At the end of last week's blog post the intrepid puzzler had tracked through a
puzzle lock and opened it and closed it. He then boasted about it and posted
photos of said lock on his website and some social media. Needless to say he
felt very smug! That is until the creator of the challenge pointed out that he
had not seen a picture of the ant that had to be hunted. Ah! Maybe the puzzler
is less bright than he thought he was? He should have realised he wasn't very
bright - if he had read his own website, it would have told him in no uncertain
terms how dense he really is. Doh!
I actually thought that one of the tiny metal pieces that had been
retrieved during the solution was the ant. I showed Boaz the photo of all the
pieces and what I thought was the ant and was disabused of the idea very
quickly! Time to go back to the drawing board and solve it again and search
for the ant. Oddly doing it this time showed me that I hadn't fully understood
the opening mechanism because despite having opened it 5 or 6 times before
writing about it, I couldn't repeat it. after another 3 or 4 hours, I opened
it and noticed something new and realised I had manipulated it entirely by
accident the first time and then not reset it properly. This meant that my
subsequent solves were accidental. I went on my extended ant hunt and found
the sneaky creature that Boaz had left for me to find. Phew! Finally
completed.
Next I had to work out exactly how to fully reset the puzzle every time. I had
managed it once by accident and also failed several times. This time I had it
properly done. OMG! There is a lot more to this puzzle than I had initially
thought - go and buy it - you won't regret it:
Having finally completed that puzzle, I needed another quick success because I
knew that I had a busy week coming up and the MPP (yesterday). So what did I
do? I went back yet again to another masterpiece from the great
Yuu Asaka. I had bought the Freeze 14 from Mine along with a bunch of his own
creations back in January (most of which I have failed to solve) but it is
available from many other stores (PuzzleMaster has them
here, Brits can get them
here or
here,
Europeans from
here
or
here
and from Yuu-san himself
here.
There are 3 each of a small square piece and a circle as well as 8 wedges
that have cutouts for the squares and circles (one of which is oddly combined as
well as 2 semicircles o=attached to the wedges. All of these pieces need to be
packed inside of the octagonal shaped tray. Should be simple? Yeah! Right! It
might be simple for you lot but for me I have spent 5 months proving that either
it's not simple or I'm thick! Mrs S frequently tells me one of those and she
tends towards the "thick" decision!
I have spent quite a long time trying to put the wedges together approximating
the two halves of the cutout holes to make space for the 6 shapes to be
inserted. With the positions of the cutouts, there really aren't very many
options for positioning the wedges. I confidently placed them and also ensured
that the semicircles were also contained in a hole only to find that there was
alsways one (or more pieces that I was unable to place).
Close? Definitely not close enough!
I tried multiple variants of this over the months. I did it in the evenings, I
did it at work and always failed much to the amusement of my colleagues. They
used to think I was a genius but I have definitely proved to them that "thick"
is a better word to describe me. 😱
At one point (or even several points, to my shame) I even attempted a
higgledy piggledy assembly of the wedges in the hope that alternating the
orientation of them might make more spaces to place the small pieces. It
didn't take me long to give up on that idea - I am think but not that thick!
I put it away for a while.
I will not be showing you the solution but that Yuu-san is a very very
devious man! I really should have seen the answer much earlier - in fact the
box states that the puzzle should take just 40 minutes and has a difficulty
level of 3½ out of 5 (PuzzleMaster make it a Level 8 on their 5-10 scale).
It certainly took me a LOT longer than that but Mrs S has stated the truth -
I am thick - so 40 minutes for a normal puzzler equals 4 months for me! OMG
Blush! Such shame!
At the MPP yesterday I received/purchaased a few new toys and expect that they
will take me several years.
I didn't recall what this STC puzzle is called but I don't have enough hands
to assemble it:
I don't remember what it is
This won't go in without coordinate motion
Mrs S has made several useful suggestions but not actually offered any hands in assistance!
Ant Hunt by Boaz Feldman comes with a "primat"ive narrative
Having bought and even solved a whole bunch of the Feldman family
creations over the years, starting with the incredible
DanLock
from Dan Feldman way back in 2011 (currently only available from
PuzzleMaster) and moving through a whole bunch of increasingly amazing creations from
Boaz, I
couldn't resist the latest one,
Ant Hunt
(which is on sale just now direct from Boaz or available from PuzzleMaster
here).
It arrived at PuzzleMad HQ back at the beginning of November last year and I
was pleased to see that the instructions were simple:
"Open the lock and find the ant!"
As usual there is the admonishment not to use excessive force or use and external
tools. Oddly, the back of the instruction card mentioned using tools to go bug
hunting and how chimps did it. This had to be a big clue and I had to prove
that I was at least as good as a chimp! Having said that, if I was a chimp
relying on my abilities here to feed myself, I would have starved to death a
long time ago!
Beautifully presented!
All of these locks are beautifully presented in a bag with the card. I dutifully
now check the bag very carefully for hidden tools having been caught out for a
long time with a previous puzzle. This puzzle accompanied me to work for several
months with me getting absolutely nowhere before I transferred it to my pile of
puzzles to solve at home. Oddly, the velour bag kept turning itself inside out
every time I went to pick it up. I would return it to the correct orientation
each time only to find it inside out again within a few days. This was very
confusing to the male primate of the house (I actually began to question my
sanity yet again) until one day I caught the female chimp in the HQ turning the
bag inside out. I found out that Mrs S couldn't stand the fact that the bag
picks up fluff and stour from my work bag which offends her deeply! Once I had
taken a lint cleaner to it, she allowed it to stay the correct way around! Phew! I'm not bonkers!
The keyring comes apart in the usual fashion and the key goes in the
keyway in the usual way. It even turns 90º giving a very false hope. The key turns and the lock fails to open! Yes, what did any of you expect? Time for a closer look...there is hole in the front of the lock which you can see right through and also a hole in each side which don't seem to show anything significant. if you feel the urge to emulate the picture at the top of the blog post you can poke your undone keyring into any of those holes and achieve pretty much nothing:
Look at me! I'm a chimp! If you do this on the front it will go right through
None of this poking is terribly helpful and so it's time to look elsewhere. Interestingly, the shackle of the lock has quite a lot of play in it with movement of about 6-8mm. Except sometimes there is minimal movement possible (only a couple of mm) and oddly this minimal movement can occur at an extended position or a retracted position. It doesn't take long to work out what is going on to be able to make the shackle abilities change to whichever state you want it to be in - apart from open! This was where I was stuck for several months.
Resetting the lock is a relatively easy sequence as long as you know what you had done to get it open and doing it again is a pleasant bit of fun. I will be showing this off to my long-suffering anaesthesia assistants to show the engineering possibilities of a lock.
This is an amazing feat of puzzle engineering using a standard Nabob padlock. Yet again, I'm blown away by what is possible. Basically, I will have to buy everything that Boaz makes - I am not very good at lock puzzles (or any puzzles for that matter!) and they do keep me occupied for a very long time which proves very good value and ends with a phenomenal (slightly desperate) Aha! moment. You should get one whilst you can (either from Boaz direct or from PuzzleMaster) - you won't be disappointed.
Yet another success caused by the recent MPP - I am on a roll! I am absolutely
terrible at lock puzzles but I am attracted to them like Icarus to the sun! I
guess that I have not been killed by a lock like Icarus was but when Mrs S
noticed that a new lock migrated into the house on my return from the MPP, she
was distinctly unimpressed and that dangerous violent gleam could be seen in her
eyes.
I bought the
Loophole lock (currently sold out direct from Boaz but still available from
PuzzleMaster) way back in December 2023 at the same time as the simply amazing
PicoLock (available
here from Boaz
and also from
PuzzleMaster). Having had such fun and great success with the PicoLock, I expected to
have similar success with the Loophole which was supposed to be considerably
simpler (indeed, it is rated only a 9 in PuzzleMaster's 5-10 scale). But here
I am over a year later and only just managing to write about it. In
retrospect, I have to admit that it's not because it is incredibly tough, it's
because I am awful at locks! I should be ashamed of myself really.
The MPP stimulated me to try again because someone had brought in the
Ant Hunt which had been released just a few months ago and I had had similar
complete lack of progress.
I asked a few people at the MPP about the Loophole and whether they had found
it particularly difficult. Yes, they all agreed that it was a lovely but not
too difficult puzzle. Damn! I really needed to go back to it and try again.
Mrs S had made me rationalise my pile 'o puzzles to be solved because the
weight was marking the carpet and I needed to hunt for it in a secondary
storage area. It arrives in a nice bag with instructions to "open the lock" -
well duh!
One thing I did manage to do correctly was the obvious removal of the key and
ring from the shackle by unscrewing the ring.
Yes, I know that it is a cliché but you simply have to insert the key and try
to open the lock. I don't know why we always do it, we know it won't work and
sometimes it gets us into trouble by locking the key in place. At least this
time I inserted the key and tried the inevitable and it wouldn't even turn a
little bit. At least the key was removable afterwards. After that, it's time
to explore. The first thing to notice is that right in the middle of the 'O'
of Loophole there is a hole. All the way through - you can create a loop by
passing the key ring through it:
Now that looks nice but doesn't help you one little bit!
The other thing to be seen is that there is a fairly decent hole in the side
of the lock which allows you to see inside and reveals...nothing! I could see
into the depths of the lock and even poke about with the open end of the
keyring. That does nothing either. Hmm! Turning the lock shackle downward
reveals a bulky pin or something that shifts back and forth to cover the hole.
It looks completely innocuous and doesn't have anything that could be engaged
with the keyring. Looking through the hole in the front shows that the pin is
so big that it impinges a little bit on that hole - enough to prevent me
putting the keyring through the hole again.
A pin visible in the side hole
This was the point that I had gotten stumped a year ago and on and off for
months afterwards.
The thing that really helped me here was to be sitting in a quiet room with
no TV, radio or chattering complaining wife in it. This allowed me to listen
to what was going on inside and whilst it's pretty subtle, there is a
distinct extra unexpected sound that helped me work out what was the next
thing to try and it worked. I have to say that it is very elegant. The
quality of the workmanship is incredible. It isn't the voyage that PicoLock
was but it is stunning and fun. This is one to show colleagues - they may
actually think it through given enough time.
Thanks Boaz - now I need to go back to Ant Hunt (not even found the first
step) and Andrew Coles' Clutch Lock which I have made some progress but am
now all "locked up" with. 😱
Ouch! Allodynia after surgery is a bit of a bugger! It is not helping me solve puzzles! It is very hard to prevent clothing touching your groin whilst sitting or moving or doing much of anything. I'll leave you with an image of me maybe solving puzzles naked to try and decrease my pain! 🤣🤣🤣😈
I watched as a bunch of people picked up the latest locks from
Boaz Feldman and always intended to buy them for myself. This was especially
reinforced when Allard reviewed both
Loophole
and the
PicoLock and really seems to enjoy them. But with me being me, I kept buying
gorgeous wood and kept running out of money before I bought the new shiny locks.
Eventually, I managed to save up enough cash and quickly sent it to Boaz before
any more wood showed up and both the latest puzzle locks arrived at the
beginning of December. I took my customary photos and set to work on the
Loophole
first (encouraged by Allard's review) and having failed to turn the key I looked
elsewhere and, you guessed it, failed to find anything else! Yep so far I have
found NOTHING useful. I put it down and played with a few other
shiny things that had arrived at roughly the same time and then, having been coshed by
Tramadol, stopped solving anything for a little while. I put the locks aside on
my newly cleared desk for later investigation.
PicoLock is a standard Nabob padlock from Israel which has been obviously
tampered with. There is a hole in the side through which you can sort of see
into the keyway and on the opposite side something has been drilled and
filled. Boaz always provides the key on one of those wire keyring things keep
it safe.
Yes, I know that it won't be helpful but I have to do it - I put the key into
the lock and turn. We all know that it won't be helpful but if we don't do it
then those pesky voices won't stop muttering in the back of your head ("maybe
it might to something or maybe you might learn something"). I probably should
worry about those voices in my head! I turned the key and.... it wouldn't
turn! Not entirely unexpected. Time to inspect it properly and see what you
can see/do. I often use the light on my phone to illuminate holes etc and as a
man of a certain age, use the magnifier function of the phone to be able to
properly see inside said holes. Not terribly helpful. Poking at the holes with
the tip of the key and my fingernails is not helpful and I'm beginning to
worry that it will be another total failure.
I can see why this was in the top three puzzles of 2023 for several puzzlers. It is fabulous! I was significantly helped by buying and paying with two at the same time. There is a subtle difference between them that gave me a little clue for one of the steps. You definitely need to buy two puzzles to help Boaz and definitely help yourself with a clue.
I think this might be one that I might take to work to show off to colleagues. I think the orthopods in particular might appreciate the metalwork that has been created here.
If you live in the Americas then it may be easier for you to buy it/them from PuzzleMaster here and here.
Well, we very nearly had no blog post this week. I have been desperately trying
to solve something all week and getting absolutely nowhere. My biggest puzzle has been how to run our on call service as more an more of my colleagues either catch Covid and have to isolate or are household contacts and have to isolate. Almost every single day, I get a message that someone who is due to be on call cannot do their assigned duty and need to find an alternative.
Someone suggested on
Facebook that I should shine a bright light through the Ages burr from Brian
Young and see if I could notice a mechanism or possible movement that might be
possible either before, during or after the 2 obvious moves. I got a nice bright
torch and shone it across the puzzle towards me, side to side and away from me.
I could see the pins that I had seen all along and nothing new. The same old
third rotational move is possible (due to a pin) which I am reliably informed is
not part of the solution. After a couple of evenings of shining lights, I had to
give up - there is nothing new visible. Brian did suggest that the light in
Australia was pretty bright but not required for the solution. I guess that Ages
will spend another couple of years next to my puzzling armchair before I shelve
it. It wasn't cheap so I don't want to put it away without solving it.
What a filling
Broken propellers
I also have a bunch of 2D packing puzzles designed and printed for me by the incredibly talented Alexander Magyarics. I got cocky because I had solved 2 of them after a little while and quickly moved onto the rest. The 2 above look fairly simple but after 2 weeks, I still cannot solve them! I may have to take them to work and force one of my colleagues to solve them for me!
I have also been desperately working on the Loki lock from Boaz Feldman. I had spent weeks and weeks doing the same thing again and again. I have previously said that I could turn the key (which obviously wouldn't work) and sometimes turn the key and be able to remove it whilst turned (occasionally I couldn't reinsert it which was a worry). My madness did not improve until Goetz sort of dropped me a hint that wasn't a hint. I felt rather foolish as I have given this advice to lots of other people and was a little ashamed not to take my own advice. Having used the "not a hint", I was able to continue with the challenge and found "stuff" to use on other "stuff". It was all very exciting and I learned why you shouldn't do these sort of challenges on an armchair with a cat on your lap. There are small pieces involved and if lost down the side of an armchair would make solving it very difficult. Losing them inside a cat would mean a day or two of waiting and a very unpleasant "sifting" challenge at the "other end". Yuk! I used my puzzling non-skills and finally had opened the lock:
Finally!
I was flushed with success and then crashed back to the ground when I realised that the trick I had used to open it would not work in reverse. OMG! I had an open padlock and couldn't close it again. I have been trying to close it every evening since then (2 weeks). Boaz lent some encouragement and explained why the reverse process wouldn't work and peering closely inside (using my torch again) reveals that he is an absolute master of tricky design and manufacture.
This afternoon, literally just 20 minutes before starting to write this blog post, I tried something ever so slightly different and yesssssss! I managed to reassemble the lock. Finally after a week of struggling I have something to write about. I nearly missed my schedule.
Loki is a devil of a lock puzzle - Beautifully made with several steps to the solution and including one of the oldest tricks in the book taken to a silly level! Go buy it, you will love it! You should also keep an eye on Andrew Coles' website for the Mind the Gap lock - I loved it and it would appear that Allard thought it was quite fun too. It should be released for sale soon.
Now I need to lie down for a little bit and recover my nerves...except I still have a backlog of toys to play with and really not very much time to do it. Better get to it quickly then.
Just a quick blog post today - I am working yet again and don't have much time
to solve and write, I'm afraid. Thanks to Mike last week, I did at least have
some time off from the pressure of writing whilst I have to work so much.
I can now say that
Andrew Coles
produces VERY nice puzzles! That will be plural. I really loved his
Lock Out puzzle
back in August 2020 (it was a very welcome relief from the pandemic and
definitely made me feel much better having had the virus and felt absolutely
awful for a month in the early summer). We have all been waiting to see what
he came up with as a follow up and he has certainly done something quite
wonderful here. He has used a very "non-standard" padlock (certainly not one I
have ever seen before) and modified it so that it doesn't open properly until
you do something to make it open properly. It is not available for general
sale yet but will be
coming soon
- a bunch of previous customers and friends got a chance to buy it a little
early and I am very grateful for that opportunity. Andrew describes this
puzzle as one of medium difficulty and I would agree with that. Maybe even a
simple puzzle as a numbskull like me solved it in about 20 minutes. This does
not detract from the pleasure - it is a very nice mechanism which has been
beautifully made. If you collect locks or metal puzzles then you
HAVE to buy it.
Mind that gap!
It is a fully brass lock with the exception of a screw in the top (obviously a
modification from Andrew) and the steel keys. It didn't occur to me straight
away but the routed ring in the shackle is also a modification (surely Abus
would not deliberately weaken a metal shackle?) and the routing work gives you
something to think about. Of course, you have to do it even if you know it won't
work! Put the damn keys in the lock and turn them... I got a fright - it went
click and the shackle moved quite a bit.
I cannot give anything away but after the "what if I???" moment, there is a very
nice Aha! moment and then another one of those maybe I should try ??? ideas will
occur to you. It is all quite logical and before long you will have a proper gap
and a little satisfied grin on your face. Mr Coles has engineered something very
clever and quite logical. I dropped him a message with a photo of my open puzzle
and my appreciation of his mastery. I knew it would be good -
Shane Hales is an expert on locks and lock puzzles and he said this had a mechanism
that he had not thought of before and that it was a good puzzle. I trust Shane
implicitly and I handed over my money as a result - let's just say...he was
right yet again! When it comes up for sale - you won't be disappointed.
Loki - a devil of a lock!
Next I go to hell with
Loki from the
incredible
Boaz Feldman. I
have played with this every evening for over a month now and I am convinced that
Boaz sent me a broken one! I am not the only one - my friend Neil (an incredible
puzzler) has also singularly failed to open his copy. Now, you must know that I
am joking about broken puzzles - Boaz' engineering skills are superb (this can
be seen when you see the solution to the original
B-Lock (available
here and
here) and the
Danlock
which Boaz is now
making (also available
here)). What we have here is a master at making trick locks producing something
that is too difficult for a simple medical practitioner like me to figure
out.
Key turned and removed.
As usual, yet again, you put the key in the lock and sometimes the key turns
and sometimes it doesn't. When it does turn, the shackle moves a bit which
gets your hopes up and then it stops with not a hint of a gap there. Sigh. So
you turn the key back again to "lock" it and sometimes it turns back and
sometimes it doesn't. Boaz has definitely broken this lock rather badly!
After inspecting the puzzle for any other signs of things I can do, I run
out of ideas rather quickly so it's back to turning the key. I noticed that
when the key is turned the shackle won't open and the key won't come out
again...except if you do something special then the key will come out. That
is very interesting and has gotten me absolutely nowhere! What else can I do? I have no idea! I am a simple man - I sort of think that you put a key in a lock and you turn it and you expect something to happen (usually it opens) but here sometimes something happens and sometimes it doesn't and I think I can make it do all of those things at will whenever I want them happen.
That is unexpected!
I spent a happy few evenings doing the same things over and over and over again getting nowhere when I suddenly found that there is a way to turn the key in the lock, still remove the key but then be unable to reinsert the key more than a few millimeters. That is very interesting and...so far completely useless!
I am certain there is more to this than I have found so far but just like with the B-Lock, it will require very close examination and thought - this could take me years! Loki is a the name of a norse god and is supposed to be a trickster or little devil and so far over a month he has lifted me up a little bit and taken me to hell. I have absolutely no idea what to try next and am reduced to doing the same things over and over again in the vain hope that something different might happen one time.
If you want a challenge then you should definitely buy one (at the moment they are only available direct from Boaz' site). They may be available from PuzzleMaster or other vendors in the future.
Yet again in my hour of need, I receive an email from the Mike Desilets, the official PuzzleMad foreign correspondent, offering help with a truly wonderful article. I have been working on a particularly fun and beautiful puzzle for a couple of weeks now but have gotten to a point where I’m rather stuck. I’m currently waiting for inspiration to strike me but with the dirty looks that Mrs S is giving me, it may be her who strikes me instead! I need to stop swearing at puzzles whilst she is watching TV. Without delay I’ll hand you over to Mike for a fascinating romp through a wide range of challenges.
Aloha Kākou Puzzlers,
Today’s Foreign Office installment will be a puzzle pot-pourri. I have a few tightly-focused articles in the works, but none of them seem anxious to finish themselves. Sometimes this stuff becomes actual work and motivation drops off a cliff accordingly (Ed - I know that feeling!). So, in the interest of procrastination, I decided to adopt a more classical blog approach and simply take pictures of stuff I have worked on recently and opine. Less depth, more variety.
We begin where we left off with Hip-flask. In the midst of writing the Hip-flask post, I ordered a copy of Felix’s Titan (in the UK get it here). It was bound to happen. The puzzle is just as advertised: two brass hemi-spheres, inexplicably joined. It is very beautiful, as only a metal sphere can be. This would be a worthwhile purchase even if it were not a puzzle. Having now seen the quality of the interior machining, I really wonder how this can be made so inexpensively, and in the UK no less.
Titan, by Felix Ure.
A nice even patina is developing; no polish necessary.
It didn’t take long to realize that my first impressions of the puzzle, based on various online sources, was correct. This puzzle falls squarely into the mystery-object category. There is an internal mechanism holding the pieces together and something is clearly rolling around inside. The hemispheres rotate past one another freely, until they do not. They also separate slightly, but nothing internal is visible. I tried the standard solutions, followed by non-standard guesses, followed ultimately and inevitably by random shaking, twisting, spinning, and pulling (Ed - now that is my kind of solution method!). After a solid week and a half of this, an hour or two each night in front of the television, I achieved separation. The early solvers were right, it’s a great feeling when it comes apart. By the time it happens, you have basically lost all hope. It’s really quite a pleasant shock. Of course, you shouldn’t pat yourself on the back too much. This is an exercise in patience, not cleverness. For myself personally, if not for the TV multi-tasking, I’m not sure I would have stuck it out. I’m not getting any younger, after all, and I can test my patience in other, more productive ways. That said, I am THRILLED to have opened Titan. The internals are the very definition of beauty. The mechanism is simple, principled, and obviously very effective.
Below is an image of the internals, if you are interested. It does not show everything, and certainly not the critical components. I doubt VERY much that this will help you solve Titan, but out of an exceedance of caution Kevin will put it behind a spoiler button:
Ed - to be honest I’m not sure this really helps!
B-Lock II - Brass body and steel shackle
Packaged in a beautiful embroidered bag
Nice touch Boaz!
Moving right along, I also had a chance to play with Boaz Feldman’s B-Lock II this week (Ed - I reviewed it in March). This had been on my shopping list for a while, but I always found some reason or other to push it aside in favor of other purchases. I enjoyed B-Lock I (Ed - reviewed here), but hadn’t heard or read much about the new release. Now that I have it, I regret putting it off, and you should not hesitate the way I did (Ed - both are often available direct from Boaz on his web store). This is a really fun puzzle lock and I would even go so far as to say that it is underrated, or at any rate under-appreciated. With the likes of Rainier and Shane producing great stuff, and the legacy of Dan Feldman himself hanging over the sub-field, you can see why this might occur. But B-Lock II doesn’t have any pretensions at that level, and I think Boaz would be the first to admit that. What B-Lock II does have is a high-quality build and a very original and clever mechanism (to me at least, admittedly not a lock expert). I can tell you, without fear, that it has two components, and these must synchronize before the lock will open. One is a common lock ‘gimmick’ and the other is something new (to me).
B-Lock II is not particularly complex, just very crafty and efficient, especially given the limited material provided by an off-the-shelf padlock. After you initially open it, you will not know exactly why unless you study the internals. If you immediately close and reset, it could be a while before you get it open again. For me this puzzle provided a solid half hour of entertainment, which is precisely what I want from a lock in this range. In fact, I think we could do with more locks of this type: affordable, available, fun, and very well crafted. We often get the last two, but not always the first two. Overall, I think it’s a real winner from Boaz and I heartily recommend it. It is worth remembering that Danlock was not invented overnight (Ed - available here and here). With what we have seen from Boaz thus far, I can’t help but think that he is building toward something.
An unlocked lock.
Ok, enough of that. I can only take so much cutting-edge puzzlery (Ed - is that a word?). Time to retreat into the annals of history. Out of respect for my gentle editor, and in light of the possibility that he can write prescriptions (I can indeed!), and would do so for me if I please him sufficiently (not across the I won’t), the remainder of the post shall be not only historical, but also decidedly Anglo-centric.
Bike parts
So let’s look next at a fun little puzzle called “BILD-A-BIKE,” which I gather from the Slocum Collection website originated in the mid-1950s. I imagine it was produced right through the 1960s as well, but I really don’t know and there is not much information available online. BILD-A-BIKE was produced and sold by Chad Valley, a company Kevin is no doubt familiar with (Ed - never heard of it! Have you heard of every small company in the US?). Chad Valley were, at least in the previous mid-century period, a premier English toy company (Ed - I wasn’t born then!). They have a fascinating history which you can find at the Woolworths museum webpage here.
Chad Valley was a toy company, first and foremost, but most every toy company had mechanical puzzles in their product lines at that time. In addition to BILD-A-BIKE, Chad Valley also produced a couple of boxed sets of entanglements, all of the standard sort. They produced a broad range of jigsaw puzzles as well. Otherwise the line was 99% toys and games. Despite a long and honourable history, Chad Valley basically ceased to exist in any meaningful way following their 1978 purchase by Palitoy. The product line was chopped up and sold off and independent production ceased. Subsequent owner Woolworths attempted to revive and capitalise on the Chad Valley name in the late 1980s as part of its ill-fated modernisation programme. During this effort, Chad Valley was reoriented as the face of a line of toys directed to the very young. The brand remains that way today under new owner Argos, virtually unrecognisable from its historical roots.
True enough, although the playing will flake and chip with normal use, a stainless version is needed
For the mechanical puzzle aficionado, BILD-A-BIKE is probably the most interesting Chad Valley product. It is a put-together puzzle in which you quite literally build a bike (or perhaps I should say bild? Check this). The pieces are nickel-plated iron, or maybe steel, I’m not sure. The pieces are “rustless,” as the packaging proclaims, but only to the extent that the nickel plating remains intact. You will probably have to look hard to find a pristine set. If you do find one, and want to keep it that way, then do not BILD-YOUR-BIKE!
As for solving, it is not any great challenge. The wheel/handlebar and wheel/seat connections are a little tricky. It is definitely a challenge to keep the front part assembled as you work on the back, and vice-versa. Dexterity is definitely required. Light force is also required, since the assembled bike is largely held together by tension.
Although obviously targeted at a younger demographic, BILD-A-BIKE is an enjoyable little puzzle for all ages. There is no Ah-ha! element to speak of, but it is very satisfying when the pieces come together and take the shape of a bike. I recommend this puzzle as a cool-down after solving Titan. In the final analysis, BILD-A-BIKE is a charming footnote in English mechanical puzzle history. I humbly suggest that my editor and patron MUST purchase one and also that he MUST give it a prominent place on his shelves. I await photographic proof. (Ed - I’ll see if I can find one)
BILT
Ok, time for one more, staying on the English theme. How about a shunting puzzle? I did a post a while back on these. Kind of a rare class, but they always fascinate me. When I came across a copy of Chunnel Trouble? a while back, I snapped it up without a second thought. Chunnel Trouble? (that question mark is going to get tiresome) was made by distinguished, though tragically inactive, English puzzle producer and seller Pentangle. Chunnel Trouble? is a fantastic revival of a classic shunting problem, probably THE classic shunting problem. It also sports a contemporary and quite ingenious design, packaging, and marketing approach. It is, in effect, a nineteenth century puzzle in new clothing.
Chunnel Trouble? Not really.
Although there is plenty of shunting (or switching) involved with actual Channel Tunnel operations, it likely bears little resemblance to the Chunnel Trouble? layout. Regardless, Chunnel Trouble? is a delightful design. According to the box, the trains can pass each other in 33 moves. The siding looks like it will hold only two cars, if that. This puzzle can alternatively be solved using slips of paper, or whatever objects you prefer (except marbles); you don’t necessarily need to own the actual puzzle. Most shunting puzzles are that way. The physical version looks very well made, possibly in maple, and most definitely in England.
Why do I seem a little cagey in my description? Well, that’s because I have not actually played with, or even touched, this puzzle. It’s a rare occurrence. I cannot play with this puzzle for the simple reason that it is in its original packaging, sealed, untouched, and unspoilt. The Channel Tunnel was constructed between 1988 and 1994. I don’t know the actual date for this puzzle, but it should fall within that range, or close to. Kevin or the MPP chaps will doubtless enlighten me. I do know that it is currently 2020. So given the time gap, whatever it may precisely be, I clearly can never break the seal on this puzzle. I could not bring myself to do it when I first bought it, and after anguished consideration, I’ve decided that I never will. Pristine examples are a sacred trust. Also, given the fact that the puzzle can be ‘played’ any number of other ways, there is really no call to grub it up like a complete barbarian. Instead, I’ll just squirrel this copy away until it is the only unopened Chunnel Trouble? left in the world, the fundamental conceit of the vintage collector.
Instructions to help get you out of Chunnel Trouble.
This English puzzle jig is fun, and I definitely want to leave my editor brimming with tears of nostalgia (Ed - that would only happen if I could remember any of these toys). Here then, is one more. It slots in somewhere between the last two on the temporal plane. It is called Perfect Circle, part of the Waddingtons House of Games Mindbender series from the very late 1960s and early 1970s. There are at least six other puzzles in the series. Perfect Circle was apparently developed by House of Games, a Canadian company, and then licensed and manufactured by storied English game developer and producer John Waddington LTD. “House of Games” was traditionally part of the Waddington moniker, and it seems to have come and gone periodically over the course of the previous century. How it ended up in Canada I’m not sure. In any case, after a long history of service to the game-playing English public, Waddingtons was sold to Hasbro in 1994. I assume it is now no more than a residual-value brand name like Chad Valley. Check out this fun article for a trip down memory lane. If you want to learn about Waddingtons contribution to the war effort, definitely check this out. That must have been quite an A-Ha! moment for the boys.
Perfect Circle.
A low cost, high value puzzle from Waddingtons.
Back to the puzzle. Perfect Circle requires you to make a perfect circle (is there another kind?) out of 16 variously-cut pieces of colored cardboard. There are four shapes and three colors, as the instructions indicate. This is not the whole story though. There are actually eight distinct pieces, because two of each of the four shapes is a mirror reflection of the other two. They certainly look the same, but they are not interchangeable. This is tremendously important, and starkly apparent, once you try to comply with the matching rule on your as-yet imperfect circle. The rule that makes this puzzle more than a simple geometric assembly is that no two colors may touch side-on-side.
The rule of engagement.
Initially, upon dumping the pieces out, it seems like Perfect Circle might be a hair puller. Soon, though, you realise the importance of symmetry and things begin to accelerate. You will also quickly differentiate the outer pieces with curvature from the inner pieces without. It all starts to come together as you mix and match pieces.
Although finding the solution on first assembly is possible, know that at least two distinct circles can be formed which will never meet the matching rule. I had to work through both of these before I discovered the correct assembly, and actually began to think my puzzle was broken at one point. I had become obsessed with certain circle designs that seemed so beautiful they simply had to be correct. The puzzle fooled me, to its great credit. Yet again I had willfully disremembered the Tungsten Rule of solving: once you establish the theoretical impossibility of a given solution, you MUST move on (Ed - where did that come from?). Anyhow, it was a really fun solve and I highly recommend this modest little puzzle.
Is the circle perfectable?
Kevin, capstone of my arch (Ed - I don’t think I’ve ever been called that before!), I think you can find Perfect Circle for well under a tenner at any given boot fair (Ed - not in this age of social distancing it’s not!!!). Take poor Mrs S out of the house for once in your miserable life- make an afternoon of it. Your ulterior motive need never be known. It will be just between you, me, and 100,000 random blog readers. Whack! Ouch! Ed - Mrs S will not ever go to a boot fair!! She only shops in the finest of retail establishments! I’ll need to look on eBay.
That’s all for today folks. Hopefully this post was a good change from the usual foreign office material. It was definitely refreshing for me. Ok boss, over to you for the wrap-up...
Wow! What an odyssey! I enjoyed that a lot, thank you, my friend, for a fantastic romp through puzzles old and new, cheap and rather expensive, but all looking quite fun! I am really so grateful to you for taking the time to write for me and the readers and for providing me with some entertainment. I always look forward to what you produce - it’s always something I’d never have found myself and it makes me think.
