They Are Superstars!

Friends With 3D Printers

Simple Star Puzzle (by Brian Menold) and the Superstar (by Chris P)

This has been written and published in advance quite quickly because I am working this weekend. If you see any errors then let me know. I had to do it quite quickly.

I am very lucky to have friends with 3D printers! Not only does that make them superstars in my eyes, but in this case Chris actually made me the Superstar puzzle.

At the MPP in May, Chris was showing off his amazing printing prowess and amongst them was a version of the star puzzle that had pins and maze plates attached. Like a magpie, I was immediately attracted to the new shiny thing and proceeded to play with the Superstar version that was ready for play. The movement was beautiful and very very confusing. I expressed my lust and Chris said that he might be making more sometime. To my huge surprise, when I arrived at the July MPP, he sidled up to me with a wonderful gift. I have my very own version to bamboozle myself and a nice set of maze plates to prove how useless I am.

From the left: Diagonal Superstar, 9 move, 14 move and 36 move challenges

Lots of variants - all come apart and collapse the same way

When I received the puzzle, Chris had not fully assembled it and I spent a little while taking it apart and marvelling at the smoothness of the moves - 3D printing has really improved over the years. AS with all the star puzzles, it comes apart into 2 pairs of triplets which will fall apart quickly if you don't hold them right. I am sure that all of you have experienced variants of the star puzzle and remember that heartsick moment as it collapses in your hands:

Beautifully made with exchangeable maze plates

Chris even thought through a way to ensure that the 2 pairs are assembled with the correct chirality. A printed C in the sides ensures that I don't attempt to assemble an impossible version.

These will line up to slide together

Pins and mazes lined up

The interesting thing I find with this is that even knowing what the mazes look like, this doesn't seem to help me with the assembly. Once the pins are all engaged in the mazes, it's a matter of exploring which pieces can move. It is made very confusing by moving diagonally and also having several pieces move at once. I found a very nice sequence and seems to be making progress until boom...I pulled it apart without realising that I had made my way through the maze and back out again. It exploded into pieces on my lap and frightened the cat next to me. Nearly frightened me to death too.

Try again! And boom round in a circle (or was it a figure of eight?) and explosion again. Wow! I could not keep track of the process at all. I managed to make it fall apart on me (gulp) at least a dozen times before I finally managed the full assembly. Despite having gone through the maze many many times, I still do not have any idea how I managed it and have an assembled Superstar next to me (not Chris!) and am dreading dismantling it to try the next maze. I think I will try the 9 move version next - hopefully that will prove easier. Thanks so much Chris!

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I met someone new at the MPP who seems much better at puzzling than me (isn't everyone?) I am ashamed to say that I cannot recall his name but he has instantly become a great friend because he has made a small dream of mine come true. I also suggest that he probably should stay as far away from Mrs S as he possibly can. He has alienated her by providing with a big pile of plastic which she hates and I adore! I have put them away very quickly and plan to get them out in dribs and drabs as and when I get a chance to play.

What is it? I can hear you shout at your screens. The voices are quite bad for me these days! 😈

Akaki's Picnic Basket - PLUS a whole bunch of extra challenges

A few years ago whilst on holiday in Edinburgh visiting the outlaws, I managed to solve and blog about the incredible puzzles designed by Akaki Kuumeri. My copy was made by the late Eric Fuller from beautiful woods. I had not gotten around to them for ages and had been hoping that Eric would eventually get around to making some of the MANY others which had subsequently been designed. Unfortunately, Eric passed away before this could become a reality and I was stymied in my chance of getting any more by the lack of a 3D printer of my own. I was flabbergasted (and incredibly grateful) when my new best friend announced that he had a whole bunch of these picnic cubes available to be given away just as I was about to leave the MPP! I immediately jumped at the chance as did Tamsin. Tamsin took the basket and the 3 that were in the original set and I blagged the rest. I have another 11 challenges to play with (I actually don't know how many there are in the series but hopefully I can get the rest sometime). The wonderful thing is that these plastic cubes are made with the same voxel size as the version that Eric made 5 years ago. I cannot wait to play - but first, I'd better try another star puzzle.

Thank you to my two new best friends for some wonderful challenges.