Avast Me Hearties It's the Pirate's Casket

The Pirate's Casket from Carsten Elsäßer

Back in 2015 I received, totally out of the blue, 2 separate deliveries from an amateur puzzle designer and craftsman called Carsten Elsäßer. In March I really enjoyed his 2 Piece cube and marvelled at the craftsmanship which not only was of wood but included some very nicely made metal components which really takes some skill for an amateur to create. The whole idea was very clever and nicely implemented with a great Aha! moment. Then in August he completely blew me away with a mostly metal construction called the Naga puzzle which was a sequential discovery puzzle of similar scope and wonder to the limited edition puzzles made by the great Brian Young. A truly amazing thing also is that Carsten spends most of his time living and working aboard a cruise ship travelling all over the world! This gives him very little time at home to actually manufacture his puzzles.

I had communicated with Carsten earlier this year and was aware that he was busily designing away but, to be honest, I had totally forgotten about it. Then out of the blue earlier this month he asked for my address again and sent me another lovely new toy through the post. To make this even more incredible, he has become a father for the first time just a month ago and still managed to work on a fabulous new puzzle! Congratulations my friend! You are amazing! Helping with the development of this puzzle Carsten has discovered the amazing capabilities of 3D printing. The Pirate's casket is made from sintered nylon and has many magnets. It is also one of the first times I have ever come across a puzzle pade with 3D printed metal components too.

The pirate's casket was found after centuries at the bottom of the ocean.....OK it's nylon so maybe it wasn't! But it has been aged to look like it has - apparently judicious use of coffee and charcoal has given it the "bottom of the sea" look. The aim of this puzzle is firstly to find the gold coin inside and then as a secondary challenge I have to establish which pirate it belonged to. YES!!!! I lurve sequential discovery puzzles! I was told that it is strong enough to resist a bit of abuse but banging and prying at it is entirely unnecessary.

The skull ball rotates and can be removed

A keyhole in the bottom

The puzzle is surprisingly weighty for a plastic printed puzzle - it feels like there is metal inside. Maybe it's a gold doubloon? Time to explore....the ball on top rotates freely but has a tendency to ping into certain positions - if you hold a compass near this then the needle goes haywire all over the place! There seems to be magnets involved....LOTS of them! With a bit of a tug the ball will come out too. Underneath the casket there's a keyhole but no key...yet. In fact, looking in the keyhole gives no clue of what's inside as there doesn't seem to be any way for the key to turn inside. It gets more and more intriguing.

The panels rotate

Obviously the next thing to try is look closer at the panels on the faces of the casket. They appear to rotate fairly freely but in 45º increments they click into place. Try this with each in turn and aha! One won't move at all! Explore, explore, explore. My usual is to move things over and over again in the hope that one day I will prove Einstein wrong. Of course that is not the correct thing to do but I do find it therapeutic. OK! Time to be more systematic....rotate each of the panels in turn and see what happens....nothing! Puzzles like this actually require a light touch and during my investigation something feels different and I'm not sure why. Back-track and Aha! again. A panel shifts slightly and seems to require a bit more. What if??? YES!!! I seem to have a key.

A key has come out.

I am told that the key has also been 3D printed! Incredible! I can hear you shouting at me...try it in the keyhole! These damned voices are really starting to worry me!

A perfect fit

The key goes into the keyhole perfectly and..... well you know that NEVER works in the puzzling world. My friend Shane keeps sending me puzzles with keys and so far I don't think any of them have done anything. Puzzle designers are nasty that way - they raise your hopes and dash them.

I give up on the keyhole and notice that the key is held inside fairly firmly. Interestingly there is another magnet stuck inside the key itself. Maybe the key has other uses? I am aware that there are rather a lot of magnets in the casket as floating the key over various parts makes pushing and pulling motions all over the place. I proceed to go round and round in circles for a while and get nowhere. I do make a useful discovery during my further exploration but at this stage it doesn't help me at all. Interestingly moving the key over the ball makes exciting clicking noises and something rather heavy moves around inside it. I have a brainwave which as always doesn't work and give up for the day. After a couple of evenings of attempts my main thought doesn't seem to be working so I contact Carsten for a clue. As a Dad of a new baby, I suspect he doesn't get out very much just now and he replies very quickly. My thoughts had been nearly right and his very teeny tiny hint got me my next step.

The ball can be split

The mechanism is totally ingenious! I love it and I could see why I missed it for so long! Inside the ball is another "thing" to help you on your way but of course it is not quite that straight forward. The interior of the casket is still locked tight. Moving "things" around makes a very tiny change on the outside and this with my earlier finding gives me a bit of a bwainwave. Yet again another very clever mechanism has been implemented and I suddenly find that the locked panel can be moved and then removed:

A revealing movement

A panel comes off and...

I think I am almost there! It has taken me 4 evenings of gentle play and discovery and I finally have found the pirate's coin. I don't think it is a doubloon or even gold but 3D printing makes for a very nice and beautifully detailed momento.

Heads - CE 2016

Tails

Coordinates on the edge

What about the final piece of the quest? Finding out who was the original owner of the casket? This takes good eyesight, some GoogleFu and a bit of reading. I learned there are things you can look up on the internet with only very tiny pieces of information. It would appear that Captain Arthur Catt may have been a very wealthy man before he lost his 3D printed coin and chest in an ocean with coffee in it!

This puzzle has been nearly 2 years in the design and manufacture - it is truly wonderful! Yet again, I am aghast at the incredible skills and design ability of Carsten Elsäßer whilst he spends half his life at sea and also finishing off with a newborn in the house. Thank you so much my friend, I will be bringing this to a Midlands Puzzle Party in the 2018 to let the guys have a play. I am sure that they will solve it quicker than me but will still greatly enjoy it.

Now all that is left for me to do is to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year - may it be happy, healthy and puzzling. I hope you all receive what you have been asking for and that next year is truly puzzling for you. I have to quote another friend, Michel,  who always signs his emails and letters with this:

"Let's keep puzzling."

The Naga Puzzle - Another Unexpected Gift

How can this be the work of a beginner?

The Naga Puzzle

We have a post a day early this week because I have to work all day tomorrow in the Trauma operating theatre and won’t have time to write anything for you. Luckily the present Mrs S knows how important my blog is to me (and hopefully to you) so she has allowed me time on Saturday away from DIY etc to produce a review of something very special.

I do tend to consider myself very lucky. I have a very tolerant wife who puts up with this truly ridiculous hobby of mine with only the occasional Whack! Ouch! I have great friends in the puzzling community who are happy to discuss my obsession with me and share their thoughts and even let me play with their new toys and I even have the great good fortune to be in contact with (and even be great friends with) some fantastic puzzle designers like Shane, Wil, Steve, Stephan and Alfons.

The Hales Puzzle collection - I am honoured

She won't let it be on display!

One of my greatest puzzle friendships has been with Shane, who initially contacted me to discuss the blog, collecting and solving puzzles and over a period I discovered that he was a Master woodworker (with a certificate too!) and I sort of encouraged him to turn some of his ideas into a real puzzle. It started slowly but Hales Puzzles was established and his work is now highly sought after. In fact, his work now stands on display on the sideboard of my dining room with huge pride (although that hideous dirty case from the Pentagon has been put in the loft on pains of another Whack Ouch!).

I have always hoped that someone else would do what Shane has done so generously but because puzzle design and production is so difficult, it could not happen frequently. Steve Miller sent me his Spam puzzle last week and I investigated it with trepidation - it had a curious smell of burnt wood which luckily was not from some explosive that he had set up but actually came from laser cut and engraved wood. The Spam puzzle will prove to me an absolutely horrific challenge for even the most ardent of packing puzzle fans - thank heavens I didn't just up-end the tin and shake it all out. It would probably be a pile of sticks forever more. I think even Dave Holt (THE metagrobologist) who adores packing puzzles might even be stumped by it!
What is so tough about it?  Remember that Steve is an evil genius! At the top of the tin I have removed the title spam and you see just the top puzzling layer - each layer is about 5 mm thick! Just look at this:

Just one layer!

Now imagine upending a tin containing 15 layers! Each with a different way of dissecting a slice of "spam" up into many pieces with many different orientations and shapes, some of which are very small! Yet again, thank heavens I didn't up-end the tin! Phew! Have a look at my New Additions page to get a view of true horror!

2 Piece cube

Solved!

Earlier this year I was contacted by a new designer called Carsten Elsäßer from Germany who wanted to gift me a new design of his so that I could play with it and review it for him. At that time I had no real expectations of quality from him and was absolutely amazed when the Two Piece Cube arrived. Not only was it simply gorgeous, but it turned out to be a really clever puzzle with a nice Aha! moment. Then, when it came to the second and third challenges it revealed itself to be a truly elegant idea. I took this to the last Midlands Puzzle Party and a few people attempted it. What amazed me most was when the Puzzle solving machine that is Louis Coolen sat down and played with it. Of course he solved it! But he had a big smile on his face when he realised the nuances of what is required. Approval from Louis is a VERY big thing - he really appreciates elegance.

A gift out of the blue!

2 Piece Cube - Home made but very high quality

Just a quickie this weekend - unfortunately I have to work and won't have much time for writing a long review.

One of the things I love about the puzzle world is the people within it! They are always helpful and often go way beyond what one would expect to provide assistance or advice. I regularly am contacted by puzzlers for either advice or for help solving puzzles and do my best to provide what they need without giving too much away and spoiling a puzzle. I was completely surprised when I received an email from Germany, from a relatively new puzzler by the name of Carsten.

My first contact with him was about the Angel box combination plate code and must have been rather unsatisfactory for him because as far as I can tell the plates and codes were assigned randomly. After that we had no contact until earlier this month when he contacted me to inform me that he had designed a puzzle himself and would like to send me a copy. Why? because:

I would like to send you one of them as a little thank you for your great blog which helped me alot finding my way through the jungle of countless puzzles out there!

Aw shucks! Blush! This really filled me with emotion - I do this because I love to puzzle, I love to communicate and I love to help people. I never expect anything in return. I returned his offer saying that it was totally unnecessary but I did give him my home address and thought nothing more of it. Well at couple of weeks later a very big box arrived from Germany and I was completely mystified as my tiny memory had no recollection of anything being on its way. Finally it dawned on me what was inside and I was staggered at the quality of this "home made" puzzle.

I'm not clever enough for this technology

SMS Box from Mr Puzzle

I'm on call today and am desperately hoping not to be called in whilst I write this blog post - actually I'm hoping not to be called in at all as I am now officially too bloody old to be up all night! On to the puzzling mania....

It used to be that every year Brian Young (with the help of Junichi Yananose and, of course, Mrs Puzzle, Sue) produced a limited edition puzzle which over the years have slightly increased in number. For the last few years the pressure of producing a stunning high quality original puzzle of ever increasing complexity as well as all his usual work and also the commissions for the exchange at the IPP has meant that the schedule has slipped a bit and the limited editions have ended up every second year and often with a long waiting list. I have to say that with the incredible complexity of the last few I understand the delays completely. The puzzle addicts all over the world were waiting with baited breath to hear of the latest LE release after a couple of teaser emails and we were not disappointed when we were informed of the availability of the SMS Box sequential discovery puzzle on 24th June this year. The biggest surprise was that Brian and Juno had decided to produce 130 of these monsters so that pretty much everyone who wanted one would be able to get it and not be disappointed. The other surprise was the price - at $850US this is not for the fainthearted and only for the seriously addicted puzzler.

When the email went out that they were available I followed the link, drooled over the description, sat back in awe at the price and then, after a mere 10 second hesitation, clicked on the buy button. Brian and Sue are not out to fleece people - if a puzzle is this sort of price then it is because it is unbelievably complex and incredibly well made. My trust in the pair of them is implicit - if they are charging that amount of dosh then this puzzle was going to be worth that amount. If you are not sure then take a look at Allard's write up to see whether he agreed. Spoiler - he did!

The description on the site said:

How is it possible to receive an SMS with this old telephone? That is the goal of this puzzle.

To do this you will need to open more than one compartment in the SMS Box.  When you can read the SMS you'll know that you've solved the puzzle and found all the compartments.

All locks (and there's a lot of them!) in the puzzle are manipulated and solved with tools provided. Even though there are lots of magnets and springs you don't need to hit anything or use any external force. There are many tools provided to solve the many stages along the way and there is a tool for everything. No external items are required or allowed, so no raiding the office or kitchen drawers!

Unlike Katie Koala or the Opening Bat these tools are much more difficult to recognise and you'll notice at the end of solving you won't have anywhere near the same number of small pieces. The smallest piece that is removed from this puzzle is about the size of a micro sim card. Certainly there's no shortage of magnets, springs and other small moving parts inside the puzzle, it's just that they are not removable.

The puzzle has some deliberate booby traps built into it so even when you think you're on the right track you may have been going up the proverbial garden path. If you're into mapping puzzles another puzzling element will be to understand the booby traps themselves; a. To stay away from them and b. To work out how to get back out of them. When the first prototype was finished Brian and Juno looked at several aspects of the puzzle and decided they were ridiculously hard so they went to great lengths to make the solutions to different steps more straightforward and consequently more elegant.

Having read this, I (and all of you) should be warned - Brian said the tools are much more difficult to recognise and also that this time he had placed booby traps. He's not kidding - this is probably the toughest puzzle currently available in the world! The frightening thing is that having backed off the difficulty a bit from "ridiculously hard" he has still produced something that is simply OMG hard! I hope to God that he never really lets his imagination run riot as one day he may kill one of us!

Happy New Year - My top puzzles of 2017

Hi folks, it's that time of year again....time for me to show off the top puzzles of the year and if I can, I try to show the "state of the unioncollection". I do this in parallel with the top 3 post booklet that is produced by Peter Hajek to coincide with his end of the year puzzle party where puzzlers visit his house for a get together and they present their opinions for the top puzzles they have acquired in the preceding 12 months. Unfortunately I live just a bit too far away to get to Peter's to attend the party but I always look forward to participating by email and receiving the pdf of what puzzlers around the world have bought and consider their very best of the year.

My own particular post here, however, differs slightly from the rules sent out by Peter. He wants to know the best puzzles acquired whilst I insist that this post shows ONLY the puzzles that I have solved in the previous 12 months. It does not include fabulous puzzles that I have purchased but not managed to solve yet - I feel that until I have solved them I cannot possibly fully assess how much I enjoy them. For example the Popplock T10 is a truly amazing puzzle which will surely one day reach my top 10 but so far in more than a year I have been unable to solve it. This is also the reason why there is no Hales puzzle in my top puzzle list this year (I received 2 new ones from Shane after the IPP but so far have singularly failed to solve them!)

It was a great delight and honour to post yesterday that, with your amazing tolerance, I have reached over 1 million pageviews before the year is out. This has really helped motivate me to write this final blog post of 2017 - I hope that you have managed to get at least a few of these fabulous toys for your own collection (some are still available with links given) and if you have anything to say about my choices then do please leave a comment at the bottom of the post.

So without further ado here are my top puzzles of 2017:

Honourable mention

Die Doolhof - a hidden maze with packing puzzle inside

Numlock with stand and Quinary pieces

Each year when I go through my database and look at how I have scored my puzzles I realise that I have far far more highly ranked puzzles than I can fit into my top ten. I therefore have been forced to add a "pipped at the post" section for some truly wondrous puzzles that are almost there. This year I received quite a few from my friend Johan Heyns and 2 really stood out because of either their beauty or complexity. Numlock is a member of one of my favourite categories, the N-ary puzzles. Johan made it beautifully and added extra dimensions to the original - how could I possibly resist? Then he also made something similar to the puzzle that got it all started - Die Doolhof is a hidden maze like a Revomaze which as a bonus contains an extra packing puzzle. Being made of wonderful Olivewood it is truly gorgeous!

---

10) Crazy Comet and Flowercopter

Crazy Comet

Flowercopter

Yes, as usual I am cheating a bit! 10 puzzles is far too short a list for anyone (especially me). This has been a very good year for twisty puzzlers with quite a few new designs coming out and a good few of them being mass produced. I personally like twisty puzzles that add something new to the process with maybe an alternative way of looking at a puzzle or with something extra added to the solution of an existing easier one. The Crazy Comet (purchase here (UK) or here (USA)) looks really fearsome but it can be thought of as a rhombic dodecahedral shape modification of one of my all time favourites, the Curvy Copter. It adds an alternative view point and has just a little extra which shows up as an unexpected parity. This is wonderful and not impossibly difficult.

The Flowercopter (purchase here (UK)) is another fabulous new design that mixes (yet again) the Curvy Copter with something else...this time it is the Dino cube. It makes for a fabulously scrambling puzzle which again solves like both those puzzles but requiring an extra step or two. Even I, who am OK at twisties but certainly not anywhere near in the ranks of the brilliant solvers on the Twisty Puzzles forum, was able to work out what was required and produce my own fairly simple commutator for it. It is brilliant! I can see that I am going to run out of superlatives during this post!

9) Santa's Socks

Santa's Socks - aim to remove the shackle binding the 2 legs

Disentanglement puzzles seldom make it into peoples' top 10 but I adore this genre and I own dozens of them. The Santa's Socks was one of a batch of puzzles designed by the amazing Aaron Wang (many are available from the Felix Puzzle Company). He is one of the greatest disentanglement designers and solvers in the world and I always try to make sure that I get every single one of his designs when they come out. The Santa's Socks doesn't look like much but for me it had just the right amount of difficulty which was made perfect by the addition of the 2 tiny rings across the shackle. The Aha! moment is truly delicious! It is hand made and very nicely done and has a lovely amount of exploration and discovery. I left the reassembly for a while and then was stumped for quite some time.


8) Tronc Commun 3 and 4

Tronc Commun 3

Tronc Commun 4

No top 10 of mine could possibly be complete without something wonderful produced by the incredible Brian Menold. Over the last year or so he has begun to produce a number of puzzles that require rotations. At the beginning of 2017 I reviewed the Tronc Commun 4 and called it "probably the best turning puzzle ever" - it was simply amazing in it's solving strategy as well as the gorgeous woods used by Brian. A good friend of mine had told me that this puzzle would be good and when it arrived it beat my expectations. Then a few months later Brian produced the earlier Tronc Commun 3 and I had to have it partly to continue the set but also because Gregory Benedetti's designs are generally stupendous. The number 3 was just a shade less wonderful but I couldn't bear to keep it out of my top 10 - gratuitous wood photos always are welcome here!


7) Tortoise and Giegeldonk

Tortoise

Giegeldonk

2017 has been an absolutely incredible year for Jakub and Jaroslav's New Pelikan Workshop and I think I have bought every single puzzle they produced! The quality is stupendous and, like Brian above, they seem to choose some really interesting and challenging puzzles. It was no surprise to me that quite a number of their puzzles turned up in the top of my list and in the end I had to include 2 of them (it was nearly 4 or 5!) The Tortoise (available here)was one of several designs by a new man on the puzzle block, Alexander Haydon O'Brien. He seems to have the knack of producing very interesting shapes which also have rather ingenious solutions - some of the moves are very well hidden and can take quite a long time to discover. The Tortoise is not a particularly high level puzzle but it really took me quite a long time to dismantle. I also had to include the Giegeldonk (available here) is a design from the very prolific Klaas Jan Damstra. It is "just" another framed 6 piece burr but with a real twist to it! All the sticks are identical and it has a surprisingly high level solution. It kept me going for several days and despite being able to see easily inside it took quite a while to plan the escape of the first piece (and even several subsequent ones). Beautiful and fun - I am lucky to have a special version made by Jakub and Jaroslav for a few special friends.


6) Jerry's masterpieces (Burrnova and Pinhole grand cross)

Burrnova - this is AFTER the automatically solving part has done itself!

After so many years of communicating with Jerry McFarland I finally got to meet him at the IPP in Paris. He showed off his entry into the design competition (and winner of a Jury Honourable mention award) which I promptly purchased. The Burrnova must be the world's first self-solving burr puzzle (at least part way solved) - it has the absolutely characteristic look of a McFarland puzzle which is a wonderful thing and the sound made by the first 11 moves is something I keep doing just for giggles. Following that by a very well hidden sequence before removal of the first pieces makes this an absolutely unique puzzle - I love it!

At the same IPP I also picked up a puzzle that he had made called the Grand Pinhole Cross. Here I am cheating my rules a little - I have still not yet completed the full set of challenges yet (including the big cross) but I have made 4 or 5 of the challenges. This incredible Stewart Coffin design has been made like a Masterpiece here and I adore it! It is still sitting next to my armchair in the living room for me to take up the final 3 or 4 challenges. The attention to detail here is stunning!

Coffin's Pinhole Puzzle set (#20)

The 90º bend which caused me real difficulty

5) Sliding Tetris (hardcore edition)

Sliding Tetris (hardcore edition)

Amazing! My top 10 includes wire, twisties and now even a plastic puzzle! The Sliding Tetris (hardcore edition) is just too good not to appear here in my number 5 slot. Diniar Damdarian is well known as the King of the sliding piece puzzle - every year he has an entry into the IPP design competition with a new design which is often incredibly complex and often has a very high level solution. Usually these puzzles take the form of trays with sliding tiles. I have bought a number of these over the years and, whilst I enjoy the play, I am truly terrible at them and a number of the very difficult ones end up as random movement games for me. I just don't seem to have the skills to solve them systematically. This year he produced a 3D sliding piece puzzle with pieces that look like a Tetris piece. When I saw and played with the basic version at the IPP I found that I really enjoyed it and learned to plan my approach. A month or so afterwards, Diniar contacted me offering a greatly enhanced version of the one in the competition. How could I possibly say no? So many challenges and so beautifully made! Moving the ball through an ever changing maze towards the exit hole is surprisingly difficult and mesmerizingly enjoyable! Definitely worthy of a prize here. You can contact Diniar if you would like a copy for yourself


4) The Louvre

The Louvre

The Louvre was the 2017 sequential discovery release from the amazing Brian Young - made to coincide with the IPP in Paris. This puzzle has several steps and, like most previous designs is beautifully made from wood and several other metal parts (Brian has so much skill!) The aim is to open the gallery and find the French flag and pole as well as the missing Mona Lisa. This puzzle kicked my butt for a very long time. The mechanism is totally ingenious and requires a very "fingers out" approach. Yes, make sure that you obey Ali's instructions and "Don't put you finger in it"! Sequential discovery puzzles are my favourite genre of all and they are very difficult to design and make. This is really wonderful and is still available to buy here.


3) 3x3 Mixup Ultimate

3x3 Mixup Ultimate

A scrambled nightmare?

I couldn't resist having a twisty puzzle in my top 3 - especially if it is as good as the 3x3 Mixup Ultimate (purchase here (UK) or here (USA)). This wonderful twisty puzzle was designed Guan Yang and mass-produced by LimCubes. The basic premise is that of Oskar's mixup cube but instead of enabling 45º equatorial turns, it allows 30º turns and mixing up of centres and segments of edges into an unholy mess. It is particularly special because it adds something to a standard 3x3 that can be solved by anyone who can solve that with some additional intuitive logic and thought. There's also a fabulous parity! I am not a huge fan of massively complicated twisty puzzles - I want a puzzle that is based on something I know but forces me to think© a little more and advance my knowledge and skills further. This puzzle is absolutely perfect for that. If you are a twisty puzzler, this and the other 2 I have listed here are essential purchases for solving and collecting.


2) The Pirate's casket

The Pirate's Casket

Just last week I reviewed this! It was one of the last puzzles I received this year and smashed it straight into my number 2 slot (to be honest, it was difficult to decide between the top 2 - I nearly went for both puzzles in joint top position but that is avoiding making a decision). Designed and manufactured by the incredibly talented Carsten Elsäßer, this is a sequential discovery puzzle plus follow on information challenge. I am always amazed that some puzzle designers send me their puzzles for review and this one was one of the best of the year. With 3D printing in plastic and metal as well as judicious use of magnets this puzzle was something totally new and very exciting for me just before Xmas - it is stunning and only just beaten into second place. Everything that Carsten has ever made has been amazing and I cannot wait to show this one off at the next MPP. Thank you my friend you deserve your slot here!


1) Revenge Lock aka The Wanderer

The Revenge Lock aka The wanderer

Yet again one of Wil's amazing designs makes my top puzzle of the year. The Revenge Lock has been beautifully manufactured and is a wonderful voyage of dexterity, discovery and logic with multiple challenges for the unwary puzzler that has been beautifully thought out. How can anyone resist a puzzle that comes with a set of instructions/challenges like this:

"First Part:
1 - Discover your Number
2 - Open the Shackle
3 - Remove the Brass Key
4 - Find the Tiny Wanderer 

Second Part:
5 - Replace the Wanderer - Brass Key - Shackle
6 - Put the Lock back in the Frame.
7 - Fix the Lock back into the Frame. 

No Magnets - No Banging - No force needed - Spring-loaded
     Take care of the "Spring" and the "Wanderer"."

Even having done the first part and disassembled it, I left the reassembly too long and it subsequently proved to be a massive challenge for me which took me several weeks to resolve. I still enjoy opening and closing this one and admiring the manufacturing perfection as well as the beautiful sequence of moves required.

Thank you Wil!  It is one of the best puzzles in my collection.

Happy New Year - My best puzzles from 2015

Happy New Year to all my readers - may it be a happy, healthy and successful year for you all!

Yet again, my study was in a huge state of disarray and I was forced to tidy it up last weekend and can now provide photos of the state of the study! When she who frightens me to death shouts at me again, I will try to tidy up the rest and take some more pics to show off. Here are the ones in my study for your perusal: (edited - she saw the nice tidy study and forced me to clean up the dining room and living room piles too - pictures added)

Above the computer we have some of my most prized possessions:

Ooh! Shiny shiny! And gorgeous wood!

To the left is my display of N-ary puzzles, Eyckmans specials, Fuller loveliness, Menold gorgeousness as well as Vinco's and Young! There are so many from Eric and Brian that they are getting intermingled!

Notice the bat in a privileged position 

To the right of my desk are hand made twisties as well as puzzle books and Interlocking puzzles from Bernhard (and a few others) Packed VERY tightly!

Katie watches my every move!

Finally in the study on display are my Pelikan lovelies and the incredible work (most of it) from Stephan Baumegger. Some are on display in the living room and dining room!

How much more wood can a man take?

Since I published this post at midnight she made me tidy up more and here are the results:

Larger and special puzzles in the dining room:

Stickmen, Hales puzzles, Heyns Puzzles, Burrsets, and a monster from Bill Cutler

On a lamp table are some gorgeous but smaller toys that Mrs S seems to approve of:

Specials from Brian Menold, Scott Peterson puzzles, KCubes and a beauty from Jakub

 Finally on a basket on the floor are my special burrs that meet "her" approval:

Fuller Burrs, Baumegger special 6 piece burrs and Arteludes beauties

For the last few years on New Years Day I have been posting a summary of my favourite puzzles that I solved in the preceding year. This always coincides with the emailed vote that Peter Hajek takes of the puzzle world for his End of year Puzzle Party (EPP) and publishes shortly after. However there is a major difference between the result that Peter seeks to mine - he asks for the top 3 puzzles that a collector has acquired in the previous 12 months and for me I only include the top puzzles that I have solved in that time. I use a combination of my database and my photo gallery to work out which ones were solved when. It is a lovely excuse to peruse back and drool over all the gorgeous toys I have played with.