At this moment in time I have a blackened area right between my eyes!!! No it's not dirt! During the week I received another parcel from Vaclav Obsivac (aka Vinco) - this parcel was not expected by the present Mrs S and I became victim of the laser stare!! I swear she has had the power increased! It's true, I probably deserved it - I hadn't actually told her they were coming and my study is now getting out of control! There are puzzles everywhere!
My Precioussssss!
My big problem is she won't let me keep them anywhere else in the house, despite them being beautiful. Every time I place some of my lovelies (preciousssssss!!!) on the coffee table in the living room they miraculously reappear in my study again within a few hours. For this reason I have also bought a Kindle - if I can get rid of my fiction/paperbacks then I will have more space for puzzles!!
So a week ago Vaclav opened his new website and let everyone know that he had more puzzles to post. I received the email at about 11pm and immediately disappeared from the living room to have a look (she wasn't suspicious at that time). The new website is really nice - definitely an improvement and he has really been hard at work designing and building more goodies. In fact there must have been a mad scramble initially because thing were disappearing even as I surfed and something went just as I tried to add it to my cart! I still managed to get some nice stuff - his prices are very reasonable. I do feel slightly guilty as I haven't actually managed to finish all the last batch yet! From the back left: Two U's, Prism halfcubes, Double pyramid, Kiss, Coming of age, Vinco Octahedron. I blame the voices!!!!
Next amongst the puzzles received from Vinco is the Matrioshka.
This one also looks absolutely spectacular in multiple colours of wood with the outermost layer being a beautiful red wood. It is nicely polished. This puzzle is another coordinate motion puzzle but this time not just 4 pieces.
First up from my recent delivery is the Explosion cube from Vinco. This is an absolutely gorgeous wooden "sculpture" with a combination of light and dark woods. My only criticism of Vinco's goods are that he does not state which woods he uses.
The finish is perfect and it looks great on display.
A few weeks ago I ordered a whole bunch of new puzzles from Vaclac Obsivac (Vinco). They arrived quite quickly and after admiring them for a while, I put them on the shelf for future puzzling (I try to keep a few aside for emergency use)! As mentioned before, I had to do the Sixi cube first because it arrived in pieces and every time I saw it like that it offended me!
The next one for me to have a go at was the Vinco tetrahedron - it is a really lovely 3 sided pyramid (obviously!) made from varicoloured Walnut. I really have a weakness for this wood so this was my personal preference but it was available in many other woods and a few are still available now. It is 64mm from apex to base and absolutely flawlessly made - you can barely see any joints at all. I did feel that I have enough coordinate motion puzzles and am pleased that this is just an assembly puzzle.
Vaclav Obsivac (Vinco) is not only an exquisite craftsman but he is also a true gentleman! How do I know this? Well, when there was an error during my recent purchase which led to me owing him ever so slightly more than expected (which was not an issue at all) he spontaneously decided to give me an extra puzzle for free!! This was the Handed halfcubes and despite being free it is a really good puzzle too!
I have been on annual leave this last week and a bit and can't afford a holiday abroad due to the fitting of a rather nice new kitchen! So a few days were spent in London visiting my mother and the rest has been spent at home, tidying up and doing a little extra work on the side. During this time I made some purchases and didn't tell the present Mrs Sadler about all of them! Unfortunately, today they all got delivered at once! So now she has found out about all of them in one go! I may have to buy her another pair of shoes or a handbag to make up for it! It really gets expensive when I do that!!!!!
First of all, no trip to London is complete without a trip to Village Games in Camden to search for anything new and interesting. I could have spent a fortune there but I was aware that I had already placed orders elsewhere! I only came away with 4 puzzles and Mrs S breathed a sigh of relief as she didn't know about the others!
Village Games Selection
Here we have (from top left) Coffin's half hour puzzle, IQ18, Lox in Box II and Großmaul.
Recently Vinco had put up some new puzzles for sale and after my last little set of purchases (Dual tetrahedron, Tetrahedron 2 and an assortment of others) I new about the tremendous quality and beauty of these puzzles. I felt I had enough of the 4 and 6 piece coordinate motion puzzles so went for some others!
Vinco Selection
From the top left in rows we have: Duo Burr, Four Marbles, 3 Boxy, UFO, Ballerina, Ball Room, Vinco Tetrahedron and Sixi Cube (received unassembled). Droool!!!!
If that was not enough I received a little consignment from Wil Strijbos (I may as well just set up an automatic transfer of my salary straight to his account!)
Strijbos Selection
From the top: Melting block (with the lid and extra cube to the right), The Moon, Medal Maze, Aluminium Dovetail and finally Poplock T6 with copper rivets.
I am thoroughly in the doghouse now but at least I will have plenty of puzzles to keep me occupied whilst she is refusing to speak to me!! I have only just rearranged my puzzle collection and am not actually sure whether I have enough space for this lot!
This is the last of my Vinco puzzles - I am sure I will be buying plenty more. The craftsmanship from this man has just got to be seen to be believed! Plus as well as being a true artisan, he is also an absolute pleasure to deal with. He responds very quickly and is very fair (see my previous discussion about how he is a true gentleman).
This is the Flattrick - it is another of his coordinate movement puzzles - but this time has 6 pieces and therefore must have a different design internally than the other 4 piece puzzles I have described. After a previous comment by me he has now begun putting the woods used in each puzzle down on the website. This particular version is made of Plum and Acacia woods and looks absolutely gorgeous, just like all his others. Nothing made by this man looks anything other than beautiful (sorry - I'm gushing!!!)
Today (at the same time that I ordered some new ones from the Vinco site) postie arrived with my previous order from Vaclav Obsevic.
I was aware of what to expect but was not really ready for the breathtaking craftsmanship that has gone into making these objects of beauty. Even if they weren't puzzles they would be worth owning just to be lovely wooden ornaments. I started with the Dual Tetrahedron 12
Like last weeks one, this blog post may also be rather linguistically challenged! I spent all day Friday at a Coroners inquest giving evidence - a rather stressful event you'll all agree and then had an exciting day on Saturday solving this puzzle. Needless to say last night's sleep was impaired due to the adrenaline surge as well as having the cats do the wall of death around the house most of the night. It was also not helped by the present Mrs S sounding like a drowning hippopotamus all night as well! Ouch! Sorry dear, I didn't realise you were reading this!
A fine top shelf!
You may recall how delighted I was earlier this year when I managed to spend a large chunk of my income on the 2012 limited edition puzzles from Brian Young (aka MrPuzzle). This fabulously beautiful and fabulously huge set of 5 puzzles has had pride of place in my man puzzle cave most of this year! If you look carefully at the top shelf you will see the entire set in all it's glory! Why the top shelf? Because, if you remember from your youth, the "stuff" you wanted to look at in the newsagent when you were a teenager was always on the top shelf out of reach and tantalising! So I thought that I would mimic this and place my most "delicious" puzzles where I can't get to them! This ensures that I will pace myself and not run through them all too quickly - I want to savour them. So far I actually have managed it and have solved and written about only 2 of the 5 - the Improved H burr and the L burr, both of which were amazingly beautiful puzzles and a great challenge.
The next one I have decided to try is the Kamikaze burr. It was designed, like the others, by Junichi Yananose. From the information page:
In 1995 Junichi developed a puzzle with more than one co-ordinated action. It was introduced in the bulletin of the Academy of Recreational Mathematics in Japan in that same year and has been waiting for someone to make it ever since. Brian soon discovered there was good reason for this. He found getting exactly the correct tolerances so that it moves just right very challenging.
The puzzle has 15 pieces and the motion and movement of the pieces in this puzzle is truly extreme. It might appear that the puzzle is made a little loose, but be assured that it is intentional, because if it fitted firmly the puzzle would go together but getting it apart again with just 2 hands would be near impossible; that is until you get to the point of no return. Then it gets really scary!
Junichi called it Kamikaze because he considers this puzzle extreme. Although many puzzle solvers will know which pieces go where in the puzzle, finding the order to put them in and the motion to get it together is truly extreme. All 5 puzzles this year are quite different and radical but there is no puzzle more different or radical than this one.
It is made from Queensland Silky Oak (I have always called this wood Lacewood) and is absolutely GIGANTIC at 150 x 150 x 150mm and weighing in at 830g (1lb 14oz)!
It has been sitting up there shouting obscenities at me for a few months now and threatening my puzzle manhood! I kept looking at it and averting my gaze because it frightened me to death! Why? Because it is a coordinate motion puzzle as well as a burr and not just any old coordinate motion puzzle - it has 15 sticks! My previous experience of this group has mostly been the incredible artefacts made by the talented Václav Obšivač aka Vinco. These coordinate motion puzzles have just 3 or 4 pieces and require a huge amount of dexterity to reassemble them and sometimes, to me at least, appear to need more than 1 pair of hands. This is awkward when Mrs S has no interest in puzzles and if I ask her for assistance then she taunts me and declines! Here are a couple of examples:
So I really did not know whether I would ever get it reassembled after taking it apart. The other reason that it frightened me was the report from Burgo. He is an amazing Australian puzzler from the Twisty Puzzles forum who is just an unbelievable solver of puzzles of all types - almost nothing fazes him or slows him down at all. At my suggestion he expanded his horizons to some wooden puzzles for his fellow countryman and his report about the Kamikaze burr was that it made a huge number of movements all at once just as he lifted it out of its packaging! So much movement that he describes a near miss underwear catastrophe! Now if a puzzler of this calibre is frightened, then what am I to think? In fact, despite my taunts, to this day he has not dared to dismantle it!
Vaclav Obsivac aka Vinco recently added a whole lot of new puzzles to his site. I have mentioned before how good his craftsmanship is so whenever something new comes up, I just cannot resist it. Recently he seems to have specialised in producing coordinate motion puzzles (both 4 and 6 pieces) and I have reviewed a few of these already. Whilst they are all very attractive and beautifully made, the mechanisms are all fairly similar and vary mainly in where the joins are and this alters the ease with which the pieces can be orientated for reassembly. Having a few of this type already, I did not feel any huge urge to increase my collection of this particular type of puzzle. This time the recent batch included a number of assembly and disassembly puzzles so I jumped at the chance to get something new and beautiful - in fact I got a bit carried away and spent an absolute fortune (whilst individual pieces are cheap - they add up when you buy 8 at once!!!)
Whilst on my recent mini-break, I was cheeky and brought along a few puzzles to do whilst "relaxing" - this also slightly pissed off the wife. One of the puzzles I brought was the Ballerina by Vinco.
This was one of my recent batch from Vacláv Obsivac, one of the best artisan puzzle makers around. It is a 6 piece coordinate motion puzzle made from Walnut and Maple. I know I wasn't planning on buying any more coordinate motion puzzles but I couldn't resist it - after all, it is made of wood and you know how addicted I am to wooden puzzles (and metal ones... and plastic ones)!!!
Amongst my last, ratherlargebatch of puzzles from Václav Obšivač aka Vinco (note he has a brand new site) was the UFO. This is a rather lovely shape in Walnut and Maple made from 6 pieces which (for once) is not a coordinate motion puzzle. It is a really good size, being 11.5cm in diameter and is waxed but not highly polished like some of his other puzzles.
This came apart very easily into its 6 pieces. Interestingly it can only come apart initially into 2 triplets which will then separate into their components. I laid them all out and left it for half an hour to ensure that I couldn't remember what I had done. Here is what the pieces look like:
6 identical pieces (3 with inverted colours)
When I came back, I knew that it needed to be done in triplets but struggled to get them correctly aligned - in fact I couldn't remember whether I needed to combine like or inverted colours! I think it took me about 10 minutes before I was able to work it out and from there managed to slide it all together. I ended up piecing it together piece by piece until the final piece remained and then pulling it apart to put this final piece into a triplet.
This is not a particularly difficult puzzle but is very satisfying in both size and finish. It looks absolutely beautiful on the shelf. Václav still has one or two of these for sale at very reasonable prices - go for it, you won't be disappointed. Have a good surf around his site - there is always something to tempt you.
First new post of the year and this is a brilliant puzzle that really kept me going - proving that I am not terribly bright!
Back in November I had a little epiphany about packing puzzles....I needed to start thinking outside the box. One of the most important triggers for this was a brilliant puzzle that I bought from Eric Fuller - the One Hole designed by Bram Cohen. But even before this I had a trial run when Brian Menold sold me a beautiful copy of the L-I-Vator cube designed by Laszlo Molnar (apparently who is also known as Lacika Kmolnar). The L-I-Vator taught me that there were quite a few steps to be done between assembly of the basic shape outside of the box and the actual packing it in. The requirement for rotations of more than one of the pieces made it a really fun challenge and I loved it. It was not hugely difficult but certainly had a couple of brilliant A-ha! moments.
When Brian announced that he was producing another of Laszlo's creations, the Triagonal Agony, I promised myself that I would jump as soon as the went up for sale. I was actually on-line at the moment that Brian made his announcement that they were up for sale and quickly added my preferred one to my shopping cart along with another beauty (the Tropical Fish). There is an odd quirk of the shopping cart that Brian uses that allows puzzles already in someone's cart to be snatched out by someone else buying before the original purchaser gets to the checkout. This has happened to me several times over the years and Brian always tries to make good on it if you ask him about it. Apparently it was my turn to do the snatching! Hooray! I got there first! I ripped the copy out of someone else's cart when I paid. A day or so later Brian emailed me to ask whether I would agree to let that one go and he would make me another copy using the same woods as my L-I-Vator cube. Well I hate to disappoint anyone and I trust Brian implicitly so of course I agreed and a few weeks later I received my new toys with the Triagonal Agony being made out of Holly and Marblewood to match my other puzzle.
Upcoming puzzles from
Pelikan
and their wonderful designers.
I wasn't expecting anything from Jakub, Jaroslav and team until after the
upcoming IPP and was very surprised when an email came from the wonderful
Pelikan guys informing me about their upcoming releases and a request for
reviews as soon as possible. I then received a beautiful bunch of toys and a
growl from she who frightens everyone who meets her. To be honest, I cannot
blame her this time - there are another 8 puzzles here and I hadn't put away the
toys from the last delivery yet. I know my desk is under the toys but I haven't
seen it for a very long time!
Luckily for me, a general email had also gone out telling the world that the
Pelikan team were taking a summer break and not returning until tomorrow (10th
July) and I, therefore, had a nice 10 day period to plough through these
fabulous and difficult puzzles (GULP!). Luckily, I managed to do it (apart
from one incredibly tough challenge) with a tiny bit of cheating from
Burrtools.
These should be going on sale within the next week or so I hope.
First I have to start with the 2 incredible puzzles from Dr Volker Latussek
- they have given this post it's title. We have two more puzzles in the Flop
series - believe me, these are not flops as puzzles! They are incredible and
one is seriously difficult! Volker emailed me and Jakub to explain what he
was trying to achieve:
Fritz Flop
Fritz Flop delivery position
Fritz Flop pieces
Fritz Flop has been beautifully created using a lovely pale Downy Birch wood.
I just love how Volker always specifies a delivery setup for his puzzles. It
can be quite a challenge if you aren't paying attention to return the puzzles
to the start position. Volker wrote this:
"With the release of TETRA-FLOP I announced a small series of four
FLOP-puzzles: FRITZ-FLOP, DICK-FLOP, TEFKA-FLOP and SOMA-FLOP. As an
encore, the series will be completed with TETRA-FLOP and for lovers of
L-shaped tricubes L-FLOP.
The FLOP series puzzles each consist of a cuboid box completely filled
with various tricubes and tetracubes. The box has the largest possible
rectangular opening on one side. Each of the four FLOPs has a unique
kind of rotation. The solution to each should be unique.
When a FLOP is placed on a flat surface with the opening at the top
facing forward, the movement of the pieces is sometimes reminiscent of
the Fosbury flop - a revolutionary high-jump technique that sent
established records tumbling. The inventor of this technique is the
forgotten Austrian athlete, Fritz Pingl, for whom the first FLOP puzzle
is dedicated.
My friend Fritz hoped the puzzle could be made in birch wood, and
Pelikan were able to fulfil his wish. Many thanks for that.
FRITZ-FLOP has only five pieces: two tricubes and only three of the
eight tetracubes, making it the smallest FLOP. I think it's really
suited to being a coffee table puzzle. I selected this combination from
what seemed like an infinite number of possible combinations. I suspect
it is the only combination that fulfils all of the characteristics of a
FLOP puzzle. The fact that this combination exists at all, fills me with
great wonder, as does the story of the high jump. Please play and
enjoy."
I
reviewed
the
Tetra flop
from the last release and am surprised to see that some are still available
for sale. It was a seriously difficult puzzle but had some wonderful moves
in it. I needed a little help and despite that did not feel that I lost out
on the puzzling. Working out the moves required after getting a little
position help did not detract in any way from my puzzling pleasure.
With the Fritz Flop the puzzle is certainly a lot simpler in design and
hence very solvable without help. It is still a challenge with the simpler
set of pieces and only looking for a 3x3x2 block shape. The fun part is
getting the pieces through the restricted opening which it just smaller than
3x2 in size. There will be rotations and space needs to be left for the
rotations to occur. Knowing this helps with working out the possible
assemblies to try. Before writing this review I entered the pieces into BT
and found that there are 28 possible assemblies of the pieces into the block
but doing this is not necessary for the solution. I picked the pieces that I
felt were likely to be the last to be inserted and then tried to place the
rest into a shape that would allow it. Of course, my first decisions were
incorrect and I spent a good few hours attempting impossible solutions -
they looked good but there was no way to insert them through the opening.
Most of the assemblies stand no chance of insertion and can be discarded
quickly. After a few hours, I had exhausted everything I could find apart
from one which looked promising but I just couldn't get it to assemble in
the box. Time for a break and the following day, I had a fabulous Aha!
moment - not only is this a packing puzzle but it is a sequential movement
puzzle as well. The rotational move is simply joyful.
Believe me, there are no clues in this photo!
I heartily recommend buying this set - it is pure Latussek genius!
Soma Flop
Soma Flop delivery position
Soma Flop pieces (yes, it's a Soma cube)
Soma Flop has been made using Jatoba and Limbs woods - the voxel size is the
same as the others in the series. Again there is a very specific position for
the storage. Volker wrote this about it:
"Originally DICK-FLOP and TEFKA-FLOP were scheduled to follow after
FRITZ-FLOP, but SOMA-FLOP is really special. Everything is there: the
seven parts of the SOMA-CUBE and even a cube-shaped box. The only tricky
thing is the size of the opening.
Only?
I learnt a lot from my experiences with SOMA PACK and SHRINKING SOMA,
but I couldn't achieve what I was hoping for from a FLOP puzzle at
first. Obviously, the search was eventually worth it: SOMA-FLOP has a
wonderfully confusing solution, which I suspect my mind wasn't willing
to see. I couldn't see the solution for absolute ages because I didn't
know it existed. I guess that's the difference between the designer and
the solver: as the solver, you can trust that SOMA-FLOP has a solution!
The opening is amazingly large - any larger in fact and the SOMA pieces
could effectively be packed as into an unrestricted box.
My thanks to Pelikan for making this idea a reality and to Oskar van
Deventer for inspiring me to create SOMA-FLOP with his PENULTIMATE
SOMA."
This puzzle caused me "some difficulty" and a minor heart attack. I have
waxed lyrical
about Soma cubes before and certainly feel that everyone who collects puzzles
should have at least a plain Soma cube and a variant or two in their
collections. Combining a Soma cube with a packing puzzle and incorporating
aspects of TIC puzzling too is a major triumph. This puzzle is very VERY
difficult but don't let that deter you. First thing to do is remove the pieces
from the box. Easy peasy? Erm - yes as long as you don't allow anything to
move once there is a little space in the box. I was not careful enough and
after removal of the easy two pieces, stuff slid around inside and I couldn't
take any more pieces out. OMG! It took me over an hour to free them up and get
to the point of attempting to solve the puzzle.
As Volker has stated, there is a nice large entry to the box but not quite two
voxels wide. This restriction is the key to the rotational requirement. The
non planar pieces need to be tilted to be inserted and there needs to be
enough space for this to be allowed to happen. Does this help you narrow down
the assemblies? I think it does if you are an assembly puzzle aficionado. I am
an assembly idiot and as everyone knows - there are 240 possible cubic
assemblies of the Soma pieces.
I played for a while trying to randomly find cubic assemblies that would allow
the non-planar pieces to be inserted early and the linear pieces last. I found
a few but had no way to easily narrow them down. I do think that this is
possible for all you great puzzlers who read my drivel but for me to manage
it, I would require many days or weeks of attempts and a lot of swearing. I
had a deadline to meet and therefore had to use a hint. I got the solution and
squinted at it quickly so that I only viewed the two pieces that were to be
entered last which would leave me to find the positions of the other pieces
and then the rotation(s) required to solve it. After 3 days of working on the
cube to be inserted I realised that I needed more help. Burrtools told
me that there are 18 assemblies that allowed the last 2 pieces to be where I
needed them and from there I could visually restrict the other solutions until
I had a few possible solutions to work on.
I worked on these possibilities for another couple of days and managed to
decrease my solution set to just one by totally failing to get the pieces into
the box. That last assembly also wouldn't go in - even when you know what goes
where, it is really really hard to make it happen. My Aha! moment came as a
huge relief and pleasure. This is simply superb! I don't think that there are
any spoilers in the photo but I have hidden it behind a button just in case.
This took me days!
Petit Box
Petit Box by Osanori Yamamoto
Another beautiful creation by Osanori-san made using Limba and a very vibrant
Purpleheart.
Recently, Osanori-san has been designing a whole set of interlocking puzzles
where board burrs pieces are locked inside a box frame. I have previously
reviewed his
Gem puzzle and the Slider 2 which is still available. Like Slider 2, this has four plates trapped inside the cuboidal frame and
there is a lot of movement after the first few pieces have been moved. This
puzzle is a very nice fun challenge. After that first exploration, the pieces
move very freely and it is quite easy to get stuck in a loop. There are a few
places where it looks like rotations begin but these are not useful to you. On
several occasions, I thought I was getting quite close to the removal of the
first piece but could not find the pathway and kept backtracking to the
beginning. The fun part of playing with this (and it's predecessor) is that it
opens up enough for you to be able to look inside the frame and see what is
blocking your moves. In the end for me, I had to open the space inside right
up and then plan a potential disassembly. After that, it was "just" a matter
of utilising the space that I had to wind the peeves around each other. The
removal of the first piece takes only 12 moves but it is a real challenge to
find them. Reassembly is fun if you have memorised the positions and the
pathway and quite possible from scratch if you have not and you are highly
skilled.
4 plates and a frame.
Connecting Cubes
Connecting Cubes by Lucie Pauwels
There are 3 wonderful challenges by Lucie in this release by Pelikan and this
one is delightfully colourful and a fun challenge for beginners and experts
alike. It is very reminiscent of some of the wonderful challenges made by Vinco
that I reviewed many years ago.
Lucie designs a whole gamut of different types of puzzle and this is a very
different design to what I have seen before. It looks very simple like many
of her designs but has just the right challenge level. This is very
reminiscent of the extremely challenging
Stuffing Burr
from Dr Latussek (also
still available). The aim is to take the 5 L-shaped notched sticks and assemble them in
such a way that the notches are all filled. Lucie's version has 5 sticks
which alters the challenge considerably. Each stick has the notches in a
different set of orientations. Like most puzzles, I started with random
assemblies to see what happened and how they all interact as the chains
build up. Quite quickly I came to realise that the chains move further and
further apart and then the final piece cannot possibly reach to bridge the
gap. Then I realised that the alternative was to build a clump of pieces and
hope the ends were close enough to reach each other and then also have the
notches the correct orientation. Just as with all of Lucie's designs, this
also doesn't work well and it actually requires a little analysis of the
types of pieces and how to use them. All in all, this took me nearly an hour
and I had my assembled chain. It's a fun thing to do and it's only a slight
shame that the created shape is not particularly attractive for storage.
Oekanda
Oekanda by Lucie Pauwels
Oekanda by Lucie Pauwels has been beautifully crafted from Oak with Bubinga
pieces. It is reminiscent of the
Pin-up box from the February release which is an entry in this year's
IPP design competition
The third challenge from Lucie in this release is a real fun one that also
requires proper analysis for a satisfying solve. It is a packing puzzle but
with a difference - the frame is extremely open and the pieces properly
complex making it also an interlocking puzzle. It arrives with the pieces
sort of randomly stuck in the frame and on taking the puzzle out of the
packing bag, half of them fell out and I couldn't work out how to put them
back.
Alma has been made using Maple, Purpleheart and Wenge.
It would seem that no Pelikan release is complete without something wonderful
from Alfons Eyckmans. He designs burr puzzles that are both beautiful and
interesting to solve. The Alma looks like a very complex construction but is
actually just a 6 piece burr made from L shaped plates. I cannot resist
Alfons' burrs - there is always something fun to explore and this is no
different. The pathway to the removal of the first piece is fairly well hidden
but there are only a few relatively short blind pathways to get lost in and
the removal of the first piece takes a fun 10 moves. After this it remains
quite a stable construction (just a slight tendency for one piece to sag) and
then another 4 moves to remove the next.
6 very nice L-shaped plates
Having disassembled this over about an hour, I scrambled the pieces and left
them for a while before attempting a reassembly. I thought that I had a
reasonable memory of the process but somehow got stuck and kept going round and
around in circles with one of the pieces continually being trivial to remove and
not being interlocked as it should. It took me another hour to realise what I
was doing wrong and get it back together. I definitely think that for the more
advanced burr puzzler there is plenty of scope for this to be an assembly puzzle
and for the "normal" ones amongst us (are any of us that normal?) this is a fun
one to partially memorise and then work on the assembly from that. Of course
entry of the pieces into Burrtools is also part of the fun.
New Horizon
New Horizon
The final, but definitely not the least impressive, of the puzzles in this release is New Horizon from Alfons Eyckmans made from Pink Oak and Wenge.
This is something new from Alfons - I initially thought that it was another of his interlocking burrs in the shape of a cube and oh boy! was I wrong! Some of Alfons' cube burrs are really really tough but this is a whole other level. It is not at all what I was expecting - it is not a disassembly puzzle, it is an assembly challenge and a very very tough one. To take the cube apart it just requires finding the correct places to put your fingers and the pieces just pull apart sequentially until you have 12 rather interesting shapes to analyse.
I removed the first 6 of the pieces and decided to put them back together to form the cube. Unfortunately, even with only a 50% disassembly, I could not seem to work out which pieces went where and in what order. Whilst looking for the entry point for the first of those 6 pieces, another one fell onto my pile and then I really was in trouble - I couldn't remember the order of any of them and quickly decided to complete the dismantling - it was quite a fun thing to do.
12 odd shapes
Having taken my photo I have embarked on an assembly challenge and so far have completely failed. There are notches and "sticking out bits" to analyse and which restrict how the pieces will fit together. Also the orientation of the 1x2x2 voxel oak protuberances which will ultimately form the corners can only fit together in certain ways. This will require quite a lot of analysis and I suspect, will end up with me resorting to Burrtools. But the clever ones amongst you should be able to assemble this from scratch - it will be a wonderful challenge. I will keep trying for a week or so before I resort to BT.
So what should you be buying from this release? Personally, I think they are all fabulous. My favourites have to be the Flop series from Dr Latussek - even with a small cheat they are a wonderful challenge with some brilliant Aha! moments. You should also pick up the remaining Tetra flop to ensure that you get the whole set. After that, I definitely enjoyed the Oekanda from Lucie and the Connecting cubes is perfect as a coffee table puzzle. If you are a burr fanatic then Alfons' puzzles are a delight and I adore these framed plate puzzles from Osanori.
During a recent trip to London I dragged both wife and mother to Village Games in Camden Lock to see whether I could pick up anything new and exciting! I haven't been to Camden since I was 17 and was amazed at the change - it had always been a fairly "groovy" place but now almost every other shop was a tattoo and piercing parlour with a whole lot of very colourful people nearby! Absolutely brilliant for people watching! Amongst the delicious smells of the multitude of street food stalls in the West Yard of Camden Lock nestles the UK's only dedicated puzzle store (their online store has been pending for years now! A desperate shame really). The store is tiny and absolutely packed with puzzles and traditional games. I could have spent hours in their chatting to the owner (Barbara) and browsing but I was only too aware of having people waiting impatiently for me to finish. Unfortunately, I was also aware that I had just spent a fortune with the Vinco and Strijbos selections (see my earlier post) and so came away with only 4 puzzles that I did not think I would find easily elsewhere.
Lox in Box II
My first review from that group is Lox in Box II, it was designed by Vesa Timonen and is apparently the harder of the 2 packing puzzles. A couple of Finish sites have these for sale (Sloyd and Finnstore) and version 1 is rated as level 3 out of 5 and this one level 4 out of 5. This was the only one in Village Games - so I went with it. I am not sure what wood it is made from - I think it may be Birch.
Whilst the 4th Midlands Puzzle Party was being held again at Allard's house, I was taking a well earned break with the present Mrs S at Rudding Park hotel. I didn't want to miss out on the fun so I snuck a few puzzles into my luggage to do whilst relaxing during the pouring rain that was predicted whilst I was on holiday.
After a particularly caffeine and scone fuelled afternoon tea, I embarked on the Papillon 15 puzzle from Puzzle Master.
Whilst I really like the metal puzzles (wire and cast), I am particularly fond of wooden puzzles - for their beauty and the craftsmanship that goes into them. I really do want to have a try at making them myself but firstly I would need to clear all the crap out of my garage to built a workspace, then I would need to PVA the concrete floor to get rid of all the dust and then I would need to find some skills! None of this is likely to happen soon - also Mrs S might divorce me and I really couldn't afford that!!!! I am in awe at Neil's newly found skills. Until then I will be forced to buy as many as I can afford!
The Papillon 15 looked interesting and is pretty cheap, it was one of 5 that I took with me on my mini break (sad I know, but that's me!)
This wooden puzzle was designed by the famous Jean Claude Constantin and is probably one of his simpler puzzles. It is rated 8 out of 10 (Demanding) by Puzzle Master, a rating that I think is about right.
This puzzle arrives in a simple plastic shrink-wrap with no information at all, just a label stuck on it identifying it as the Papillon 15 - this certainly saves on packaging costs! It is made from 2 contrasting colours of wood and is quite attractive. It is not supplied with a solution and one is NOT available from the Puzzle Master website - this means you have to solve it to put it back on display!
I received the tetrahedron 2 at the same time as the dual tetrahedron. It is a beautifully tactile shape with a lovely mixture of light and dark woods. Unlike the other puzzle it is impossible to see the seams where the 4 parts join. To open it there are only so many places to grab so it is just a matter of holding it in each hand and pulling apart. When you have the right orientation then it suddenly pulls partially open.
I am going to start today's blog post all sentimental and maudlin. If
Allard
can do it then certainly I can too - I am MUCH more of a sentimental fool than
him. Yesterday was the 10th anniversary of my
very first post
on this blog. It was really just an announcement of an intention to write about
puzzles and then the following day (14th March 2011) was my very first
puzzle related article
and I started with something special - the original Revomaze series. It was
these gorgeous lumps of heavy metal that got me hooked. I needed to find a way
to take my mind off an unexpected near death experience and these were it. Of
course, any true bloke who gets interested in a new toy will take to the forums
and those bastards lovely ladies and gentlemen got me hooked on
more and more puzzles. Within a few months they had forced me into taking the huge leap to my first really "expensive" puzzle (Tom Lensch's version of the
Mazeburr). Yes, I was hooked! I wanted to publish at least once a week until I either
ran out of puzzles, ran out of steam or Mrs S murdered me and I have actually
managed that for 10 whole years (Mrs S really has come close to ending the blog
though). Initially I was publishing 2 or even 3 times a week but that gradually
settled down to my usual weekly schedule. I had been advised by a blogging guru
to set a schedule and stick to it - apparently your readers have certain
expectations and you should try not to disappoint them. Indeed on a few
occasions if I dared to be late then I would get an email asking if everything
was Ok and where was their weekend reading? I settled into a routine and have
managed to write something every week apart from on 2 occasions - I think I can
be forgiven for missing the day after my mother died and also last year when I
was really ill with Covid having caught it at work.
In this 10 years, bloggers have come and gone but the people/puzzlers behind
them all remain - this is just a hobby and people have to live their
lives. I am very proud to stand alongside Allard in completing 10 years of
entertainment for the community. In that time there have been 619 posts on my
main site plus 138 on the associated
New additions page (this was the only way Blogger would let me set up a separate page) and
my pageviews ramped up quite quickly. As of
publication today I have received 1.9 million pageviews and now that so many have
occured after my mother died I can now convince myself it wasn't just all her.
My most viewed posts are on the Hanayama Cast Quartet at 23,300 views followed
by my post about twisty puzzle parity at 22,800 views.
Puzzlemad main site
Puzzlemad New stuff page
I was achieving 10-15,000 views per month but the last 15 months have seen a sudden increase to 30,000! Unbelievable that so many crazy people out there want to read my drivel! My readership is truly global which boggles my tiny mind.
What happened at the end of 2019?
It has been the community out there who has kept me going. The trouble with
blogging is that it is a huge effort to do this week in and week out and it
often feels that you are shouting out into the void. Over the years many of
you have
contacted me or left comments on my posts as well as been in touch via my personal
Facebook page. It is those moments of contact and feedback that make it all worthwhile. I
do not try to monetise this hobby - I gratefully receive a few $CAD each month from
PuzzleMaster if you buy from them via a link on my site but that is the only income
I get. To be honest, I am not really interested in the idea of earning money from my
hobby. I am lucky enough to work in a position where my income is secure and I
want this to remain a hobby. I have turned down offers of sponsored posts,
advertising and SEO posts. For me, this should be all MY work. Except
(and it's a very BIG exception) for the
guest posts
provided for me by my wonderful friend and foreign correspondent,
Mike Desilets. He has come up with the goods for me when I was either too busy
or had nothing prepared. I also like to think that he provides a great view of
an alternative side to this hobby. He certainly collects, solves and writes
about modern puzzles but primarily he has shown off the more vintage side that
I have very little knowledge of. I am exceptionally grateful to him for all
his efforts on my/our behalf.
The desk is out of control! She says I MUST tidy up!
I hope to continue this wonderful hobby of puzzling and blogging for another
10 years at least as long as you will keep reading and as long as Mrs S will
let me. I have a serious space problem - and have rearranged my collection
many times and expanded from one small study into another room. When I mention
taking over another room, the laser burning stare moves to between my eyes and
I can smell/feel burning coming from my forehead. The conversation closes
abruptly at that point!
Now on to today's puzzle reviews. For my tenth anniversary post, I am so
pleased to have received early copies of the upcoming releases from Jakub and
Jaroslav at
Pelikan puzzles. This particular batch is absolutely stunning and has some really special
and unusual puzzles in it.
Pepper Castor
Top view
Bottom - the pepper casting view
This beautiful puzzle screamed at me to be tried first. It's a design by
Alexander Magyarics, it's beautiful in Zebrano and Padauk and most importantly
it's based on a triangular grid. Very few puzzle designs (other than 2D packing
puzzles are very made using a triangular grid. I suspect that this is primarily
because it is harder to design them with it being very hard to tell during the
design process whether there will be unwanted rotational shortcuts. Also there
are very few craftsmen willing to put in the time and effort to make the
required jigs to these accurately. Here we have the perfect combination of a
talented designer who has obviously done his homework and ensured there are no
shortcuts as well as some of the best craftsmen in the world!
This puzzle is named after the pepper shaker/castor because of the pattern of
holes on one end and it quickly becomes apparent that they are there for a
reason. My first reaction during my early moves was that this was seriously
fiddly. Then I realised that changing the orientation of the puzzle made
certain moves easier to control and then I discovered that after 3 or 4 moves,
my ability to backtrack was gone! I was stuck with a piece packing out and
unable to visualise the internals to reset it. Oh well! Better carry on then.
After about a ½ hour of progressively more anxious swearing, I removed the
first piece and then the other two. There was no Aha! Moment as I had no idea
how I had achieved it. I took my photo and realised that I had scrambled the
pieces! At this point, it became quite apparent that this puzzle is a very
special variant on the usual Magyarics theme... he had created a fancy low
piece number interlocking packing puzzle. Very similar to many of his others
but with the twist of a triangular grid and holes top and bottom.
Incredible pieces!
Repacking was a serious challenge, first reproducing the shape to fill all the
gaps in the box and then working out the sequence. Finally actually having the
dexterity to do it was a nice added bonus. This is a terrific puzzle as well as
a gorgeous one!
Rattlesnake
Rattlesnake - you can see why
No release from Pelikan these days is complete without another wonderful packing
puzzle from Alexander Magyarics. This beauty is stunning with a Wenge box
complete with fairly large but quite restricted opening and 3 pieces to be
placed inside made from Zebrano. As usual, the question I always ask myself is:
"there are only 3 pieces...how hard can this be?"
Well, either I am stupid (probable) or this one has a serious challenge to it
(quite likely). Several times I tried to get 2 pieces inside the box only to
have one rotate inside and then block all other movements. Nearly gave me a
heart attack at one point when I couldn't take the pieces out that I had
placed in the wrong positions!
I'm sure by now you all know that I adore the 3x3 cube based packing puzzles
with unusual piece shapes and restricted entry into the container. I have lots
of them from Osanori and Alexander and am always in the lookout for new
variants. Imagine, if you will, yet another one, beautifully made by the guys at
Pelikan but making things much more interesting the box has captive pieces which
hook over two of the sides which can slide into any of the three positions on
each of them. This means we have a similar type of packing puzzles but where the
box can effectively change shape before and during the solution process. It also
means that we have seven challenges where the "sliders" have to end up at
different positions (the eighth potential configuration has no solutions). This
is a puzzler's dream - beauty and multiple puzzles in one. It has been superbly
constructed with a gorgeous Pink Oak box, Wenge captive sliding pieces and
vibrant Purpleheart pieces.
These seven challenges are definitely not trivial, in fact I've only managed
to solve 3 of them so far. I don't think that I have found the "best/longest"
solution to them so I will have to keep looking. This one definitely needs to
be solved outside first before attempting to fit it inside - but the captive
sliding pieces make the thought processes much more difficult. This puzzle is
absolutely fabulous and great value for money - go buy it now!
First challenge solved - YAY!
Akku
Akku - looks formidable straight away!
Dr Volker Latussek has been providing some fabulous puzzles to Pelikan for a few
years now. They are all extremely clever and challenging - some so clever and
challenging that they are beyond my abilities (blush,
Euklid for Nick
remains unsolved). In this release we have Akku (I am not sure why the German
word for battery is the name of this puzzle - maybe Dr Latussek will comment
below). This consist of a wonderful Acacia box and some very precisely crafted
Maple pieces to be packed inside. There are 9 L shaped pieces to be fitted into
the interior of the box. The cavity is 4x4x3 units in size and each L is 3x3x1
unit meaning that there will be just 3 holes in the packed puzzle but with such
a large awkward shape the assembly will need some rotations to get the pieces
into the restricted opening.
This is how it arrived - I cannot put it back this way!
The puzzle is shipped in a special shape that Dr Latussek instructed and I took
the pieces out of the box for the photo only to find that I could not get them
back into that shape again! This was going to be a foreboding of what was to
come. I spent quite a while trying to find how to assemble a 4x4x3 cuboid from
these pieces and even this was a struggle. In the end I resorted to Burrtools to
try and find the possible arrangements - there are 6 ways to assemble the shape.
Time to pick one and get it into the box. Easier said than done! This is a
serious puzzling challenge. After 2 evenings of attempts, I finally worked it
out - wonderful idea. Think of how best to rotate an L shaped piece and then see
what you can do with it. My solved picture is behind a spoiler button - it
doesn't give a lot away but there is some info in the picture that might give
more of a hint than you want - you have been warned! Don't click the button!
Not too much of a clue but I hid it anyway
Fake Cube
Fake Cube - this is beautiful and looks impossible
This glorious work of art has been made from Acacia and Padauk. The aim is to
assemble the complex pieces into a cube shape which can be stood on its' corner
in the stand - these 10 identical and oddly shaped pieces need to assemble into
a 6x6x6 cube. Just doing the simple maths tells me that this doesn't add up -
each piece is 18 voxels in volume with 10 of them making 180 voxels in
total and the 6x6x6 cube will be 216 voxels - quite a large discrepancy. Hence
the name...the Fake cube needs to be assembled so that just the exterior looks
like it is complete and hides the holes inside and on the walls adjacent to the
case. This reminds me of a stunningly beautiful and much more complex
version of the Half-cube puzzles from Vinco. Yet again, I removed all the pieces
for my photo and couldn't put them back into the packing position (I love how
all of his puzzles have a specific arrangement for transport). I have not had
long enough to play with this puzzle - I have managed (by pure luck) to make a
shape that will fit into the case but clearly not correct as there are lots of
holes visible on all sides:
I have not yet had time to play with this one and will review it properly as
soon as I have. When the "TIC master", Andrew Crowell gets together with the
master of interesting interlocking shapes, Christoph Lohe then I have to pay
attention! These puzzles are very reminiscent of several of the best
interlocking puzzles of all time (Lucida and
Identical twins
by Osanori) but almost certainly are going to be significantly tougher to solve.
Chamburr is made from Merbau and Pink Oak and looks fabulous with Pelikan's
usual perfect accuracy.
Cyburr
Cyburr
Another that I haven't yet played with. Like Chamburr, it is a collaboration by
Andrew Crowell and Christoph Lohe but this time made from Mahogany and Maple.
The aim is to separate the pieces from the complex frame and I have no doubt
that it will involve some complex rotations in the process.
On loan from Shane
Just a quick (and not terribly happy) sidenote. Not everyone in this
community is great - I am incredibly proud to have in my collection the
complete set of
Hales puzzles and
they form a centrepiece in my collection. I am very aware that these are
effectively just on loan as the agreement with all of Shane's puzzles is
that they should never be sold and should be returned to the creator when no
longer required. It would appear that there is one deceptive person who has
been skirting the edge of the community for a few years and due to his
terrible behaviour has been shunned by pretty much everyone. If you want to
learn some new interesting swearwords then ask Eric Fuller about Niko. Niko
uses a number of aliases and has duped puzzlers and craftsmen into giving or
selling cheap and has even tried to hack Eric's site. He has a blog which is
pretty rubbish and uses it to deceive quite a few naïve puzzle creators into
giving him copies of their creations which he has then flogged at huge
profit. He has now managed to con a holder of Shane's Viper puzzle out of
someone when they were at a low point in their life and has put it up for
sale at an exorbitant price.
Please do NOT buy this puzzle from him
- he is an untrustworthy conman and does not own that puzzle to sell - Shane
wants it back. If you are contacted by him then just refuse to continue to
speak to him. He has several names that he uses including first names of
Niko, Nick or Nicholas and surnames of Azerty, Nicolas or Demarquez. He is
not worth your time - all of us puzzle bloggers have ceased contact, he has
been banned from all the auction sites and most craftsmen including Eric and
Wil Strijbos are refusing to deal with him. This says it all!
