Guy and Dan Are Sneaky B@$^@rds!

AKA Don't Believe What You Are Presented With!

Bed Pack Designed by David Goodman and Guy Loel

At the IPP in Italy, I spent quite a while at the main party looking for toys that caught my fancy. There was a huge amount there, and I came home with a rucksack full of new toys (I haven't actually let Mrs S know that yet). Whilst wandering, I was met by a very enthusiastic Guy Loel, who confessed to reading my blog (which proves he is not very discerning) and then showed off his exchange puzzle. I had been tempted to buy it because there is something so compulsive about the apparent simplicity of the challenge. When I mentioned getting hold of a copy, he put it into my hands and said it was mine for nothing. I just love puzzle people - they are always so pleased to show off their ideas.

Once I took it home and took my photo, I could see that it consisted of a nicely 3D printed box with a sliding lid and a bunch of single beds plus one double bed. In terms of voxels, the double is 1x2x2, and the singles are 1x1x2, giving a total of 12 voxels to be packed. Interestingly, the space in the box is 3x3x1.5 voxels, giving a space to pack into of 13.5 voxels - i.e. plenty of space!

Assisi, there seems to be a problem!

Believe me - it IS packed in there.

The premise is great! This is perfect to hand to anyone. Experienced and newbie puzzlers will quickly see that there is a problem. I managed to pack either 3 or 4 beds inside before always running into a problem. That ½ voxel depth is a killer. Time to try various jaunty angles, and nope, that won't work either. After about 10 minutes, I had completely run out of options. It's so damned easy to look at and try, but there is something not quite right. I put it down for a day and went back to it the following day.  

During that time, I thought about the playful character I had met at the IPP and wondered what he would do to make a puzzle fun and clever. I played with the impossible and wondered how Guy would make it possible. After a bit more fiddling, I had a wonderful Aha! moment and gasped, allowed. "Damn! He's a sneaky B@$^@rd! I quickly managed to pack all of the beds and closed the box with a huge grin on my face. That was wonderful! It looks easy, then impossible, and then fabulously solvable. This will be coming to work with me for a few weeks to torture my colleagues. Hopefully, they will also smile for a while as I did.

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All Bar Nun from Dan Shane

Another exchange puzzle gifted to me by a very generous puzzler. I loved it that Dan and Amy dressed as Nuns to exchange this, and the box has a very saucy nun winking at the intrepid puzzler on the box. It was with some trepidation that I started to work on this one. My last puzzle from Dan was the One Piece Un-packing Puzzle, which remains fully packed in my study after months of work. I can separate the pieces using a forceful move, but that is not the correct approach. I was rather anxious that Dan's new exchange would be just as impossible for me

2 fixed cubies in the nunnery

It consists of a nunnery and 5 pentominoes with nuns on a face, plus a metal bar. There are 4 identical L shapes and one sort of cross shape. The aim is to pack the nuns in the nunnery along with the bar. The 5 pentominoes make up 25 voxels in total, which, when added to the 2 fixed in the box, make a completely full box with no gaps. The bar has to be inserted through holes conveniently piercing various parts of the pentominoes (but not the fixed pieces). So this should be a relatively straightforward packing puzzle, and knowing Dan, there would be a twist of either a rotational move or the extra challenge to get the holes lined up.

First challenge then was to make a cube shape with the 5 pieces, but outside the box. Interestingly, making a cube shape with that particular set of pieces is not that simple. I found one after about 15 minutes, but the gaps were in the wrong place. It took me another 30 minutes to find a cube with the correct gaps. Now it's time to insert that shape in the nunnery. Except...it won't go! Rotations, sliding moves, alternative assemblies? Nope! I couldn't get the damn nuns inside.

Cube shape that matched the fixed voxels.
How do I get that inside?

I spent a day or so stumped with Dan's name being uttered like a swear word every 20 minutes or so. Eventually, I stopped and thunk© for a bit. What would Dan do to make this fun and clever? Aha! I had a great idea, and suddenly I had packed all the pieces inside - he's a sneaky B@$^@rd! I was feeling very clever until I looked down and saw the bar... I hadn't solved it yet. I needed to redo the assembly to line up the holes and allow the bar to be inside the nunnery, too. I found only one assembly which had the 3 holes in the pieces lined up, but then the pieces couldn't be placed back in the box. Huh?! That's very odd. I was sure that I had worked it out, but that final packing seemed impossible.

With all the muttered swearing at Dan, I had to put it down before Mrs S killed me. The following evening, I went back to it and explored all possible ideas. My fancy Aha! A moment from the previous day led me to another wonderful discovery, and then the time I had spent on day one paid off. This time the second Aha! moment was absolutely stunning! I managed to pack all the nuns back in the nunnery and added the bar. I didn't think nuns were allowed to drink, but obviously, they do have a bar in their nunnery, and it must be OK.

If you have this or get it, do NOT be tempted to use Burrtools. It is not really helpful and might even spoil things for you. If I can solve it with my little brain, then you should be able to as well.

I had a fabulous time with both of these puzzles. Dan and Guy are very sneaky B@$^@rds. They created puzzles that look straightforward but in reality have very clever twists which require careful thought and discovery. Simply brilliant - thank you, guys!