Probably The Toughest Pelikans Ever!

Upcoming puzzles from Pelikan

10 days ago, I received the latest batch due to come out from Jakub, Jaroslav, Simona and the team and managed to solve just one of them (Petit Albert) in the time to review it for last Sunday's blog post. Since then, I have been slogging away at them to try and have something to help you decide what to buy when they come out. I suspect it will be later this week. The amazing bunch is from a very talented bunch of designers:

Social Distance Soma Cube by Lucie Pauwels

Antislide 2L by Lucie Pauwels

Smuggler by Lucie Pauwels

Out of Center by Alfons Eyckmans

Minima 2nd Drawer by Frederic Boucher

Apotheca by Dr Volker Latussek

Slider H by Benjamin Heidt

Petit Albert by Dr Volker Latussek (reviewed last week)

Social Distance Soma Cube

Social Distance Soma Cube

I couldn't resist starting with this one - it is simply gorgeous! My version is made from Purpleheart and Maple and I am told that there will also be versions with Bubinga and Maple as well as Wenge and Maple. A very nice playable size at 78mm in each dimension. It arrives assembled in the cube shape but don't fret about the solution being given away. Tip it out of the packaging and it will quickly fall apart into the constituent pieces:

OMG! Not JUST a Soma cube!

Lucie has taken the Soma cube and separated the 27 individual voxels by a bridging piece. Taking it apart reveals that the constituent parts are still the standard Soma shapes but you can see that the bridges appear to be in specific places on each piece. As usual, the challenge is to assemble the puzzle into the standard cube again (I do wonder whether any of the other Soma challenges are possible as well and I may well attempt to put these into Burrtools to see if that is the case. The cube shape of the Soma cube has 240 solutions but the version designed by Lucie has just one.

I am terrible at assembly puzzles and do not expect to solve this any time soon without help from Burrtools. It is still a very compulsive puzzle and I couldn't stop trying as many assemblies as I could find. My problem is keeping track of what I have tried. Given more time I think that the placement of the bridging pieces will allow a more logical approach but I haven't found it yet.

This is well worth buying - it is beautiful, very difficult and compulsively addictive.

AntiSlide 2L

AntiSlide 2L

Another compulsively beautiful puzzle design from Lucie Pauwels. This one will join the others in her series of tray packing puzzles with anti-slide challenges (Minimal Frame, Open Frame and Trimini Frame).They are all wonderful challenges with effectively 2 levels to the puzzling. First of all take all the pieces and pack them into the tray - the fun thing with this one is that it is now a 3D packing puzzle and you need to form 2 layers on the tray and then second, much MUCH more difficult, the assembly needs to be made in such a way a way that the pieces cannot slide out sideways if turned on its' side.

This is a nice pocketable puzzle with a tray that is 6cm square and has just 2 retaining cubies in opposite corners and the pieces are all made from various attractive woods. This one accompanied me to work for a day or so and kept several people amused. Even finding one assembly is tough. It took me several hours before one was found and of course, it wasn't the anti-slide solution. The presence of an L shaped piece makes that challenge very tough. Placing the pieces into Burrtools reveals that there are 41 assemblies. It took a careful trawl of the 41 solutions before I found the correct solution.

NOT the final solution - just one I found on the way!

Smuggler

Smuggler by Lucie Pauwels
As delivered it doesn't look like much!

This lovely puzzle from Lucie Pauwels looks very straightforward when delivered. Just a tray packing puzzle with some very attractive pieces made from Ovangkol to be packed into a standard Maple tray. It is a lovely size to play with at a table (11.5cm across in a 3 layer deep tray). Only when you look at the pieces closely do you realise that there is something odd about some of them - they are 3 layers high and when they are looked at from a particular direction, there seems to be notches in them each of which is a single vowel in size. There are 8 pieces each having 1 voxel missing and then four 2 voxel bars to be inserted alongside them. Tipping the pieces out of the tray reveals the full extent of Lucie's madness and what is going to be required:

Interesting tray packing pieces with 4 "gold" bars to hide

This was the easy bit

Now we understand the name. Smugglers have often buried their treasure to keep it away from competitors and the authorities so that they can come back to it at a later date. Here we need to place all the pieces in the tray so that they lie flush with the edges. Then we need to find a way to repeat it but with the gold bars inside and hidden. To do this will require solving the packing with the notches in the middle layer to be organised so that they line up with 4 2x1 voxel gaps.

I first of all set to work on just the main pieces and ignored the gold bars. I found quite a few assemblies for this and, after playing with Burrtools, discovered that there are 168 ways to do this. I then worked on adding first one and them progressively more of the bars. Placing just one was relatively trivial once a packing for the main pieces had been found. Placing a second one, at least for me, did not seem much tougher. I have been trying to assemble the packed tray with 3 of the 4 bars now for a day or so and have so far failed. I am sure there is some logic to it but I haven't yet worked it out. Burrtools tells me there are 30 solutions. The final challenge with all 4 bars has just one solution. I expect this to take me the rest of my life! For you tray packers, this might just be an essential purchase.

Out Of Center

Out of Center

I am a sucker for a good burr! I am not good at assembly but that is why Andreas gave us Burrtools! The disassembly, I find a delight of effectively exploring a hidden internal moving 3D maze as you slide pieces about. I have quite a few burrs, both stick and board versions and as the number of pieces go up, they get much much more difficult. My 18 piece burrs are always a huge challenge and this one by Alfons Eyckmans is something very different to everything else I have ever seen - this is the first time I have ever seen an 18 piece board burr! It certainly is not for beginners. Jakub and team have made this beautifully from Wenge, Maple and Bubinga. They have made it a decent size at 10cm across.

This is a huge challenge but also a lot of fun. From the very beginning there are quite a few possible moves but the pathways aren't very long to get lost in. It will be important, as with all board burrs, to ensure everything stays aligned and no rotations happen. I don't think there are any early rotational shortcuts but small rotations will block the required moves. As I got further and further into the puzzle, I realised there was a repetitive locking and unlocking sequence which gradually made space for pieces to be further and further extended out of the puzzle. The burr has a level 22.3.6.1.2.1.1.1.1.1.1.2.2 disassembly which is just perfect for most experienced burr-istas and remains pretty stable right through to the final pieces being removed.

Looks horrific to reassemble?

Having taken it apart, there was no way that it was going back together from memory. Burrtools to the rescue again and despite being a board burr and despite the huge number of pieces, it was a nice easy assembly to follow. It will look lovely on display.

Minima 2nd Drawer

Minima 2nd Drawer by Frederic Boucher

It took a while to open the drawer!

This incredible design by Frederic Boucher is the next in the Minima Drawer series. I reviewed the first one here in July. Like the first one, this is a "must have" for any serious puzzler. But be warned...it is MUCH tougher than the first one. 

Pelikan have made this with an Elm box and Wenge pieces. On arrival, only one of the pieces is outside the box and the drawer will not slide to release the others. It takes a bit of experimenting with gravity and rotation to release the drawer enough to release any pieces. Once you have them, the difference from the first puzzle is clear - the dowels are captive inside and actually prevent the drawer sliding completely out. There are 2 L shaped triominoes, 2 dominoes and one single voxel piece. All have holes drilled through in various positions.

I have not yet managed to solve this one despite several hours of attempts. It is clear that an assembly will be needed outside the drawer first and then a sequence of insertion and moves will be needed to get them inside. Make sure that you keep track of the movements that you use during the insertion because it is quite easy to get blocked up and unable to move. At one point I had to shake pieces about inside to release a blockage and nearly had a heart attack! This is an incredibly tough challenge! Let's also just say that Burrtools will NOT help you with this. Good luck!

Apotheca

Apotheca by Dr Volker Latussek

The second puzzle in this release by Volker is another one that reveals that he has a very devious mind!  It has been beautifully made using a lovely grained Limba Frake for the pieces and American Walnut for the box. The box is 7x7x6.5cm and, as always with Volker's puzzles, it arrives in a special delievry configuration. This one looks solved when it arrives but notice that the pieces are protruding from the box. Obviously when packed they will be flush with the surface.

Shallow notches and dowels on each piece and in the box

Taking the pieces out reveals the madness in his head! The pieces are really fairly simple with 3 and 4 voxel L-shapes to which shallow holes and dowels have been added as well as a single dowel on one wall of the box.  This one looks very similar to the Farmacia puzzle from April's release but the are bound to be some special differences.

Having taken my photo of the pieces, not only could I not assemble the cube, I also couldn't put them back in the box into the delivery position! Having worked on so many puzzles this week, my head was broken!

The intention is to create a 3x3x3 cube inside the box. The presence of the dowels means that this has got to be done in a certain order and only one orientation. Again, Burrtools is not useful for this puzzle which really adds to the difficulty. 

Volker was very pleased with how this puzzle design worked out. he said this about it:

"When working with the usual v's and developing FARMACIA, I had to learn that some very nice moves are not possible. However, from my experience with FILLING V, I know how powerful L's are. So what could be more obvious than turning four v's into three L's and filling the 3x3x3 box together with the remaining five v's? And suddenly, the previously impossible moves become possible.

I really hope that you too will see that the price of losing the simple and clean construction principle of the 9 v's of FARMACIA is not too high and that the beauty of the solution in the APOTHECA solution justifies the mixture of eight v's and L's. In fact, the mixture is so powerful that I can offer another puzzle with APTEEK. Perhaps Pelikan will once again show how perfectly crafted ideas in wood enrich the world of mechanical puzzles."

With this description, who can resist? I have still not solved the Farmacia puzzle! I thought it was related to the Logical progression puzzle which ultimately took me a couple of years to solve. Whilst the Farmacia is solvable using Burrtools, the Apotheca has been deliberately designed such that "impossible moves" become possible and I suspect this one will forever be a nemesis. It will be fun to keep trying over many years!

Slider H

Slider H by Benjamin Heidt

Finally, a stunning looking puzzle from Benjamin Heidt. This chunky 7.5x7.5x8cm puzzle has been beautifully made by the Pelikan team from Padauk, Acacia and Peruvian Walnut. It is a good solid heavy puzzle and arrives with one piece outside the box which has an H shaped opening. Benjamin has taken the basic Soma cube pieces, one has been glued inside the box and another pair have been altered and combined into one complex piece.

Pieces outside the box

One is captive inside

The aim is to insert the pieces inside so that the coloured pieces are not visible from above when finished. There is a second solution that does not have this restriction and this will be a nice extra challenge for you. I started placing pieces inside the box straight away and failed to pack the cube before I realised that something was amiss. Have a close look at the trapped piece inside and you quickly realise that there is a gap underneath that cannot be reached by sliding pieces in from above. There is something very interesting built into the mechanism of this puzzle which Pelikan have made with extreme precision - it is a marvel to play with and once you have realised what is possible then you are on your way to a solution. It might take you a while! I still haven't solved it!

So we have an incredible set of puzzles coming from Jakub and team soon. These are significantly tougher than many of the usual puzzles and may keep you going for a very long time. I have yet to solve  all of them with some I have only partially completed.

My favourites are:

Petit Albert - a stunning idea and beautifully produced.

Slider H - an interesting twist on a classic

Minima 2nd drawer - it's just so clever (or it will be if I ever complete it)

Social distance soma cube - so gorgeous on display and a huge increase in difficulty for a classic puzzle.