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.

Smacking Moles Is Fun But...

After A While I Had To Use Some Pliers!

Smack-N Moles by Stickman

In 2023, Chinny collaborated with Robert Yarger to make a fabulous exchange puzzle, the "Smack-N Moles" puzzle box. Chinny gave it away to about 100 people in IPP40 at which I was not present. Luckily for a whole bunch of us who couldn't make it, there were more available direct from Stickman's website and I eagerly jumped at the chance to buy. My copy arrived in October of 2023 and has been in my second (or maybe third or fourth 😱) pile of puzzles to be solved. This time, my pile in the conservatory at the back of the house. I tend to sit there in the mornings at weekends and when off work and play with puzzles in the south-facing warmth. Sometimes I fall asleep, sometimes I play...I seldom seem to solve anything! The Smack-N Moles has been in that pile, played with weekly for about 18 months! I was beginning to get desperate. I felt a little bad for my failure but, in my defence, remember that I really seldom do puzzle boxes and don't really have a repertoire of the types of moves that they often need. Also in my defence, I note that Allard received his at the IPP in August and the write up was only published in December. Now, Allard is a huge Stickman aficionado with one of the few complete collections in the world and I am absolutely certain that despite receiving a lot of puzzles at the exchange, he will have made a beeline straight for this one and if it took him a few months then I can feel OK about taking 18 months!

This is a nice diminutive little box at 3.5x3x2.5" in size and my copy is made from Walnut. The aim is to open the box and release the moles. These cute little critters are engraved on the top of some Maple dowels that appear to be locking the sliding lid. Poking at a mole makes one or more of the others pop up when that one sinks down. You are given a tethered hammer to Smack/whack the moles but I doubt very many people are going to solve it by using the hammer that way. The hammer is tied onto the box by a loop of wire that is the perfect length to prevent the hammer being removed. Initially all you can do is poke at the moles and see whether there is a sequence of presses that will allow all the moles to be sunk below the surface of the lid.

I am slightly ashamed to say that I pushed and poked and even grabbed and pulled at the various moles for quite a long time trying to work out the sequence to release the lid. When I say a long time, I mean months! BLUSH! Remember that I am not terribly bright - it says so all over this website, so it must be true. At some point, I can't remember when, I managed to find a tool to be used but absolutely nowhere to use it so I carried on poking at moles and achieving nothing. I grew desperate - it's really quite frustrating to have a tool and nowhere to put it! I ended up shaking the box gently which also did nothing until I shook it in the right direction.Suddenly something happened and I was able to notice another "feature". After playing with said "feature" for a few minutes, I managed to manipulate it to get me a hole. At last! I had somewhere to put my tool. Now, now, keep your minds out of the gutter (especially you, Steve). I stuck my tool in the hole and wiggled it about and even rotated it for a while. Nothing happened, but it was very satisfying. Eventually, sticking your tool in a hole and swivelling it starts to get boring when there is no response - maybe it is my technique?

Here I stayed for over a year! On almost a weekly basis for a very long time I played with my tool to no good effect. I was getting to the point of maybe asking Shane for a clue when I had one of those rare thoughts© - maybe I should try this thing...   Nope, that didn't work and I stopped trying for another few months. 

Last week after continuing to think© I reached the conclusion that I had tried everything possible and something was stuck. I decided it was time for the big guns. Well actually a medium pair of pliers. Yes, I know, no external tools allowed but I had come to the conclusion that the next part of the mechanism was stuck solid on my copy and I had nothing much to lose. Needless to say, When you use brute force and pliers, things tend to loosen. Once my heart rate had settled a little, I found that I had a new tool and also a new set of things to try. Exploring with this tool revealed something very interesting and a possible way to make the two tools I now had interact with each other.

After a few moves something interesting was happening to all the moles and before long I had my wonderful long-awaited Aha! moment! Such a relief.

Moles are free and the box is open

I was now free to look at the mechanism properly and it is really quite clever. It really isms terribly difficult but the movement of the moles is designed to make you think all the wrong things and lead you in the wrong direction. 

The reassembly is significantly fiddly but knowing how it works means that a bit of perseverance is required. I then had a look at the piece that needed pliers and realised that some lacquer had gotten onto it and effectively fused it in place. There was absolutely no way that I was ever going to shift that without using my tool. This means that you can stop berating me! 

I can finally put another puzzle away and this will join my small, but well-loved, Stickman collection. I have missed out on the subsequent releases but I am ever-hopeful that Robert will let me buy another one sometime. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

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A little underwhelming?

Finally, with a little encouragement (but no real clues from Goetz) I can finally say that I have completed the Ages sequential discovery burr having found the compartment that contains the piece of Lightning Ridge opal. The opening of that compartment requires construction of a very clever tool and using it to manipulate the cover in a counter-intuitive way. It is classic Brian! Thank you my friend. I can finally put it away after so many years!

In the right light the pearlescent opal colours do shine

OMG! This One Took Me Ages...

And I've Still Not Finished It!

Ages by Brian Young

This blog post is a mark of shame or a mark of how bad I am at puzzling - you decide which. 

The Ages sequential discovery burr was released way back in October 2019 as a series of 200. At the time it was a relatively expensive puzzle but completely sold out within a month. Of course, I was one of the poor addicts who helped relieve Brian of his stock with mine arriving at the beginning of November. The instructions were simple enough:

"The ultimate goal is to find the piece of Australiana inside the puzzle.
At the end of the solve you will find a small compartment that holds a piece of Lightning Ridge opal. This may not be the hardest puzzle in the world but if you think about the Coming of Age MkII combined with the SMS Box with fewer pieces and fewer tools. You have it!

The puzzle has trick locks, tools, elements of sequential discovery but essentially it’s a very hard burr puzzle. If you’re looking for a walk in the park don’t buy this one.

Brian has included ideas in this puzzle that he’s never seen in a puzzle before. Solving a new puzzle often draws on previous puzzle-solving experiences so having lots of puzzles in your collection can be a big help. But the inclusion of ideas not seen before instantly bumps up the difficulty a lot."

So, it is a burr - just my thing. It's a sequential discovery puzzle - just my thing. It is a tough one - erm, that might be a problem as I am not terribly bright or, for that matter, good at tough puzzles.😱 But I will give it a go and hopefully it won't take too long. Except here we are nearly 6 years later and I still haven't quite finished it. In fact I only managed to make any progress at all in the last 2 weeks.

Why did he call it the Ages burr? Was it because he knew how long it would take me? I suspect that is not it because he surely wouldn't name a puzzle after my inadequacy. Plus, of course, other puzzlers have been successful in a much shorter time than me (I know that Ali solved it within just a few days). The real reason for the name was a quirk of the way Burrtools works. When Brian first plugged some pieces into BurrTools to check for solutions Andreas Röver’s wicked sense of humour was immediately obvious. Time left: ages

Burrtools tells all!

In fact, the full analysis of the selection of pieces has never been completed in BurrTools. Time left: unknown -> days -> years -> millennia -> ages Who knows how long it might take?  

This puzzle looks gorgeous made from Queensland Silky Oak, Western Australian Jarrah wood and including magnets and brass parts. It is a decent sized 11cm in each axis. I have kept it on my tray of shame for 5 whole years! 

This was the point a couple of months ago when Mrs S insisted I tidy up

Initially I played with this every evening when sitting down with Mrs S to watch TV. It was daily for a month or two and then every few days and then less and less often. After a year or so, I would religiously pick it up every month and persistently get nowhere at all.

Only two pieces can move

There were only two moves possible! One of them would pull a long way out but no further and another would move by a single voxel. Trying to move the mobile piece different amounts in the hope that there would be an opening for other pieces proved fruitless. Nothing else sprang to mind - I was stuck on two moves for a long time (yes 5 years!)

A rotational move?

Spot the pin

Quite early on, I found a rotational move. Now you might think that was a stupid thing to try but I was desperate and the information page admitted that BT would be unable to completely solve the puzzle due to the presence of a rotation. The rotation pictured above looked quite nice and it seemed to be caused by the presence of a metal pin bridging from one stick into the cap on the adjacent one. No matter how hard I tried (without undue force) I could not get the rotation to go any further and no additional moves were freed up by it. I asked Sue if I was going about it the correct way and received a definitely not reply. Sigh! Barking up the wrong tree again. Time to put it back on the tray and go back to my monthly attempts.

There was always something that bugged me about the puzzle - one of the pieces was adorned by a little face which poked its tongue out at me whenever I did my first move:

Being rude or telling me something?

For 5 years I stared at this face and pushed and pulled at every piece of this damned burr and got absolutely nowhere......until a couple of weeks ago.

It was my monthly attempt at a miscreant puzzle and I had a little bwain-wave! I only have a little bwain so can only generate small waves with it. I tried something that I had not tried before in the entire 5 years and suddenly an Aha! moment! After that amount of time that is worth a:

AHA!

Not only had I gotten a step further but I had found something useful. Not wishing to lose my thought© processes, I tried a number of newly possible things and some very unusual moves were possible. The burr started to move more and more and I needed to be careful to keep track. One thing that became apparent quickly was that what I thought was a single vocal was much bigger than that. The grid that it was built on was significantly more complex than I had expected and a good few moves were very hard to keep track of.

Over about 3 days, I got further and further with my to and fro approach allowing me to always return to the beginning. I progressed a little at a time and suddenly a very large movement was open to me that would lead to the removal of the first piece - Hooray! except I found myself unable to undo one of the moves that got to that point. I must have made a complex multi-piece move at some point and could not recall what it was and thus, could not return. Cue a set of panicky attempts which got nowhere until suddenly I found myself able to backtrack again. I had no clue what I had done but with some relief I reset the puzzle completely. I put it down for a day.

The following day, I tried again and got so far before being halted. I couldn't find that crucial move that allowed me to progress the previous evening. I spent a further 2 days at that point before I miraculously passed it without knowing how. There is quite a lot of too and fro with key pieces during the solve - it is not quite N-ary but there does seem to be an N-ary aspect to part of it. Even now when I take the burr apart, I struggle to get past the point at which the key move happens. I sort of move pieces around and then for no good reason, I can progress in whatever direction I am aiming for. Sigh - I am rubbish at burrs!

Having removed the first piece, I was a little stuck. The remaining burr sticks are quite stable and won't fall apart but there is a lot of rotational movement now in the puzzle. I fiddled with the burr for another hour before finding a lovely clever rotational move that would allow another piece to be removed. From here the sequential disassembly proceeded quite nicely and if it's held in the right orientation, it remains stable until fully apart:

A gorgeous 9 piece burr
(no spoilers here and putting the pieces into BT won't help you)

I then put it back together again and disassembled a few times to get used to the process. Every single time I get hung up on that critical move halfway through. I guess that several pieces must move simultaneously to let it happen and I manage it each time by accident after a struggle.
 
Does this mean that it is solved? Hell no! There is the matter of the compartment with the small piece of Lightening Ridge opal. I know where it is (I can hear it rattling about). I can see where the compartment is and what is closing it up. I know there is a strong magnet as part of the locking mechanism but nothing I can do will shift the locking mechanism. I've been trying for days but again there are only so many things I can think of to do - I might be another 5 years or even "Ages".

I think at some point I will need to ask Brian and Sue for a little help so that I can finally see the opal and then put the miscreant puzzle away on my MrPuzzle shelves. This would please Mrs S immensely! I did think that Brian would release the solution some time after the last one was sold but I have not seen it anywhere. A burrtools file for the linear component would be really helpful if it existed.

Despite there being 200 of these in circulation, I have only seen a few of these up for sale at auction and quite telling is the fact that a good few of them have been sold without having been solved. If you see one up for sale and are up for a challenge then go get it - it is seriously tough and seriously good. Thanks Brian and Sue for a fantastic and LONG challenge!

Brian Tops the Chart Again

The best of 2021 - Abraham's Well

Yes, I am ever so slightly ashamed of myself that my review of this amazing puzzle has happened in 2022 and not when it arrived in July 21. Somehow Allard managed to obtain and solve his copy within a few days of receiving his copy and yet mine remained next to my puzzling armchair for months and months in various stages of solving until New year's day. My excuse? A small virus thing sort of impeded me, an abundance of other distracting toys got in my way and a lack of brains got in my way. BUT primarily I took so long because I kept getting stuck and could't work out the next steps and did not want to cheat by asking for help or, heaven forbid, use external tools or force. The solution videos were sent out to owners after a few months of letting us stew and I even kept away from those too. In the end I managed almost all of it without help but did need a sneak peek to see whether I had done it right according to Brian's rules (I had broken one or two, sob!)

When this thing arrived in July, the first thing that springs to mind is that it's surprisingly heavy for an object of only12x8.5x8cm in size - it weighs in at 425g. Whilst there is obviously a bit of brass in it, the external view must hide a rather decent volume of metal. The next thing that springs to mind is the sheer quality of the product - it is simply stunningly made. The brass parts are polished beautifully, the wooden exterior has been laser etched and everything fits together beautifully. The well looks like a...well. There is even a piece of rope hanging inside. The cats showed an annoying interest in the rope and at one point in my puzzling it was distinctly wet giving a hint that someone/thing had tried to swallow it. In fact, I was fairly certain that it was frayed and slightly shorter one evening when I returned to play.

Instructions

Initially nothing moves apart from the bar holding the rope (which rotates freely) and all that you can do is turn it over and over in your hands and admire it. In examining it carefully something changes (you can hear it happen) and suddenly a piece can move. It's not unexpected...in fact, it is the obvious thing to happen even if the reason why is not obvious. I quickly put the moved piece back and lock it back in place. Try again and find that the move is repeatable. Examine further and more movement occurs. Put it back to the beginning and it's not repeatable every time. Why not? What am I doing differently when it works? I cannot quite understand it so I proceed with the discovery. More movement and I have pieces - Yay! I need to understand how that happened so I try to reset to the beginning and I cannot! Stuff is in the way now. Oh boy - we're really on now. Time to continue and hope that I can get instructions later for the reset.

I find a tool and get more pieces - quite a LOT of pieces. I have no idea which of these pieces will be useful to me either next or later. I use one of the tools and and use it to move more "stuff". In the end when I watch the solution videos, I realise that I used the wrong tool at that time. I don't actually think it was cheating as there was no force. I just did not notice something that would have provided a clue about which tool would have been useful. Partly I blame my middle aged eyes for that oversight - it was a pretty subtle clue and without exceptionally good light and a magnifying glass, there was no way that I was going to see that. In any case, I had made my next discovery.

More movement but not in a useful way. Had I missed anything? Turn it over and over and have a look at every surface. I did see some oddities that I did not know what to do with (no tools would fit) and I was left moving it again and again. Time to put it down for a while and come back to it fresh. I got side-tracked by other things and came back several weeks later. Playing again, I am left doing the same movement over and over without any change (yes madness is never very far from me). Suddenly =, for no obvious reason the movement stops - I have no idea why. Panic! Wiggle stuff. Turn it over and over and wiggle more and phew, I can now move it again. Definitely time to think©.

Thinking doesn't get me very far because I am not good at it but I manage to lock the puzzle up again several times before a little observation comes in useful. Doh! Why did I not notice that? A combination of moves and I have a new tool...except it is just out of reach. Don't bash it he said but the temptation is high. Those little spikes on the surface of the puzzle are quite effective at stopping you thumping the puzzle - they hurt! Think© you fool - Aha! Clever bastard!

Now my small pile of pieces is getting quite big. I have to keep them in a little bag to stop losses down the sofa or cats swallowing them. Here I get stuck again for a quite a while - months in fact. In the end, I complete the next step in the wrong way. I would be very surprised if many people manage to do it in the way that Brian intended. The process I used relied on me realising that certain pieces were the exact size and shape to be used as a tool when in combination (yes, Brian intends you to actually build your tools as well) and having worked out the tool construction, I ended up using a little force to complete the next step. As the instructions state, no force is needed but there was absolutely no way that I would have deduced that. I would be very interested in hearing how others achieved that crucial step - drop me a line via my Contact page or leave a comment below. Once I had seen the solution, I saw that the intended approach was incredibly elegant but there was no way I would ever have thought of that.

Now I have even more pieces and am not sure what to do to go further. Observation is absolutely crucial here and I had run out of brain power. More months go by...I pick it up every few days/weeks and cannot find a tool to do what I need to do. The temptation to make my own from something not included with the puzzle is high but I avoid it. Until New year's day - I decide that I have to right my review and I look up the final part of the solution. OMG! That is very well hidden. The movement that I wanted to do is correct and I feel slightly vindicated. The puzzle is finished and I have found the artifact that was hidden inside. 

Reset is "just the reverse" of what you have done before. JUST? Easier said than done. I have managed to reset it a few times and at this moment, it sits next to me with me unable to complete the final movements - I just cannot seem to visualise what is required and we will keep trying it.

Should you buy this puzzle? Hell! Yes! It was my number one for 2021 for a very good reason - the quality is superb, the puzzling challenge is incredibly varied and fun. Allard certainly loved it and recently Steve has also written positively about it. I am certain that most of you are better puzzlers than me and will be able to solve it the correct way without assistance. It has taken me ages to get to the end and I loved it. Now I need to get back to the Ages puzzle which has taken me even more of an age...I have found only 2 moves so far and the elusive 3rd still evades me after 2 years.

Ages has taken me ages!

Some You Win, Some You Lose!

In Fact, I Seem To Lose Most Often!

Kumiki Airlines - something not quite right here???

I do hope you are grateful? This will be my only weekend off work for 3 weeks and I am sitting still here writing a blog post for you...even when it is an absolutely gorgeous day outside! Mrs S is talking on the phone to the Mother-outlaw and I am trying to keep out of the way so that she might forget the chores she said I had to do! Whack! Ouch! Ooops - I guess she hasn't forgotten. I have been so busy at work and at home recently that I have barely managed to work on any puzzles at all and surprisingly not received anything new for a few weeks! My last little splurge was described here.

Today's story is about a little success and a whole lot of failure - I began with the Kumiki Airlines puzzle which I finally bought after several years of longing from Brian and Sue Young's MrPuzzle store. I had originally seen this years ago when Allard showed it off at an MPP and wrote about it on his blog back in December 2013.

The Puzzle was Brian's (assisted by the greatly missed late John Moores) exchange puzzle at the 2013 IPP in Japan. It was designed by the incredible Junichi Yananose and of course, made by Brian himself. The description and part of the spiel from Brian is that:

"The plane is incorrectly assembled and can’t possibly fly like this. You need to take the puzzle apart and reassemble it to make it more aerodynamic. To do that on reassembly you’ll have to solve the level 13.4 multiple move burr."

The base of the puzzle with instructions.
Not very helpful!

“Kumi ki” is a Japanese word that means “to assemble wood” or “put together wood”. Whilst I own a LOT of interlocking and burr puzzles, I don't own any traditional Kumiki puzzles at all. The use of the word burr in the title and description sort of filled me with hope. It would appear that this puzzle is primarily an assembly puzzle which I am usually terrible at but recently I have been having some success with assembly and was full of confidence...maybe too much confidence? This puzzle is made from Queensland Silver Ash and is a pretty decent size:

Wingspan: 140mm
Length from nose to tail: 160mm
Height of tail wing: 60mm

Brian rates this puzzle as 8/10 difficulty.

The first thing that sprung to mind to me was that it didn't look like it would fly in the form that was sent out and the first thing that sprung to Mrs S' mind was that it was "cute". I can live with that! Of course, I had forgotten the description which included the word "burr"! I only remembered the Kumiki word and only thought of the simple little plastic Kumiki puzzles I had played with as a kid. I couldn't resist and set to as soon as my photos had been taken. There are a couple of possible moves at first including a possible rotation which I tried to avoid. Within about 2 minutes with only 3 or 4 experimental moves, the puzzle split in half lengthways and crash-landed on the kitchen work surface before shooting in pieces all over the place! Well, that bit was easy!

Quite a few interesting but very similar parts and some unexpected 1/4 size cuts revealed

Having achieved the rather simple separation of the pieces, I immediately tried to reset the puzzle back to the beginning and was a little surprised to realise that I could not do it easily! I had to go and sit down at a table and work on it! The thing fell apart in 2 minutes flat and it took me about 15 minutes to reset! At least I was able to put it back to the beginning...the full solve was just a different orientation of the pieces - it couldn't possibly be that hard...could it???

Stupid boy! Brian's rating was absolutely correct - this is a difficult puzzle, at least for me. Initially, I set to attempting the proper aerodynamic assembly in the same way as the false start and of course, that was wrong. Put this down to lack of experience of Kumiki puzzles and me not being terribly bright! You might ask, "is this just a huge matter of trial and error until you find the correct burr piece positions and then assembly method? And...the answer to that is a most definite NO! I dare say that you might be able to do this by pure trial and error but that would be horrifically boring and definitely not in the spirit that was intended by either Juno or Brian. This puzzle has enough to be seen in the pieces that the assembly can actually be worked out by logic. I know! I can hear you muttering now that the fool is no good at logic and doesn't stand a chance! Damn those voices! I probably should see someone about them.

The puzzle had to be put down so I could cook our Sunday dinner and I left it at the incorrect assembly to ensure that I didn't lose any pieces to the cats who have a tendency to pick small pieces up and run off with them. After dinner, whilst drinking a nice glass of Sauvignon in front of the TV with Mrs S, I set to once more. I started with simple trial and error before gradually, over a couple of hours, I began to notice certain features of various pieces which gave clues for the start or end position and possible movements. This puzzle has a whole series of lovely Aha! moments during the solution process before one is left with an aeroplane that, let's face it, still won't fly but looks more plane-like than it arrived:

All I can say with this is AHA!

I simply ADORE THIS PUZZLE! It really is a Kumiki assembly puzzle and only has a very limited likeness to a burr. If you are not a burr person then you would still LOVE this challenge. It is very solvable and most definitely NOT one for trial and error. There is a real pathway of discovery during the exploration and eventual success that gives enormous satisfaction - every single piece and cut in the wood has been placed deliberately and paying attention to them will lead you toward success. I am sure that if you were desperate then you could model it in Burrtools but the presence of fractional height cuts make this a bugger to model. Buy it! It's not terribly expensive and you'll have an airplane on your shelf once it's done! By the way...Allard loved it too!

Having been filled with success, I decided to go straight to my other burr from Brian - the Mega Six burr (Craftsman edition):

I think it might look like this for a VERY long time (maybe forever)

Piston burr

Despite being a burr-lover, I only have 2 standard 6 piece burrs in my collection - the Piston burr made by the amazing Jerry McFarland and the Computer's choice unique 10, also made by Jerry but designed by the incredible Bill Cutler. I also have a number of very special burrs that look like standard six piece burrs in my collection but in reality, have rather unusual and special solutions which are a lovely challenge and then I have 3 burr sets (you will see these in a photo at the end of my post) which provide many hundreds (or thousands) of burr assembly challenges. I am simply rubbish at burr assemblies. I thought a while ago that if I start at the simpler level 1 challenges and move up gradually then I would start to get better...I was wrong, I am still rubbish! Quite a few years ago Nigel had told me in words of one syllable that the Mega six puzzle is fantastic and that I MUST get it. I used my recent splurge as an excuse to get a hold of a copy. If you aren't bothered about the gorgeous wood then Brian also has a version in a standard wood for less moolah. I, of course, bought the version made from Queensland Blackbean because I'm a sucker for gorgeous wood!

It arrives in a ziplock bag in pieces - make a straightforward 6 piece burr - simples! Yeah! right! Sob! Here's what Brian wrote about it:

"This puzzle really does show a case of 'don't judge a book by it's cover'. It may look like other six piece burrs on the outside but it is DEFINITELY not. The puzzle is incredibly more complicated than the commonly known six piece puzzle. 

Bill Cutler first used a computer program to analyse six piece burrs in 1974 but it took until 1990 to analyse all possible six piece burr combinations. Mega Six is the result of that search for the maximum number of moves for a six piece burr with a unique solution. This does not mean it has a unique assembly, due to the number of internal voids. In theory the pieces should fit together in 20 different ways however, the reality is that you can physically only put the puzzle together in one of the 20 assemblies. 

Mr Puzzle’s version, designed with Bill’s help, has one extra cube removed to increase the number of false assemblies.... As if the original Computer’s Choice Unique-10 was not difficult enough! 

Not only OUR hardest six piece burr but THE hardest six piece burr!"

OMG! Let's just say that I have been working on this on and off ever since I finished the Kumiki Airlines and have so far made no headway at all! I'll keep at it but may get sidetracked by other toys along the way! This one I have definitely not won - I won't say lost yet but it might be years! Thanks, Nigel!

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I also lost a fight! "She who threatens unspeakable injury upon my person" got very very fed up with the state of my desk in my study! I did say that she never has to go in there herself but that only gained me a Whack! Ouch! and a Laser burning stare - yeeeouch! I took a photo of the desk - what do you think?

It's not that bad, is it?

Whilst I had some annual leave 2 weeks ago she frogmarched me upstairs and pointed out my almost empty new cabinets and said that if I didn't make use of them within a day or so then she would put her own stuff in them! I was galvanised into immediate action and decided that the new display cabinets would house some of my most gorgeous and precious puzzles. I haven't really organised everything by craftsman or by type, although my main study is sort of grouped by craftsman as well as by material. The new cabinets look like this:

My precioussss - Can you work out what they are or who made them?

It's only the beginning but I would appear to have plenty of space for new toys! The desk and the rest of the study looks great and I have even managed to take a load out of the dining room and living room. I now have an almost placated Mrs S...       FLINCH!

Here are the changed parts of the study:

The desk is clear and there are spaces for new ones

A nice gap in my Pelikan collection

Even some space above the iMac!

I'd better not tell Mrs S that a puzzle is due to be posted from Azerbaijan tomorrow! Whack! Ouch!

Wood is Good But.....

......So is Acrylic

Dwarf Planet D

You all know how much I lurve my wooden toys (in fact just have a look at the latest post on my New additions page to see just how much I lurve wood) but sometimes a craftsman produces something (or several somethings) made from acrylic and I just cannot resist. Actually you know I struggle to resist any new puzzles no matter what they are made of.

Just before the Paris IPP we were joined by the brilliant Brian Young (MrPuzzle himself) in Birmingham for one of our MPP gatherings. Brian was showing off quite a few new and old toys (including the fantastic sequential discovery puzzle, the Louvre which kept me occupied for a VERY long time - still available here). He roamed the room chatting and solving things before finally putting us out of our misery and opening his suitcase of goodies that he had brought from Oz. We all pounced like a pack of starving hyenas and I left the MPP later that evening with quite a nice stash of toys and the knowledge that I would still have some (not enough) cash left for the IPP itself.

One of the toys I brought home was the Dwarf Planet D which is a 3 piece board burr with what looks like a captive cube inside (I had seen this before at Allard's house and decided at that time that if possible I should get one. This puzzle was designed by the incredibly talented William Hu and was the exchange puzzle given out by Jerry Slocum at the IPP in Japan in 2016 (the reason I saw it at Allard's).

Ali told me that I should have someone else dismantle it and then assemble it myself from scratch. I was rather hesitant about this because I am truly awful at assembling things even if they have very few pieces. Remember if a designer confidently presents you with an assembly puzzle constructed from just 3 or 4 pieces then there must be something really complex about it! When I got home I quickly hid all my new purchases (except the Louvre) from Mrs S to try and fool her that I had been very restrained with our money. Whack! Ouch! Sorry dear! A few days later I broached the idea that she take it apart for me so I could put it back together again - this suggestion led to me receiving a near fatal burn from the laser burning stare and I quickly dropped the idea! For some reason she really doesn't like puzzles much and will only play with something if it is truly gorgeous or contains diamonds! I was left to do it myself. The disassembly is a very nice little voyage and has some rather unexpected moves in it

There's actually 6 pieces in it!
The sandblasting of the cube pieces makes it look like a single piece

After my surprise at seeing the cube was 3 smaller pieces, I just put them all away in a cloth bag and left them for a week to give my sieve like brain a chance to forget the whole thing. It is only level 6-8-2-3-3 so I figured that it shouldn't take me too long. WRONG!!!! I think I worked on this for a week before I finally got it back together - either this is pretty tough or I am really REALLY bad at assembly puzzles. I'll let you choose which of those is correct. At various times in the evenings in late July, Mrs S actually wondered whether I was having a heart attack! There was so much muttering and groaning going on from my chair in the living room! When I finally got it back together again, I shouted aloud and further upset "she who must be plactated with shoes and handbags". I should not have been surprised at my failure - apparently there are 69 false assemblies and only one possible solution.

The Dwarf Planet D may only be Acrylic and only be 6 pieces but it is a terrific puzzle when approached as an assembly. It also is surprisingly cheap and still available to purchase from Brian and Sue's wonderful store. Go get one now and have someone else disassemble it for you first. Then be prepared for a fabulous challenge!

Pulsar Burr

Another puzzle which I bought from Brian at that MPP was the Pulsar burr by the incredible Junichi Yananose (his blog is here and puzzle store is here - run by him and his wonderful wife, Yukari). This puzzle was the exchange from Lambert Bright at the 2015 IPP in Ottawa. I was originally not going to buy it because partly it was only acrylic and also it was an assembly puzzle (sold as a pack of pieces) which I acknowledge freely that I cannot seem to cope with. Again at the suggestion of Ali (I sometimes think he doesn't like me much!) I was convinced that I should buy this one too and it was added to my pile o' puzzles. This one was then taken home and put on my shelf of stuff to be played with and then forgotten about during IPP. After that I kept picking it up in the packaging and then shying away and putting it down again - yes, I am THAT bad and frightened of them! This puzzle has a photo of the finished shape on the packaging but even with that I was too frightened of it!

Finally I saw a photo the completed puzzle amongst the collection of my good friend and fellow moderator of the Facebook Puzzle Photography group, John Haché (blog here). After mentioning that I had still not solved mine, John sort of goaded me into giving it a try.

Taking the pieces out of the package, I saw 4 acrylic boards and a wooden stick which was supposed to traverse them. Looking at the provided picture is helpful for this one. Brian wrote:

"The puzzle consists of 4 pieces of 10mm acrylic and a single wooden piece from Western Australian Jarrah. One of the acrylic pieces is quite unique to any other burr we’ve ever made. Junichi designed it with a sweeping curve cut out of the piece. 

This is a very doable puzzle from someone who’s had a little experience assembling burrs. But it is designed by Junichi so it’s not a pushover that’s for sure!"

Well, I guess I am an experienced burr solver but not assembler. There seems to be a few possible orientations of the boards but the ones pierced by the stick are pretty obvious with a little thought. After that a little experimenting is required and you quickly discover that the "sweeping curve" provides some really lovely moves. As is usual, the first few attempts trying out the more obvious assemblies just won't work. After about 30 minutes I began to take John's name in vain and put it down to stare at it and Think©. Unusually for me this actually worked! There is nothing unexpected about the solution of this puzzle, no rotations, no tricky moves, but the order and positioning to assemble this one is entirely unexpected. In the end after about 45 minutes I had it assembled and congratulated myself on taking John's advice - this is a really clever puzzle too. It is easier than the Dwarf Planet D but just as much fun. In fact, I would suggest that this is perfect for both novice and experienced puzzlers alike. Perfect despite being acrylic!

Glitter

Glitter was also bought at the same time as the other ones. Again, I would not have been planning on buying it but a good friend of mine had mentioned this design to me over a year ago as being very very tough and worth purchasing. So for a very reasonable $45AUD this became mine. Designed by Osanori Yamamoto, this puzzle was also an exchange puzzle in Canada - this time by Frans de Vreugt. The description by Sue on the website is quite dramatic and made me a little worried about it:

"There are so many peculiar moves due to the rotations that it even makes it difficult to know exactly what disassembly level to classify this burr as. The printed solution has been draw with 61 steps. 

The puzzle requires rotational moves, so BurrTools can't help you much with this one!
No force at all is required to rotate the pieces;  everything just needs to be lined up just right so you’re ready to make the move. 

Sold assembled. It would be way too difficult if we sold it apart. Even though we sell this puzzle assembled we still don't think that many people will ever take it apart and reassemble it again without the aid of the solution or a computer."

I get the distinct feeling that this one is rather difficult!!! I have played with it intermittently ever since I got it and am sort of ashamed to have to admit that I have not really got very far! Initially there are not very many moves possible but as you work your way in there are more and more possibilities and most seem to end up at a dead end. Except there may be rotational moves at the dead end and I haven't noticed. I have done several rotational moves but they don't seem to help. I think I am about 20 moves in and that is it. It's back on the shelf just now and maybe I will try again soon - when I have finished with my recent new purchases. Unfortunately this one has now sold out. If enough of you pester him then maybe you can convince Brian to make some more?

Now I really must solve something or I will very soon be running out of stuff to write about. I just don't seem to get the time to solve much recently.

When Ali Says Don't put Your Finger In It.....

Just DON'T!!!!!

The Louvre from Brian Young

I stuck my finger in here too!

I have had this puzzle for a few months now and have been stuck for a rather embarrassingly long time. The reason for being stuck? I didn't do what Ali told me! I have already learned that occasionally sticking my finger in a puzzle can cause pain - I still vividly recall what happened when I tried to solve the Viper puzzle made by the amazing Shane Hales. With the Viper it caused physical pain and really made me jump (embarrassingly many times). With Brian Young's latest sequential discovery masterpiece, putting your finger in it will cause mental anguish instead. My advice is to BUY IT! Then follow Ali's advice and stick no digits inside—only stick your brain in it....figuratively. Who is Ali? and why should you take his advice? I have known Ali since the beginning of my puzzling fetish, he was one of the revomaze support forum torturers who kept me going on the revomazes and provided just enough encouragement to get me through them. He's a big bloke (although not as big as BIG Steve) who runs a team of guys undertaking major building works in London. Generally people do what he says because he knows his stuff and if they don't they usually come to regret it. He is also one of the best puzzlers in the world - very few puzzles stump him for long! So with those words said you can imagine how sorry for myself I have been feeling having not taken his sage advice!

I bought The Louvre puzzle at the MPP before heading off to Paris for the IPP in August. I cannot resist sequential discovery puzzles and no matter how much they have cost, I have never baulked at the price and never regretted it. At AU$130 ($102 US) this puzzle is a bargain. The story is that you need to find and use tools to allow the lost Mona Lisa to be found and the French flag raised to full mast.

Instructions - no "undue" force but hitting is allowed.

It is made from Papua New Guinean Rosewood with lovely honey brown tones and inside there are many machined brass parts and some small magnets. It is a nice size and weight—145 x 45 x 65mm in size. With the laser engraved front face really does look like the front façade of the Louvre:

The Louvre looks just like the puzzle! Amazing!
Photo courtesy of Jean-Pierre Dalbéra on Wikimedia

I did not get much time to play until after returning from IPP. I do distinctly recall Ali telling me that putting a finger in the puzzle was a distinctly bad idea but in my stupidity I ignored his advice. There are several locks here which need to be opened. Initially there is only a single mm of play in the sliding door in the base and it is locked very tight with absolutely nothing happening as I do all the usual tapping, spinning, blowing and submerging in gin. Eventually after about a ½ hour the first lock succumbed and I had a whole cm visible inside. AHA!!! The flag was there but no way to get to it. I opened and closed and locked and unlocked that cm several times without really understanding how (that will come back to haunt me later). Rule number one with Brian's puzzles are to use your eyes and rule two is to use your brain.....here is where I have problems! Eventually I remembered to use my eyes and noticing something through a little hole I was able to open the door further and retrieve the first tool. This also gave me the flag but only after another 10 minutes before I remembered to use my eyes again.

At this point quite a lot of the mechanism inside is visible but this does not make it obvious what to do. The next step, to my shame, took me several more days to work out and I had made my next discovery. Here is where it all went horribly wrong. You see it's all so inviting inside! There are several thingummyjigs that you want to play with and see what they will do. In my excitement I forgot Ali's excellent advice and I put my finger in! It didn't help me at all! Nothing would move or happen and here I remained......for 2 months! Sob! I am not terribly bright! Downright dim according to "She who frightens the Bejeeezus out of me".

When I finally recalled the words "don't put your finger inside" and realised that I had committed a cardinal sin, I took a proper look inside.....with decent light.....and my reading glasses on! Yes not only am I rather stupid but I am also getting old and my close up vision is rapidly worsening. I need reading glasses for the fine work I do in the hospital (I had noticed that putting in cannulae and threading arterial and central lines over wires was getting harder as I needed longer and longer arms). Having donned my reading glasses I noticed something absolutely critical inside and could not utilise my finding at all. NOTHING would work - I even resorted to poking with things other than my finger but nope! Nada! After a panicked email to Brian and Sue, I had to wait a bit because they were still travelling around Europe. After a month (ish) I was able to communicate properly and receive their wise advice.

YES! By not following Ali's instructions I had completely buggered my chance of solving it in the normal accepted fashion. I actually did more or less understand what was required (although not why it was) but physically couldn't do it. I actually worried that it would need to go back to Oz. Luckily, Brian sent me a photo of a tool I could make to overcome the stupidity. A large hospital paperclip was duly unfurled and bent to a nice shape and with just a little bit of manipulation in the appropriate direction I had undone the finger damage. Just 15 minutes later I was the hero of France:

Flag unfurled and a rather large Mona Lisa recovered

Of course that is not the whole puzzle. Having saved a major work of art it was important to put her (and everything else) back inside. Most of this I was able to do having finally understood the last locking mechanism properly. BUT remember that I had not really understood the initial lock? Yet again I was stumped for a bit. I knew where everything went but having placed the pieces, the sliding door wouldn't close completely. I am ashamed to admit that it took me another ½ hour before I remembered to put my blasted reading glasses on and peer inside. Another AHA! At last I understood the whole puzzle and it was all set back to the beginning. I can now do the whole thing from beginning to end in just a few minutes but that first time must have taken me many many hours!

It's a genius piece of work by Brian and with all those steps, it is well worth your investment. Just remember to ALWAYS pay attention to Ali:

DO NOT PUT YOUR FINGER IN IT!