The Heat is On! Some Surprisingly Difficult Puzzles.

Radiator I

I have had very little puzzling time the last few weeks despite having some annual leave! DIY (and the clear up after it) plus a return to a busy week at work have prevented much puzzling recently. So the heat was on for me to find something to blog about. A few evenings ago I decided to pick up a couple of the wire disentanglement puzzles that I received from Aaron Wang. This bunch are particularly complex and have made me pause a little before getting the courage to have a go. If you are keen to try some of Aaron's puzzles then many fabulous examples are currently for sale on Puzzle Paradise now (all are fabulous puzzles but I can particularly recommend the Lucky Lantern and the Libra twins). When Aaron showed off his latest productions I couldn't resist and bought all the ones that I didn't have and they have been sitting waiting for me for a while. I have been playing with one for a week or so now and recently this one dropped into my lap for evening play. Luckily for me the Whack! Ouch! situation is not too bad because this one is not jingly.

It is called Radiator for good reason...not only does it look like one, but it also laid the heat on as I tried to solve it. This is the first (and easiest of 3) which I feel I have to master before I attempt the silly ones:

Radiator II

Radiator III

I had been expecting these to be N-ary puzzles and spent a frustrating 5 minutes playing with Radiator I and trying to find a repeating sequence. Eventually, I realised that this one was a "simple" disentanglement. All I needed to do was unloop the string and ball. "Simple"? Maybe for a genius like Aaron but not for me. I realised the first evening what was sort of required but kept getting stuck with the string very badly looped up around the helices of the radiator. The string seems to be only just long enough to allow this to be solved which is a help as well as a hindrance. It is helpful because you can tell that if you are rapidly running out of string and manoeuvre room then you must have attempted something wrong. But the hindrance is that you have to position everything just right to allow yourself the space to solve it. I am very grateful that Aaron now uses the lobster claw clips to allow easy reset of these puzzles if you get in a mess. If that was not the case then these would become impossible knots quite quickly.

After my second evening of play, I had my Aha! moment and realised what was needed to remove the string. After I had convinced the cat on my lap not to eat the string or play with the wooden ball, I delightedly held up the pieces to show them off to Mrs S (she showed not the slightest bit of interest or encouragement). The solution to Radiator I is very logical and needs just a bit of investigation and then some proper logical thought (not something I am particularly good at):

Beautiful - a nice start to the set

As usual, I attempt the reversal of the solve and get stuck. The reassembly is another nice logical puzzle and should be the reverse of the disassembly but due to the complexity of the main piece, I struggle to visualise what is needed. I found myself getting half way there and as I continued it would magically reverse itself and fall apart! The reassembly took me over an hour! I love this puzzle - very clever idea and just the right level of complexity. Aaron has labelled it level 10+ but I think it is probably a Level 9 - the next ones will be MUCH harder!

Mobius Ring

The Mobius ring is slightly different from the others in that it arrived in a box and also arrived incorrectly assembled (different to the picture on the front). The incorrect assembly was rectified after a quick email question and here is what we are trying to disassemble. When I saw this one in a picture from Aaron it looked very familiar and I asked a question or two. After a single reply, I knew that I had to buy it because it took a couple of my older puzzles and raised the complexity to new heights. This REALLY turned the heat up! A long time ago (January 2017) the Puzzlemad foreign correspondent, Mike Desulets, reviewed the Russian heart puzzle by Jean-Claude Constantin and later I reviewed the Diskette puzzle - both have similar mechanisms to the solution.

Russian Heart

Diskette

As you can see, they have the common feature of a double intertwined loop of wire with the string loop straddling both parts. The solution is very satisfying and you should all run out to Tomas Linden's Sloyd store to buy the Russian heart to experience the lovely Aha! moment. The Mobius Ring takes that same basic premise and adds an extra separate mobile ring of wire across the puzzle to add a whole lot of extra difficulty.

Having enjoyed the other two puzzles so much last year, I picked up the Mobius Ring first and very rapidly realised that I was in trouble. That damned extra ring makes a huge difference. It really gets in the way. I played with this every evening for a week and was very thankful for the lobster claw release mechanism. Finally, after a week of work, I had my two pieces:

OMG! That was VERY difficult!

So far I have not managed to reassemble it from scratch. In fact, despite having disassembled it 3 or 4 times, I can only do so whilst generating a bit of a tangle in the process which eventually undoes itself at the end. I cannot claim to fully understand the solution yet and plan to keep playing with it until I do!

Soma Tube

Finally, I have to end with another surprisingly tough puzzle! Except I really should not have been surprised! I have previously extolled the incredible brilliance of Laszlo Kmolnar - his packing puzzle designs have truly delighted me (even as someone who is notoriously bad at packing puzzles). When the Published professor of wood, Brian Menold, released his latest puzzles, I could not miss the Soma tube designed by Laszlo. My copy was made from Bolivian Rosewood and Maple (with an acrylic lid). Yes, it is JUST a Soma cube (which I proved to myself by taking about ½ an hour to assemble). I have said before that every puzzler should own a Soma cube and I stand by that - now I have two.

With this version, the aim is to assemble a cuboid (with a corner missing) which is actually quite a simple thing to do. My Burrtools file tells me that there are 1520 ways to make the correct shape but there is only one way to assemble the shape within a box through a T shaped hole in the top. Laszlo, you are a truly evil genius! I sat down at our dining table with this and spent the best part of a day working on it (moving a little periodically to prevent pressure sores!) I have to admit that it took me 2 days of effort before I found the solution! The Soma cube is relatively easy and all the other shapes that can be made are a nice diversion. The Soma tube is a surprisingly VERY tough variant which nearly broke me. It is sitting next to me assembled and I am hesitant to take it apart again - I think I will put it on display in the solved state!

My goodness! That was tremendously tough!

Now after those very difficult puzzles I really need to find something easier to work on for a rest. Maybe the next 2 Radiator puzzles? Maybe the latest twisties I bought are the right difficulty level??? Or maybe not.....

Is it Easy? Hell No!

The MF8 Son-mum cube

This week has been my first annual leave after my operation in November. I think that leaving it 5 months without having any time off is too long! I was all set for a rest but it was not to be. "We" had been discussing the terrible state of my study for a while and "we" had decided that enough was enough and it was time to do something about it! With visions of a huge bonfire in my garden, with a slight tremor in my voice, I asked what she intended as a solution? Ikea had opened a store in Sheffield last year and Mrs S had decided that one of our spare rooms could be used for puzzle display. Yay!!!

You can see why she was upset!
The small stretch of visible desk is to allow the cats to jump down from the windowsill.

The weekend before my annual leave we had a trip to the shop and navigated hundreds of screaming children before I discovered to my horror that Ikea is also known as "storage central"! We duly ordered some Billy bookcases with doors and extra glass shelves to be delivered (they would never fit in my Mini) and much to my disgust, she homed in on the chests of drawers, other items called Skubs and various items of storage. Another 6 chests were added to the delivery along with assorted other stuff and the following day a delivery occurred (yes, on a Sunday). The garage was even more of a mess after that!

That's a whole lotta flatpack!

My week then began with a DIY frenzy - chores first and then the assembly began! Firstly, as the title of the post says, I thought that it was going to be easy but, as usual, I was wrong! Each of the bookcases weighs the same as me and needed to be brought from the garage into the house down a long path! After nearly killing myself I invested in a sack trolley which helped. I have always had great respect for craftsmen and people who do physical work for a living! After 3 days of lugging stuff around and assembly, I was sore all over and towards the end, if I dropped anything it was going to have to stay on the floor because I couldn't bend down to pick it up again! The construction was not challenging but yet again I was reminded why buying a house from Barrett homes was a bad decision...the floors are horrifically uneven! They were all over the place leading to a major challenge getting everything lined up and level. It took nearly 3 days but I finally had a secondary puzzle cave. Time for toys to be placed inside. I started with the dining room...those toys which she found particularly annoying even if they are my most beautiful:

All nice and level!

Some of my most prized beauties go in first.

After the puzzle cabinets were constructed it was on to the rest of her storage purchases. As a result, the desk is still a mess and I am about to go back to work! My physical fitness and strength have, however, improved a lot!

Back to the puzzling! Not only was the DIY much harder than I expected, but the puzzle for this week was also MUCH tougher than I first thought. At the top of the post is the Son-mum cube made by MF8. The original design was by Mike Armbrust as the Shallow Mixup Cube. My copy was purchased from the HKNowstore (it is also available in N America from Puzzlemaster). I couldn't resist it because my experiences over the last couple of years with various Mixup cubes has been really good - they are amongst my favourite twisty puzzles.

As with the other Mixup puzzles they are special because of their ability to have the centre row and columns turn 45º and yet still allow the other faces to turn. This allows edges and centres to be interchanged which becomes quite confusing and also allows some wild shapeshifting.

Just 2 turns made.

As you can see from the picture above, this particular puzzle has the centres split into a 9 segment grid and all the segments can be split up leading to a very interesting variant on the 3x3 Rubik cube:

What have I done?

The first attempt was fun! I quickly managed to return it to cube shape and found the bandaging to be fairly easy to get past. After that, a straightforward hunt to recreate the centres also proved to be a very easy challenge once I had seen the secret of moving pieces about. No algorithms were required at all! Just very simple intuitive moves. Having recreated the centres and it was just a quick 3x3 solve and I was done! Fantastic! It had only taken me about an hour for that first solve - easy peasy!

Oh boy! That first solve had lulled me into a false sense of security. I did it again to make sure that it hadn't been a fluke...let's just say that it HAD been a fluke! My next attempt left me with a parity i.e. a position that is otherwise impossible in a standard 3x3 due to the reduction process:

A single flipped edge is not usually possible.

Time to engage the little grey cells (the few that haven't been pickled in gin yet). I recalled the original Mixup cube and after about half an hour of fiddling about (one day I will start to take notes on my puzzle solution methods so that I remember techniques used in the past). Eventually, I worked out a nice simple set of moves (hardly complex enough to be called an algorithm) which fixed the flipped edge, then another 3x3 solution and it was done - easy peasy? A little less so but not too bad. Not being very bright is a major shortcoming for me! I should have stopped there but no...I had to do it again.

I hit a brick wall! I seemed to be completely unable to return it to cube shape! The outer centre pieces were not lying flat and for some reason, there were only 6 of them sticking out. Had there been 8 then I could have lined them up and done an equatorial ¼ turn and had everything flat again with just the edges and very centres to swap. But with 6 of these pieces sticking out, I could not simply flatten them. I began to sweat and mutter under my breath! Again and again and again I failed! Suddenly after a couple of hours...aha! I now knew how to create and move them about. Still no algorithms needed...just fiddling about until things were right. The rest of the solution progressed without any parities and I breathed a sigh of relief!

Stupid boy! Did it again didn't you? These things are like an itch for me...I just have to scratch. The next scramble was a struggle yet again to return to cube shape but I managed it after a few minutes. Suddenly I thought to myself, "You've cracked it. You're a genius!" Wrong! I sat back in horror when I saw this:

Just 2 corners top swapped

Equivalent to 2 opposite edges swapped

These 2 pictures are an equivalent parity...both are impossible in a standard 3x3. It is usually impossible to have 2 corners or 2 edges swapped. This parity occurred for the first time and caught me by surprise - I had no idea such a thing was possible.

I was stumped! I thought that it must have been either due to the centres being recreated the wrong way or possibly due to the whole equator having ALL the edges and centres swapped but how to fix it? I tried everything I could think of until after 2 or 3 days and about 6 hours of attempts, I found a method. It certainly is not a pretty technique and I am not entirely sure why it works but I think it rotates all the equatorial edges and centres by 180º. With a huge sigh of relief, I can now put this one down.

Should you buy the Son-mum cube? Not if you are a beginner! If you have been playing with twisty puzzles for a while and have some experience of the Mixup cubes then definitely buy one of these. They move well and are fun to work out the basics. That killer parity may require some help and I have seen that there is a thread on the Twisty Puzzles forum about it already.

Tomorrow it will be back to work for a rest!

When is a Box Not a Box?

When it's an Assembly Puzzle!

It's NOT really a box!

The MPP guys are all out in Spain with Nigel at a 3 day extravaganza known as the Spanish puzzle party #1 and I am all alone back in the UK (Whack! Ouch! Sorry dear, I didn't mean to ignore you!) I am writing a blog post so that you all have something to read this weekend whilst Allard is gallivanting. Why am I not there? Unfortunately, I could not get those days off work and the cost was prohibitive for me when I consider that I have just been to Ikea for a puzzle display purchase which was never going to be cheap. Plus, Mrs S had just been absent in Edinburgh visiting her family and I couldn't immediately abandon her on her return - the fear of a Whack! Ouch! is just too great! From the pictures appearing on Facebook, the guys all appear to be having a great time.

Today, yet again, I am blaming Allard! A few weeks ago he wrote a review of a lovely little cube-shaped wooden thing from Japan. He had spotted in on Torito's site and combined an order with Big Steve. It is called the Kopa (or KO) box but don't be fooled...it is NOT really a box! This is an assembly puzzle which just happens to be cube-shaped and has a cavity. A puzzlebox is defined by being an article intended for storage of items which needs an unusual sequence of moves to open it. This puzzle is different...it has a central drawer that can be removed but there is no bottom in the drawer so anything stored will just drop out when it is pulled. Plus, a very big PLUS, this arrives in the disassembled state (as in the photo above) and the aim is to form a cube. It almost has maze-like properties.

The puzzle easily comes apart to reveal these pieces

The two outer pieces just pull apart and the central drawer can slide out. one outer piece and the intermediate are eternally linked by a dowel which sits in a square track around the edge as you can see above. When Allard was so enthusiastic about it, I contacted my usual puzzle pusher and asked whether he had any spare copies lying about. Of course he had one and Allard brought it back for me on his way back from Wil's King's day gathering. It duly arrived here and I couldn't resist settling down with it that very evening whilst "she who frightens grown men" and I watched some TV. Whack! Ouch!

The first thing I realised was that this thing is beautiful and then I realised that it wasn't going to be a pushover - it does slide together quite easily if you take the drawer out:

Easy peasy! Only if you don't include the drawer.

As soon as the drawer goes in the puzzle becomes much more difficult and just as Allard said, after about 10 minutes I was convinced that it was impossible. Sneaky bugger has got me to buy another impossible object! You can reach a stage where it is almost there but there is a cm or so still showing and no obvious way to get past this. I reread his review and realised I was at that early denial stage and that I should keep going. Now with this puzzle, nothing is hidden, there is no secret hidden mechanism. The entire thing is based upon 2 dowels moving around the edges of squares...in fact, there are 2 pairs of these dowels which seem to interact. This puzzle won't be solved by randomly moving the pieces because there are not many moves possible.

There are actually 2 really nice Aha! moments here. The first is when you notice a feature and have a sudden realisation that it could possibly go together if you can organise the captive pieces with the free piece in a certain way. How on earth can you make that arrangement? Think laterally? Think sideways? Backwards? What about inside out? Well, there is a particular thing that you need to do and suddenly a whole new set of possibilities opens up. Even then, I couldn't close the cube (NOT a box). The next Aha! moment is just as delicious...a sequence of maze moves lines it all up and suddenly with a lovely craftsman made slide it forms a cube with the drawer inside:

Genius!

I have to say thank you to Allard for introducing me to this lovely and very clever NOT box/cube. It is a genius idea and beautifully implemented as one would expect from a Japanese craftsman. All in all, it took me about 45 minutes and Mrs S was actually impressed when I showed her the genius idea. She even told me that I was obviously brighter than I looked which is quite a compliment from her except, now that I think about it, this does imply that she thinks I look rather dim! I think I hide my lack of brains quite well! At the moment, both Wil and Torito is out of stock of these but I think Endo-san is being encouraged to make some more. If they do come up for sale then they are well worth your hard-earned cash.

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When is a Cube not a Cube?

When it's a Shapeshifting Cubic Cuboid!

The Duo Axis Cube

A recent purchase from Calvin's HKNowstore included a bunch of cubes made by MF8. For some reason, my usual twisty supplier is unable to get MF8 puzzles but I can heartily recommend Martin's Puzzlestore for almost all other manufacturers. One of my recent purchases was one that I had seen back in 2014 on both HKNowstore as well as the Twisty puzzles forum and had been fascinated at the look of it but not really that interested in purchasing as it was nearly $200 as a handmade mod. I had completely forgotten about it when I recently saw that it had been mass-produced by MF8 and I added it to my "must buy" list. In that intervening 4 years I had completely forgotten even what was the nature of the puzzle.

After opening my nice package and admiring the contents, taking my photos and frightening myself to death with the Son-mum cube and especially the Unicorn cubes, I put the Duo Axis cube in my work bag to show off to my surgical colleagues who I am gradually convincing that I am extremely crazy but gifted. Whilst we were waiting to be given permission to start a case (we needed a post-op critical care bed), I took it out and investigated what it was. I could not recall the exact nature of it but knew that it was related to the Axis cube that I enjoyed in the past. One of my most read posts is my "Twisty puzzling advice to a beginner" discussion which focussed on where to go after one has mastered the basic odd and even order Rubik cubes. The shape modifications are a really fun challenging next step on your puzzling path and the Axis cube is a fun one to try and is now available as a 3x3 as well as 4x4 versions.

Too many layers

Looking at the puzzle above something did not look quite right - there were too many layers and some odd diagonal pointing pieces that didn't seem to line up with anything when turned. Over a few minutes of showing this off to my rather horrified spinal surgeon, we both came to different conclusions: I realised that this puzzle was NOT a cube...it was a cuboid modified into a cube and axis transformed at the same time! My colleague realised that I was completely nuts! Both of our realisations were correct! The puzzle we have here is actually a 3x3x5 cuboid which in my discussion of the classification of cuboids is a shapeshifter which will be made even tougher by the Axis transformation. Having realised the nature of it, there was nothing else but to scramble it:

Holy crap!!

Once I had scrambled it for a while I saw that those diagonal parts that would not line up with anything were not separating from each other (the 2 middle yellow parts - one with mf8 on it are 2 of them). It actually required me to use some simple 3x3 algorithms to make these line up and then I could get a full scramble. It looks really fearsome like that and luckily also quite attractive as it may be staying that way! Having seen the look of horror on my surgeons face, I then went off and anaesthetised my patient and only much later did I get time to play.

This "NOT a cube" is a really fun challenge for any twisty puzzler who has gone just beyond cubes and simple mods and is looking for something extra. As soon as you have mastered the basic cuboids (Floppy cuboid, Domino cuboid and Shapeshifter) then you are ready for this. The puzzle turns beautifully and is only spoiled by a tendency of the centre caps to fall out (which is easily fixed). Those split axial pieces add a nice extra challenge to it and the solve proceeds logically. It is very important to keep the base puzzle firmly in your mind because after any turns of an algorithm it is impossible to look at the puzzle and see what is next. This needs a good mind's eye. I definitely think that this is a great next challenge for anyone who wants something extra.

Congratulations to AJ and MF8 for some great challenges - this, and the other 3 above look fantastic. I do hope that some of AJ's other mods are mass produced because he makes some stunning puzzles which are just out of reach when handmade.

Perseverance Pays Off....

With a little help from a friend

Trenta

Mrs S has gotten a little "miffed" the last week or so! In fact so "miffed" that the whiplash tongue was fully unleashed upon my person and quite a lot of Whack! Ouch!'s rained down on me! The reason for her ever-increasing ire? I might have "ahem" had a "little" splurge in the purchasing department. The cascade of new deliveries that arrived within a short period of time led her to ask me whether we had a) any money left at all? and 2) where I was going to put all of these new deliveries? It is true that my study currently looks like a bomb has gone off in it with puzzles and paperwork and journals absolutely everywhere with no obvious place for them to go. My big plan is a nice big set of display cabinets in a spare room - I have clocked what I need from Ikea and am ready to purchase them to solve ALL my problems!

Mrs S then questioned my puzzle manhood by asking whether I had solved all of the ones I had and then taunting me that I should go back to my unsolved ones and not buy any new ones! I sheepishly admitted that there were quite a few that I had not solved in several years despite many many attempts. I do keep returning to most of them and occasionally do manage to solve one. Here is a tale of one such event which occurred just this weekend.

Nearly a year ago (June 2017) the "Published professor of wood", Brian Menold, made a fabulous design from Christophe Lohe called Trenta. My copy was made with an Ash frame and gorgeous Mahogany pieces. When it arrived, there were 2 pieces held captive and the aim was to insert the third piece inside. "How hard can this be?" I thought to myself. and proceded to play with it and despite many weeks of play, failed completely! The 2 pieces in the frame are pretty loose and at least one rotation may have occurred during my fiddling. This was definitely NOT part of the solution and I might have rendered it unsolvable in the process. Every few weeks I would pick it up and play again with no result. A few people, including the great designer, noticed this puzzle sitting in my "currently playing with" pile in the living room next to my chair. Contributing to the mess, Mrs S would say with a laser burning stare!

Over the year, I have communicated with Chris and he has offered lots of encouragement and even suggested I send it to him to assemble so that I can proceed with it as a disassembly puzzle. Each time I have held off as I wanted to keep working on it. I was really amazed when he informed me that a friend of ours had even worked out a way using rotations to actually remove the captive pieces from the frame completely - however, I didn't dare try that at that time. Recently we have collaborated to purchase a bunch of puzzles from Aaron Wang (yes, I cannot resist good wire). He also sent me a few new ones from Bernhard and amongst them was a few gifts - a new prototype and a 3D printed version of Trenta in the assembled state for me to play with.

New wire from Aaron

New toys (incl Trenta)

From Bernhard

At last, I might have a chance to finally solve Trenta and in the process start to get Mrs S off my back! Whack! Ouch! Sorry dear. I did have a quick comparison of my copy with the one from Chris and realised that I had completely "buggered up" the start position and it was no wonder I had completely failed!

It was quite obvious that something was very wrong with my copy!

I proceded with a complete disassembly of mine:

Beautifully made! Maybe never to be assembled?

When I did this, it did occur as I made a number of fairly complex rotations that I might NEVER get it back together again but I was quite pleased with myself that I had managed it. Time then to go to work on the 3D printed copy. This started on yesterday evening in front of the TV and luckily for me, it is plastic and silent and the gently fuming Mrs S was not disturbed. I proceeded back and forth through the sequence in my usual way and got very stuck. There are a few paths but at each point, I came to a halt with no further moves possible. I was obviously missing something. If I was struggling with the disassembly then it was no wonder that I had failed at the assembly! After nearly 2 hours I found a, to me, VERY well hidden move and suddenly a new pathway was opened which progressively led to a solution:

Phew! That was quite a struggle!

I had gone back and forth a lot of times and was reasonably happy that I could repeat it. At that point, it was bedtime and I had to reassemble it and put it down. This morning, I began the day with a good gym session - Mrs S has told me that it may have been "for better or worse", "in sickness and in health" but it was NOT for "fatter or thinner"! If I get fat then she will certainly chuck me out and hence the frequent trips to the gym to ogle the babes, Whack! Ouch! Sorry! To achieve "the body less horrific". After my trip to the gym and a light healthy "not get me fat" breakfast, I went back to the Trenta so I could finish it off for today's blog post. Except I couldn't remember the sequence and had to work it out all over again. Damn! I am not terribly bright! That took me an extra hour of sweating and swearing under my breath. But at least I knew the orientation of the pieces inside the frame now and just had to work out the key rotational move(s).

You very nearly didn't have a blog post to read today! Working on the plastic copy, I tried to work out the moves to remove the captive pieces and for the life of me, I couldn't do it. There is one obvious easy rotation but as usual, this gets me nowhere. The correct move is unbelievably hard to find. I then moved to the wooden version and tried to insert the pieces to get the start position as shown above and....I couldn't do it! There was lots of swearing and for a while, I thought that I might just have to send the puzzle back to Chris for him to assemble. Mrs S began to laugh at me for all the muttering and my frantic twisting and turning. Ridicule from the wife was obviously what I needed because all of a sudden I found the required rotation. That move is incredibly hard to find and requires the pieces to be placed with tremendous accuracy and turned exactly so. There is no scraping and it is not tight but it will not work if not just right.

With the pieces correctly in the frame, it was just a matter of backtracking the original solution. Even that is not easy and I finally, after nearly a year of effort, had the puzzle solved.

2 fully assembled Trenta's

At last! The question now is do I dare disassemble it again? I think I must - the little voices are saying that I need to prove that it was not a fluke!

Thank you, Chris and Brian, for a fantastic puzzle. Thank you, Mrs S, for letting me live a little longer to tidy up the puzzle collection! Whack! Ouch! I wasn't being sarcastic, I promise! I will work on the backlog that has recently increased a lot! Whack! Ouch!

I Don't Collect Boxes, Definitely No Boxes, Nope! No Boxes Here

Aaaaaaaaargh........I Blame Allard!

A Trio of Pluredro Gorgeousness! It's NOT my fault.

Yes, I know! I'm always blaming someone else be it Oli, Allard or the Puzzle Pusher himself and I stick to my claims - it is NEVER my fault...I am just easily lead astray! When Junichi Yananose (Juno) set up his own online store, I jumped to support him but tended to go towards the Burr side of his production and even made a deliberate decision not to buy the rather lovely boxes that he produces. I have really enjoyed all of those purchases but still kept eyeing the boxes up sneakily hoping that no-one would notice. I wavered a little when Allard reviewed the Diamond case and was so enthusiastic about it. I got to see it in the flesh/wood at an MPP early this year but again shied away in fear that I would be corrupted. It was particularly intriguing to me that Allard had found such a little box so difficult - he spent weeks on it without success and only after the Puzzle machine, Louis Coolen, solved it, did he manage it himself (having asked for a clue or two).

I had seen the announcement of the Ixia Box release and stayed away because firstly, it is a box and I DON'T collect boxes (Blush!) and also because it was a reasonable sum of money - not hugely expensive but enough to make me think first. Then recently at the 32nd Midlands Puzzle Party, I saw several people playing with it. My downfall came about when Wil and Allard began to discuss how complex it was and how enjoyable and clever the mechanism was. My interest was piqued!!! Hence it's Allard's fault! I didn't play at the MPP because I had resolved by the end of the day that it would have to join my collection as a sequential discovery puzzle because this is how Yukari described it on the Pluredro blog (NOT a box of course!) Finally when Allard wrote up his review of the day and mentioned again that after a month he has still not managed to solve it then I was lost! A visit to the Pluredro store and I had one Ixia box in my shopping cart. Now it always feels wrong to buy a single puzzle and make it travel the world all alone so I added a couple of other puzzles to keep it company. This left me with a moderately hefty bill that Mrs S doesn't know the full value of and she shall never find out! Whack! Ouch! Sorry dear, it's for your own good!

The third puzzle added to my cart was the Club case, a follow up to the Diamond case and I am reliably informed by the Box meister himself, Steve Canfield, that Juno is planning on making the complete set of suits (the Heart case is next). I can add Steve to my list of people to blame - he knows that I cannot resist a series (be it novels, notebooks, pens or puzzles). The money changed hands and I tracked the path around the globe until....Parcelfarce held onto it for quite a long time! The customs fees were raised and I waited for notification, the customs fees were re-raised and I waited, the notification was sent out and I waited! Do they not realise that I have little enough hair left to have any more fall out? Eventually, the nicely packed box arrived and I was able to take my group photo above! Then time for the puzzling to begin:

Diamond Case

Made from Silver Ash, Bubinga, Queensland Maple, and Jarrah this is an attractive little box and more solid than it looks. It is quite small by puzzle box standards (from my limited experience) at 120 x 45 x 33mm. Juno claims that the trick to it is very new but for me, they are all new. I started with this one and immediately noticed the sliding section and an associated movement. A quick fiddle revealed to me that the exact pattern of movements seemed to not be fixed which was odd. Then I had a little further thought and was able to visualise in my head (which was empty as usual) how this might be working. If a puzzler of Allard's calibre took several weeks then I expected to be stumped for several months. No matter how much movement I performed of the initial pieces, the lid remained firmly shut. It was Friday evening and I had had a very long day at work and began to fall asleep in my chair whilst watching TV with Mrs S. Just as I dozed off I had an epiphany...I could tell how the lid was locked in place (or at least had a good idea) and suddenly had a vision of how I would design an opening mechanism in such a puzzle.

Opened! No clues here....move on!

It took a few more minutes of fiddling and I had an open box and could see Juno's brand on the inside. The mechanism is incredibly simple and yet unbelievably well hidden! I have not seen anything like it before. The Aha! moment was delicious. I am slightly surprised that Allard struggled as long as he did - I solved my copy in about half an hour. I suspect this will accompany me to work so that I can torture some colleagues! There are still 5 left in the store so get one quickly...especially if you want to collect the whole set of suits.

Club case

Flushed with success, I went to bed before I began to snore in front of the TV! The following day I picked up the absolutely gorgeous Club case. This is made from Karri, Koto, Burmese Teak, and Zebrano and is a good bit bigger and heavier than the Diamond case (although still not particularly large) with dimensions of 96 x 96 x 45mm. Even Mrs S appreciated the beauty of this one and liked the idea of a series linked to playing cards...Yay! I might have permission for the others! Whack! Ouch! Pretty please? There is a bit of detail visible through the club-shaped hole in the top which gives a hint of what might be required as a general approach. Yukari agreed with this idea of the hint but she was unable to solve it herself.

I love this kind of puzzle and after doing the weekly shop with Mrs S yesterday (to try and earn some brownie points), I sat down with a nice coffee, a delicious Fat Rascal (probably the best scone in the world) and a new puzzle. Boy! This is one very confusing puzzle. There are 3 moving pieces that are all linked together and sometimes are blocked and other times change direction unexpectedly. At times there are so many options that I struggled to develop a mental image of what was going on as I manipulated it. This one was quite a bit tougher for me but after a couple of hours of confusion and investigation, I had my Aha! moment.

No clues here, move on!

Very pleased with myself, I took my photos and set to with the reset! I had absolutely no idea the exact set of moves that was required and it took me another hour before I got back to the start. I was seriously sweating...a solution is provided for the wimps but I was determined not to use it. Mrs S commented that I had probably just solved it by luck (she can be real mean sometimes! Whack! Ouch!) to which I responded that if I could do it repeatedly, it wasn't luck. I am slightly ashamed to say that it took me the rest of the day and about 20 attempts before I could open and close this box every time without getting stuck! This is a gorgeous puzzle and very well implemented. It is not only for puzzle box fans, even us general puzzlers can enjoy it.

Currently, there are 11 of these left in Juno's store and I can heartily recommend picking a copy up. In fact, you should probably do what I did and get these two puzzles at the same time as the sequential discovery Ixia box. Go on you know you want to!

So what next? I happen to have a few more puzzles in transit just now as well as the Ixia box and a big backlog of Burrs, and Aaron's wire (still up for sale on Paradise) and a prototype that arrived yesterday. I also need to clean up my study which looks worse than it has ever been before!

Two Balls are Better Than One!

Box with 2 balls

Another quickie today! I was on call for 24 hours yesterday and that is not good for rest, relaxation and sleep...so today I am absolutely knackered! Plus it has been a very busy and very stressful week with almost no puzzle solving being done. Luckily there have been a few purchases made and they are currently winging their way over various ponds to me and hopefully will provide some good entertainment for both me and you!

I knew the title would grab your attention! Most of us puzzlers tend to be boys and so would generally agree with that statement! However, if you are a girl then maybe you might disagree. Also as a medic, I know that sometimes 2 is surplus to requirement and thus one should be removed (my Urology attending physician friend, Steve Canfield, would agree)! Luckily for me, there was no knife in painful places involved in today's puzzle blog!

Today's focus is on a couple of puzzles I bought a while ago from the "published professor of wood", Brian Menold. His last batch of beauties included the Box with 2 balls designed by one of my good friends, Christoph Lohe. Brain said this about it:

"Another of Chris’s designs that I loved was this beauty. I loved the idea of the three captive pieces. The goal is simple. Removed the two steel balls from the box. The wood pieces inside the box do not come out. The acrylic sides help you to see what is going on and I used three contrasting woods for the pieces in the box to help distinguish them from one another."

I too have come to absolutely love Chris' designs! He seems to have a knack (as does Klaas Jan Damstra) of designing a puzzle that has more to it than a super tough high level of moves. There is a certain element of fun to the discovery of the Aha! moments as well as very quirky unusual shapes that make them a delight to play with and solve. This particular puzzle is only a level 19.15 and so should not be terribly difficult but it has proved to me to be a very tough challenge! It is a gorgeous thing with the box made from acrylic and Bolivian Rosewood and the pieces from Yellowheart, Wenge, Padauk with 2 steel balls.

Brian has made it very nicely and initially, only the Padauk piece can rise up out of the box releasing the balls and other pieces to move around inside. This puzzle is a mixture of a dexterity puzzle and an interlocking puzzle, the box needs to be turned back and forth as well as inverted periodically to control the sliding of the pieces and the balls inside. At times the Yellow heart piece also protrudes through the hole in the top. I did find half way through that I had completely forgotten my route and was unable to return the puzzle back to the beginning. For at least a day, I had to store the puzzle with one or more pieces sticking out the top. The puzzle is very reminiscent of the Sliding Tetris puzzle from Diniar Namdarian that made it into my Top Ten of 2017. Consisting of various shapes held captive in a cube with a ball held captive within a shifting maze, there are many similarities. The addition of the extra ball in a more confined space makes this puzzle a significant challenge.

When I first got hold of it I couldn't resist playing and on day two of play, I managed to dump two really pretty large heavy steel balls on top of a very unamused cat's head! I paid for that with a scratch as he shot off my lap. I was not expecting both balls to drop out at the same time but, POW! they did and in the end, I had no idea how I had managed it. In fact, if you think about it, dumping both balls out together cannot possibly be a Level 19.15.

I've got both my balls out!

After the requisite photos of my balls lying free, I tried to put them back in their box. Except I had no recollection of how I had done it. There are lots of ways of getting both balls inside with all the wooden shapes lying inside but getting the balls to the start position proved elusive. I worked on it for another couple of evenings before resorting to Burrtools (just for a clue). When I had entered it into BT and looked at the solution it had found, I sat back in amazement. It did not find the solution I had used to get them out! It had only found a route which required each of them to be inserted separately and juggling the first one inside a bit before adding the second one into the box. I and my bruised cat were both very certain that both balls had dropped out together. This motivated me to go back to the puzzle myself and confirm that I was not going mad and imagining things. For once BT had not provided the help I required. Finally, after another 2 days of play, I had managed to reset the puzzle after adding both balls at the same time. YES! I was right!

A little discussion with Chris confirmed that another puzzler had done the same thing and informed him. Let's just say that this was not what Chris had intended but he confirmed that my solution was correct. I love this puzzle! For some reason, I cannot for the life of me remember the path through it and despite having solved it 4 or 5 times, I currently have it stuck in an unsolved position as I cannot seem to find the way back to the beginning!

Yes, it is good to have 2 balls despite the fact that I am only allowed to look at them wistfully from across the bedroom where they are kept in a pickling jar on Mrs S' bedside table!

Kamelle Box

Kamelle Box

Brian also produced this clever little puzzle in that same batch. I consider it a crime to buy just one at a time, so I had to buy this one too (ahem! as well as the Cross in Cross). The Kamelle box is yet another design by Chris Lohe (I seem to be developing a collection of his designs). Brian described it like this:

"The last batch of designs Chris sent me had several designs that grabbed my attention. This one, The Kamelle Box, was one of the first. I love packing puzzles that seem simple but are actually quite challenging! Laszlo Molnar’s designs come to mind. Well I thought this clever design fit into that category too! Just place the three pieces into the box. A hole in the clear bottom helps with this but maybe not as much as you would like. Give this a try."

As soon as the name Laszlo Molnar came up I knew I had to have it! I have most of Laszlo's puzzles from Brian and have reviewed them here and here and here. Anything similar to one of Laszlo's puzzles is a "must have" for me! Brian made 3 versions available; I chose one of them and it was removed from my shopping cart by someone else buying it even more quickly! I chose another and my copy is a Red Elm box and Yellowheart pieces. It is truly lovely.

The first thing most packing puzzlers do is try and assemble the puzzle outside the box to work out how it can go together in a shape that should theoretically fit. I found a few possibilities and then had a play to see how the odd-shaped piece might go through the L shaped orifice at the top.

The bottom is acrylic with a hole for manipulating the pieces

There is a hole in the bottom to allow a finger inside (or a piece to protrude) and I set to playing with it. Just 3 pieces? Should be easy peasy? Hell no! I spent an hour getting nowhere and then another one! Eventually, I thought, "similar to one of Laszlo's designs?" Aha! What about a rotational move?

The Aha! moment was wonderful and with great pleasure, I had this:

Solved it!

I thought I had been really clever! I even put it back on the shelf convinced that I had solved it. At the last MPP, I brought it with me to show to the guys and I was a little surprised when Rob Hegge (visiting from the Netherlands) solved it in about 15 minutes. I know I am not terribly bright but I really didn't think I was quite that dim! I congratulated him on finding it so quickly and asked him whether he thought the rotation was good. He asked "what rotation?" and my jaw dropped! Is this solvable without a rotation? Apparently so!

I had solved it completely the wrong way and now need to go back to it and try again. OMG! I will be doing that as soon as I've finished with this blog post!

Not only do Brian and Chris produce fabulous puzzles...they manage to prove that I am a very poor puzzler! I really MUST do better!

Over the last few years, I have waxed lyrical about the incredible disentanglement designs from my friend Aaron Wang. He makes some of the most difficult (and fun) wire and string puzzles you will ever see. Mostly I have suggested that people visit the website of the Felix puzzle store to buy them but the lack of an English translation has put people off. The puzzles are now available direct from Aaron if you wish - he has put his current batch up for sale on the Puzzle Paradise auction site. There are lots of great ones to choose from - have a browse and check back for my reviews and then buy them...you won't be disappointed!