Freebies Can Be Fun (And Hard)

Boon

First of all, I have learned a significant lesson after last week's post:

If it looks too good to be true then it probably is!

Also:

If you find something interesting inside then it is probably significant 

I thought I might have solved Tye Stahly's IPP exchange puzzle. I was sort of suspicious that I hadn't because there was a little wiggling possible once all the pieces were inside and the hex key was just sort of balancing in a hole attempting half-heartedly to prevent a smiley from moving.  I was contacted by Tye to laugh at me that I hadn't solved his wonderful puzzle. Also by George Bell who commented on the post and did not seem to understand the puzzle (if he didn't then I certainly was going to fail!) and finally by Frederic himself to explain where I had gone wrong.

During my fiddling, I had worked out a couple of ways I could place the two pins but then couldn't place the hex key. I assumed the hex key would stay protruding through a hole in the box. Whilst playing I had noticed something odd about places I could stash the pins. Sometimes a pin would seem to get stuck until I shook it about and it would come out again. I had ascribed this to a magnet but I was wrong. I was never able to achieve that effect with 2 pins. It would appear that I should have persevered. There is something very special about that pentomino - had I explored it further, I would have had a wonderful Aha! moment. If you have this puzzle, focus on the pentomino first and then concentrate on the rest of the packing!

Having finally solved the Minima Duo and enjoyed several Aha! moments I can put it away. Time to move onto something else. I had brought home a few freebies from the last MPP and they had been sitting around for a while. Time to pick them up so I can hopefully put them away. I sort of assumed that  being free, they might be a nice quick little challenge. Ahem...maybe not!

I started with Boon, a sort of burr, sort of packing puzzle from Theo Geerinck and the late Symen Hovinga. It appears to be a trio of polyominoes packed inside a frame. The frame is made from just 2 simple pieces. How hard could this be? I picked it up and explored the initial moves and it quickly got interesting. There was a bit more to it than I thought. I started with my usual too and fro approach and returned to the beginning before starting again and going a bit further. After a few moves I was distracted by a cat and before I knew what was going on a piece tumbled into my lap...OMG and then I shifted my grip and another piece also fell into my lap! Aargh:

That was an unexpected disassemblyly

Now I had my 5 pieces and absolutely no idea how they came apart or went back together. The disassembly was fun but not too hard. Putting it back together was a significant challenge for me. I am rubbish at assembly puzzles (especially when I have no idea of the orientation of the parts in the end position). It was a very fun exploration and after a good 2 or 3 hours, I got it back together! I told you I was rubbish!

Sliding Doors

Now this one, is even tougher. As I picked it up at the MPP, it arrived in the assembled position. It also consists of 3 pieces but this time, in a box with restricted opening. The interesting thing here is that the two opposite sides of the puzzle has (as the name implies) sliding doors/walls when there are no pieces in the way. It took me about 10 minutes to take the pieces out and I noticed something odd when I did:

Pieces out and doors/walls slid down

Now the odd thing that I noticed when I took the pieces out was that the first one would only come out with a tiny little rotational move due to the way the doors slide a half voxel down. So, having removed the three pieces and scrambled them. I couldn't remember how they came out, how they were oriented inside and I assume that Burrtools will not help me.

I am stuck here. I can reassemble it if I dismantle the doors but I don't think that is the intended mechanism. I do sort of wonder whether the position it arrived in was just a "transport" position and there really is a non-rotational solution. I am struggling with Burrtools just now because constructing the captive sliding doors is proving difficult for me. I am still having fun as BT programming is a considerable part of the challenge for me with many packing and interlocking puzzles. I do hope there is another solution - I will report back when I know.

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Thank you to all of you who read my rubbish! I have passed 5 million page views this week. I cannot believe anyone reads my thoughts once and then comes back for more!