Fantastic Five - A Fantastic Puzzle!

Fantastic Five

Getting to the end of my Puzzle Master hoard now, I decided to play with another disentanglement. I am completely addicted to them - they appear so simple and yet can be tremendously complex. They are also, by and large, relatively cheap. The best think I find about them is that the Aha! moment which we all crave so much is very prominent with them - sometimes a puzzle is solved by accident but this makes that final understanding all the more fantastic when it finally arrives. My addiction/habit/hobby has led me to order another batch of them from Tomas Linden at Sloyd where he seems to have a rather huge selection so expect another load of reviews of affordable puzzles to come your way.

Livewire version

I am now going to exhibit the depths of my dementia!! I ordered the Fantastic Five thinking that a level 9 (on their 5-10 difficulty scale) is pretty difficult for a disentanglement that doesn't involve string. I had no real recollection that I had already bought a version of this (called the Pentangle) from Livewire puzzles and reviewed it here. In my defence, I have bought an AWFUL LOT of puzzles since then and it was nearly 4 years ago. In fact, I frequently wake up in the morning and there is a strange woman lying next to me! I have no idea who she is but she claims that we are married! Would I have been that silly? OUCH! There goes another bruise!

The Ball and Chain is Going to Cause Much Pain!

Wil's exchange puzzle

They say that "absence makes the heart grow fonder" and it is true....but ONLY up to a point. The current "ball and chain" skipped up to Edinburgh to visit her parents and left me alone for a few days. Now normally this would be an excuse for me to veg out, play with my toys, drink loads and loads of red wine and gin (No! Not mixed together!) and generally be a slob. But unfortunately, I had had so much to drink the previous weekend at the gin festival and then the following few days as an organiser and attendee at a major medical conference (VASGBI annual scientific meeting) seemed to include a fair bit of booze too. So when Mrs S left, I decided I had better give my liver a rest - I really don't want to have to carry it around in a wheelbarrow! Luckily for me I had a series of deliveries whilst she was away that involved her least favourite of my toys - yes there were a good few disentanglement puzzles and you know that if I jingle I automatically earn a Whack! Ouch! Or a burn from the laser burning stare! So last night whilst sitting companionably together watching the last night of the proms on TV I started to make some annoying noises and the fondness that had accumulated immediately vanished and pain ensued! Sigh!

Bastard evil puzzle!

I would like to say that the "wife induced" pain is the main reason that I have singularly failed to solve Allard's evil puzzle but I can't really blame "her" entirely! I have sort of worked out what is required and my friend George Bell has confirmed my thoughts (remember to go and buy a copy of his exchange puzzle here if you missed it last week) but for the life of me I cannot seem to get the pieces into the correct position to allow the first critical move to be done! My eternal shame is compounded even more having just had an email from Shane showing his copy in pieces - he confesses that he is rubbish at these and so I (who am supposed to be moderately experienced) am feeling rather ashamed of myself! I will continue to blame Mrs S so as not to destroy my self image. Whack! Ouch! Ooh! Sorry dear!

At the top of this post is a recent purchase from the latest update courtesy of Wil Strijbos. As soon as I saw it I knew that I just HAD to have a copy. First it is a disentanglement, second it has multiple challenges and third it is just beautifully made and has a reset mechanism (which is just as well). It has the look of a Jean Claude Constantin production and was given away at the Ottawa IPP by Wil as his exchange puzzle. It comes with a leaflet displaying 10 possible challenges and says that more are possible:

Drool! Lots of puzzles in one!

The reset mechanism is by pulling the pin out of one of the balls and releasing the string. It arrived in the position for challenge 7 (which is the Ottawa exchange puzzle) but I decided to start at an easier one - namely number 1 (the top photo is actually that configuration). I have spent 3 days playing with this damned thing and have managed to dismantle it twice and still have absolutely no clue how I managed it! I have had to use the reset mechanism to put it back to the beginning each time because having taken it apart I couldn't even reverse the process. The actual shapes of the pieces are not complex and the string is not long so getting knotted up is not a problem. This puzzle should not be as hard as it is but I have found that (like Allard's puzzle) the crucial moves that I want to take are blocked by the narrowness of the metal U. Last night having received pain for Allard's puzzle, I quickly moved onto this one and even with wooden parts it still was noisy enough to earn me another Whack! Ouch! Lord! I'm covered in bruises! Can you imagine what state I will be in by the time I have solved Allard's puzzle AND all 10 challenges? I have to say that this is an absolutely BRILLIANT design - if disentanglements are your thing then get one NOW!

Livewire puzzles part 11 and helping a hero

Roller Coaster

Incredible! An 11th post devoted to just one puzzle type and manufacturer. In January I began to update my Livewire puzzles sojourn with a look at the most recent ones added to their site. I am very sad to see that they have discontinued several of my absolute favourites from my previous posts. They have a huge range and some are absolute blinders! Have a look here for some of the older puzzles.

So the next one in the series that I picked up was the Roller Coaster - this is the very latest addition to their catalogue and I was very lucky to be offered the chance to buy it before it actually came on the market. It has a striking similarity to the Ringleader that I reviewed last time, with the big beautiful spiral. This spiral really complicates the solving process and gives you the dreaded opportunity to not only tie the string in knots but also to have it wound around and around the spiral. Livewire have rated this one as "Very Difficult" and hell yeah! it certainly is.

Livewire puzzles part 3

The odyssey continues! I proceed in ploughing through the disentanglement puzzles from Livewire. This quartet is also in the easy/medium section.

Equalizer

First up is the Equalizer - this is a terrific looking puzzle, shaped like a man. There is a handle on his foot. This was the first one to really challenge me. It took me about 20 minutes to take the puzzle apart and another 20 minutes to put it back together again (although I was cooking a meal at the same time!!). When I tried to repeat the process, I found that I couldn't do it and it took even longer the second time around, much to my wife's annoyance (she complained about the clink clink clink noise whilst we were watching TV)! I have now done it in 3 different ways - the first two being far more complex than necessary. I gave this to a couple of friends to try out - one has been tortured by me fairly regularly and she really struggled with this one taking 20 minutes or so and then could not get it back together. Another newbie to entanglement puzzles failed completely. Whilst this is actually a relatively straightforward puzzle in terms of what is required, the huge complexity of the pieces makes spotting the pathway very tough. This is a great puzzle and having challenged me properly is my favourite so far - buy it for looks and the challenge! Not for newbies!!!

Livewire puzzles part 2

In this next instalment I complete the level 6 (easy) puzzles and start out on the slightly harder (level 7) ones from Livewire puzzles.

Grand Prix

The last of the level 6 puzzles is the Grand Prix. There are 2 pieces locked together and a ring intertwined with them. I managed to remove the ring in about 30 seconds and was quite disappointed initially. But, like many puzzles the real challenge came in the re-assembly - I thought I remembered the pathway and calmly fed the ring back on, wound it back through the puzzle and my jaw dropped when it just fell straight off the other side! Only after investigating much more closely did I discover the secret and this time it all went smoothly. Repeatability is good because the trick is rather counterintuitive! It is quite a nice movement.

The Last Batch of Livewire Puzzles (#9)

Pine Tree

This is blog post number 9 detailing my adventures with the puzzles from Livewire in Canada!!! These last 4 are supposed to be the most difficult they have on their site (all level 10). I start with the Pine Tree puzzle. This is another member of the ladder ring group of puzzles and is very old in it's design. The originals came from China and were shaped like a Pagoda. These come from Canada and hence are shaped like the national tree!!!

Livewire puzzles part 5

Mousetrap

Continuing my trek through the entire series of puzzles from Livewire. The remaining level 8 puzzle mostly involve string and seeing that these confuse and frighten me, I decided to next attempt the only one with all wire parts! This is the Mousetrap - a cute puzzle in the shape of a cat with the aim being to remove the folding tail hanging from the bottom. The Livewire site states:
"Solving Mousetrap over and over again remains fun and challenging."

I did struggle for a short while to disentangle this one. It is fairly straight-forward to move the tail off the body of the cat and onto the head portion, the difficulty comes when working out how to extract the tail from the body. Reversing the process is also particularly difficult because the challenging part is not the exit point, it is halfway through puzzle when you are not really trying to memorise it. The statement about it remaining challenging to repeat over and over again is true. I have done it many times now and always struggle to work out the exact position for the extraction. Another excellent puzzle in the line up.

Livewire puzzles part 7

Slingshot

Yes yet another disentanglement puzzle review! Livewire have a massive selection and I have the lot so there will be a lot of reviews and so far only one has disappointed me (see my previous group of reviews). Continuing with my remaining level 10 puzzles I decided to brave another string puzzle, the Slingshot - named for it's similarity to a catapult. I chose this one next mainly because the description said:
"The beauty of Slingshot is that, unlike most string puzzles, it does not tend to tie up in knots. This is a real bonus, especially when more than one person is working on it at one time.
Having spent quite some time in knots with the last ones and even having to actually dismantle them I welcomed a chance to puzzle without fear!!!

The aim here is to remove the large metal ring and after a short while of fiddling about I had worked out where the exit point had to be (there can only be 2!) but each time I tried it the ring came close but got a single loop of string around it preventing release. I put it down for a few minutes to think when I had a brainwave (not bad for a bear of little brain!) and within another minute the ring was in my hand and my friend who was watching me dropped his jaw!!! Unlike other puzzles from Livewire I actually remembered what I had done and apart a momentary confusion even managed to reassemble it in a short time too. The whole thing took me about 20 minutes. I have been contacted by the original designer of this puzzle (Ton Delsing). He designed this in 1982 and on his site he claims it is "easy" - apparently he has designed some variants which are much harder; I may just have to get hold of these to pit my meagre skills against.

This puzzle relies on a rather clever little idea rather than a massively complex set of moves and thus, I found it more enjoyable than the last few I tried. I am not sure it should be level 10 (probably a level 9). The aha moment was much more evident requiring a flash of inspiration rather than a brute force approach of trying lots of different possible movements.

I have given this to a few friends (none of whom have come close to solving it) and the newbie got absolutely nowhere whilst the more practiced ones got close but so far have failed to make the sudden jump of discovery for the final step. Update since my initial write-up - 1 friend whom I have been torturing for months has managed to do this with only a very tiny nudge in the right direction - I was very impressed!
My advice? If you want just one level 10 to try and also to hand around to friends then this is a really good one.

Quadrangle

This puzzle continues my level 10 expedition and I chose it because I needed a rest from the very grueling string puzzles. This one is a very simple construction of 4 sides and a ring which needs to be removed. I was very slightly disappointed to see that the plating of the metal was not quite as well done as the rest of the puzzles I have received - I hope that mine was just a one-off. The puzzle quite similar to the Pentangle puzzle which I absolutely loved. Because of the simpler construction I would have thought it would be easier to solve but the website and my subsequent experience revealed that it is quite alot tougher.

Everyone I have given this to has failed to solve this - including someone who seen the Pentangle solution! They all quickly realised that the ring could only come from one of two possible places but no-one was able to set it up to get the ring to the correct place. Everyone ends up going round and round the contraption without any sense of progress. Despite having solved Pentangle fairly recently and thus being fairly certain of the general approach, I struggled to find the exact set of moves required. It appears that the moves required need to be very precise to fit and if not exactly lined up it will not work. I did eventually get it done after about 30-45 minutes. This is a very good puzzle and well worth purchasing - I think Pentangle is more fun and the solution more unexpected.

Chinese Rings

The Chinese Ring Puzzle is next - this is a classic puzzle going back many years, in fact it is believed to be one of the oldest puzzles known, dating back to China over 2000 years ago. The website states that:
"We believe that what makes it so popular is that it cleverly combines both logic and creative thinking. Solving this puzzle is not a simple matter. Many of our customers have reported that after many weeks of working on the puzzle, they felt no closer to the solution than when they started."

This is certainly a very complicated construction with multiple pieces intertwined. It looks initially as if it won't be too bad when the first two bits just fall off. Unfortunately it rapidly gets very difficult. I had seen something like this before somewhere so was aware of the binary maths phenomenon that is required to solve this. It is a real nightmare of moves - it must be about 70 moves to complete this and I found that I kept getting lost and winding back toward the beginning before realising and starting all over again! Overall it tool me about 45 minutes to take it apart and (oddly, seeing as it is the exact reverse) only 5 minutes to return it to one piece. I have let a couple o others loose on it - the newbie got all excited as the first rings fell off and then hot hopelessly stuck. The other more experienced person did work out the approach but after about 45 minutes were only about half way through!

This puzzle is a classic so should be in everyone's collection but I feel is less fun than the others it is just plain gruelling!

Squaring Off

Finally for this set of four is the Squaring Off puzzle. This is a classic which was originally published in "Creative Puzzles of The World" by Peter van Delft and Jack Botermans. If you live in the UK and want a copy of this tough puzzle then a version can be bought from Puzzleguru in the Professor Puzzle boxed wire series - they call it the Gridlock. Their version is also very well made.

Squaring Off looks like a fairly simple construction compared to a lot of the other level 10 puzzles. It is a spiral with only 4 blocking rings on it. It initially gives the impression that it should be solved in a simlar logical progression, rather like the Chinese Rings and having only four rings, one would expect this to be less laborious than the others. Unfortunately this one works in a completely different manner. It is NOT a logical ladder type solution. It requires only four steps but apart from the first and last ones this is really not obvious what to do. The central steps have numerous options and it will take you some time to work out which ones are the correct ones.

The Livewire site states:
"Based on feedback we've received over the last decade and a half, no particular type of person does better at it than any other. If it is any indication, it ranks #2 in the "request for solution" department (after Pentangle)."
I had received a version from Puzzleguru a few months before and so had already spent some time on this one - although this one was a freebie which had 1 less ring (their usual one is identical). This was quite early on in my puzzling journey and so it did take me some time (about a week if I remember correctly!! Blush!!)

I personally feel this is a level 9 puzzle - it should only be really tough if you have not done any of the others in the series first. Customer testimonials on the Livewire site seem to make out that it has taken 100s of hours to solve. Having given it to friends, they have all failed but not really had the opportunity to play for any real time.
It is a classic so should be in your collection.

Livewire Puzzles part 8

Centipede

Can there be any more puzzles from Livewire? I hear you ask! (Actually I don't hear voices that often - only my wife muttering about yet another bloody puzzle arriving when I get home from work). However, there are still a few more disentanglement puzzles from Livewire still to review. This group of four starts with the Centipede puzzle. It is part of the "ladder ring" group of puzzles and according to the puzzle description the Centipede is the MOST difficult of this type that they have ever offered. They state:
"We expect only the most determined puzzlers to solve this one. Although extremely complicated, solving Centipede is a matter of logic, making understanding more important than memorizing all the steps.
To give you an idea of how complex this puzzle is, we should note that the challenge now faced by the Livewire Puzzles team is to produce a solution that our "less successful" customers are able to follow."

One...Three...Two...Solved!

Galaxy III

Galaxy III by DDK

Yes, from the title of the post you can tell that I am neither a mathematician nor could I ever be a scrub nurse (who needs to count to 5 preferably in the right order). This puzzle, Galaxy III designed by the amazing DDK and made by Mr Gao which I got from Aaron's recent release has this very strange progression to solution.

I have had another bad week and failed to solve everything in sight. I have been moving from wire puzzle to wire puzzle in the hope that I will have another Aha! moment but everything has failed on me. I was then mortified when my facebook friend, Yang Qingliang, showed off that they had solved the Galaxy III and had revealed to the world that they felt it was pretty easy needing only 4 moves. OMG! I am so rubbish at puzzles.

Aaron had rated the Galaxy III as only a level 7 and I had picked it up first in the hope that I would have something solved easily to boost my confidence. I had completely failed over the next few hours and eventually put it down to try others. It does look relatively simple with a shuttle straddling one of the wires on the outer layer of the spiral. The shuttle can be threaded right through from that outer wire to the centre with no obstructions but at first glance there isn't an obvious exit point and what you might think is a possible exit is blocked by the pair of oval rings across several layers. Winding round and around in circles is satisfying for a minute or so but when you get nowhere it loses its entertainment value quickly. 

Having been shamed I went back to it last night and this morning and had one of my very rare thoughts. I remembered back to almost the very beginning of my puzzling journey when I spent what was then a rather large sum of money on the entire Livewire puzzle collection. One of my absolute favourites from them was the Pyramid scheme which had a nice clever trick to it to find a rather counter-intuitive but very clever solution.

Pyramid scheme from Livewire puzzles

You can see the similarities of the spiral and the blockage ring with the shuttle on one wire. Once I had recalled the interesting idea that solved this one, I tried that move on the Galaxy III and suddenly went from one wire in the shuttle to three. That is fun and hopefully a progression. Next I moved it around a bit and before I knew it, did the same sort of move again from a different position and had 2 wires trapped. WTF?

1...3...2 was an odd sort of progression but I could now see an exit in exactly the same way I found the exit for the Pyramid scheme. Suddenly I had my shout of success and I didn't feel like quite such an eejit and more - I am not thinking about the fact that it is only a simple level 7! I will take the win.

Hooray

Having taken the photo, it was time to reassemble. I knew the type of moves that were required. It wasn't plain sailing but after a bit of fiddling about I managed it. It is quite fun to watch the non-obvious moves achieve results that don't seem like they should be possible - it's lovely in the same way that the original Livewire puzzle caused so much delight. I will be torturing colleagues with this one this week. At level 7 it might be solvable by someone.

Thank you Aaron for the torture!

Livewire puzzles part 10 and a little something special

and it begins again!!!

Part 10? How can that be? In February 2012 I posted my final Livewire puzzles post which was number 9 in the series. In the intervening time more than half of those that I considered best in their line up have been discontinued (so now I'm afraid it is up to you to find them on Ebay) but luckily they have also released an extra 5 puzzles.

At the end of last year, I contacted them and managed to buy the 4 that had been released and they told me of their very latest one about to be released for 2014, the Roller Coaster puzzle and offered me the opportunity to buy it early. They arrived in November and after photographing them and realising that all but one was in the "difficult" range, I sort of fiddled and shied away! My excuse was that I had been preoccupied with work and other puzzles.

But, after a few weeks when Mrs S was off visiting her parents and I was alone in the house for a few days, I could play with them and jingle to my heart's content without having to worry about receiving any damage from the laser burning stare and the whiplash 'cat-o-nine tails' tongue! Yes she has been honing her violence skills! I began with the easiest of the 5 new additions - The Ringleader. This one is the only one of the 5 that is on the level 2 page of Livewire puzzles (rated 7/10) and I was reassured by that.

Ringleader

Livewire puzzles part 6

Now we are really onto the hard ones. The puzzles I will review from now on are from the Level 3 section or "Puzzles for the proficient" page of the Livewire puzzles site. These are all level 9 or 10 of difficulty! I suspect I am going to struggle here!!

Pentangle

First of all I decided to avoid the awful looking string puzzles and started with something that looked quite familiar - The Pentangle puzzle. They describe it as a "lateral thinking puzzle" and state:
"We have had engineers, medical doctors, mathematicians and even Mensa members come back after as much as several years, convinced that Pentangle is impossible"

Livewire puzzles part 1

This will be the first of quite a few reviews of wire disentanglement puzzles from Livewire puzzles in Canada. I bought the whole set of 37 from them and am going to work my way through them if I can! I will start with the easy ones and gradually get to the more difficult.

Hand-cuffs

Starting off with a childhood classic - the handcuffs puzzle which requires removal of the ring from the handcuffs. It is rated easy on their website (labeled 6/10 on the packet). I had a very small version of this as a child and sort of remembered the approach but having not seen one for over 30 years thought I should start again with it. The version from Livewire is much bigger and the ring to be removed is a hefty weight - this extra size makes the puzzle quite a bit trickier than I remember. It is certainly more satisfying for adult sized hands. It turns out that I sort of did remember the solution and had it solved it just a minute! Unfortunately, like many puzzles, I didn't really pay attention to how I had done it and struggled to put it back together - it actually took me a further 5 minutes to achieve this much to my great shame! Blush!! Most people who have had a go at this with me have recognised it from their childhood or a Christmas cracker, whilst everyone has solved it they have all commented that this version is harder than they remember. I suspect it is due to the larger 'cuff' and having only a single linking ring too makes the required manoeuvre slightly more awkward. Overall I think this is a nice implementation of the classic - if you don't have one in your collection then you should get one and this is a worthwhile version. Apparently there is also a nice version from Hanayama which you also could consider.

Livewire puzzles part 4

Rapid Fire

Rapid Fire

I think from now on the disentanglement puzzles are going to be quite a lot harder! I next tried the Rapid Fire puzzle. This consists of a wire structure in the shape of a gun with a single ring and a loop of cord around the trigger guard. The aim being to remove the cord. The blurb on the Livewire site says:
"Anyone attempting this puzzle should be warned that attention to detail is required, since the path leading to the removal of the cord is difficult to distinguish from the paths which will lead you astray."

OMG!

This seriously meddled with my mind!

Annihilator

The Annihilator Puzzle

The Annihilator puzzle is the first disentanglement puzzle I have tried from Puzzle Master. It is pretty cheap at $9.95 (Canadian) and I thought I would start towards the difficult end of their collection. This one is rated 9 out of 10 (Gruelling) - remember their scale starts at 5! I agree with this rating - I am now pretty good at this sort of puzzle, having completed all the LiveWire puzzles apart from 1 and these do get unbelievably difficult.

The Annihilator is manufactured for/by Puzzle Master and is branded by them. It arrived in a plastic clamshell pack with an information card and instructions to remove the handle. Size is 14.5 x 9.0cm. It consists of a frame of anodised wire and a string completing the circle. This string is fed through multiple wire rings in what looks like an impossibly complex tangle - when you shake it out and let it dangle freely then it looks a little less horrific. The handle is initially looped over the wire frame and at first it looks an impossible task to disentangle it from all that string. No solution is supplied but one can be downloaded from here.

G Factor

G Factor

Yes I know I shouldn't have! But I really enjoyed the last group of Puzzle Master wire puzzles.  They were beautifully made and most of them were a real challenge without getting me tied into knots! So I have ordered a new batch from Puzzle Master which I will be reviewing over the coming weeks. I really couldn't help myself - I actually blame the Yak for tipping me over the edge - it was so different that I had to try more.

Last Saturday I got up very early for a trip to Devon - yes visiting James Dalgety's puzzle museum, a dream come true! I am actually having serious thoughts about going to live with him - there is so much stuff there that I reckon if I hid in a corner he might not find me for weeks!!! (apart from the sound of drooling and mumbling - Precious!!!) For the journey I packed a whole load of new puzzles to play with and upset the adjacent passengers!!! Also I brought one or two in case James hadn't seen them before (silly me!!)

So, on the train down (2½ hour trip), I thought I'd start with the G Factor, a rather attractive 3 part puzzle in which you have to remove the G shaped wire piece.

It comes in Puzzle Master's usual clamshell packaging with very simple instructions. It is level 8 out of 10 (I personally would put it as a 7 but I have seriously been practicing these puzzles now). It is beautifully made and finished with a very solid construction. There was an odd white residue on it when I took it out of the box but it has polished up very nicely. No solution is provided but if you need one then it is available for download here.

MrPuzzle Visit - Part 1

In Mr Puzzle’s lair (repected professional on right, neophyte on left).
Ed - Just look at that display! Soooooo jealous!

I am once again very grateful to Mike Desilets (the Puzzlemad foreign correspondent) for providing me with this wonderful article and reminding me that I am very overdue making a purchase from MrPuzzle. I've had a very busy week and also had to work in the hospital emergency operating theatres all day yesterday. This meant that my usual gym visit HAD to be done today before my various chores. Mrs S has told me that if I get fat then I'm out and I daren't take that risk! After 22 years of marriage, I still have the same waist size as on our wedding day and cannot possibly risk a change. The supplied article from Mike has needed almost no editing and will give me a free afternoon to catch up with the gardening and avoid yet another Whack! Ouch! 

Aloha Kākou readers.

This week I have something quite special to report. While I’ve enjoyed doing puzzle review-type posts for Puzzlemad, I am VERY pleased to be able to report on something a tad more social this time. The online puzzle world is very stimulating in its' own way, but meeting and talking puzzles in person with a professional is really special and not something I am ever able to enjoy on this tiny rock of an island.

Thanks to some extremely fortuitous work scheduling I was able to spend a little time in Queensland, Australia on my way back from a project a couple months ago. Why fortuitous, you ask? Well, besides getting to spend a day in the magnificent little city of Brisbane, it gave me the opportunity to drop in on one of the world’s premier puzzle designers and makers, Brian Young, and his lovely wife Sue, who together run MrPuzzle. Brian needs no introduction to most puzzlers, so I’ll assume you have at least a passing familiarity with his work. If you don’t, just study the MrPuzzle website and/or search any of the major blogs for reviews of his puzzles.

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed...

And now I'm Blue!

My table of toys - some have been here months or even years!

Much to the chagrin of Mrs S, my puzzle arrivals keep on coming and I haven't had time to put any away in ages - they are EVERYWHERE! I have quite a lot that I haven't managed to solve or haven't managed to even play with yet. Some of my most longstanding puzzles that are suitable to be left somewhere warm and which are suitable to dip into periodically are left on a side table in our conservatory. I find that at weekends, after the obligatory exercise on the rower (if I get fat, she will chuck me out! 😱), I tend to sit on the sofa next to these puzzles and pick up something to idly fiddle with. Sometimes I don't get a chance to sit down because its not always my seat...

It's warm in here! Zzzzzz
Sometimes I wish I was a cat!

A correspondent of mine (that's you, Steve) also seems to have a penchant for Aaron Wang's disentanglement puzzles and recently asked me how I had gotten on with the Boxing Gloves puzzle and if I could provide a clue to help him. I shamefully had to admit that I had singularly failed to solve it in over 4 years - shame on me! That puzzle has been sitting on that glass table for longer than any other - I keep thinking that I should be able to solve it and keep failing at it. 

Boxing Gloves - looks familiar?

Does it look familiar? It should do...it is "just" a Ball and Chain puzzle - I have written about them before in their various guises, from the original classic that I bought from the sadly missed Livewire puzzles to the fabulous complex versions from Aaron I bought in 2015 and again last year which I had so much fun with. The thing about ball and chain puzzles is that they have a base move that they all share but after (or even before) that they need careful setting up and obviously careful movements after that. The Boxing Gloves is doesn't even look that complicated unlike the Maze B&C that I failed at so spectacularly last July. One thing that frightens me about these puzzles is the tendency to get into a terrible knot. Recently, Aaron has been using wonderful quick release mechanisms so that it is easily possible to reset a tangled puzzle but this one has nothing to help you if you get into a mess - I was rather frightened of it but could not stop myself from trying it every few weeks or months.

After my recent correspondence, I had to try again. I sat down (having moved the cat) on Good Friday and started playing again. I kept getting into the usual trap and having to carefully backtrack to avoid the inevitable mess and ended up sitting staring at it thinking© to myself that it is just two interlocked Ball and chain puzzles! It should not need anything fancy to solve it. Why wasn't my standard B&C approach working? The second one always could not be set up properly. 

At that point the cat insisted on more food and I put it down to feed him. During that process my thoughts went along the lines of..."if the second one is always set up wrong then what if I don't have a second one?" That sounds fairly cryptic but if you are reading this, Steve, then you have a fairly big clue right there! I tried something that I had not thought of before in 4 years and it didn't work - something wasn't quite right. Looking at it, though, it was clear why and I needed a very specific setup move before trying the same thing again. It frightened me quite a bit because the whole thing seemed on the verge of a knot and it required every single bit of the length of that chain but suddenly...

Aha! At last!

I cannot believe it - I have finally solved an old puzzle after years of attempts. It is a fabulous idea and one I should have managed earlier but needed me to have a particular train of thought©! Returning it to the beginning requires the same setup move (which took me a little while to find again) and then the usual sequence for this style of puzzle. Thank you Aaron, it is wonderful!

Anti-Gravity Box+

Next I tried something new - I had received a few beauties from Eric recently including the Anti-gravity box+. The plus here is because Eric worked with Frederic Boucher to add an extra challenge to his original puzzle giving us 2 sets of 6 sticks to be inserted into the box, one has 2 solutions and the other solution. Eric has beautifully made this from Iroko and Paulownia with magnets glued in flush either on the side or end of the pieces. The two puzzle sets can be told from each other by the presence of a decorative dowel in the end of the set with the unique solution. 

The top of the box has a nicely fitted acrylic lid to allow the failed puzzler to quickly remove the pieces either to try the next puzzle or, more usually, to start again having failed miserably. My initial thought was to find a stacking method that would not allow the magnets to repel each other and then simply slide the pieces inside whilst using gravity and tilting to get the pieces to where I wanted them. Doh! I should have read the instructions properly - the box has to be placed on a work surface/table and cannot be manipulated after that. The challenge is to insert the pieces through the two windows and any manipulation of those pieces can ONLY be carried out using the sticks themselves - you are not even allowed to poke your fingers inside. Now that really ups the ante. Yesterday, having finally convinced myself that I had definitely understood the Boxing gloves, I decided to try this. Luckily this time the cat was on my lap and I could use him as a table. The snoring was a little off-putting though. The set with two solutions has an extra magnetic piece and this makes manipulation quite a bit simpler (although not easy by any stretch of the imagination). After about an hour of trying various ideas, I finally worked it out and had my box packed - the lazy boy had not even woken up to admire my efforts. The next challenge was a variant of the first needing quite a bit more thought© and planning. I had that challenge beaten in another half hour and was feeling quite chuffed. At last I can place my prowess on the same level as those of Brent (Five Sinatras) and Jerry Loo. Except...I have a nagging feeling when reading their reviews that I might have done something I was not allowed to do. I think I will have to ask Fred whether I have been silly or not. If you get a chance to buy this puzzle then I think it is a perfect challenge for an idle hour of puzzling which should leave you full of admiration for Fred's warped brain and Eric's craftsmanship.

Something borrowed??? Over 9 months ago, I was very kindly lent a copy of the ResQ puzzle (again designed by Frederic Boucher and made by Eric) and I have been playing with it off and on every few weeks when I get time. To my eternal shame, I have found only one move and discovered a tool. Having found my tool, I have no idea what to do with it - there seem to be absolutely no "tool-holes" for me to place it and all I can do is admire the wonderful workmanship. I am very grateful to Andrew for lending it to me and his enormous patience as I have kept it for so so long! This is how puzzle friends are - such a wonderful bunch!

This leaves me feeling a little blue - but not as much as a partial solve...

Sax 2

Another fabulous challenge that I had bought from Aaron was a set of pure wire puzzles designed by Shuai Chi and beautifully made by Heping Gao. I loved the look of these for the theming but also the fact that they are pure wire meaning no knots. It does not, however, mean that they are easy. Aaron has given them all a level of 10+ which means that he found them pretty hard to solve himself and that means that a simpleton like me will really struggle and, oh boy, did I struggle!

Over the last 6 months since they arrived I have played with all three of them and can vouch that they are very very tough. Whilst they look very similar, they are all distinctly different and moves that are possible on one are not possible on the others. Seeing as I was so flush with success from the Boxing gloves and then I chose to have yet another try at this set that had beaten me so far (it has been in my conservatory stash the whole time). I chose to try the Sax 2 puzzle because I thought that one less obstructing ball might make for an easier puzzle. To be honest, this probably isn't the case because the loop on the end of the shuttle effectively causes a major obstruction because it cannot pass through the lowest of the hoops on the main body. I wasn't to know that at the time. 

There are some very interesting movements possible in this puzzle and it blocks up quite easily but during all my experimentation had never gotten to a point where I got lost and couldn't backtrack to the beginning. I was on a bit of a roll - I made a discovery that wasn't going to work but looked like it should so it was time yet again to Think© (damn you, Allard and your thinking - it's not good for me). The discovery really looked like I was on track but the next step was blocked. This forced me to do something I had not done before - I tried to picture the moves in my head if the blockage wasn't there and this should definitely solve the puzzle. So how do I circumvent the blockage? Oooh! What if I? Yessss! I am not used to solving disentanglement puzzles like that - I was able to plan out the appropriate moves in my mind and before long I had this:

Finally!

So why am I so blue? Having had something old, new and borrowed must be the reason. At this moment, I still have the puzzle in two pieces - I have spent a whole day trying to return it to the beginning and seem to be missing a trick. My head now hurts quite a lot and I think I might need to put it down for a while! Once I have it fully solved i.e. returned to the beginning and then moved both ways a second time then it will be time to try the others in the series - wish me luck!

Arrivals!

Oh Joy! Last night we had a new arrival - the Maze burr, designed by Kagen Schaefer and made by the very talented Tom Lensch. Unfortunately I finished work very late and had things to do around the house in the evening (including spending some time with the present wife - she's doing ok for a first wife!). This means I have not had a chance to do any more than read the pamphlet that came with it. I will do a proper review when I can.

At first glance it is beautiful - thanks very much, Tom.

Today I FINALLY received the complete set of 37 disentanglement puzzles from Livewire puzzles in Canada! My advice to you all - never, ever, ever! go for surface mail from Canadapost! It took absolutely forever (nearly 2 months!) to arrive despite only spending 5 days in customs. Unfortunately, on this one I got badly hit for Duty/VAT! This wasn't a cheap purchase and the extra sting really hurt! I will probably review these in small batches as (if!) I solve them.

These are really nicely packaged and also at first glance seem very well made.

I have to work all evening tonight and tomorrow night and will have no chance to play, unfortunately! How much torture can a man stand?

The Rack

The Rack

Now please everyone be quite - I currently am on day 4 of a visit by my in-laws - absolutely lovely people but I'm not supposed to be sneaking off for a quick surf of the net and definitely not supposed to be taking time to write a blog post! My wife thinks that I have had to do a little bit of paperwork for my work! I don't want any of you being bad and letting her know! No! Before you say it - The Rack is not linking the instrument of torture with my in-laws!!

Keep the mother in-law quiet
with one of these!

My mother in-law is actually quite enjoying doing some puzzles during her stay with us - this at least gives me some time to sit with her and do some of my own all under the pretence of "helping her". She has been working on a globe magnet jigsaw puzzle for the last 4 days and doesn't seem to be getting anywhere at all with it!! I, of course am making lots of encouraging noises and not helping at all! It really does look quite tough - if you want one then something similar can be bought from Puzzle Master. But I have started working on a new kit of twisty puzzles made by Burgo from the Twisty Puzzles forum - it is an astounding kit which expands the idea behind the crazy 3x3 planet series which I reviewed here. It allows the addition of a variable number of non-circle faces to the crazy series as well as having the ability to put segments in that bandage parts together and thus block movements. It will provide hundreds and hundreds of new very tough twisty puzzles for me - You can read about it here. So I am a fairly happy bunny just now but have had to sneak off to get this review out to you.

OMG How horrific does this look? Info at TP.

The Rack is another from my Puzzle Master stash - yet again a wire and string puzzle and yet again a slightly easier one - this time only level 8 (Demanding) on their rather odd scale of 5 to 10 and I would agree with that assessment. This one and the Silent E reviewed as my last wire puzzle have been a welcome relief from the usual horrendously difficult ones but this is the last easy one I have and I have a few more coming from Livewire puzzles - they have released another 5 since my series of reviews 18 months ago and I had to complete the set!! So yet another few tough ones coming your way soon.

The rack is from Puzzle Master's own series of wire puzzles and is packaged nicely in the usual plastic clamshell and the instructions are simply to remove the string with the two balls from the wire. It is very well made from 3mm Nickel plated wire and the string is of good quality. There has been one 4 star review left on the puzzle page which gave a glowing report and suggested that it was perfect for beginners to wire puzzles; a view I agree with. No other blogger has reviewed it yet. No solution is supplied but it can be downloaded from here if you need it.