I chose one of the Signature puzzles and one of the Limited edition puzzles. They arrived a few days ago whilst "She" was up in Edinburgh visiting her parents pre-Xmas. Thank goodness she has no idea what has arrived recently!

The Inaccurate burr particularly intrigued me - I love 6 piece burrs with a "difference" and this one designed by Junichi Yananose and made in gorgeous Marblewood was irresistible.  Eric said this of it:

It's not easy to come up with a new variation on the traditional six piece burr, but Juno came up with a great one! Because pairs of two pieces are off-centered, the assembled shape of the puzzle looks inaccurate though the pieces need to be accurate. The puzzle is based on one of the notchable sets of a level 9 combination. Thanks to the off-centered pieces the puzzle has unique solution and is very confusing to assemble! 

Construction of this puzzle is perfect! Tolerances are dead-on and fit is sublime.

How could I resist? The day this arrived, I sat down after work and had a play. The first thing I noticed when looking is that everything is off centre. The moves are a nice fun path which I found rather reminiscent of the Piston puzzle by Peter Marineau (I have a gorgeous copy of this from Jerry McFarland) which is a truly wonderful puzzle to assemble and disassemble. There are no blind ends and the disassembly only took me about 10 minutes or so and I had this:

Inaccurate burr pieces - there is something very odd going on here!

Looking at the picture it immediately jumps out at you that there is something wrong. The pieces are all notchable (i.e. can be cut with a router) and whilst most of the cuts along the length of 6 voxels are at 1 unit intervals, it is obvious that the depths and heights of some of the cuts are fractions of a voxel. The other striking thing for me is how truly gorgeous the Marblewood is (I am lucky enough to have a full set of Laszlo Kmolnar packing puzzles in that glorious wood from the wonderful Brian Menold). I scrambled the pieces and left them a while before attempting my reassembly. It took me about 30 minutes (primarily because I seemed to be able to remember the disassembly) which was lucky because in retrospect I have realised that the puzzle might be very very tough to model in Burrtools! I am sure that a genius like Derek could do it but me? Probably not! There is something rather lovely about this puzzle - not hard but great fun and very beautiful!

Loopy Burr

Loopy Burr was the other one that I couldn't resist (Lord! it was hard to stop at just 2). I wanted to see for myself what one of the new and slightly cheaper limited edition puzzles would be like. This one which appeared like another variant of a 6 piece burr was what tickled my fancy and at $33 how could I resist.

There are only going to be 150 copies made and after that they are gone. Eric said this of them:

The Loopy Burr came from the genius brain of Junichi; a very unusual six piece interlocking puzzle with pieces that form three intermingled loops once in the proper position. Finding that position takes eleven moves, and is downright tricky due to the space caused by the loops. Good luck!
Construction of this puzzle is outstanding, with our usual precision down to several thousandths of an inch.

It is made from Wenge and Maple and definitely doesn't quite have the same finish as the signature puzzles. It is, however, still a stunning creation and very finely made as always. The loopy nature of the puzzle is immediately obvious and is a testament to the incredible warped brain of Junichi Yananose. I have quite a few puzzles designed by him and they all share the same unusual and confusing genius.

The first thing that I immediately noticed was that the voxel grid that this is based on is quite a lot larger than a standard 6 piece burr - in fact each stick is based on a 4x3x12 shape and the entire puzzle on a 12x12x12 grid. This was going to be very tough! There are only a few moves possible at first but after about 3 or 4 then things become very confusing and I resorted to my usual exploration technique of make some moves and backtrack, make some more and backtrack again and hopefully lay down some memory tracks to aid in my solution and especially the reassembly. After about 7 or 8 moves I was hopelessly lost; I couldn't backtrack to the beginning and all I could do was keep pressing forward. After what seemed like dozens but according to Eric is only 11 steps I lifted the first piece out and then it collapsed in a heap of sticks.

6 rather confusing sticks - stunning accuracy on the cuts

They are particularly beautiful sticks which really show off an unusual grid design but after what happened there was no way on earth that I was going to be able to put it back together without assistance from Andreas' wonderful program. A major part of the fun with these puzzles for me is the creation of the Burrtools file and this was a pleasant diversion. After that assembling the puzzle was surprisingly simple using the guidance of the computer - Only 1 pair of hands required much to my relief.

I have played with this for 3 evenings in a row whilst watching crap on TV (that's what I do when Mrs S is away!!! I play with toys, eat junk food and watch crap on TV - it gets it out of my system for a few months until her next trip back up North). So far I have managed to disassemble it 4 times and still have no idea how I have done it! This puzzle will have some lasting power as, at level 11, it is worthwhile attempting to understand it. I intend to keep trying until I have mastered it (both ways) without using the computer. I do wonder how many of these Eric assembled before he had it learned and could do it without Burrtools?

I have another couple of toys for after I've mastered this one - I received a nice package from Bernhard Schweitzer at the end of last week and have another 2 "Turning Interlocking Cubes" to play with.

Beautiful Oak puzzle - Twisty Hollow (left) and Little Bruce (Right)

Having gushed over the Little Kenny puzzle designed by Ken Irvine, I got a chance to try the Little Bruce brother that Allard had written about and which I had failed to solve at the last MPP. Bernhard had gotten permission from Ken to make a few after Eric had also released them and I jumped at the chance to obtain a copy. Bernhard's stuff is always very nicely made and looking up to my left in my study, I have a rather HUGE collection of his handiwork - lovely!!! Of course I cannot buy just one puzzle so I picked another TIC which he had available - Twisty Hollow by Tom Jolly looked like fun. These should keep me occupied until Xmas when I will get to start on the Stickman twisty tile puzzle. Nope! It's NOT a box.....it just happens to have a cavity!

Mrs S is VERY generous

It's a wooden sliding tile/twisty puzzle!

A thing of absolute beauty!

When Robert Yarger sends you an email it's time to say yes! This time I was lucky enough to be selected from his pool of previous clients and interested parties and was offered one of the 50 copies that he made of the latest gorgeousness. I gave a big gulp when it got to the price and hesitated - that is a lot of money. Mrs S saw my gulp and furtive look at her when the email came in that evening and she asked what I was looking guilty about. My response was to say that I might have found her Xmas present to me which I think was very quick thinking on my feet. She said Ok without knowing the price (and she still doesn't) but I told her it was cheaper than the jewellery that I had bought for her Xmas present. Whew! got away with it this time. But should I do it?

I'm definitely not saying that it isn't worth it but it is a serious outlay which needs to be thought about - I always advise puzzlers that no one should spend what they cannot afford - no puzzle is worth getting into debt for. So I chatted with Shane by email and at the MPP - he encouraged me to go with my gut feeling which was to say yes. Many people would say "buy it as an investment" but I can't stand the idea of selling my puzzles and unlike certain other people who buy and then quickly sell on at vastly increased prices, I do not want to consider these wonderful craftsmen as a source of income for me. I consider these puzzles as things of beauty and things to challenge me. Like Allard, Shane and many other collectors, I consider this hobby as a labour of love and I want to help designers, craftsmen and other puzzlers as much as I can - it's NOT about profit.

Tricolore

Tricolore

Just a simple puzzle review today. I again haven't really had lots of spare time recently to play with my toys. The NHS is busier than ever and the pressure is on to get stuff done - the downside of this is I seem to have finished work late every day and been too tired in the evenings.

One puzzle that I acquired recently and solved was the Tricolore from Brian Menold and just looking at it how could anyone resist it? In fact looking at the website just now there appears to be a copy still available - you should seriously think about nabbing one now! Go on, I will wait here whilst you buy.....

Back now? Good; I will continue. This is a 6 board burr designed by Frans de Vreugd who is responsible for some of the best board burrs ever including Torture and Extreme Torture (aka Gordian's Knot) with a relatively "simple" level of 3.15.11.2. Brian said this about it:

When this puzzle was recommended to me I was at first skeptical about making it. I love making board burr puzzles but the reinforcing splines were necessary and add to the cost, and, I didn’t know what made it special. Well, was I ever wrong. This puzzle has a few moves in the middle that just leave you saying “Why did I have to do that!” I think it is truly unique. The splines, needed for reinforcement, are a part of the three-color scheme. With a unique solution, it provides quite a challenge; and as I said earlier, some of the moves are, in my mind, quite special. Lacquer and wax finish.

Knowing who had recommended this puzzle I just knew that there would be something truly wonderful about the solution. He tends to be fairly skeptical about a lot of the new Burrtools designed puzzles and only when one has something truly exceptional will he say that it is good.  As soon as it came up for sale, I nabbed it. Unfortunately the vagaries of Brian's shopping cart system meant that he sold more than he had and I had to wait a week or so for new ones to be made.

Positive Pelikan Perfection

There might have been a bit of excessive puzzle purchasing here! Whack! Ouch!

I seem to have refrained from buying new puzzles for a while (several weeks or maybe even 6!) so it seemed like a good idea to remedy that quickly before Mrs S got used to it! It began with some new toys from Brian Menold which I showed off on my New Additions page and have only really fiddled with so far and then rapidly was followed by a few extra purchases from Jakub who had given me a little heads up on some of his upcoming releases. I have mentioned many many many times how perfect his work is and I pretty much never turn him down. He had 6 puzzles on offer and 5 were completely new so how could I resist? A week after sending the PayPal across Europe some fine wood arrived chez moi. The box was HUGE and Mrs S just slightly irritated. After my unboxing and excited post of the above pic on Facebook, I was pleased that she who frightens the living Bejeeeezus out of me was molified by the sheer beauty of them and especially the gorgeousness that is the Flying Scotsman (designed by Terry Smart).

Jakub asked my opinion on some of them (for his site) and so I set to work on them over the subsequent few days. Just in case you cannot be bothered reading the rest of my rubbish here then let me cut to the ending......these are lovely works of art with a nice puzzling element and are perfect for both collectors and beginners alike. There you go! No need to read any further, go and do something more useful than read my blog!
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