Diagonal Moves are Great!

In fact they are bloody marvelous!

3 Gorgeous packing puzzles from Brian Menold and Laszlo Kmolnar

You will need to excuse any editing errors in this post - I have been desperate to improve my writing methods to make them easier to achieve and less work. The Blogger on-line system is not particularly responsive and I have been trying to move to a plain text editing system using Multimarkdown in a special editor called Scrivener which allows me to keep all my thoughts and plans etc in a single document and organise everything without having to worry much about formatting and having the distraction of the web browser open at the same time. It also means that I have full copies of all my blog posts outside of Google’s system if I ever wish to move elsewhere (for example SquareSpace looks fun as does a self hosted WordPress site). So I am trying out an entirely new system here and my grammar and spelling may wander off whilst I learn new methods - just bear with me.

Today’s topic is based on some gorgeous puzzles I received this week from both Brian Menold and Eric Fuller - all the puzzles that I will discuss today are made considerably more confusing and definitely more interesting by the fact that they do not require simple linear movements. The addition of diagonal (and also rotational in one puzzle) really up the ante on the puzzle. They may well make the puzzle harder to manufacture but it is more than worth it for such a fantastic end result.

The first beauty that I am going to mention is the third in a series from Brian Menold and designed by the genius that is Laszlo Molnar (also known as Lacika Kmolnar) - I reviewed the first 2 in a blog about think Outside the box. In that post I described how I spent many hours struggling to find first the special fancy move that would allow the crucial piece to fit in the box and also the particular assembly of the pieces that would make it possible. Brian emailed to let me know that he was planning on making the third in the series - called No Holes Barred by Laszlo and asked whether I would be wanting it and if so would I want it in the same woods as the previous 2? He said he had just enough of those woods to allow one more puzzle to be made - I absolutely lurve the combination of Marblewood and Holly so I immediately emailed a definite yes back to him and I knew that I didn’t have to worry about the scrum that occurs when Brian posts an update (pretty much every time I get a puzzle stolen out of my shopping cart before I manage to login and pay). I was blown away by the look of Brian’s new additions and so bought more than I anticipated - Mrs S really did not approve when they arrived and the laser burning stare was utilised to maximum effect as well as the whiplash tongue.

No Holes Barred - Marblewood and Holly

The No Holes Barred puzzle was offered in quite a few gorgeous woods and they all got snapped up very quickly. Brian said this about it:

The latest packing puzzle brain teaser from Laszlo is cool! He told me he thought is was easier than Triagonal Agony but after three days of playing with my prototype I had to get back to work and ask him to send me the solution! This is another of his Aha! moment puzzles.

I was very much hoping for a puzzle that was a bit easier than the Triagonal Agony! That one took me weeks before my Aha! moment. Of course it had to be the first one I tried. The puzzle had arrived with the pieces outside of the box and all shrink-wrapped together - no chance to cheat by having a quick peek at the solution. I tipped them out and took the photo above and had a play that evening with a cat on my lap whilst watching TV with the “first wife”. Needless to say I failed to solve it when the little bugger (cat not wife! Whack! Ouch! Sorry dear!) romped off with one of the pieces in his mouth. That night I put it in my bag to take to work for the next few days (just in case I got a chance to play).

The key feature of this puzzle is that there is a half block stuck to the box which severely limits the way the pieces can be inserted and also one of the 5 identical pieces is differentiated by having a block diagonally cut away. The first thing I did was try to work out what the special pieces might allow and then see if I could utilise that special feature. There are several possibilities and I obviously would need to try them all out. Then I had to “think outside the box” again - doing it in the box would make it far harder. I failed for the first couple of days and one evening, I had a late finish because of an educational evening I had to attend. Whilst waiting in the Ivory Tower for the meeting to begin, I had a spare hour and under the watchful eye of one of my colleagues, I proceeded to investigate systematically. There are 4 or 5 possible assemblies that might fit in place which can be doubled by rotating the cube through 180º. There was one that looked particularly interesting because it potentially required a ver fancy coordinate motion to work. I tried to get this to happen for about ½ an hour making loud clacking noises and both amusing and annoying nearby colleagues who were struggling to concentrate on more academic topics. Eventually I had to give up on that particular approach and look elsewhere. Just before the meeting was about to begin I had my Aha! moment and all of a sudden I knew how it worked - I got a round of applause from my bemused colleague and a sigh of relief from several others. It’s amazing how annoying I can be to many other people and not just Mrs S!

Finally solved - now it can be put away on show

Another puzzle I couldn’t resist from Brian was a design by Gregory Benedetti - Little Slide Plank. My version was made from Red Oak and Black Palm. I have previously bought a few coordinate motion puzzles from the amazing Vinco (aka Václav Obšivač) - but haven’t bought any coordinate motion puzzles for a while. This new one by Greg was a good price so it had to be added to my shopping cart:

Mrs S says all my puzzle are just cubes - she might actually be right!

Brian said the following about it:

I made this coordinate motion cube just for fun. The three pieces sometimes take a bit of pushing and pulling to get moving but it is not that difficult to take apart. And with only three piece, reassembly is quite easy too. Only a few made of each as these were made from stock left over from another project and a bit of a last minute decision.

Scary movements!

Picking it up in just the right places causes it to literally slide apart and then the pieces drop on the cat who is sleeping on your lap:

He didn't seem to mind!

Good view of the pieces

He didn’t even wake up this time! Putting it back together is not difficult as Brian said but it makes a fabulous worry bead to play with. What a bargain at $19!

Finally today I have to show off yet another amazing design by Gregory Benedetti. The New Old School Puzzles were designed in time for last years’ IPP and Greg worked on Eric to make them in wood. Eventually the convincing worked and Eric said yes. I reviewed the first two of them here and was completely bowled over by the amazing design and production. When Eric said that he planned on making some more in the series then I knew that I had to have them - on the predicted day I sat refreshing my browser repeatedly until the update went live. Another 2 were available and I snapped up both - I did want some of the others but after splashing out with Brian, I had to be careful. I really didn’t want to give Mrs S another excuse for a Whack! Ouch! Pictured below is the Crenel puzzle which is the number 5 in the NOS series:

Just another 6 piece burr? I don't think so!

It is gorgeous in Purpleheart and looks just like a standard 6 piece burr except that no standard linear moves will work. The hallmark of this series is that odd diagonal movements are required and many are coordinate motion. This means that the standard Burrtools application cannot solve it for you.

Eric said this about it:

Crenel is the fifth of the NOS designs and is difficult to disassemble and assemble. It has extremely unusual movements that will have you muttering under your breath when you take it apart, and exclaming admiration for Gregory’s genius when you reassemble. The peculiar back and forth gate movements are extraordinary.

The first thing I noticed was that it was much looser than Eric’s usual output but after playing with it I reckon that is required to ensure that everything slides properly in all the required directions. Literally after a minute or so you get an idea of the complexity of what is happening inside. Notice in that picture the diagonally oriented slots and cuts.

As I played, I noticed that there are several blind ends and even unexpected back tracking is required - this must be the “back and forth gate movement” that he meant. The disassembly is not horrifically difficult - and after a short while the puzzle splits into two halves. One half falls apart easily and the other needs further moves before you end up with this:

These must have been a nightmare to fashion!

Make sure you have noted which pieces belong where before you scramble the pieces as the reassembly from scratch is a real challenge. I absolutely loved it - it is my favourite of the series so far. The fourth one - Transfer (NOS2) remains unsolved - it frightens me to death! Every piece moves at the same time!

Of course I had to take a group photo:

4 seemingly simple 6 piece burrs - don't let the looks fool you

I really hope that Eric makes the others in the series - if he does I will be sure to throw my money at him again. I suggest you go to Cubic now - there seems to be a few of each of the NOS puzzles left just now.

I have made a video of the Crenel puzzle to show off the amazing movements to those of you who haven’t managed to get a copy and also if you have managed to disassemble it but not managed to work out the reassembly then the video may help you.

Hopefully I have convinced you that diagonal moves are great? Now I need to get back to solving puzzles with circular moves - Derek and Steve's last productions - Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum are causing me some problems! Twiddle Dum is in pieces and I cannot put it back together and Twiddle Dee just will not come apart! They are MUCH tougher than previous helical burrs.

Damn these are tough!!!

I hope you have enjoyed the post - if you do have any suggestions on writing methods and platforms then I’m open to suggestions. Just comment below or drop me a line via my Contact page.

Friends Can be Helpful (or not)

A 4x4 Turning interlocking cube.
I didn't know what it was at first!

I’m still beavering away on my Popplock T11 and can definitely say that it is the best and most complex one so far. I would not have gotten very far if it was not for my good friend and lock expert Shane. Not only has he helped me replace all my door locks with ultra-secure ones but he has also given me subtle and not so subtle hints to allow me to progress in my T11 odyssey. I’m not finished yet but I have made considerable progress. The final steps seem to be still eluding me.

At the last MPP, I received a copy of a 4x4 Turning Interlocking Cube (TIC) from Jamie (another friend who’s leading me astray into the fascinating world of lock picking). I don’t actually know what the cube is because the label on the box is definitely incorrect (and definitely not helpful) as it tells me this is the 2 Temps 3 Movements by Gregory Benedetti. I’ve been carrying it with me for a few weeks because I’ve been unable to completely dismantle it despite trying most evenings when I get stuck with the T11. Every now and then when I get a moment at work I take it out of my unfeasibly heavy bag and try to remove the 3rd and 4th pieces - I’ve managed the first 2 which need linear moves but the rotational moves have eluded me.

A few days ago whilst waiting in the coffee room I showed off my current challenges to the assembled boys and girls including my ODP (anaesthetic assistant), David. They looked at the twisty with horror and, as usual, thought that I was a crazy person for even attempting such a thing. David asked to play with the TIC. In a surprisingly short period time, he managed to remove those first 2 pieces and I told him that was as far as I had managed to get. Unconvinced of the extreme difficulty of the challenge he continued to play whilst I resumed work on another challenge that has kept me stumped for nearly a year, the 4x4x3 mixup plus cuboid. This was bought at the suggestion of 2 (almost) helpful friends, Martin and Paul who insisted that it was a fabulous fun challenge. Having bought it nearly a year ago I was still unable to solve it but had thought I might have worked out a method in bed at night last week.

4x4x3 Mixup plus as it has been for nearly a year!

Just as I finished showing everyone how horrific the twisty puzzle is (they think I might have a small degree of Asperger’s syndrome!!!) I saw out of the corner of my eye that David was removing the 3rd piece from the puzzle and then the last one. My jaw dropped and I blurted out that I hoped he’d been paying attention to how he did it. At this point, his jaw dropped and he said he was unsure if he remembered. OMG!! I nervously laughed and challenged him to put it back together! Quickly before he completely forgot!

By close to the end of the day David had still not managed to put it back together and I began to worry. Whilst I continued with my twisty I began to encourage him more and more earnestly that he really had to manage at least the rotational moves! After encouragement and threats to his physical well-being, he still failed.

Beautiful pieces - no idea what of or how they went together!

I put the twisty down and, between the two of us, we resorted to taking several of the last pieces and seeing how they could fit together, at least theoretically. This proved to be a bit of a problem. Why? Firstly because we(I) were not terribly bright (as usual) and secondly because it had failed to imprint on my consciousness that the assembled cube had a 1x1x2 section missing from an edge. We had found an assembly of the last 3 pieces several times that had an isolated space and discounted it each time because we assumed that having this gap would leave an impossible space.

Partial assembly discounted

Bloody fool had forgotten this!

Finally, it was time for David to head home and another of the ODPs (Gary) decided to take over the challenge. Together we worked on it for another 20 minutes or so before realising the error of our ways and had our fabulous Aha! moment.

It’s good to have clever friends!

In general, I am extremely poor at puzzle assembly and usually resort to Burrtools, but with the TICs, this is not helpful. It’s important to either be good at assembly or attentive to the disassembly method with these puzzles. Having a “friend” take something apart and fail to put it back together was a huge problem which really challenged my rather feeble brain. Thank heavens for Gary this time. I may have to swap my Wednesday ODP for a more able version!

I must also say Thank Heavens for the Internet archive - the ability to go back in time has allowed me to identify the puzzle as Ka'apuni designed by Jos Bergmans (level 1.5.4.4) and made by Brian Menold in November last year. It turned out to be an absolutely fabulous challenge that kept me and several friends going for quite a while. I even learned how to go about assembling from scratch!

4x4x3 Mixup plus - looks innocuous like this

Just a few turns - centres and edges can be swapped

Now back to the mixup cuboid…..having solved the wonderful 3x3 Mixup Ultimate cube (Puzzlemaster link), (PuzzlestoreUK link) last year and even made a solution video of it on my YouTube channel, I had been discussing this sort of puzzle with Martin and Paul and they had both recommended the Mixup plus cuboids as well as the Wormhole puzzles. I placed a nice order with Martin and when they arrived I shied away from the Wormhole puzzles in abject terror! They are twisty puzzles inside of twisty puzzles and I had absolutely no idea how to go about them. Looking at the Mixup plus and thinking back to my simple algorithm for the Ultimate, I decided to have a play with that one. After a quick fiddle to look at possible algorithms, I discovered that I had accidentally scrambled it (whoops) and from then on had no option other than to complete the scramble. Of course, I had not managed to find any suitable useful algorithms but I was hopeful that I might manage it anyway.

For the next two months, I said "whoops" several more times (or words with a slightly stronger meaning). This puzzle was proving a huge challenge and seemed to be beyond me. I was able to use basic techniques from previous puzzles like the edge piece series to make a little headway and, with some intuition, I thought I might get somewhere….

• White and yellow centres? Check! 
• Other centres? Check! 
• Centres in the centre? Check! 
• Recreate large edge pieces? Erm….sort of! With some sticky out bits...Oh alright! Nope!
• Recreate little edge pieces? Hell no!

No way on earth was I going to manage that! Too many pieces sticking out at funny angles! Time to think©….nope! not happening! I was at it for months with no progress and eventually put it down. Beaten!     Again!!

Recently, I had been playing with my 4x4 and 6x6 standard cubes as well as the Moyu Wheel of Time cubes and noticed that the technique used for 3cycling the centre pieces could also be used on edge pieces too. This is effectively a corner piece series (a very basic algorithm). I went to bed thinking about this last week and woke up one morning with a real Aha! moment and stuffed the long-abandoned mixup puzzle in my bag. It took me a couple of days and evenings to manoeuvre the cube into a suitable configuration to test my theorem and I realised that most of the first half of the puzzle is solved by intuition and then I was able to prove my dream was correct….almost! My technique (very similar to the Mixup ultimate) worked beautifully for the small edge pieces but the 4 larger ones wouldn’t work. More thought© required. I knew that the CPS was the way to go but I was missing something. Much to the amusement of surgeons and nurses at work, I kept effing and blinding in the coffee room as I continuously broke and remade my previous progress. It took me a couple of days of experiments before I found it.

The Aha! moment was exquisite! So much pain and anguish had gone into it!

Single flipped edge standard 4x4 parity

2 opposite swapped edges - another one

During the final throes of the solution process I did find that the usual 4x4 parities were possible (single flipped edge and/or a pair of swapped edges) but with the shape of the puzzle, it was easy to repair that with standard 4x4 methods. I do wonder whether the 4x3x3 version has these parities and whether other techniques are required? I guess I will need to buy one to find out.

My 2 puzzle friends were, in the end, quite right and helpful - the 4x4x3 Mixup plus cube was a fabulous challenge and I suspect it may well be in my top 10 of the year! Maybe I should go back to the Wormholes and try them? Shudder!

All in all, it is really good to have puzzle friends even if they are not very helpful.

Now I had better get back to the T11, and those Chinese rings from Aaron, and the burrs from Alfons, and.....OMG!

Daedalus or....

A Frenchman Reveals my Feeble Brain! 

Looks innocent? Daedalus - "Just" a 3x3 interlocking cube

Recently I've gone Dutch, tried a Finn or two, been to Siam, sampled some Czech and Afrikaner and definitely gone to the US and Austria! Now I'd really like to show off something French!

Last week I showed you something cheap and available to everyone and now as a complete contrast I'm exhibiting something very rare indeed. It was bought quite near the beginning of my addiction in October 2011 and for me, at that time, it was a very significant purchase having cost me €100! Lord how my madness has worsened since then! I now consider that price quite reasonable!

Ambigram burr

Pictured at the top and the subject of today's blog post is the Daedalus puzzle - it is another unique design by the amazing Gregory Benedetti (from France) and made by the hugely talented Maurice Vigouroux (also French). This was one of three puzzles that Gregory had entered in the 2011 IPP design competition held in Berlin. That year his Ambigram Burr was one of the top ten vote "getters" and was so good that I had to obtain a copy for myself - one day I will review that too. The first few were made in Marblewood and sold very quickly. Maurice made a couple more batches in assorted hardwoods and they all sold very quickly on Puzzle Paradise. I was lucky enough to be in touch with Gregory and got mine from him personally - I was less discerning in my knowledge of woods at that time and I think the only wood that I recognised was Walnut so that was what I chose. I've not seen one at auction in years and so have no idea what it might cost today.

Nicely presented solution booklet

Wireframe diagrams - a lot of effort went into this puzzle

The cube arrived with a rather beautifully made spiral bound booklet with 52 pages of wire frame pictures showing the step by step solution process - I was very careful to admire the booklet quickly and then file it away without really paying any attention to the steps it showed. I wanted to solve it myself! I wanted to become a puzzle maestro like Allard and then be able to boast on my blog that I was able to solve a puzzle so difficult that Burrtools could not solve it. Silly me! I have many times on this blog mentioned that I am "a bear of very little brain" and this puzzle has proved it - my insistence in not looking at the booklet meant that it has taken nearly 4 years to solve the blasted thing! Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised - Brian discussed it here and found it VERY difficult. Neil managed it without too much difficulty and wrote a stunning review here.

When I first got it I fiddled for a few weeks and got stuck - it was very early in my puzzling career and I had really not gotten much practice at interlocking solids and almost none with rotational puzzles. I was completely overwhelmed by all the directions and options. After a month or so this went on my shelf above my computer (where my most prized puzzles go) and I gazed at it periodically with longing and even tried to solve it intermittently but, to be honest, it frightened me to death! I know! I'm a puzzle wimp!

Even More Turning Madness!

Tronc Commun 3

At the beginning of January I waxed lyrical about a wonderful design by Gregory Benedetti which had been made by Brian Menold, the Tronc Commun 4 was what I consider to be the very best "Turning Interlocking Cube" ever designed. When Brian announced a new update was imminent I had an inkling that there might be another in the series available. I spent a fair amount of time hitting the refresh button on my browser to load and reload his site. His service provider was having problems at the time and it took a while before anything was showing up. Luckily I got there pretty quickly and picked up a beautiful cube - Tronc Commun 3 made from Wenge and Zebrawood.

My parcel then got held up by British customs and I was tortured by reports from my friend Ali who had also picked up a copy and thought it was fabulous. I had actually solved it in the past when Bernhard had made me a prototype version from Maple which was fun but functional. As is usual, I have forgotten absolutely everything about it apart from that I own it and that it was good and having gotten a copy of number 4 from Brian I really did have to get the number 3 in exotic woods as well - after all it is a collection and you cannot have too much wood!

Graduating from the New Old School

The final 3 in the New Old School Series

In the UK secondary school starts at age 11 and continues through 7 years to age 18 depending on whether one continues to A level. Needless to say I went "all the way" with my education and with Gregory Benedetti's New Old School Puzzles I again had to go all the way through all 7 of them until I could say that I have graduated!

Eric produced the first four at the beginning of last year and with their very special coordinate moves hidden inside what looked like normal 6 piece burrs I just couldn't resist them at all and bought them immediately. I even said to "she who must be lied to" at that time that:

"These are something TOTALLY NEW! They might be a completely new puzzle category."

The first 4 made my top ten of 2016 and I was very worried at the time that Eric did not think at that time last year that he could possibly produce the final 3 in the series because the stick shapes were so crazy. A large number of us encouraged him to have a try and after he had seen some 3D printed versions he decided to give it a go. I am delighted to have a fabulous series of 7 apparently innocuous 6 piece burrs with a helluva bite to them:

Don't look like much do they? Apart from the beautiful wood they are marvelous puzzles.

When the update to his site went live, I had placed my order within a couple of minutes! The price was a little higher than expected but we had been warned that might be the case due to the huge amount of work involved. Needless to say I didn't hesitate but it did stop me buying any of the other wonderful toys he had produced.

A Couple of VERY Complex Worry Beads

Crosscut

I had seen the Crosscut burr pictured above a long time ago in a Burrtools screenshot when Dan Fast (aka CrazyBadCuber) showed off his new design. I am amazed how quickly he has picked up the skills to design in Burrtools and has produced some absolutely fascinating ideas. A few have already been produced by Eric Fuller and Stephan Baumegger but this is the first to be made by my favourite Czech craftsmen. I got very excited when Jakub showed off one of the first and I immediately sent off an email expressing my interest.

I was delighted when it arrived earlier this week and it is just as special in real life as it was on Facebook. As you can see it is absolutely stunning having been made out of Cherry and Wenge. All the edges are beautifully bevelled and all the pieces fit together so perfectly that you cannot feel an edge between them.

I received it at the end of a VERY long day and after placating Mrs S about yet another delivery and having a bite to eat, I was too tired to do any more than idly fiddle with it. I took a photo and posted it on Facebook and a while later Dan asked whether I had solved it yet - he claimed that it was an easy one! Yeah! Right! He doesn't remember that I am really not terribly bright.

Zauberflote

Zauberflote Pieces

Recently I (and many others) received an email from Eric Fuller informing us of yet more shiny new toys available from Cubic dissection. Having bought quite a lot fairly recently and been told off by the present Mrs S for spending her shoe and handbag money, I was a little hesitant to spend any more! She packs a pretty mean whiplash tongue, you know!!!

I know from previous experience that Eric's work is beautifully made and sells very fast, so I had to get something - even if it was only a little something! I can't resist something made of wood (or metal, or plastic) so I chose a couple of items. They cleared customs pretty quickly and I have been fiddling with the first one for a while now.

This one is called Zauberflote (Magic flute) and was designed by Gregory Benedetti as one of a series of puzzles in the shape of Pan pipes (from 2 to 7 pipes) - they can be seen in all their glory at the Puzzle will be played site. This version has 4 "pipes" and the full name should be "Zauberflöte - Königin der nacht" it is made of Yellowheart (a wood I have never heard of) and acrylic. When assembled it is a diminutive 5.5cm long and 4cm high. It has been reviewed so far by Brian (who is a puzzle solving machine and managed to solve it on day 2 of play!!!) and by Neil (who managed it initially in a similar way to me albeit very much faster than I did).

Is this a new puzzle category?

Compressed (NOS1)

Round Trip (NOS3)

In December, Eric Fuller returned from his rather prolonged road trip and bamboozled us with quite a few nice new toys to choose from. I was just a bit cash strapped again, having been hit by several puzzler designers/craftsmen in a short space of time. I decided that I had to buy these 2 puzzles and pass on the others no matter how much I wanted them! At this point in time drooling was only going to make me dehydrated and not actually help me obtain more toys. Having spent the cash, I waited, and waited and waited for weeks. The tracking on the US post website said they were in the UK and the Royal mail site acknowledged it but did not say where they had gone. After 3 weeks, I got rather fed up and called them.  They were, I was told, being held by customs and they would only return to the website once released. So I waited and waited even longer. I'd more or less given up hope when they suddenly arrived in my mail with no final customs demand and no sign that they had even been looked at! Phew! They were entirely intact!

They came out of the packaging and posed for photos. Mrs S, quite rightly this time, said that they looked quite like several others I had and also looked like the ones I had been constructing from those 3 burrsets I had acquired earlier. Obviously Mrs S does pay some attention to my never ending stream of acquisitions. I could not do what she does when I ask if a pair of shoes or clothing is new! She always replies:

"oh no I've had this for ages - don't you remember that I bought it last year?"

I can't argue with her because there is such a continual influx of girls stuff that I have ceased to pay any attention to what it is! But she has answered the door to postie with my stuff and knows whenever I get something new!

She is quite right however to say that they do look suspiciously familiar - they look remarkably like 6 piece burrs. But I said to her and I say to you:

These are something TOTALLY NEW! They might be a completely new puzzle category.

The response was a snort and the comment that I always say that with every puzzle that arrives. Guilty as charged I guess - but I'm sure that I don't declare that they are a new category every time. To prove to her that there is something special - I just move a piece in Compressed and a few pieces in Round Trip and show her a hint of what is inside. There are some very odd shapes in there! I just get a blank look in return. I don't argue because the smell of burning flesh from the laser burning stare is becoming overwhelming and I don't want to risk a Whack! Ouch! until I have had a chance to play.

Eric Fuller - A Cubic Tribute

My main 3 Cubic Dissection shelves
Of course! There are others strewn throughout my house including a good few in my to be solved pile.

My first!

The puzzling world was rocked at the beginning of this week when word was posted of the very premature death of my friend Eric Fuller at only 47 years old. He was an unhealthy influence on my finances right from the start of my puzzling career with my first small batch having been bought from him in May 2011 under very special circumstances - when I reviewed them I pointed out how amazing and helpful he had been and this has been the case ever since. 

Eric was a man of strong feelings and strong actions - and as described by Steve of Boxes and Booze, he was fantastic fun to talk to and even better to hang around with (I met him at the 2 IPPs that I have attended). heaven help you if he took a disliking to you but his natural state was to be happy and outgoing and to everyone I have talked to he was larger than life and one of the most helpful puzzle creators you could hope to meet. 

His website was named because Eric loved puzzles that seemed to be made of smaller shapes/dissections. He particularly loved burrs and when he struggled to buy more for his own collection he decided to make his own and quickly decided this was what he wanted to do for a career. Despite being told that the idea would likely fail, Eric went to work and with the help of some of the best craftsmen in the world in 2002/3 he learned the techniques to make wooden shapes with extreme precision and Cubic Dissection was born. It very quickly became one of the go to sites for puzzlers and collectors to visit for high quality and, especially important to Eric, affordable wooden puzzles. For me when I started out in 2011, I had little idea how expensive things could be and after my beginning with the only moderately expensive revomazes, I moved onto mass produced puzzles before Eric's offerings were mentioned to me. Let's just say that things went downhill for my finances after May 2011!

Steve discussed the fabulous boxes that Eric created in his tribute and I, to my shame, only own one of Eric's boxes...the Be-box and Reactor box combination which I was able to justify as being firstly an N-ary puzzle. 

Bebox

Reactor box freed from Bebox

I hate to think how much of my money has ended up in Eric's bank account but I cannot complain...I have some of the most beautiful and fun toys to show for it and can say that I helped support one of the best puzzle craftsmen on the planet and helped him continue to make us all more objects of beauty and addiction. Here are just a few of those he created that I think show off the pinnacle of his craftsmanship.   

In my opinion, one series of puzzles that Eric created that shows off the incredible breadth of his skills are the New Old School burrs designed by the amazing Gregory Benedetti. He started out with the easier ones and stated that there were some that he never expected to be able to create but after pressure was applied by the puzzle community (we basically begged him to try), the whole set was finally brought into reality.

The NOS burr series in all their glory

The interior intricacies have to be seen to be believed!

The Ternary burr designed by Goh Pit Khiam (and improved by Eric) had been a huge object of desire for many puzzlers after the original limited edition made by Brian Young had long sold out. Eric managed to convince the designer to allow him to produce another set and we all pounced on it. In that same year Eric convinced Bill Cutler to let him make a set of his Binary burr puzzles as well. Let's just say that these were bought with alarming rapidity.

Ternary burr

Binary burr

Eric opened my eyes into the variety of 6 piece burrs that were possible by producing a set of captive 6 piece burrs which seemed very simple but were great fun to play with:

They look so simple and yet they are so much fun

Of course, you all know that I am partial to a burrset or 5 and my collection was hugely enhanced when Eric decided to make some for us poor addicted souls. He would not be content with just making the sets of sticks...he would always want to produce a beautiful and even puzzling box to store them in:

Penultimate Burrset

DDD Burrset

I started out in this puzzling catastrophe playing with some very complex maze puzzles and whilst they quickly were superseded by beautiful wood, there has always been a call to go back to a maze or two over the years and the very first "expensive" puzzle that I purchased was the Maze burr made by Tom Lensch and later I managed to get a copy of Derek's Rhombic dodecahedral version. Eric couldn't stand to be left out of such fabulous challenges and he started working with Derek to create a new and more challenging version. The final creation was one of the most gorgeous things Eric has ever created - the Split maze burr:

Split Maze burr

I still have a whole lot of the challenges to go through and that is before I start on the thousands and thousands that Derek created with his computer analysis.

After Andrew Crowell brought us a whole bunch of a sort of new type of puzzle that the community took to their hearts with huge enthusiasm, Eric wanted to jump on the bandwagon and produced a really lovely chunky and satisfying puzzle to solve, the BioTIC.

BioTIC doesn't look like much

28 moves and 9 rotations to assemble

The puzzling trend then really embraced sequential discovery puzzles and Eric not only jumped on board, he produced something really really special the Lock box (I know it's a box but I can have one because it is also SD!) I described this as a Masterpiece in thoughtful design:

Lock Box - a wonderful solve

Later that year, Eric went back to his very best craftsmanship - he combined a sort of Sudoku puzzle with interlocking linear pieces (dissections of a cube) with beautiful box making - the Reticulated cubes takes a very prominent place in one of my puzzle cabinets:

Just stunning and for someone addicted to wood, this is an essential collector's piece

Finally in this post and certainly not exhaustive but I have to actually post this. I recently solved the Akaki's picnic puzzle. This was Eric's contribution to TICs in a fancy box. The puzzling world has adored this series of puzzles and I only have Eric's version but it will be one of my top 10 puzzles solved this year.

Pieces all jumbled up here but beautifully made and enormously fun

Finally, bringing my collection up to date, I have to show off a couple of SD puzzles produced by Eric that I have not yet managed to solve: Jammed Gem and Pennytentiary look beautifully made as one would expect and according to the puzzle community, they are brilliant puzzles to work your way through. Above all, Eric knew that he could make more or less anything, but he his ability to spot something that was truly fun and challenging to solve rather than just yet another interlocking puzzle was what set him apart for the 20 years that he has been creating wonderful toys for us.

Pennytentiary

Jammed Gem

Rest in peace Eric. You will be hugely missed by a large community as well as your family and many many friends. I wish all the best to Steve, Tom, and Jeff who remain at Cubic Dissection and I hope that they can continue your incredible legacy. It has been a blast knowing you, talking to you and puzzling with you.

Rest in peace my friend.