In the Interim.....

Turn the Plug

This week has also been another rather busy one for me and not helped by the fact that Mrs S went gallivanting back up to Edinburgh to visit her family for a good few days. Now whilst this has decreased the risk of a Whack! Ouch! it has also meant that I have been left a list of chores and some DIY to do. It also means that the usual household stuff that she takes care of is left for me. This has left me rather short of puzzling time.

But in the interim I received something from Shane which I just could not resist! This is the Turn the Plug puzzle and is one of what he calls his interval puzzles i.e. they fill the gap between his major creations and in his words are not intended to be taken seriously and are just a bit of fun. I had heard about this one a while ago but never actually seen one in the flesh/wood before. It's a pretty hefty thing and for "just a bit of fun" it is beautifully finished. Apparently Shane has been chatting to a number of master craftsmen recently and been gaining knowledge about how to finish wooden puzzles. This particular puzzle has his old method and is stunning - Lord knows how beautiful things will be when he tries a new improved method! I am sure that Mrs S will not want this particular puzzle on show because of it's rather unusual hardware but it will HAVE to go on the sideboard in the dining room along with my now embarrassingly extensive Hales collection.

The Pentagon - Hales Puzzle Number 4

Four Hales Puzzles - each very different

Earlier this week I left you all in suspense having announced the arrival of Shane’s 4th puzzle, the Pentagon. The letter that came with it informed me that this was a prop, a themed puzzle. It would appear that there had been an explosive device which needed to be defused. Shane declared that he himself had defused the timer but there were other parts including an electronic and a magnetic fuse that needed to be deactivated before the device could be fully opened and the contents revealed. Finally the code within needed to be sent back to Hales Puzzles HQ.

I left you with a picture of the special case that the device was sent in. Obviously Royal Mail could not be entrusted entirely with safe delivery of an explosive wrapped in bubble wrap (as most puzzles seem to) - this required a special case! All very exciting and my first task was to open the case to get to the device/puzzle itself. Undo the clips on each side…. easy! But the lock held it firmly shut and now the chase was on! How to open it? Was the lock a fake? Was there another way in? Be observant is the watchword here! It took me an embarrassingly long time to find a tool. It looked helpful but proved impossible to use - hmmm! Embarrassingly, after an even longer time period, I finally used my observational skills elsewhere, followed some rather subtle instructions and eventually I had a tool that I could use. The case was open:

It took me quite some time to reach this point! I've barely started!

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.

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.

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........

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

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!

Gifts Provide a Real Challenge

Laurie's Three Piece Block Puzzle

Last week Allard reviewed this puzzle from Shane and I was soo soo pleased that he had also struggled with it! I saw the first person to solve it was Oli on his Puzzle Paradox FB page. It looked like he had had it for only a few hours and had managed to solve it straight away! I wasn't terribly surprised because he is a bit good at puzzling (certainly a lot better than me) but I was quite surprised that when I opened my own delivery box the same day, I couldn't even begin to repeat the feat - the first step eluded me!

Yet again, as agent 001, I was very grateful to be in receipt of one of Shane's masterpieces. It is very different from his usual work but as is usual with Shane, he was very self deprecating about the quality. There is a very good reason for his feelings about that....he compares himself to Lee Krasnow, Eric Fuller, Jakub Dvořák, Brian Menold, Brian Young and Scott Peterson! Pretty much every wood craftsman in the world looks bad next to them - these guys produce the best work most of us have ever seen and Shane doesn't stand a chance at producing stuff like that straight away at his first attempt at an interlocking solid puzzle. He knows what is required but freely states that he hasn't got time or the inclination to do that and I don't blame him. For me this puzzle is still absolutely lovely and made to fine enough tolerances that it is fun to play with and looks great on the shelf.

The puzzle is a classic from the devious design mind of Stewart Coffin and has long been the favourite of a great puzzle friend to us all, Laurie Brokenshire (one of the greatest puzzle solvers the world has ever seen). Shane wanted to make something special for Laurie but of course add his own Hales magic which of course has to be a locking mechanism of some sort - yes he looped the pieces on a chain and padlock!

When Ali Says Don't put Your Finger In It.....

Just DON'T!!!!!

The Louvre from Brian Young

I stuck my finger in here too!

I have had this puzzle for a few months now and have been stuck for a rather embarrassingly long time. The reason for being stuck? I didn't do what Ali told me! I have already learned that occasionally sticking my finger in a puzzle can cause pain - I still vividly recall what happened when I tried to solve the Viper puzzle made by the amazing Shane Hales. With the Viper it caused physical pain and really made me jump (embarrassingly many times). With Brian Young's latest sequential discovery masterpiece, putting your finger in it will cause mental anguish instead. My advice is to BUY IT! Then follow Ali's advice and stick no digits inside—only stick your brain in it....figuratively. Who is Ali? and why should you take his advice? I have known Ali since the beginning of my puzzling fetish, he was one of the revomaze support forum torturers who kept me going on the revomazes and provided just enough encouragement to get me through them. He's a big bloke (although not as big as BIG Steve) who runs a team of guys undertaking major building works in London. Generally people do what he says because he knows his stuff and if they don't they usually come to regret it. He is also one of the best puzzlers in the world - very few puzzles stump him for long! So with those words said you can imagine how sorry for myself I have been feeling having not taken his sage advice!

I bought The Louvre puzzle at the MPP before heading off to Paris for the IPP in August. I cannot resist sequential discovery puzzles and no matter how much they have cost, I have never baulked at the price and never regretted it. At AU$130 ($102 US) this puzzle is a bargain. The story is that you need to find and use tools to allow the lost Mona Lisa to be found and the French flag raised to full mast.

Instructions - no "undue" force but hitting is allowed.

It is made from Papua New Guinean Rosewood with lovely honey brown tones and inside there are many machined brass parts and some small magnets. It is a nice size and weight—145 x 45 x 65mm in size. With the laser engraved front face really does look like the front façade of the Louvre:

The Louvre looks just like the puzzle! Amazing!
Photo courtesy of Jean-Pierre Dalbéra on Wikimedia

I did not get much time to play until after returning from IPP. I do distinctly recall Ali telling me that putting a finger in the puzzle was a distinctly bad idea but in my stupidity I ignored his advice. There are several locks here which need to be opened. Initially there is only a single mm of play in the sliding door in the base and it is locked very tight with absolutely nothing happening as I do all the usual tapping, spinning, blowing and submerging in gin. Eventually after about a ½ hour the first lock succumbed and I had a whole cm visible inside. AHA!!! The flag was there but no way to get to it. I opened and closed and locked and unlocked that cm several times without really understanding how (that will come back to haunt me later). Rule number one with Brian's puzzles are to use your eyes and rule two is to use your brain.....here is where I have problems! Eventually I remembered to use my eyes and noticing something through a little hole I was able to open the door further and retrieve the first tool. This also gave me the flag but only after another 10 minutes before I remembered to use my eyes again.

At this point quite a lot of the mechanism inside is visible but this does not make it obvious what to do. The next step, to my shame, took me several more days to work out and I had made my next discovery. Here is where it all went horribly wrong. You see it's all so inviting inside! There are several thingummyjigs that you want to play with and see what they will do. In my excitement I forgot Ali's excellent advice and I put my finger in! It didn't help me at all! Nothing would move or happen and here I remained......for 2 months! Sob! I am not terribly bright! Downright dim according to "She who frightens the Bejeeezus out of me".

When I finally recalled the words "don't put your finger inside" and realised that I had committed a cardinal sin, I took a proper look inside.....with decent light.....and my reading glasses on! Yes not only am I rather stupid but I am also getting old and my close up vision is rapidly worsening. I need reading glasses for the fine work I do in the hospital (I had noticed that putting in cannulae and threading arterial and central lines over wires was getting harder as I needed longer and longer arms). Having donned my reading glasses I noticed something absolutely critical inside and could not utilise my finding at all. NOTHING would work - I even resorted to poking with things other than my finger but nope! Nada! After a panicked email to Brian and Sue, I had to wait a bit because they were still travelling around Europe. After a month (ish) I was able to communicate properly and receive their wise advice.

YES! By not following Ali's instructions I had completely buggered my chance of solving it in the normal accepted fashion. I actually did more or less understand what was required (although not why it was) but physically couldn't do it. I actually worried that it would need to go back to Oz. Luckily, Brian sent me a photo of a tool I could make to overcome the stupidity. A large hospital paperclip was duly unfurled and bent to a nice shape and with just a little bit of manipulation in the appropriate direction I had undone the finger damage. Just 15 minutes later I was the hero of France:

Flag unfurled and a rather large Mona Lisa recovered

Of course that is not the whole puzzle. Having saved a major work of art it was important to put her (and everything else) back inside. Most of this I was able to do having finally understood the last locking mechanism properly. BUT remember that I had not really understood the initial lock? Yet again I was stumped for a bit. I knew where everything went but having placed the pieces, the sliding door wouldn't close completely. I am ashamed to admit that it took me another ½ hour before I remembered to put my blasted reading glasses on and peer inside. Another AHA! At last I understood the whole puzzle and it was all set back to the beginning. I can now do the whole thing from beginning to end in just a few minutes but that first time must have taken me many many hours!

It's a genius piece of work by Brian and with all those steps, it is well worth your investment. Just remember to ALWAYS pay attention to Ali:

DO NOT PUT YOUR FINGER IN IT!

Locking Heaven or Locking Hell?

Mind the gap.

Just a quick blog post today - I am working yet again and don't have much time to solve and write, I'm afraid. Thanks to Mike last week, I did at least have some time off from the pressure of writing whilst I have to work so much.

I can now say that Andrew Coles produces VERY nice puzzles! That will be plural. I really loved his Lock Out puzzle back in August 2020 (it was a very welcome relief from the pandemic and definitely made me feel much better having had the virus and felt absolutely awful for a month in the early summer). We have all been waiting to see what he came up with as a follow up and he has certainly done something quite wonderful here. He has used a very "non-standard" padlock (certainly not one I have ever seen before) and modified it so that it doesn't open properly until you do something to make it open properly. It is not available for general sale yet but will be coming soon - a bunch of previous customers and friends got a chance to buy it a little early and I am very grateful for that opportunity. Andrew describes this puzzle as one of medium difficulty and I would agree with that. Maybe even a simple puzzle as a numbskull like me solved it in about 20 minutes. This does not detract from the pleasure - it is a very nice mechanism which has been beautifully made. If you collect locks or metal puzzles then you HAVE to buy it. 

Mind that gap!

It is a fully brass lock with the exception of a screw in the top (obviously a modification from Andrew) and the steel keys. It didn't occur to me straight away but the routed ring in the shackle is also a modification (surely Abus would not deliberately weaken a metal shackle?) and the routing work gives you something to think about. Of course, you have to do it even if you know it won't work! Put the damn keys in the lock and turn them... I got a fright - it went click and the shackle moved quite a bit.

Nope the lock didn't open - it just moved a bit and made a gap. Remember that you have to "mind the gap". Absolutely would not go any further. Now what? Time to have a look at what you have and think©. I thunk for a bit and my simple mind sort of said to me..."what if I???" Ooooh that's interesting! Now what?

The gap is minded!

I cannot give anything away but after the "what if I???" moment, there is a very nice Aha! moment and then another one of those maybe I should try ??? ideas will occur to you. It is all quite logical and before long you will have a proper gap and a little satisfied grin on your face. Mr Coles has engineered something very clever and quite logical. I dropped him a message with a photo of my open puzzle and my appreciation of his mastery. I knew it would be good - Shane Hales is an expert on locks and lock puzzles and he said this had a mechanism that he had not thought of before and that it was a good puzzle. I trust Shane implicitly and I handed over my money as a result - let's just say...he was right yet again! When it comes up for sale - you won't be disappointed.

Loki - a devil of a lock!

Next I go to hell with Loki from the incredible Boaz Feldman. I have played with this every evening for over a month now and I am convinced that Boaz sent me a broken one! I am not the only one - my friend Neil (an incredible puzzler) has also singularly failed to open his copy. Now, you must know that I am joking about broken puzzles - Boaz' engineering skills are superb (this can be seen when you see the solution to the original B-Lock (available here and here) and the Danlock which Boaz is now making (also available here)). What we have here is a master at making trick locks producing something that is too difficult for a simple medical practitioner like me to figure out. 

Key turned and removed.

As usual, yet again, you put the key in the lock and sometimes the key turns and sometimes it doesn't. When it does turn, the shackle moves a bit which gets your hopes up and then it stops with not a hint of a gap there. Sigh. So you turn the key back again to "lock" it and sometimes it turns back and sometimes it doesn't. Boaz has definitely broken this lock rather badly!

After inspecting the puzzle for any other signs of things I can do, I run out of ideas rather quickly so it's back to turning the key. I noticed that when the key is turned the shackle won't open and the key won't come out again...except if you do something special then the key will come out. That is very interesting and has gotten me absolutely nowhere! What else can I do? I have no idea! I am a simple man - I sort of think that you put a key in a lock and you turn it and you expect something to happen (usually it opens) but here sometimes something happens and sometimes it doesn't and I think I can make it do all of those things at will whenever I want them happen. 

That is unexpected!

I spent a happy few evenings doing the same things over and over and over again getting nowhere when I suddenly found that there is a way to turn the key in the lock, still remove the key but then be unable to reinsert the key more than a few millimeters. That is very interesting and...so far completely useless!

I am certain there is more to this than I have found so far but just like with the B-Lock, it will require very close examination and thought - this could take me years! Loki is a the name of a norse god and is supposed to be a trickster or little devil and so far over a month he has lifted me up a little bit and taken me to hell. I have absolutely no idea what to try next and am reduced to doing the same things over and over again in the vain hope that something different might happen one time. 

If you want a challenge then you should definitely buy one (at the moment they are only available direct from Boaz' site). They may be available from PuzzleMaster or other vendors in the future.

I must be locking crazy!

Haleslock 1 with instructions

An extra post today just to show off something that arrived from my buddy Shane. I have known for ages that Shane has been working on another lock - this is the Haleslock 1 and is the first puzzle that Shane has produced for sale. He made a "big bunch" (don't ask how many) and let puzzlers know by email. We all did him proud as the whole lot all sold out in just a few hours - this shows just how sought after his work is. There will still be a few available from a number of other puzzle lock outlets/sellers but I am not sure when this will be as he still has to put them together.

For some strange reason Shane keeps insisting on sending me puzzle number 01 of whatever comes out and I am hugely grateful to him.

Lock number 01

So far I have done a little exploring and noticed the "obvious" features and had a play. Unlike Shane, who has been a professional locksmith, I have very little idea of the details of how locks work and suspect that this will keep me stumped for quite some time! With all of Shane's puzzles the "rules" are that they can never be sold on - if a puzzler no longer wants one then it should be returned to him (like a puzzle loan) but with this series he has relaxed the rules. These can be sold on but Shane would like to keep track of where they are and so he should be notified when they are sold and who to. Good luck getting one - there are not many and they went to select puzzlers around the world so I doubt many will be resold any time soon.

I have already received a couple of the interval puzzles - including his fantastic "Imitation" puzzle lock based on a design by Marcel Gillen and marvelled at the workmanship that went into making something like that at home. From the pictures it looks like an ordinary padlock but just like the Gillen lock there is a distinct knack to opening it.

Looks just like a simple lock!

Took a fair while to open

I think Shane must be taunting me because he knows that I have still not managed to open the Popplock that I received a couple of weeks ago at the MPP. It does all sorts of strange things but I still cannot open the damned thing! I'm just not very bright.

The other Hales interval puzzle that I have and which sits in my dining room looking lovely with all the other wooden beauties is the Wirecutter. This was reviewed by Allard here and is based on a very clever physical principal. In a slightly simpler form, it is used to embarrass apprentice joiners and I have to say that it took me a good hour to work out what was going on and be confident enough to do what was required. Of course Shane would not have left it as the basic version - he added something to make it a little tougher and it had me stumped. The initials are  proudly displayed!

Wire cutter

Thanks for everything mate - you have once again done the puzzle world a great service!

Shane's Greatest Achievement Yet?

There is something top secret in here

Many times over the last few years I have gushed over the creations of a good friend of mine - Mr Shane Hales is a Master Craftsman and has a certificate or two from the Institute Of Carpenters to prove it, he is also a Master of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters and a Master of the Worshipful Company of Joiners & Ceilers as well as The City & Guilds of London Institute too - in fact this young man has as many qualifications and letters after his name as me!

His puzzles so far include:

1. The Block (reviewed here, here & here)
2. The Circle (reviewed here & here)
3. The parallelogram (reviewed here & here)

Each puzzle has got better and better and he promised me some time ago that the next in the series, The Pentagon (he has a shape fetish) would be the best yet. Today, I picked up a package from the post office and was rather shocked at the sheer size and weight of it!

Both cats could fit in this!

Opening it up as soon as I got home was a delight! It was beautifully wrapped and there was a surprise waiting inside - a locked metal case and an envelope with instructions:

Real attention to detail!

This is a sequential discovery puzzle with a set of instructions and tools to be found! Fantastic! Lord knows where I will be keeping this - it is HUGE. The instructions are particularly exciting:

Awesome!

To find out a bit more about Shane and his puzzles - he has a website here. Don't try and wheedle a puzzle out of him - he ONLY makes them for friends and people who have helped him in his puzzling journey - he will not make them for sale and his terms and conditions state that these puzzles, once given away, cannot EVER be sold or given to someone else! They are personal gifts to the recipient and not for redistribution.

I am eternally grateful to Shane that I am the only person other than the man himself to have all 4 of his productions (I have the serial number 001). They all take pride of place in my living room.

Now when I have finished my paperwork.... it's puzzling time!

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)

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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