It was only
a month ago
that I wrote about the last release from Jakub, Jaroslav and team's
Pelikan puzzles. At that time they had beautifully reproduced the first 4 in the Minima series
designed by the incredible
Frederic Boucher. This time the next 8 are here in yet another gorgeous selection of
woods and you really need to add them to your collection. The four from the
last release that I have written about are
stillavailableasindividual
puzzles or a
set of four. There is a Minima 13 but only so far only released by Frederic himself
and Tye Stahly) it is possible that will also become available in the future as well.
From Nothingyetdesigns
Original from Frederic XIII
If they are going to be released like the last set then they should be in
sets of four as well as single puzzles. The wood choices are perfect:
Minima 5 - Limba and Bubinga
Minima 6 - Ash and Ovangkol
Minima 7 - Wenge and Maple
Minima 8 - Ovangkol and Zebrano
Minima 9 - Acacia, Padauk and Wenge
Minima 10 - Zebrano, Purpleheart and Maple
Minima 11 - Merbau and Padauk
Minima 12 - Bubinga and Acacia
Obviously, like the rest of the Minima puzzles, the aim is to pack the
pieces into the box and leave it so that no gaps are visible through either
the large holes, small finger holes or slots that facilitate rotational
moves (if the number of voxels is less than the 12 that would completely
fill the box). Continuing with the pathway that the first four took, these
get progressively more difficult but are always very fun to solve. The
rotations are beautifully facilitated by the various holes and slots cut
into the box and no force is needed. Some of the rotations are really quite
tricky to work out and in several puzzles there are multiple rotations for
one piece. As before, the wooden box makes the challenge much more difficult
as you cannot see what is happening inside once a piece or two have been
placed. I had not managed to solve Minima 8 in the acrylic box version
despite months of trying
after receiving them in September last year. Minima 8 doesn't look like too much of a
challenge with 3 simple L-shaped tri-ominos and a single 3 voxel straight
stick but there I had huge problems with it and was gratified when a couple
of correspondents agreed that it was a really difficult puzzle.
Minima 9 and 10 are slightly different having pieces of 2 colours and whilst
packing is the aim, the difference is that with Minima 9 the puzzler has to
place them so that only one of the colours is visible through the holes in
the box (for that one there are 2 solutions - one for each colour).
Interestingly, I found one colour quite a bit harder than the other. Minima
10 has only one solution and needs to have only the vibrant Purpleheart
visible from outside of the box. Minima 11 and 12 are very deceptive having
relatively simple pieces and quite a lot of large holes in the box but they
are also a huge challenge - almost as difficult as number 8. They both took
me 2 or 3 days to solve but at least not the several months of the
former.
These puzzles are so much fun and this explains why I have a
HUGE collection
of these Minima puzzles of varying types and from various designers.
Basically I will purchase any of them when released to add to my
collection. I would say that these are ESSENTIAL purchases for
anyone seriously into packing puzzles - they are stunningly beautiful and
a fabulous challenge and the Pelikan team have made them so well!
The other puzzle being released by Pelikan alongside the 8 Minimas is the Empire burr by Jorgos Anastasou. This beautiful and complex 11 piece burr is presented as a rather dense block structure with a sort of dome on the top as would be seen on an emperor's palace. It has been made with a lovely set of woods (Padauk, Wenge, Acacia, Purpleheart and Maple for the vertical sticks forming the dome and a very warm Cherry for the walls). The first move is very well hidden partly because the pieces are quite snug and it required a good bit of pushing, prodding and pulling to find what could move. Once you have found the first move then it is quite quick to remove the first piece (there are just 5 moves required to separate it from the puzzle) but removing the next piece will prove a considerable challenge. It is only another 7 moves but finding the correct ones was very difficult for me. I went round and around in circles for a long time failing to find a critical move until I found it quite by accident. Unfortunately I did not notice what I had done until I realised that new positions were available to me and I was completely unable to backtrack! After a good half-hour of trying to return to the start, I gave up and continued with the disassembly which was great fun as it remains pretty stable right to the end. The final disassembly level is 5.7.1.2.3.2.2.2.1.2 which doesn't look terribly challenging but for me it is just right!
Reassembly required me to have a lot of fun with Burrtools but I think that those of you who remembered your pathway might manage without it and the genii amongst you might just manage to put it together from scratch.
Jorgos is really designing some fantastic puzzles and I am so pleased that Jakub is agreeing to make them available to us in such fancy woods. This one will look stunning on display in your collection.
It's always a great but scary day in the PuzzleMad HQ when a big blue box
arrives from the Czech Republic! I am always delighted to see the delivery man
(and he seems pleased to see me too) but Mrs S is much less happy about it. She
knows that there will be a pile of puzzles lying around for a while to be solved
and me making funny noises and pained faces as I struggle to solve them within a
deadline. She always complains about the progressive buildup of toys but I think
they look gorgeous and also they keep me out of mischief which should make her
happy. Whack! Ouch!....or maybe not!
The delivery this time included:
Minima 1 to 4 from Frederic Boucher
Minima Smiley from Frederic Boucher in Acrylic as well as a re-release of
the wood version
L'Escargot from Jorgos Anastasou
Farmacia by Dr Volker Latussek
Minima One to Four
The first four Minima puzzles
Now this is very exciting! I have
previously written
about the Minima series from Frederic Boucher. I do seem to have reviewed quite a
lot of his puzzles over the last year or so - he is just so talented at
creating designs that are simple looking but having a tremendous yet still
accessible challenge. Here is another chance for you to get a copy of the
whole set of 12 Minima puzzles over the next few releases. They were
originally released by
Tye Stahly and sold out completely more than once. Apparently these are quite
difficult to manufacture and both Tye and Jakub have stated that they are
really tough.
Jakub and Jaroslav plan to create these in batches of 4 to be bought as a
set or individually. This month will start with the first 4 which are
definitely a great challenging introduction to the series. They have been
created with a bunch of different woods which make them stunning on display.
They are made with the following wood combinations:
Minima 1 - Elm and Wenge
Minima 2 - Walnut and Acacia
Minima 3 - Purpleheart and Ash
Minima 4 - Jatoba and Padauk
The aim is to pack all the pieces into the boxes with all holes covered when
packed. Like most of Frederic's puzzles, some very interesting and hard to
find rotations are required. They get progressively more difficult from
Minima 1 to 4 and are made all the harder with the Pelikan versions because
having a wooden box which you cannot see through means that you really have
to plan your approach before starting to place the pieces inside. After the
second piece is inserted it gets increasingly difficult to place others and
you cannot see what is causing the blockage. Also the precision of the
manufacture and the fact that the wooden box is less slidey than acrylic
ones means that any rotations need to be very precisely placed or
they will not work.
I had to solve all four of them again from scratch as I had no recollection
of the solutions from before (don't tell Mrs S that I only need about 10
puzzles to be solved over and over again!) They are such fun and this
explains why I have a HUGE collection of these Minima puzzles of
varying types and from various designers. Basically I will purchase any of
them when released to add to my collection. I would say that these are
ESSENTIAL purchases for anyone seriously into packing puzzles - they are
stunningly beautiful and a fabulous challenge!
Minima Smiley
Acrylic version
Re-released wooden version
The Minima Smiley was first released in December of last year and along with
the rest of the Boucher Minima's made it to my Top 10 puzzles of the year.
It was so good I actually spent several paragraphs gushing about how it
challenged me and scared me half to death as the magnets inside caused
various things to clack together unexpectedly. This time the Pelikan team
are re-releasing the original version in wood (Mahogany and Maple with a
Yellowheart smiley ball) and also an identical one with a see-through
acrylic box and Bubinga pieces. They both solve the same way but obviously
one is solved blind by deduction and the other is entirely visible. The
solution is fabulous and classic Boucher with a wonderful set of Aha!
moments.
Which should you buy? The wooden one is the most puzzling but the
see-through version is wonderful to watch as you manipulate the pieces. You
obviously need both in your collection!
L'Escargot
L'Escargot by Jorgos Anastasou
This is the second puzzle for
Jorgos Anastasou and is a wonderful animal shaped burr. We have a wonderful snail which
is asymmetric like the delicious escargot we can eat. This is different
to Pelikan's earlier snail puzzle of their own design which is more of a
sequential assembly/disassembly puzzle.
Pelikan have made this with a wonderful smooth and tactile Walnut and Zebrano
shell and an Ash body (there are some Wenge eyes too).
Obviously, the aim is to dismantle it and then reassemble it. Of course, the next part of the fun is creating your own Burrtools file for it as well. Maybe you can manage the reassembly before the BT file? The disassembly is a fun sequence of moving parts of the shell as well as the body around and gradually you can see an opening come into play which will allow the first piece to be removed. Even after removing the first piece it is still a challenge to remove the next and then the others are much simpler. The disassembly sequence is a perfect level 14.11.4.3 giving you some rather complex looking pieces:
Huge fun
I actually managed to keep the pieces in a reasonable orientation and position to be able to reassemble without resorting to a BT file but I doubt I could do it if I had scrambled the pieces. I am sure that all of you would easily manage to do it though.
Farmacia
Farmacia by Dr Volker Latussek
This is not even a complete disassembly
The Farmacia by Dr Latussek is absolutely gorgeous with a box made from Acacia and vibrant Padauk pieces to be placed inside.
It arrived with the pieces formed into a cube that slotted into the box but did not fit flush to the bottom. The aim is to remove the cube of pieces and reassemble it into the box so that they all sit flush with the top of the box.
Only when I took the first few pieces out did I realise why it was standing proud - each of the packing pieces are L-shaped Triominoes. Each of these triominoes has a central cubie which is solid and attached at each end to two others. One end-cubie has a hole drilled into one of the faces and the other end-cubie on the other end has a protruding short dowel which fits inside the drilled holes (these are also at varying positions on the faces). There is also a single hole in the centre of the base of the box and a single dowel in the centre of one wall (pictured left).
This puzzle is not for the faint-hearted! Having taken the pieces out of the box for my photo, I couldn't actually recreate the cube shape to get them all back in again. So far I have been experimenting with the various ways that these can be assembled into shapes and how to build up bigger shapes. I suspect that this will be a huge logic puzzle very similar to the Logical Progression puzzle from the late Eric Fuller which took me over a year to solve. This will require some proper thought and planning to solve. So far I have not managed anything yet but I will keep at it. So should you, it is beautiful and a very tough challenge.
A rather large box arrived earlier this week and an annoyed Mrs S muttered "not
again" to me. I gritted my teeth, kept my head down and promised not to leave
them lying around once I had solved them (there is a rather embarrassing number
of puzzles just strewn all over the house just now and I need to put some away
before there's a bloodbath in PuzzleMad HQ.
This time there is a huge selection of puzzles from your favourite designers
and a variety of different types of puzzle with varying difficulty levels to
suit everyone.
From top left above:
Zack Die Krone by Stephan Baumegger (2 versions available)
The Horns of Booth by Dr Volker Latussek
PSI by Girish Sharma
5 Balls by Frederic Boucher
One Match Left by Jorgos Anastasou
Serial Square NTC by Lucie Pauwels
LOL by Frederic Boucher
Sam Duo by Frederic Boucher
Heavy Lifter by Girish Sharma
Yes U Can by Frederic Boucher pictured separately
Jakub has asked for me to give some reviews as quickly as possible and so I
will be spreading them over two weekends of blogs. Expect them to go on sale
quite soon.
Zack Die Krone
There will be 2 versions of Zack Die Krone by Stephan Baumegger, both are
absolutely beautiful. This fabulous puzzle is not for the faint-hearted. When
I first picked it up, I thought it was a 6 piece burr in a frame and expected
a huge struggle as a result. When I had a closer look I was relieved to see
that it is "just" a mere 3 piece burr within a cage that has a big hole in the
top. How hard could it be? OMG, it is a serious challenge!
There are a few possible moves at first but after that the possibilities open
up quite a bit as there is plenty of space to look at what is happening and
also plenty of space to move the pieces around each other an around the frame.
Initially the frame really gets in the way of what you want to do but after a
bit of fiddling a way method of getting around it can be found. Once this has
been done, you will need to carefully control the pieces as they appear to
become quite unstable. Rotations won't happen easily but are possible and you
will need to prevent that. I managed to unlink one side of a piece from the
others and then got very badly stuck being completely unable to progress and
needed to backtrack to the beginning again. Luckily, I found that it's usually
pretty easy to backtrack if you paid attention but I dare say some of you
might get lost at some point.
I remained stuck at the same position for a whole evening before I managed to
find a possible move. It's a huge advantage being able to see more or less
everything that is going on and sort of planning what you can do. With great
satisfaction I found a path to release a piece from both the others and then a
simple matter of releasing it from the frame. I had my 4 pieces and could take
a photo. At level 21.8.3 for the complete disassembly, this is a huge
challenge for anyone and only the very best of you will be able to reassemble
it without Burrtools (I certainly needed it)
An incredible challenge The magnets hold it stable when assembled
One Match Left
Looks just like a matchbox
As expected - one match inside
A new designer I've not heard of before,
Jorgos Anastasou seems to have been designing for a few years but this is the first of
his that has been mass produced. This beautiful cute little puzzle is made to
look like a matchbox (very reminiscent of the
matchbox playground
from last year). It's made of Jatoba, Wenge, Maple & Cherry. Only two of
the woods are visible from the outside of the box. There appear to be two but
pieces inside the box which can slide and reveal a lovely little single match
left in the box (hence the name).
After six moves the match can come out but the tray formed by the two but
pieces still won't slide out. A further 7 moves leads to one more part removal
and a further 2 to complete disassembly. It's not terribly difficult but it's
lovely and really quite cute. I suggest that you leave the pieces for a couple
of days before attempting the reassembly. It will keep you nicely for a little
while. Not hard but just right for a little light puzzling. Indeed,
Jorgos wrote about it:
"Sometimes the simple things can be the most enjoyable! The "One Match
Left" is a moderately difficult level 6.7.2 disassembly challenge with a
unique solution reassembly. It's fun to determine the position of the
small match piece trapped inside the seven unit burr pieces and frame.
Τhanks to Pelican for making my design a reality with their high quality
construction and materials! Have fun!"
He's right, it is a simple thing compared to may others that have been made but
it is a delight and very beautiful.
Leave it for a few days and assemble from scratch
Heavy Lifter
Arrives incorrectly assembled
5 pieces
This wonderful interlocking 4x4x4 cube puzzle is by the amazing
Girish Sharma. It has been stunningly produced in some lovely woods - Zebrano, Acacia,
Wenge, Maple and
Massaranduba. It has been incorrectly assembled for transport and quickly comes apart
into 4 rather complex shapes and an L. I did not receive any instructions and
from the start assumed that it was a TIC. As a result, I set to work looking
for the position of all the pieces and then rotational moves to get them
interlocked. The process took me about an hour whilst watching TV with Mrs S.
It was really very satisfying to work it out and seat the pieces into place. I
was so delighted that I did it repeatedly that evening.
The following day I got my instructions from Jakub and was stunned to realise
that it was not meant as a TIC...he wrote:
"Over the last few months, I have been tinkering with the idea of high
level 4x4x4 IC which form a full visible cube. So far, I've known the
highest level to be 11 by a few designers. The challenge I took on
myself was to design something with a higher level. This is first of the
many designs that I have coming up in future.
Heavy Lifter is a level 12.2.2.2 IC with 5 pieces. The puzzle comes
disassembled and the goal is to assemble the pieces into a 4x4x4 cube.
Once you have assembled the cube, you might realise the importance of
the name of the puzzle."
Amazingly, it was actually an interlocking cube very similar to many of the
wonderful Microcubology puzzles I bought way back at the beginning of my
puzzling odyssey but MUCH MUCH tougher. The following evening, I just had to
try again and do it without the rotations. This was a huge challenge as the
TIC part had given me some preconceived ideas that I needed to get rid of.
Girish has created an absolute monster of an interlocking cube which is
absolutely wonderful to work on. The "proper solution" took me well over an
hour and was joyous - this might well be my absolute favourite of the bunch.
This was an absolute joy to solve
LOL
Laugh out loud?
This made me laugh when I managed it
How can anyone resist a new puzzle designed by Frederic Boucher. I certainly can't and if it's called LOL then there is guaranteed to be something sprecial about it. This puzzle is very reminiscent of the Galette by Osanori Yanamoto in that there is a small flat box with a limited entry and a set of pieces to insert inside. There's no window in the front so it will all need to be done with dexterity and gravity along with quite a lot of thought. The puzzle is beautifully made from Jatoba and Cherry with the puzzle name on the surface which I think might be Marquetry (it's something I've never seen from Jakub before).
The 5 simple pieces are to be put inside to make a 4x5 voxel rectangle. It's made more complex by the fact that the largest piece can't even fit through the 2 voxel opening - it requires a rotation to get inside and maybe there will be rotations needed inside the box without easy access?
Subsequently I received the instructions and found there was another challenge to be had:
Frederic wrote about it:
"LOL is an assembly puzzle with a very simple goal: Assemble the five pieces to make the acronym LOL, respecting the following rule: the 3 characters must have the same size (height and width). Will you discover the trick and succeed in the challenge? Exclusively for the PELIKAN version, a box is included. As a second challenge you must pack the pieces completely into the box. I hope this puzzle will make you laugh out loud!"
It appeared that I had only done the secondary challenge. The primary challenge still awaited me. This took me another hour or so yesterday and the important thing is to assemble the letters standing up on a flat surface. There is a very special trick that has had be done during the manufacture of the pieces to make it work. Another laugh out loud moment!
Finally for today, I have a wonderful caged 6 piece burr from Tyler. He has been quite prolific over the last few years and has designed several different kinds of puzzle. This is a caged 6 piece burr which has had 2 opposite corners chopped off to allow quite a lot more freedom of movement for the burr sticks. It really adds to the challenge and allows it to reach quite a high level. I loved it but it might be too difficult for many of you if you are nor big burr fans. It has been beautifully made by Jakub and Jaroslav in Mahogany and Acacia. The angles of all those cuts must have made manufacture a bit of a nightmare to produce but the effort was well worth it. Obviously, it needs disassembly and then reassembly.
Tyler wrote about it:
"Sierpinski's Burr is a variation on the traditional framed 6 piece burr, in which 2 opposing corners have been removed. The resulting shape is one I hope you find quite interesting! It adds a few extra moves to the puzzle, and also provides small windows through which possible moves can be deduced. At level 40, it may sound a bit daunting, but keeping track of the solve is manageable, without too many dead ends. I don't think this one will be the hardest burr out there, but it should be a lot of fun to work out. Of course, the puzzle is named after the Sierpiński Triangle, which the triangular faces of the burr resemble. Pelikan's build of my design adds a lovely tactile feel, as well as being a beautiful wood combination. I hope people enjoy it! :)"
He is absolutely right! This is a huge challenge but is definitely manageable.there is a particular sequence that recurs several times and each time it is done it allows further progression before being undone and moving other pieces. The entire disassembly is level 40.6.3.1.2.2 so once the first piece is out then the rest will follow quite easily by looking inside and working out what is possible.
A fabulous burr
Having taken my photo there was absolutely no way I could reassemble it myself and off to Burrtools I went. So much fun in one small cube!
I have only had 5 days with the puzzles so far and managed to solve 5 of them in that time. I plan to work on the rest for next Sunday - come back for them.
My pick from this bunch is the Heavy Lifter and the LOL puzzle but all are absolutely fantastic!
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