Having A Puzzle Friend Is Essential

I Need My Lunch By Idan Shvartz

Last week I mentioned how I had suddenly started to make progress on Idan's amazing INML puzzle after many weeks of attempting to do the same thing over and over again. Having gotten started on it, at various intervals during my work, I found myself stalled with no obvious way forward and at least once, no way back either.

At this point, I have to extoll the virtue of having a puzzle friend. Either someone who has done it before or as I have done many times in the past, someone (Shane) who simultaneously solves it and we help each other along. With this puzzle, I had the company of Dominic who was the one who initially recommended Idan's puzzles to me. The wonderful thing with solving this puzzle with Dominic in the background was that he knew all the pitfalls and was able to give hints that really were barely hints. Looking through the email chain, I can actually see that he barely said anything at all. The main feature of a good clue giver is someone who can just remind you to look where you've already looked, he doesn't tell you to do anything just a hint to focus somewhere. I am vey grateful for this support because I still feel like I have actually solved the puzzle myself but not gone off on some awful tangent for too long or done something damaging to the puzzle.

At the end of last week's post, I had found the first part of my lunch and had gotten stuck at that point. I didn't know what I had actually done to get it and actually wasn't sure where it had come from. More worrying, I found myself unable to backtrack. Initially this had been a source of stress until I went back and re-read the instructions that Idan had given me. He said that 

"Resetting the puzzle is another piece in itself as part of the overall solution of the puzzle". 

This made me realise that the reset was not going to be just a matter of reversing what I had already done. I could continue toward on it in the knowledge I was getting myself further and further in the "proverbial sh1t" but there would be a way to puzzle my way out of it.

I was presented with a pair of large holes and a new tool. A quick think© again and I was on my way. More pieces were coming out and more places to stick things. Looking at the puzzle, I knew with certainty what I needed to eventually do but I was a long way from being able to achieve it. I got stuck again and after another chat with Dominic, I was encouraged to look at a part of the puzzle that I had so far more or less ignored. I had noticed something odd about it way back at the beginning of the odyssey but there was nothing I could do with it. Now, though, I had a new tool and a new set of possibilities. This time I had to think about several tools at once and a little dexterity had me the very thing I was hoping for. Time to push it into the puzzle to get my reward... NOOOOO! It wouldn't do what I wanted. Aargh! There was a teeny tiny bit of movement but something was locking it up. Think© again you eeejit!

I could see a potential locking mechanism but had no way to get to it. Or did I? What if I try this??? Nope! Blocked again. What was blocking it? This puzzle keeps you searching and thinking at every single step. So much stuff has been crammed into one very diminutive shell. I quickly manipulated the block and started using my tool to remove the blockage. Ooh! I needed a second tool and then a third before using my fourth tool at the same time, I had the next stage open. 

LUNCH IS SERVED! There's no clue behind the button but the aim of the challenge can be seen.

All that effort for a beer and a sandwich!

Having whooped with delight at getting my lunch, I turned to resting the damned thing. I had upset Mrs S by using one of her Tupperware containers to hold all the parts - there were 16 separate parts plus a whole bunch of loose bits within the main body of the puzzle. It was going to be one hell of a job getting this thing back to the beginning. Especially as several of the moves didn't seem to be reversible. At one point during the solution the obvious dovetail had been slid but was now locked open. Nothing seemed to allow me to reverse what I had done so it was obviously I had to look harder. The piece that I needed was very very well hidden but once I had it, there were a number of things I could do with it. Only one of which got me anywhere. I got stuck thinking the wrong thing after that and Dominic came to my rescue yet again. No need to tell me what to do - another of his skilful hints about how to think what might be possible with my current configuration and all of a sudden I was back on the correct path.

My goodness! That first part of the reset was very clever! Idan is another genius like Derek. I am amazed yet again. After that clever move the reset is partly a matter of remembering what pieces came out of which hole and also remembering what order they had been released to me. Luckily I had taken extensive notes and I was back at the beginning in about 15 minutes.

A repeat solve showed that I did understand it and I took my photo of all the parts that could be released from the puzzle. No I am not going to publish it for general viewing.

So much packed into one small package!

Idan has an incredible puzzle brain! This is one of the best puzzles I have ever solved - it is very rare for me to write about the same puzzle twice in a row! It will be at the top (or close to it) of my top ten(ish) of 2026. I can't wait to see what he manages to produce next. If you get a chance to own or even just play with this puzzle then jump at the chance!

Thank you, Dominic, for recommending this puzzle enhancing my experience so significantly.

I Need My Lunch - Or At Least Some Breakfast!

I Need My Lunch by Idan Shvartz

I don't have much to write about today but thought I would show off something that has been keeping me busy for weeks and weeks and weeks with little success until very recently.

A couple of years ago, a new puzzle designer from Israel, Idan Shvartz, caught the world by storm with a new and phenomenally complex new creation called Abraham's Whale. I really don't have time to keep up with the mechanical puzzle discord group and heard nothing about it until it appeared in the top 3 puzzles of the year in the 2023 edition of Peter Hajek's EPP booklet. It looked amazing in aluminium and brass but was sold out by the time I had heard about it. I was eventually offered the opportunity to get a copy but I had already overspent my budget by a LOT and puzzles of this quality were just not cheap so I had to pass on it.

A few years later, Idan designed and manufactured another limited run of his next creation, I Need My Lunch. This was initially only going to be available to puzzlers who had already purchased the Abraham's Whale. I therefore gave up on the idea of getting a copy and hoped to have a play eventually at an MPP (like Allard did at the last one). Luckily for me, I had been in touch with Idan and he still had a copy available fro someone who had not taken him up on the offer of a second puzzle. I jumped at the chance and sent off some PayPal and he sent off some metal. It made it across gauntlet of HM Customs without interception and I admired a rather diminutive (101 x 53 x 20 mm) but incredibly well made puzzle. It was made from Aluminium, steel and assorted other bits including a rather heavily modified padlock. It arrived in January and I set to work very quickly to see what I could do.

The instructions are to find your food which is hidden inside and Idan says there are 24 moves to achieve this but the reset requires a whole different set of moves which means that there is a whole lot of puzzling to be done.

Back view

When it first arrives, there is almost nothing that is possible. The two flathead screws at each end of the puzzle can be turned with a thumbnail and a ball bearing or two visible through the bars of the cage can be rattled about. Other than that, nothing seems to move. The padlock can be wiggled about and a close look reveals that the key is captive in the body but not inn the keyway - it won't come out! There also seems to be something "wrong" with the shackle.

I got nowhere! Absolutely nowhere for weeks and weeks! There didn't seem to be anything I could do. Now as a short bloke, I have to be careful not to eat too much for fear of getting fat easily. Mrs S said that it was "for better or worse" but not for fatter! As a result of this, I tend to never eat breakfast and as a result I really "need my lunch". This kept me at it. Constantly fiddling and hoping something new would happen trying the same thing over and over again. Of course, that didn't work until suddenly it did! Aaaargh! All I needed was to think about positioning before trying something obvious. I now had a couple of objects to use as tools. But as usual, I couldn't make anything happen until I tried a combination of things.

Progress was being made for a while - I had to take notes because pieces and tools were falling thick and fast. After about 8-10 steps I got stuck and emailed my friend Dominic (he who encouraged me to get a copy if I could). Dominic was very good and gave me little hints that barely told me anything but also encouraged me when I mentioned what I had been doing. 

Over the last 2 weeks he has gradually encouraged me to get further and just this morning I received the first part of my lunch - I have absolutely no idea how I did it and I cannot seem to put it back (which doesn't bode well for the reset). I am stuck again with just the first part of my lunch and starting to get hungry. I have a whole lot of pieces in a little Tupperware box which upsets Mrs S and interests the cats who keep putting paws in to pull pieces out. Hopefully I will continue to make gradual progress but I dare say that I will need more hints from Dominic.

If you get a chance to play or buy a copy of this puzzle then you MUST take it! The quality is incredible. This is along similar lines in terms of quality, puzzling and manufacturing to puzzles produced by Wil Strijbos and Jon Keegan. Amazing puzzling in a very small container.

Jukebox - Another Top Ten(ish) Candidate?

Hell Yes!

Jukebox from Moontree Puzzles

This masterpiece is the creation of Daniel Czuriga and Tibor Folytán’s Moontree Puzzles. It won the Jury grand prize in the 2024 IPP design competition and at the time was immediately on everyone's list to try and get hold of a copy. At the time it won, no-one knew that the puzzle would be produced in any significant numbers. It was very gratifying when the pair decided to set up a business to mass produce this incredible creation. Many avid collectors put our names down as pre-orders and I was amongst them to put down a deposit. Just looking at it, you could see that this was not going to be a cheap puzzle and Mrs S, to this day, doesn't know how much it cost. If she ever found out then I'd be a dead man! If you would like a copy of it then it is currently sold out but still in production. Applications for future copies can be made here. Don't tell your significant others!

There's a lovely certificate!

I do promise that there has been no collusion between me and Allard with this. Allard's review is a bit late because he received his copy of this incredible puzzle quite late in the year and was forced by the lovely Gill to put the box under the Xmas tree and wait for Xmas day to actually get his hands on it. I have a much more feeble excuse - I received my copy back in July and put it aside due to sheer pressure of work and only managed to get it out to play in September. Apart from work, my main excuse for not publishing anything about it is that I am rubbish at puzzles! I got stuck on the second step for an embarrassingly long time and kept putting it away in the hope that I would have a breakthrough in my sleep! At Peter Hajek's EPP, I was rather embarrassed that Daniel was present and I sheepishly had to present the Jukebox as one of my top 3 acquisitions of the year but had to admit that I hadn't yet put in enough time to solve it. I was far too embarrassed to admit in front of some of the best puzzlers in the world (as well as one of the creators) that I had been stuck on step 3 for several months!

The aim is to find the Wurlitzer token to put into the slot and play some music. There are apparently at least 15 steps to do this and I was stuck on step 3!

It is absolutely beautifully made from anodised aluminium and stainless steel with magnets dotted about and when you get inside some plastic parts as well. When it was being manufactured, the boys were very good at posting photos and stories about how the process was going. I am amazed that they were able to hold down their full time jobs as well as produce such a gorgeous flawless creation. The attention to detail is unbelievable. There are certificates, instructions and even a cleaning cloth - not just any old cloth! It is a chamois! I would argue that any puzzle that includes a chamois is going to be amazingly well made.

Side view - one compartment visible

Looking at the Wurlitzer, there are obviously multiple compartments which will have either tools or mechanism inside and I assumed that the sequence would be seamless. 

This was reiterated at the EPP when several attendees gave this puzzle in their top 3 and specifically mentioned that the solving sequence was beautifully logical with every part leading to the next and a really lovely finale.

Sob! I was still stuck on step 3! 

When you are presented with this sort of puzzle, after you have read the instructions and admired the beauty of it, the only thing that you can logically do is poke at everything with your finger and see what moves. When nothing moves, you do it in various different positions - the puzzle, not you! I was obviously poking wrong because I didn't find the first step for a good ½ hour. Eventually I realised that something moved and wondered if it would release anything else. This set me on the wrong path of looking for that something else. I should have carried on focussing on what moved but I was fixated on all the other compartments and thought that one of them would have been unlocked by what I had done first. Needless to say, I was wrong and it took me an embarrassingly long time to realise it and do the next move. I had a tool eventually and had absolutely no idea what to do with it. I tried to place it in various places over the whole surface of this very large puzzle. Because the tool was steel, I found a number of magnetic parts inside but nothing seemed to change. Yep! I'm either an eejit or not very observant.

Here I stayed for quite a few weeks! I tried everything I could think of but I had not noticed something crucial. If you have the puzzle then LOOK AT IT! Notice everything and then notice what changes when you move bits or place bits. 

Eventually, I realised that I had unlocked something without realising it and could hear something inside. After this, it is crucial to notice a particular clue - it's blatant! Daniel and Tibor might as well have hit me over the head with the clue. I, of course, hadn't noticed! I am embarrassed to admit that I must have performed the requisite next sequence of moves many many times and not realised what I was doing. I think that after several weeks, I realised what I had been doing and I had a "what if" moment. OMG! AHA! All of a sudden I was making progress.

After this I was able to join the other puzzlers in their wonderful sequence that was beautifully logical with bits of thought required and holding me up periodically but not getting me truly stuck for anything more than an hour or so. Quite a few new pieces accumulate and more locks are released. Some of the mechanisms are truly beautifully implemented and each step provides more.

At one point I received my Wurlitzer token but couldn't use it straight away. There were more mechanisms to navigate before it can make music. The last steps are fabulously ingenious and before I knew it, I was listening to the music from the Jukebox. Expect this to be elevated from a "not solved yet" to very highly rated in my Top Ten(ish) of the year. It is:

Absolutely Brilliant!

There are a lot of pieces in this puzzle and I was worried that resetting the puzzle might prove difficult but it's actually beautifully easy to do. If you need it, there is a video to help. Having reset the Jukebox back to the start, I was able to go back to that step 3 that had fooled me for so long and realised that it had all been right in front of me but I was too stupid to notice!. I am sure that all of you great puzzlers out there will have no problem working through that tip that held me up for so long. You will enjoy a brilliant sequence of logical moves.

Mrs S won't allow it to be put on display in the living room (she has moved almost all my puzzles out of that room) but it will be front and centre in my puzzle display cabinets and shown off to anyone who visits!

Thank you Daniel and Tibor - I am amazed at your design and production skills. I don't know if anything else is planned but you can sign me up straight away!

PuzzleMaster Kickstarter Part 2

Trick Bolt #4

Continuing the theme from last week, the PuzzleMaster Kickstarter campaign continues until end of December. Last week I described the 3 new puzzles that are the main feature but there are also 3 add-on puzzles that can be added to any order on the Kickstarter for a fraction of the cost on the PuzzleMaster site.

Starting with the Trick Bolt number 4 which is available as an add-on for just $8CAD compared with the $14.99 on their site. The aim is to remove the middle nut from the bolt. This is a lovely little challenge that is fun for any experienced puzzler as well as great for a beginner and children - it is rated as Tricky or level 6 on their 5 to 10 scale of difficulty. There are a couple of lovely little Aha! moments in it. This could probably be considered a rather basic sequential discovery puzzle. For $8 you really cannot go wrong. I will be taking this to work with me to encourage my colleagues to take up puzzling.

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Celestial Cipher

From the easy Trick Bolt 4 we move up a notch in difficulty. In fact we move right up to the top! The Celestial Cipher is an anodised metal 8 piece board burr. It is rather attractive in silver and gold. rather fiddly to play with due to the diminutive size - 4.5 x 2.9 x 4.7cm. PuzzleMaster rate this as a level 9 (Gruelling) on their odd scale and I personally would make it a level 10. The normal price for this one is $21.75CAD but as an add-on to the Kickstarter it is reduced to $16 - that is a steal!

The movement of the pieces is nice and smooth and you can see all the gaps and paths which should make it easier to dismantle but despite this, it is really quite a huge challenge with a good few blind alleys to go down. This one took me quite a few weeks to take apart - not for the fainthearted and only the very best burr-puzzler will manage to reassemble it without Burrtools. I needed BT and discovered that there are 12 possible assemblies raging from an "easy" level 19 (4.2.3.3.2.3.2) up to the hardest level 27 (10.5.3.3.2.3) which is the one that it arrived in. This potentially gives you a bunch of challenges if you can find someone to assemble it each time for you in a new challenge. Unfortunately Mrs S won't do that for me!

As a quick word of warning, don't let you cat lick this puzzle! Yes, I know that is an odd thing to write but my two kittens have a weird fascination with cold metal objects. They lick them all. taps/faucets, metal trivets and metal puzzles! Nothing I do will stop them licking everything which can give aa nasty surprise when you pick up something that is unexpectedly wet and sticky. 😱 The Celestial Cipher became a bit sticky to move and then the surface corroded. I have no idea what is in a cat's saliva that does that but don't let them do that to yours!

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Houdini's Torture Cell - PuzzleMaster version

If you don't have the Houdini's Torture Cell yet then this is a very good reason to join the Kickstarter and buy it for a very reasonable price of $36CAD (reduced from the usual $44.99). If you don't want the Kickstarter puzzles then you should buy this anyway - many of us would consider this an essential puzzle for anyone's collection. I did not get sent a copy of this because they know that I have an original version from Brian Young.

Brian collaborated with PuzzleMaster to recreate this amazing puzzle in metal and the result is stunning. I have payed with it at an MPP and it is good and solid with an amazing heft to it. The puzzling is identical to the wooden version and with a curved acrylic cage it shouldn't suffer from the same micro cracks that plagued the original. The puzzle was good enough to win the Jury first prize in the 2012 IPP design competition. That alone should tell you it is worth getting hold of. 

The mechanism is all on show and beautiful to work out (unlike the complete bugger of an identical blind challenge in the last lock of The Opening Bat. This reminds me that I should fetch out my copy to take to work again and bamboozle a whole new bunch of trainees, surgeons, ODPs and nurses. This is a simply wonderful puzzle!

You have just 16 days from the publication of this article to join the Kickstarter campaign. There are a bunch of great puzzles available and here I have shown that the add-ons are also worth considering.

PuzzleMaster Has An Opportunity For You

Crazy Lock designed by Christoph Lohe

I was contacted a few months ago by Leon Stein, one of the co-owners of PuzzleMaster, to ask whether I would be interested in looking at their upcoming Kickstarter campaign puzzles and would I show them off to the world? Well, I have some experience of the PuzzleMaster Kickstarter puzzles and have heartily recommended them each time. Of course, I agreed. I would be foolish to pass up the new creations and I thought that you, my readers, would want to see my opinion. The Kickstarter is now up and running with a close date of 31st December so if any of these interest you then get over there and place an order. They have reached the minimum to actually go ahead and so this will definitely be happening, with the aim of shipping puzzles to backers in June/July 2026.

This time there are 3 main puzzles in the campaign plus there are 3 add-on puzzles (ones already on the PuzzleMaster store) which can be added to your pledge to get a bit of a discount.

The first one I tried was the Crazy Lock. It's a burr in the shape of a lock - I can't resist burrs, I have a passing fondness for locks and a burr lock is irresistible to me - in fact I have quite a lot of them now. I wasn't disappointed and neither will you be - it is great.

The box states that it is level 8 on the PM 5 to 10 scale and I actually think it should be rated a bit higher at 9. I significantly struggled to dismantle it. The design was made by the late Christoph Lohe and was originally published as Burlock E. 

I have actually solved Burrlock E many many years ago when I bought it from Eric Fuller (he also adored Christoph's designs and always produced great challenges). Way back then I described it as a serious challenge for mere mortal puzzlers like me and it is still that. With a level of 26.2.3.2.2, this has a really significant difficulty to it. It took me about a week to dismantle it and then I was unable to assemble again without Burrtools. Creating the file was a bit of a challenge but at least I was finally able to put it back together again. For those of you who are burr assembly experts, there is an alternative assembly (level 26.3.3.2.2 which has the key hosizontally in the lock at the end. Double the challenge for one puzzle.

Burrlock E from Cubic Dissection (2017)

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Fortress of Shadows by Christoph Lohe

The next puzzle for me to play with was the Fortress of Shadows burr (also by Christoph) it is quite diminutive (1.75 x 1.25 x 1.25") but beautifully made with gold coloured burr pieces trapped inside a black anodised castle with 4 turrets. These turrets very much limited the movements of the pieces. I spent another 2 weeks working on this one. You can see everything that is going on inside but it is still a hugely difficult challenge with level 30.1.2 as the pieces move back and forth progressively making space to allow the first piece out. It looked familiar to me but I couldn't place it properly. I did go back and check my photo database and realised that Pelikan had produced a different version of the puzzle 5 years ago (called Castle) which I had reviewed here - that one had not been terribly difficult but this version is a significant advance in difficulty. 

I would be very impressed by anyone who could assemble it from scratch but I definitely needed a Burrtools file and this was a fun one to make and follow in reverse to fully assembled.

The original Castle by Christoph - similar but different to the Fortress of Shadows

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Twisted Logic by Yavuz Demirrhan

This rather beautiful 4 piece anodised burr looked very familiar to me and, as with all the other puzzles in my collection, I had a vague memory of owning it and solving it once but the process was a mystery to me. Looking back I realised that the original version was a puzzle I had actually solved twice. Chiasma was a design by the amazing Yavuz Demirrhan that PuzzleMaster had made before in a very limited run that I had reviewed back in 2020 and had compared the metal version with the original wooden one from Pelikan. In fact the handmade metal version is still available on the PuzzleMaster site but is not cheap. The newer one will be mass produced for a fraction of that cost.

I recalled that this one had been incredibly difficult. There are 4 identical board burrs that gradually extend apart and then sequentially line up the exit points to allow removal of pieces. I found it very confusing to work on and this is not made easier by the need to prevent the pieces rotating. I don't think there are any rotational shortcuts but it needs you to keep the pieces aligned to move them around safely. It's quite fun to explore but I would suggest that you use a back and forth approach to make sure that you know what you have done as it's easy to get lost. At one point I had the pieces quite extended apart from each other and in a dead end and struggled to return to the beginning. The rather low solution level of 16.4.6 would sort of imply that it shouldn't be too hard but don't be fooled - it is a huge challenge to move around, control the pieces and keep track. The solution is really not obvious. 

Chiasma - Pelikan version

Chiasma - original PM version

I will return next week with a review of the add-on puzzles from the Kickstarter campaign - this is definitely well worth inverting in. They are great challenges, beautifully made and an amazing price.

Don't Be A Coward!

If You Dare - You Will Probably Win!

Who Dares Wins aka Haleslock 6
A fabulous design by Shane Hales in collaboration with the Two Brass Monkeys

Today is a day for locking metal stuff or unlocking it.

The first thing I should tell you all is that Big Steve and Ali (the Two Brass Monkeys) have released their latest creation, the Bag O'Tangles and you should all go there and buy it/them. I saw the pre-production version at the last MPP and immediately decided that I needed to buy a copy when I saw it there - it has just gone up for sale and I have placed the order to pick it up at the next MPP at the end of the month. If you aren't sure then read Allard's review to be convinced. Apparently they can all be nested together for a final master challenge - if nothing else convinces you, then that certain should!

In August last year, I purchased the 6th in Shane's series of lock puzzles. When you have all the others it would be rude not to continue collecting and Mrs S definitely agreed with that. Whack! Ouch! or maybe not! 😱 

The Who Dares Wins puzzle is still available from the Two Brass Monkeys site and you definitely should get one whilst they are still available. I had no idea what a rim cylinder lock was until I got this. I had always called the classic door lock on a British front door a "Yale" lock but that is apparently a trade name for the type of lock I grew up with on my front door and certainly in retrospect, from the top this thing would not be out of place embedded in a door. Shane had created a prototype puzzle from one of these and showed it to the monkey boys and they all colluded to create something that did not require a puzzler to carry a door around with them (Mrs S would definitely have disapproved quite strongly had I brought in an extra door!). As soon as they were available to purchase one arrived and I took me customary photos. It is nicely shiny in brass and some anodised aluminium with a key on a keyring and a helpful tag with the instructions - open the lock and find the golden padlock. It is all delivered in a Jute bag. This thing is pretty weighty at 380g with dimensions of 36mm diameter and 88m long.

I'm glad this one was so attractive as it stayed on display in my pile o' puzzles to solve for many many months! I played and played and played with it daily, then weekly then monthly since August last year and got absolutely nowhere! At some point during the 9 month wait I even retrieved the jute bag and turned it inside out searching for hidden tools in the sewn edges. I've been caught by that sort of thing before and refuse to be caught again - at least until the next time!

Looking at it, there is not much to really see that gives any immediate clues. Putting the key in the lock and trying to turn does the usual nothing at all - it won't turn but at least the key comes out again. Fiddling with the brass collars gives a teeny hint that they might be involved at some point as there is a fraction of a mm movement in one of the three but no rotation. After discovering that, there is nothing else to be found for a VERY long time. I am sure that all of us do the usual of trying to insert the key to varying depths and attempting to turn it - no, that doesn't work either. Then it's time to attempt it with the puzzle in a whole lot of different positions. I am getting a bit too old to be doing handstands with a puzzle but at least I didn't hurt myself.

Looking very closely at the puzzle does give a small hint at one of the things that Shane has done to the insides of this thing to convert a standard lock into something that won't open with a key but seeing it doesn't really help. At least it didn't help me! Remember, I am not terribly bright.

Right from the very beginning there was something that I wanted to do but didn't have what was required to do it and with these you are not allowed to use anything that you haven't been given. This was one of the reasons I went to the jute bag at least 3 or 4 times to see whether I had missed anything. I really wanted to do one particular thing but never had the courage to do it. This was a deliberate part of Shane's devious design! He knew that no puzzler would be happy doing what he knew was necessary, hence the name of the puzzle - if you were going to win with this one then you had to be daring and try something special. I was a coward! Month after month I didn't dare to try it until in desperation I did the unthinkable. 

AHA!

OMG! I cannot believe that he did that! All of a sudden after 9 months of cowardice, I was daring for the first time and I managed my first step. Now it was time to explore further. Don't solve this puzzle anywhere where you might lose small pieces because after a further 10 or 15 minutes you will find some "stuff" dropping out (in my case into my lap and into the grooves of the sofa cushions). 

Solved the bloody thing - I had my golden padlock!

Once the lock is open you can see how simple and yet ingenious the design is. Shane is relying on people not having the courage to do what is necessary and, from what I can gather talking to other puzzlers, he is absolutely right - not many of us are willing to be daring. at least not until we get absolutely desperate. That man is a genius! I texted Shane when I had finally solved the bloody thing and he actually wrote:

"I wanted to psychologically f..k people over      I guess it worked perfectly!"

 It certainly did! B.st..d! But finally after all this time I can place it on display in the lock section of my display cabinets, much to the pleasure of Mrs S.

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MW Puzzles keyring

I had missed out on the whole of Matthew Williams' puzzle designs as they seemed to go viral via the Mechanical puzzle discord and I just don't have time to get involved in that. I saw a few of his incredible creations at the MPP and they all looked fabulous but I resigned myself to only getting to look at them at puzzle parties. I even missed out on the second run of Pinball Wizard puzzles because they went up for sale whilst I was anaesthetising a weekend trauma list and they sold out in about 5 minutes - I was 2 hours late! 😭. 

Get that key out

My only experience of MW puzzles' creations was the Keyring 1 (I have heard that a Keyring 2 might be released sometime soon). I managed to acquire this at a Midlands puzzle party and I think I received it as a gift from Matthew (thanks mate!) This lovely little thing is made of steel, brass ands a few acrylic bits as well. It has been in my work bag for over a year! The aim is to remove the key from the lock and then put it back and trap it again.

The key is inserted in the keyway at one end and doesn't move much at all. There is a very small amount of wiggle room but it certainly won't turn or pull out. Looking at it you cannot see what mechanism inside might be preventing the movement.

The only thing that you can do is move the brass collar - it can rotate and it can be pulled a few mm towards the far end to pushed back. At some point during the movement of the collar you can see a red something inside.

Red insert inside?

There appears to be a pin

Fiddling with this collar eventually reveals a pin and it feels like that pin can be moved but when the collar is rotated back to the start position the pin is always back in place. It feels like that pin needs to be extracted outwards into the brass collar to release something inside.

I spent over a year trying to get that damn pin to do something and failed. Now, with many puzzles there are lots of things to try and you keep attempting different combinations of various things until you get enough information to progress to the next step. Both of today's delights have none of this progression - there is absolutely nothing new to try and only one or two tiny little movements which don't get you anywhere. I sometimes think that these puzzle designers are out to drive me crazy......crazier than I am already!

After a year of fiddling and doing the same 1 or 2 things over and over and over again, I noticed that something had changed. It would appear that Einstein was wrong - sometimes doing the same thing again and again for a very long time does actually make something happen on one occasion. Or maybe it happened every time but I failed to notice it.

That was rather interesting; if only I actually knew what was the cause. Determined to put another puzzle away, I continued with my repetition and before I knew it, there was a major change inside. More repetition was required until I had yet another of those

AHA!

moments!

I had no idea how this was working but I finally had my key:

At last! Another puzzle I can put on display.

Could I put it back to the start? Yes I could. It's very clever and I am slightly ashamed of myself that it took me so long to work out what was required. Thank you Matthew for keeping me occupied for a year! I need some easier puzzles for a while!

This One Needs To Be Locked Up

Chained Lock by Luke from Waier creations

Back view

I was rather late to the party with this one. In fact, I am late with quite a lot of new toys! I really don't have much time for the Mechanical Puzzle Discord where many of the latest and greatest creations get announced as well as bought and sold. I wish I did have time but I seem to find myself working very long days and very long weeks (I seem to be half way through a month of 6-day weeks yet again. I am getting a bit too old to work that relentlessly).

The first thing I knew about this one was when Allard reviewed it on his site. As soon as I read the review I headed off to the website and managed to nab the last one there. The only one that was there at that time was the slightly more expensive all-metal version. It quickly winged it's way across the pond and arrived in PuzzleMad HQ - it arrived in October amidst a huge flurry of deliveries including a Pelikan arrival, a Tom Lensch arrival as well as an extravaganza from Tye's NothingYetDesigns. Needless to say, "she" was distinctly unimpressed as the arrivals tray in the kitchen was piled to overflowing. I promised to redistribute them elsewhere and immediately pocketed this one to play with straight away.

The aim here is to remove the key from the lock. This will require tools that are discovered along the way and quite a bit of thought© which might explain one of the reasons that I am only writing about it at the beginning of December. 

Of course, you have to do the obvious and see whether the key will turn and...of course it won't! It would appear that this puzzle is stuck with the lock in the unlocked position - with this sort of lock the key is only removable when the lock is locked. Time to look for tools. Allard had found himself stuck after a few steps and needed a little hint from Ali. I began my play and removed the keyring with tiny hex key from the main key and then played with the knurled thumbwheel on the front. I began to accumulate bits and pieces to use on it. This was fun. The cat got interested in the hex key and I had to stop for a while for fear of losing pieces. Within about 30 minutes I had 5 separate items and then I got stuck. I suspect it was at the same place that Allard did. 

I got stuck for a very long time. I created various tools using the items in my collection but none of them seemed to help. I had tried one particular move with a nice combination of pieces (something that I am sure I have used before on a different puzzle - hence the thought that I got stuck at the same move as Allard). I tried doing the crucial move but it never worked and I assumed that I had not found the correct tool. I was proper stuck and it went back into my tray to be picked up and fiddled with every few days. No progress between mid October and the middle of November.

At the last MPP, a couple of people had brought their copies along with them and a few other picked it up. I happened to be around when Shane was supervising a puzzler on it and I sidled over to "just watch that critical move" that I had been unable to perform for so long. I did say to Shane what I wanted to do and just as the other puzzler achieved it, he acknowledged that it could be done in one of two ways and my way should work. I quickly stopped looking so as not to spoil the remainder.

The day after that MPP, I had another go using both possible techniques and it was fused solid. There was no way that I was going to shift that piece. At least I knew what the correct next step was and had no qualms about using an external tool. Time for an Allen key! I tried my set and no go. My set that I had easy access to was Metric and of course being made in the US, everything is imperial measurements. It was time to go up to my second toolbox in the loft (Damn! it was freezing up there!) and retrieve my other set. A few seconds later, I found the correct size and had to use a considerable amount of force to undo the next piece of the puzzle. There was absolutely no way on earth I could have achieved that with the tools provided in the puzzle. That was a bit of a downer for me with this puzzle but I was determined to carry on and enjoy it. At this point there are even more pieces and they need to be combined to create yet another tool. This gets used to turn something and nothing happens. At least nothing happens until you realise how important gravity is - beyond keeping us on the planet and the planet in the solar system and the universe working correctly etc. 

After that discovery, there was yet another tool and I got stuck. Yes, again! I am really not terribly bright. Looking at what was left at this point, I didn't have much left on the puzzle to play with and a LOT of pieces on the desk. After a day, it was time to email Shane. This was a bit like old times, me getting stuck on something and asking Shane for help. He's another one of those bloody geniuses - he hides it behind a very big gob but there's not much that's mechanical that he can't work out. He nudged me to look in a certain direction after I described one of my discoveries. At that point there was a wonderful Aha! moment and I freed the key:

Key removed - tools all hidden from view

I now understand the huge enthusiasm that the puzzling community had for this puzzle. It is beautifully made with a whole bunch of tools and Aha! moments to be found. The mechanism is very ingenious. I think I will be taking this to work this week to torture poor Colin with on Wednesday. If you get a chance to buy a copy or at least play with a copy then jump at the chance - it's really really clever.

It no longer seems to be available for sale. Luke has moved onto his next creation which has also sold out in pre-order very very quickly (there will only be 100). I was working when the notification arrived and missed out, but hopefully I will get a chance to play with someone's copy at an MPP

Cast Planet

Hanayama Cast Planet

Today, is another quick puzzle review. I had actually failed to solve anything all week. I should have managed it with ease because Mrs S was oop North again for a week and I was home alone with a cat who seems to be steadily improving on his Prozac (even if the cutting of the white powder with a razor blade is giving me headaches). Not only was I far away from the demands of "She who must be flinched from", but I also spent 3 days sitting on my arse attending an on-line conference from 9-5 (note to the Americans - it's an arse not an ass because an ass is a donkey and there's no room in the house for one of those). You might have thought that I could have used my conference time to play with one of my toys but, alas, I am definitely a uni-tasker. If I play with a puzzle, then I seem to have no recollection of what has gone on in the conference...believe me, I tried. It may have been that I attempted the wrong puzzles? I have begun playing with the Box of Celts and so far failed to find even the first step. Plus my copy of Dee Dixon's gorgeous Vertigo puzzle arrived and I similarly failed to find any moves on that as well.

Box of Celts by Numbskull puzzles

Vertigo by Dedwood crafts

It may well be that these are just too complex to be done in a week...especially by a man of very little brains like me. However, it would have been nice to at least find the first move on just one of them before being forced to look for something simpler to solve!

Towards the end of the week I thought I had better do at least a couple of the chores that had been set as a target for me by "She who frightens the sun into setting every night". Part of those chores involved housework and forced me to look in my office. I have been avoiding that room for a while due to the unholy mess. Glancing at the desk revealed a couple of other unsolved but simpler puzzles that had just slipped my attention and rather than tidy said office, I went through the "catastrophe" to pick something for today... hence the Cast Planet as the subject of my blog.

OMG! Luckily, "She who is responsible for thunder" never looks in here

Amongst the unsolved and forgotten puzzles to solve was the Hanayama Cast Planet which I have to say looks lovely but probably remained on the desk because it also looked like it was going to be solved by random movements.

Hanayama rated it as 4 out of 6 and PuzzleMaster as 8 (Demanding) on their scale of 5 - 10. Personally, I would rate it as 3 (or 7) myself. As you would expect from the name and the look of it it consists of a rather rocky looking planet made from silver chromed metal inside a sort of Saturn's ring of gold coloured metal. I wonder whether it should have been called the Cast Virus or Cast Corona but maybe that wouldn't help it sell? It was designed by a new designer to me, Masui Ohno and is effectively a maze puzzle with all parts and paths visible.

The starting point is marked by grooves on the North and South poles of the planet which line up with marks on the ring. Obviously, the planet needs to be manipulated within the ring until the odd cutouts in the ring line up with the correctly shaped "mountains" on the planet to allow them to be slid apart.

I started looking at what kind of movements are possible and realised that the movement of the planet is quite constrained along the orientation of the ring and only at set positions was it possible to rotate the planet out of that axis to open up another sequence of moves in the plane of the ring again. Initially I was very cautious for fear of being unable to return to the beginning and hence, adopted my usual too and fro approach. Unfortunately, after about 5 minutes of puzzling I found myself unable to return to the start. Damn! OK, onward only. 

For the first 15 minutes, it seemed that I was going around in circles with no real plan for how to go about it. I felt that I was just making random moves and either I was going to continue forever making these random moves or it was going to solve itself by pure chance without me being the reason for the solve. At that point, I noticed a shape on the planet and had one of my very are thoughts. I had found a shape that looked like it might be useful and I had a "what if I aim for this?" thoughts. As you all know, thought is a rare thing for me so when it happens, I have to assume that it originated elsewhere and should probably be acted on. From this point, after another 2 or 3 minutes of systematically manoeuvring the planet into successively better positions, it fell apart into my hands and left me with a triumphant grin. Mrs S looked at me with disbelief - she rarely sees me solve anything and thinks that I either cheat or break them apart!

That's actually quite clever!

Having left it for a while, returning it to the strut position was just as tough as solving it. This is partly because it's quite hard to work out where the start position is and there are less clues for which way to move things when going in that direction.

Despite fairly low expectations for this puzzle (I am not really a fan of mazes anymore), this puzzle was actually quite enjoyable and a nice small challenge to be done in about 20-30 minutes. I looks good on display and is perfect for children and newbies as well as dedicated puzzle fans. Buy it from PuzzleMaster if you are in the Americas or from Sloyd or Hendrik if you are in Europe. For only €12-15 or $18CAD then you cannot really go wrong.

Celebrating a Landmark With a Best of Year?

Brass Monkey Sixential Discovery Puzzle (aka BM6)

AT LAST!

I have absolutely adored the Brass Monkey burr series (which are not burrs) - I have reviewed them (along with a whole bunch of their other releases) over the last few years and some have been awkward to solve whilst others have made me laugh out loud as I did silly things to solve them. This one, the last in the series, made me frustrated, made me laugh and made me gasp in disbelief. It has taken me weeks and weeks to solve! 

I am delighted to be able to show this one off on the same week that my pageview count topped the 3 million mark! I find it totally unbelievable that anyone spends the time to read the rubbish that I write. It even continued and got more popular after my mother died (so it couldn't have all been down to her). Thank you for coming along for the ride and allowing me to justify my "little" hobby to the present wife!

Main site

New additions site

Total page views now 3,017,111 - thank you so much!

If you buy this then you probably should own the set - they are all fun to solve and look great on display:

Six wonderful challenges

They all look the same as six piece burrs with only the markings on the ends of the pieces showing a difference between them. Each of the previous versions have had a significant nod to different puzzle genres and this last one is the most enjoyed puzzle type of all the sequential discovery puzzle. If that is your thing then this is the amongst the best SD puzzles I have ever tried. Go BUY IT!

I was lucky enough to get one of the first of them to be released and set to straight away. The first thing I realised was that nothing moves...nothing at all! I poked and prodded and peered inside the holes that were in the ends of some of the burrsticks. I used a torch and all this told me was that I couldn't see inside. I pushed and pulled and wiggled and found absolutely nothing. Yep! Not terribly bright as always.

I then noticed some movement with something and, as this was the only thing I had found in a day or so, I persistently wiggled and poked it. Suddenly it wiggled more! Hooray! I carried on doing the only thing that worked and after about an hour something came loose. I had found something special! But this just proved that I was an eejit! I should have realised that this wasn't right because Steve and Ali would never have a puzzle that solved that way. Having found something which did not give me any tools, I then inverted what I found and pushed it back only to have it go in and then go rigidly solid and not come out again! Oooh! that's not good, is it? Time to contact Steve over the interwebs and sheepishly admit what I had done and ask whether it might be irreversible. I was reassured that what I had done was not irreversible but I should not have been able to do it in the first place - I dare say that Steve sheepishly admitted that something hadn't been tightened adequately. He would make sure that all the others did not have this move possible.

So I had found a thing, returned the thing and jammed that bit in so that I could no longer retrieve the thing. I hope that you all find that description helpful enough to avoid doing the same "thing"? I guessed that after having my hopes and dreams dashed like that, I should return to solving. My problem? I had pushed and pulled and poked and prodded everything I could think of. Apart from a slight general wiggle caused by the interlocking burr pieces not being too tight, I could find nothing. This state of affairs persisted for weeks! Every day I would risk sanity, kitchen tiles and worktop playing with my very heavy metal paperweight. I kept getting looks of impending violence from Mrs S when she thought I might drop it and crack something. After about 3 weeks, whilst chatting with the genius (yes, Derek Bosch strikes again) he suggested that instead of pushing and pulling and prodding, I should actually look at the bloody thing! Now, why didn't I think of that? The next day, I sat down with it and a nice bright light and properly examined the whole puzzle - if I was a good puzzler, then I would probably have thought of that already. After about 15 minutes, I noticed a detail that I had not seen before - what if I??? OMG! Aha!

I suddenly had a "thing" and from here on progress was a lovely sequence which started with:

1. I have this - what can I do with it?
2. I tried that and it didn't work so maybe I could try this?
3. Aha!
4. I have another thing
5. Back to step 1

This 5 step sequence happened over and over and over again. Almost every time there was a new item. I have never seen a puzzle with so many pieces and so many steps. It was totally logical and required a nice bit of think©ing to manage each step. One or two of the tools needed to be used more than once but  mostly there was a new tool for each step. I was having a ball! After 6 or 7 steps, I stopped returning back to the beginning each time I stopped playing because there were just too many pieces and steps to keep reversing.

After another few of evenings of play, I managed to retrieve the part that I had mistakenly freed and then re-trapped in my first attempts. I had a monkey!

I thought that this was it - I'm an eejit!

This was the place I had been at last weekend when I went to write about the puzzle. I did have a sort of nagging feeling that there were pieces that I had not yet explored but I suppressed those doubts and when I sat down to start writing, I looked at Allard's wonderful review and saw his solved picture and also reread the announcement page on the TwoBrassMonkey site. Oh NO!!! I had not completed the puzzle - the ultimate aim was to find the bananas and feed them to the monkey. This seems to be a theme for Steve and Ali. There was obviously at least one more step and I had no idea what to do next.

I could see that there was something inside that deserved attention but I did not have a tool that would fit. Yet again it was time to think© and it hurt. I spent another 5 days looking for the right tool and moves only to not find anything. I then had to look at what I had and realised that there was something that was peculiar about one of the pieces I had. A sneaky idea occurred and I said aloud "what if I do this? Much to the disgust of she who who is thinking violent thoughts about big Steve and Ali (run guys, run!) my thinking aloud led to an Aha! shout! which really upset her. I then had yet another thing to explore and finally after 35 separate puzzling steps (give or take a few) I had my puzzle solved!

The BM6 dismantled and I have bananas for the monkey
No spoilers here

There are a serious number of pieces here! I have never seen anything like it in the 14 years I have been puzzling. It is incredible that the boys managed to fit so many parts and so many steps into one epic puzzle. Not only is this likely to be the best puzzle of the year - you have another 10 months until my 2024 top ten(ish) but this may well be the best puzzle I have ever solved! It is right up there with the Angel box, Opening bat, Katie Koala and Mittan puzzles.

Of course, having dismantled it and spread all the pieces out for photos, it was time to put it all back together. I had enough memory of the steps to not find this too hard but the big challenge was how to place the burr sticks so they could assemble into a six piece burr again. I am not good at burr assembly and this took me a little while to work out.

This puzzle is just plain epic! Don't hesitate - just buy it. I am sure that you will find the first step much quicker than me and not need a genius to help you. But once you have found that first step there is a marvellous journey ahead of you.

Thank you guys! I very much doubt that you can ever top this but I am waiting with bated breath to see.