Yes, it's time again for some more gorgeous challenging new from the wonderful
guys at the
New Pelikan Workshop. The release that is due any time soon is a mammoth release. I guess that with
no IPP they have had more time for their own puzzling production rather than
producing exchange puzzles. Jakub sent them out to me in two batches to give me
more time to work through them - something for which I am very grateful as the
pressure to review quickly so that they can go on sale is huge. I don't want to
keep anyone waiting.
Bugs
I have to start with the most striking puzzle which gave the title of this
blog post: Bugs!
Bugs
The picture above does not give any idea at how impressive this puzzle is in
real life! Have a glance again at the first picture in the post to get an idea
of the scale of it. It is fabulously impressive - at 21 cm in each direction and
2 cm high this design by the unbelievably prolific Alexander Magyarics would
make a wonderful picture to mount on the wall of your puzzle room. In fact the
guys at Pelikan have drilled a hole in the back for it to be wall mounted and
also made an edge holding an acrylic cover which will prevent the pieces falling
out when put on display.
Wall mountable
Acrylic cover
It's a fun tray packing puzzle with a beautifully made wooden frame and 4
lovely mixed wood bug shapes to fit inside. The challenge is not enormously
tough but using what looks like the "obvious" positioning won't work because
the blocks in the frame prevent insertion of what looks perfect outside the
box. Therefore this puzzle forces you to actually think about all the ways
that the pieces might fit together. Once solved, it is really lovely(no, I am
not going to show you the solution). This is a perfect decoration for anyone's
puzzle cave. Even Mrs S has agreed and I will be putting a screw in the
wall very soon.
Key Trap
Key Trap
I've picked up Key Trap by Christoph Lohe first from the second batch of puzzles
because it's absolutely stunningly beautiful. Everything by the New
Pelikan Workshop is lovely but this is one of the most gorgeous puzzles I've
seen in a long time. I also cannot resist the puzzles created by Christoph - he
just seems to always find the very best sequences and combinations of moves that
are possible in a shape. Here,as the name would suggest, we have a wooden lock
made with lovely bevel inlays and slipfeathers in the shackle. The key is locked
onto the shackle whilst being buried in the workings of the lock. Initially
there is only a small amount of movement and after a little while begin to find
a few more things that are possible and more wild movements are available to
you. After a short while I felt I was getting somewhere and might even be able
to soon remove a piece. I then tried my usual technique to aid memory of
backtracking to the beginning and realised that I had got myself into a position
where I was unable to remember the path and spent a rather fraught half hour
trying to work it out. If you've not paid attention then the correct movement is
very well hidden - it took me quite some time to find. Like most locks the key
is the "key" to the solution. The position of that locked key on the shackle is
the major thing to work out - you have to move it about the right way (no
rotations though). Even at the end that key remains shackled in place.
Reassembly from scratch is also possible if you are good at these. This is a
fabulous puzzle - Christoph and Pelikan pull it off again!
Sudachi
Sudachi
This took me days!
Another wonderful 3x3 cube packing puzzles from the amazing brain of Osanori
Yamamoto. My copy has been beautifully made by Pelikan from Zebrano with
Purpleheart pieces.The holes in the box are interesting here. The larger hole is
just a single layer high but quite extensive (taking up 4/9 of the top layer)
which severely constrains the possible assemblies. There are also 2 more holes
in the box which must be filled at the end and these holes are the opposite
corners from the main one which makes finding the finished assembly much more
difficult. This difficulty is compounded by the complexity of the pieces. I
struggled to get them to fit together at all initially and then getting all the
opposite corners filled in any potential shape proved really tough. Having found
just a few potential assemblies, I realised that every single time I would be
unable to place a piece inside the box. After a few days of attempts I wondered
whether Osanori-san had been up to his old rotational tricks and started looking
for them. The dimensions and size of the pieces made this very hard to find but
eventually I found a rotational solution and was really pleased with myself.
Afterwards, out of interest I wanted to see if there were any assemblies that
fitted inside but didn't fulfil all the hole filling requirements and entered
the puzzle into Burrtools and to my utter horror I saw that I had totally
failed! There IS an entirely linear solution to the puzzle. I made
sure that I didn't look at it on my computer and spent another 3 days before
finding the true solution. Either this is a brilliant puzzle or I'm really quite
dense! You choose. Actually, this is a brilliant design which seriously
challenged me.
Samba
Samba
At last!
This stunning creation made from Wenge and Yellowheart also comes from the
warped mind of Osanori-san. I am not sure why it has that name but it may be
because the pieces dance around each other during the solution. I initially
thought that the enormous entry hole through which 3 rather complex pieces need
to be inserted would make for a significantly easier challenge and, oh boy, was
I wrong about that. Whilst it initially appears like there is a 2x2x2 sized hole
for entry, it actually is even larger than that due to the fact that the bottom
corner slopes gently down indicating that this puzzle is based on a much bigger
grid. Obviously once solved the hole should be completely filled and that in
itself is a huge problem. That sloping edge also makes movement of the pieces
much more difficult. I managed to place the pieces inside the box in several
different ways pretty easily (which made carrying the puzzle to work much
easier) but I really struggled to find a way to leave the entryway fully filled
and so I tried to think outside the box. After 4 days I had only found 2 ways to
assemble a 3x3x3 cube which would fill the hole completely and none of them
could be placed inside the box. I was forced to resort to Burrtools to find
other possible assemblies - there were another 2. Even knowing the possible
other cube assemblies still left this one as a huge challenge. Each finished
cube could be rotated through 120º giving 6 more assemblies to try. Finally
after several more days I managed to find the solution with a sigh of relief. If
anyone says that only 3 pieces makes for an easy puzzle then laugh at them -
with a disassembly level of 10.1.3 this is a massive challenge. Very enjoyable
and a must buy for any Osanori fans.
Dozer
Dozer - there's a surprise inside
Next to Stephan's original
Jakub and Jaroslav don't make very many burr puzzles these days but when they do
any Burr fans should sit up and pay attention - they only choose the best of the
best of them and this marvelous design by Stephan Baumegger is fantastic. The
wood choice and finish with all the bevelling is the mark of fabulous attention
to detail. Inside is a shape that gives the puzzle its' name - when Goetz classified it he was forced to enlarge his
Burr zoo
to include machines! I had solved the original back in 2015 after a huge
struggle (I had managed to get lost in the puzzle about 20 moves in and could
not find the next move for a very long time). Of course I was completely unable
to remember even a single step from the solution and had to start from scratch
on this one and managed to get stuck yet again about 20 moves into the solution.
The movements are smooth and there is minimal catching of the pieces as they
slide. I was really very pleased that Jakub had sent this to me several weeks
ago as it took me several weeks to wend my way through the maze of moves. The
puzzle does not have a stupendously high level (26.2.1.1.11.2) but is a
wonderful challenge with lots of exploration. The blind ends are frequent but
not too long and so not too frustrating. Inside is one of the most beautiful
pieces of wood work I have seen from them.
There is no way I am reassembling it without Burrtools!
These designs by Alexander just get more and more spectacular. Very few
craftsmen would have agreed to mass produce this piece with a beautifully
crafted box complete with a captive sliding arm (shaped like a mouse hole in a
skirting board) and holders which are made from contrasting woods. The movements
are wonderfully free and yet exceptionally precise. There are 3 moderately
complex Purpleheart pieces to be placed in the box through a fairly wide opening
but this entry is severely restricted by the moving arm over the top. I had left
this one to the last because it frightened me a lot. In the
last batch
of puzzles from Pelikan, Alexander had given us a multi-challenge packing puzzle
(Sliders) which had captive moveable pieces on the walls of the box which
significantly hindered the ability to place the pieces. I had really struggled
with most of the challenges he had set. Similarly his
Wishing Well puzzle from last year had also been very difficult for a rubbish puzzler like
me. I was cutting it very fine - this one was only solved yesterday, just in
time for this blog post (it is always a bit embarrassing to write about puzzles
that I haven't solved yet). There are 45 possible 3x3x3 shapes that have the top
S shape filled but only one can be inserted into the box with the restriction
provided. The solution process is considerably narrowed down by thinking about
which orientations of the pieces can fit through the restriction and once that
is taken into account the number of assemblies is low enough for mere mortals to
manage. Still incredibly difficult and not for the faint hearted but very
solvable.
Also due to be in this upcoming release but not yet solved and reviewed by me
will be:
Bubble
Bubble
Another design by Dr Volker Latussek, Bubble looks extremely simple but I
suspect will be a massive challenge like most of his puzzles. The drilled out
hemispheres in the 4 L-shaped pieces of wood have to be paired to form
complete "bubbles" . The goal is to make a free-standing structure containing
four bubbles. I am looking forward to playing with this one next.
Euklid for Kids and Shrinking Soma
Euklid for Kids
Shrinking Soma
Euklid for Kids has been slightly redesigned by Dr Latussek to make it more discoverable for kids and increase the enjoyability of the puzzle for beginning puzzlers. Obviously adults will still have an Aha! moment and enjoy the beautifully made puzzle. If you missed out on either of these the first time then now is your chance to get hold of a copy.
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