I received this 3D printed puzzle back in December last year. I didn't order it
because I actually had never heard of it. I know that it was made by Mike Rollberg but I am not sure how it came to be in my possession. It must have been a gift from someone
and I'm very sorry that I cannot remember who sent it to me. It must have included it in
another delivery. To whoever you are, thank you very much - I hadn't realised up
until this week how good a puzzle it actually was. Thank you Mike for printing this and getting it to me. Of course, being a puzzle
design by Oskar van Deventer, I should have realised it was going to be fabulous! It's an 18 piece burr but completely different to the usual design and much more interesting than most 18 piece burrs.
I left this in our correspondence tray that sits in our kitchen for a few days
after it arrived and picked it up intermittently and took a couple of pieces
out, realised what was going to happen if I progressed further and stopped
there quickly. I put it back in the tray and weirdly it attracted the cats.
There is something about the texture of 3D printed puzzles that they seem to
love - I heard a funny noise behind me one evening and saw a cat at the
puzzle, shooed her off and picked it up to check for bite marks. No damage but
it was covered in cat saliva! YUCK! I dried it off and moved it to the cutlery
drawer where it sat on top of the small knives for quite a long time.
I picked it up periodically because I kept being reminded it was there every
time I set the table for a meal. At some point I think I even removed the
first 6 pieces and hurriedly put them back. It gets even more frightening as
you take out more pieces because stuff does get a bit loose. Having said this, as long as you hold it properly it doesn't fall apart.
Eventually Mrs S started to get a bit annoyed having a puzzle permanently in
the cutlery drawer. She understands the cat slobber situation but doesn't want
puzzles in the house kitchen any longer than they have to be
there. A week or so ago, I got shouted at (again) and the puzzle was forcibly
removed from the cutlery drawer and I was told that if it was seen again then
I might need a surgical removal of puzzle from an orifice that is not intended for that direction of travel.
Motivation had finally arrived and yesterday I progressed through a sequence
of piece removal to get myself a nice pile o'pieces:
Now that looks intimidating
Still intimidating!
What about the reassembly? Interestingly, the disassembly has a coloured rhythm to it and as long as you remember that rhythm then you have a big help with the reassembly of the burr. A bit of experimentation is required to work out the orientation of the pieces but it's usually fairly easy to work out when one is pointing the wrong way or needs rotating 90º along its axis.
After about a half hour of play, I had put it back together - it's really very clever and delightfully tactile to play with. If you get a chance to play with one of these then jump at it (you can download the files to print it yourself from Oskar's file repository). It's really rather clever!
At the Assisi IPP I spent quite a long time on one particular puzzle and got
absolutely nowhere despite it looking like an apparently straightforward idea.
Now obviously, if it was good enough to be allowed into the
design competition
then it had to be significantly better than straightforward. At the time, I had
absolutely no idea who deigned it or even who made it but the original version
was crafted from beautiful wooden pieces which is like silver to a magpie for
me. Lots of people seemed to be solving it and enjoying their Aha! moments but
not me.
I was delighted to discover that this fabulous challenge had been designed by
my friend and puzzle savant, Alexander Magyarics. Of course, at the puzzle
party itself, I could not resist and bought a copy direct from Alexander. It's
not wood but it has been beautifully 3D printed with a very nice set of
textured pieces which makes sliding them around in the tray with a fingertip
much easier than had it been smooth. Later, when the competition results were
announced Alexander was hugely delighted to see his puzzle get awarded a prize
in the Jury Honourable Mention section. To achieve a prize from the incredible puzzlers on that jury
is an amazing feat as they are very discerning.
I have been playing with my copy on and off ever since I got home. The aim
is to take the single L Triomino and 3 Tetrominoes and place them in the tray with
the single disk in one corner. Yep! That's easy peasy - there's lots of
space. But then, having placed the pieces, the aim is to be able to slide
them around in the tray until you have moved the disk into the diagonally
opposite corner. There are 4 empty spaces in the tray so this should be
relatively easy? Right? Erm...no! As you can see from the photo above none
of the pieces are able to move apart from the disk so that's not going to
work. Try again!
What this means is that we have two puzzles in one - first design your
puzzle and then work out the sequence to move the pieces until the required
diagonal placement has been achieved. The thing about this challenge is that
having no linear pieces seems to make them block each other very quickly. I
have found lots of configurations where a few moves are possible. I have
found quite a few placements where there seems to be plenty of initial
movement possible but it quickly gets blocked up after that. I have even found quite a
number of antislide positions where nothing can move at all! What I haven't
managed to find is any kind of placement where I can move anything more than
5 or 6 moves. I have never been very good at sliding piece puzzles but have
usually eventually solved them (even if it took many more moves than it should have) but I have absolutely no design talent in me at all.
Unfortunately for me, the design component is an absolutely key feature to
this challenge! I have been at it for many hours and of course cannot keep
track of what I have tried so have probably done the same thing hundreds of
times. Ken apparently solved it relatively quickly but then he is a MUCH better puzzler than me and is quite good at design.
At one point, I did think to myself: "self, maybe you should try using
Burrtools!"
Now, I am quite good at using BT to solve puzzles after so many years of
practice but I have realised that I have absolutely no idea how to enter
this into the program. Obviously it is easy to put the pieces in but I don't
know how to get it to transform from one shape to another. It may be that BT
is not the right tool to use but it was sobering to realise that Alexander
had probably done all this in his head! There is very little in my head and
I am quite envious of people who store stuff in theirs. Mrs S may say that
having puzzles in your head is a waste of space but at least it is something
in there. My head is full of nothing but leaves and whimsy and a very odd
whispering noise which won't go away.
This puzzle is very portable so I will be carrying it with me for a good
while and hopefully someone at work will be able to solve it even if I never
manage it.
To answer the question of the title of the post... NO, Alexander cannot turn
me into a designer! Not yet anyway.😱
If you would like a copy then you should be able to contact Alexander or buy it from Greg. Brian Menold made the original design competition version and has some left for sale on his site.
UPDATE 30 minutes later:
I have had a final Aha! moment and solved the puzzle - wow! That is really good. Why did that take me so long? I have to heartily agree with the Jury - it is definitely an honourable mention winner. Thank you Alexander!
I had not seen anything like this until I saw the Pretzel puzzle at the
IPP design competition table and everyone around the tables seemed to be fascinated by it. The
interesting thing was that even people who would normally shy well away from
twisty type puzzles would still pick this up and fiddle with it. Yes, very few
of them would go on to solve it and, in fact, most would just fiddle, chortle to
themselves and put it down. The tactile nature of it was something that everyone
was delighted by. I myself spent a fair bit of time at the table trying to solve
it but whilst I made progress, I couldn't manage it in the time that I had.
However, it was something that I had said to myself that if I could find a way
to buy then I would definitely spend some money and add a copy to my collection
and spend more time on. Luckily
Hendrik had a whole bunch
for sale at his IPP table and also a few other designs which had not appeared in
the competition.
Orb-it
Hungarian Rings
Those of you who frequent the Twistypuzzles forum will have seen Kiernan
introduce a bunch of these fancy new bead puzzles over the last year. They
seem to have been very well received and many people have played and solved
them. I personally have had an on off fascination/relationship with bead type
puzzles ever since my dear departed friend Felix encouraged me to attempt the
original Orb-it puzzle. After my success with the Orb-it, Felix encouraged me to other bead puzzles
like the Hungarian rings which I reviewed in the same post.
Interestingly, I had found these very challenging despite their apparent
simplicity and had very much enjoyed them. For people who can't work out their
own solution the amazing Jaap still has his website up giving solutions to
lots of these combinatoric type puzzles. The Orb-it is
here.
and the Hungarian rings is
here.
After those, I eventually moved on to more and more complex twisty puzzles and
was entirely unaware of new bead puzzles until the IPP. Having bought a couple
of these from Hendrik, I brought them home and immediately got too frightened
to scramble them. I was very frightened that there would be absolutely no way
that I would ever be able to solve them. I experimented and took some photos
to show the moves:
1 rotation
1 rotation and a slide
There is something wonderful about fiddling with these. The beads move
smoothly around the track which includes an "underground" section and the
spinner section is aligned using magnets so it clicks into place so nicely.
Anyone picking this up will just fiddle with it for the sheer tactile delight
of it. I watched lots of people do that very thing at the IPP. Eventually,
having fiddled with it for a few days I got up the courage to scramble
it.
What have I done?
There is only so much that you can do with this. Move the balls around the full
track or twist the spinner to isolate 18 of them in 2 long and 2 short tracks.
The easy thing to do is build up sets of three and then sets of six and store
them in the isolated sections until you need to use them. It's not actually
difficult to get to an almost there point until you suddenly discover that all
the balls are grouped together but they are just one or two positions out of the
alignment that you need. I was stuck with an almost there position for quite a
long time until I suddenly saw a way to shift them along one step at a time.
Aha! I am now able to save this one very time I play with it.
On Kiernan's Etsy
product page
about this puzzle he states that this is difficulty level 5 out of 10 and I
personally would say that it should be a 3 or 4 compared to most other twisty
type puzzles. He says:
Rubik’s Cube enthusiasts with algorithmic experience typically solve it
within a few hours and afterward consider it a modest challenge. Focused
adults or teens with general puzzle experience—but no cube-solving
background—should find it quite challenging, but solvable.
If you’re brand new to puzzles or aren't used to logical / sequential
challenges, consider one of my easier alternatives.
Looking at his store front, the puzzles that are lower difficulty level look
horrifyingly difficult to me but you should take his word for it - he should
know.
I did also purchase from Hendrik the Delta puzzle (3 colour version) which
Kiernan has assigned a difficulty level of 7/10 and I have not had the
courage yet to scramble it. Every time I play with it, I get the shudders
and the urge to put it down quickly before I do something I can't undo!
This can have all of the beads on a single trefoil track or by turning the
spinner (as usual with a very satisfying magnetic alignment) it can be split
into 1 ring alongside an infinity shaped track opposite. What could possibly
go wrong?
Kiernan's own description rates this as a level 7 or 8 and says this about
it:
The 3-Color Delta is special — it's my favorite design so far and my
personal go-to puzzle. It’s a serious challenge, yet still highly
intuitive to explore. As you experiment, you gradually begin to feel
the kinds of moves the puzzle wants, developing an understanding of
its mechanics through intuition as much as logic. Because you can
separate it into two tracks and cycle only some of the beads, it feels
more intuitive than the Infinity with 3 colors.
But with three colors to solve simultaneously, planning ahead is
still quite complex. Even experienced twisty puzzle enthusiasts and
seasoned Rubik's Cube solvers should expect a substantial
challenge.
The claim of being highly intuitive really does mean that I should just go
for it. Gulp!
If you are interested in these bead puzzles then you really must go to Kiernan's Etsy store - I probably should add a few more to my collection!
Finally, I did purchase another puzzle that I did not expect to. I love
twisty puzzles but haven't actually played with any for over a year due to
lack of time and being distracted by other stuff. But almost as soon as I
entered the IPP puzzle party room I was confronted by Diogo Souza and some
of his absolutely incredible 3D printed twisty puzzles. My previous
experience of 3D printed twisty puzzles has been very variable. The original
Shapeays twisty puzzles always dropped black powder all over the place (Puzzle Maestro's 3x5x7 cuboid
was one of the first). But then later home printing improved things a lot
until TwistyTex's version of the same cuboid was so much more usable that I
should have started buying more of this type of puzzle. I had fallen out of
the scene a little and was staggered to be confronted with Diogo's amazing
designs. I spent a god 20-30 minutes chatting to him before going agains
what I had originally thought because I couldn't resist buying a copy of his
Sprout cube which is a combination of an edge turner and corner turner.
Sprout cube by Diogo Souza
This also frightens me to death because the pieces interchange/jumble. The movement is so smooth that it is wonderfully tactile to fiddle with. The discussion of the solving process on the TP forum is just a little frightening!
What should I do? Scramble the Delta or the Sprout Cube? Hmmmm!
Diogo's puzzles are for sale via his Instagram page - I probably should buy some more. Shouldn't I?
I very nearly didn't have anything for you today. I have had a rather busy week
and am actually going to be working as this posts. I have furiously been trying
to solve something all week and until about 2 hours ago had nothing to write
about. I went back to another of the IPP exchange puzzles that I have been
trying to work out off and on since I got it in June.
I had been encouraged by the fact that Fraser had assured everyone that even
an "idiot can solve it". I suspect he is doing himself a disservice - he seems to be pretty good at
solving puzzles - especially compared to me - but then you all know that I am
not terribly bright.
Pack 3 pieces
This creation from Richard Williams was his exchange puzzle at the IPP which
he was kind enough to give to me despite me not being an exchanger. It
promptly went into the pile to be solved (which is currently GIGANTIC) and due
to the easy idea of packing 3 pieces through a limited entry hole into a box
kept me coming back. Easy idea maybe but easy to do? Nope! But if the "idiot"
can solve it then I didn't want to show myself to be worse than that (moron?)
It's very nice and tactile. The pieces have to be placed through a hole
at one corner that it eccentric and has an odd chamfer to one edge. The I and
L shapes are easy to insert but the C shape has to be inserted with a fun
rotational move which can only happen in one direction. Working out which
order to place them is the start - it turns out that they get blocked up
really fast! Other rotational moves once a piece is inside is very limited due
to a single blocked voxel inside the box.
I have to blame Allard for this. I read his review and put myself on the
waiting list for a few weeks when it suddenly came up for sale again. It's
rather large and Mrs S was most unimpressed at the space it takes up. She
was even less impressed at the enormous customs bill I had to pay!
Yes, it is the ECD-trilogy (Entity Containment Device Trilogy) puzzle set from Nothing puzzles in Australia. It is beautifully made, significantly heavy and looks like it might well be another puzzle I cannot solve (based on watching Rich and Dan fail to complete it at MPP). Lot's of fun coming up!
Having had a bad week last week, I was really motivated to get back into it for
this post. I took the three TICs that Allard gave me to work and tortured a
couple of lovely girls who surprised me with their tenacity.
Georgia - my ODP
Even the radiographer!
Caduceus pieces
I had worked on Caduceus first after writing my post last week. It looks
the easiest of them having only 2 pieces to fit inside. The fun thing about it
is that both pieces have circular rods in them which implies that they will both
need to undergo rotations to get them placed.
Having established the direction of travel we experimented to see how the
individual pieces could be moved into place and then see whether the second
one could be manipulated around the first. Oh boy! They really get in the way
of each other. There are a LOT of moves and they dance around each other a
huge amount. There are so many rotational and sliding moves that for me it is
impossible to keep track of them. I managed to assemble it last Sunday evening
and then couldn't take it apart again for a very long time.
Damn! That was tough
Eventually I separated the pieces and watched in fascination as Georgia and one
of the other theatre staff worked on it and was very gratified to see that they
had the exact same experience. Both really enjoyed it and were keen to try the
others. I love infecting others with the excitement of puzzling! Especially
girls - we need more girl puzzlers.
The next 2 of the TICs from Alan Lunsford were Cobra and Hydra:
Cobra has only one rotational piece
Hydra has 2 rotating pieces
Cobra has the advantage that the two frame pieces are just like simple
interlocking cube puzzles and relatively easy to work out where they go together
but then whilst it is simple to see where the rotating piece has to go, it is
actually a huge challenge to insert it into position. With everything you try
the piece almost arrives but not quite. Many possible moves leads to the thing
falling apart. None of the girls managed to get past this point and it was with
some trepidation that I attempted it myself. It is damned tough. There is a very
very nice sequence to get the thing assembled. Luckily with this one, once you
have done it then the disassembly is not going to be hard to manage. It is
really clever and perfect to get someone hooked - the ability to get so close
and yet so far away is wonderful for the experienced as well as the newbie
puzzler.
Hydra has 2 rotational pieces and it doesn't take long to work out where they
have to go. Like the Caduceus, there is a whole lot of dancing with some
rather extreme moves before it eventually slides together. Disassembly is also
a challenge. It took me a good hour before I could say that I really
understood the puzzle. I will be taking it to work to torture people for a few
weeks.
Cobra assembled
Hydra assembled
If you have a 3D printer (Sob! Never me!) then I suggest you go to Alan's Printables page and download the files for these and make yourself some TICs - they are simply fabulous!
Next up, I tortured myself with George Bell and Nan Ma's Dodecahedron assembly kit. I spent quite a lot of time in the IPP design competition room in Italy attempting several of the challenges set out with these and completely failed. I came to the conclusion that my hands are too small or the pieces were too perfectly made with not enough gaps to help me. But, I am a sucker for a puzzle kit and the five challenges sung to me. I started with the easiest of them (rated medium) and after nearly an hour yesterday, I finally managed an assembly. Hooray!
Dear Lord! That was tough and it was the easiest!
I spent another couple of hours trying various of the other challenges and got absolutely nowhere apart from to teach the cats some swear words and to piss off Mrs S with all the muttering under my breath. The pieces can be assembled gradually by gently pulling apart and adding extras. This continues until there's no space for any more and then as long as the assembly is correct there's a space for the final piece but no way to insert it. Time to take a few out and place them in a different order. Finally you have to pull it apart to the almost falling to bits position and try and manoeuvre the last piece or pieces and let it collapse together into shape. Unfortunately, I have been completely unable to manage it - I pull it apart to the almost falling to bits and then as I wiggle, it just "falls to bit" - Aargh! I'll keep at it for a while longer but I'm losing hope. I saw a friend at the MPP manage them all but I have no idea how.
Finally I have to show off the Ice Cream SandWitch puzzle which I also solved this week.
Ice Cream SandWitch by Alexander Dangl I never noticed the mis-spelling until now!
This puzzle was also an entry into the Design competition this year where it won a Jury Honourable Mention Award. I actually didn't play with it myself at the IPP because I had immediately decided that I wanted to buy a copy having seen p[eople enjoying it and with lots of shouts of delight as they solved it. The following day at the main puzzle party, I quickly found it for sale and got hold of a copy. Let me say straight up - it's a lovely thing and great fun to solve with plenty of Aha! moments.
It is available in 3 ice cream flavours (pistachio, vanilla and the strawberry that I have). The aim is to work your way through finding and using tools to get yourself the coin to allow you to buy more ice cream. At the moment it is available from PuzzleMaster and sold out at Tye and Amanda's Nothing Yet Designs (they may well get more n stock in time).
Initially, the only obvious tool is a bolt that slides part way out when you tilt the puzzle downwards. The first thing to do is work out how to release the bolt and then see where it can be used to make other things happen. The first couple of moves are quite easy to find and will lull you into a false sense of security. I managed those first couple of steps very fast and then got stuck for a while. I had a bolt, a magnet and that was it. There are lots of magnetic areas inside the puzzle but I was unable to manipulate them. I had to put it down for a while due to demands by the present wife that I do some stuff for her. Later on, I returned to the puzzle and noticed something really quite subtle. Aha! I now had...another magnet and nothing to do with it.
I'll not tell you what I did next as I don't want to spoil it for any of you but I have to say that you need to use physics to solve this one and after another few moves you have your coin to allow the purchase of more ice cream. It's wonderful and certainly a candidate for my top ten(ish) of 2026. I will be bringing this to work to torture people as well. My work bag is always shoulder bruisingly heavy because I bring so many great puzzles with me. Torturing people is fun!
I am absolutely amazed - my post views have passed the 7 million since I started writing in March of 2011. Thank you for
reading my crap!
After the last 2 weeks of desperately trying to solve the upcoming Pelikan
puzzles as quickly as I possibly can, I have been rather fatigued and not
actually done any puzzling at all this week. So I don't have anything to
really review today. I did attend the MPP number IIXIIXIIXIIXIIXII
yesterday (yes that does seem to be a Roman numeral! Allard needs to
remember the number L for simplicity.) and one of my favourite things when
I go there is to pick up a bunch of plastic freebies that Allard and other
friends have produced for visitors to take home.
I have a rather big birthday coming up soon and I had hoped that maybe a
Prusa or Bamboo toy-maker with all the multi-colour trimmings might be a
possible gift from she who frightens the Gods - I even suggested it to
her (Whack! Ouch!) However, the present
Mrs S is very frightening. She has said on numerous occasions when I
mention a possible purchase, that the arrival of a 3D printer in her
house (NOT mine) is definitely grounds for divorce and I really cannot afford a divorce! This means that it's absolutely NOT happening,
no matter how nicely I ask. No, she is not worried about noise or
electricity usage. Her primary reason for the absolute moratorium on
this wonderful technology is that she is aware that the profusion of
wood and metal "stuff" that keeps arriving and cluttering the house will
rapidly be supplemented by a huge bunch of "ugly plastic crap". Modern
3D printers produce stuff that is much less ugly now but she does not
want yet more puzzles arriving courtesy of the printer. Sob! Luckily, I
have wonderful friends like Allard, Rich and Dan who can make 3D printed
puzzles which I can smuggle in without risking life, limb and sanity.
Oops! Sanity went a very long time ago.
One puzzle set that arrived yesterday courtesy of Allard was George
Bell's incredible entry into the Assisi
IPP design competition. Whilst it didn't win an award, it was a fabulous challenge which I
spent quite a lot of time on. Interestingly, I had almost no success.
It is a series of coordinate motion challenges and I left Italy rather
frustrated thinking that it was impossible for someone with relatively
small hands. I do tend to pride myself on having fairly decent hand
control and dexterity (on Wednesday I had to put a cannula in a vein
on the front of a patient's shin under ultrasound guidance!) but I
really struggled with it. At the MPP the puzzle was attempted by a few
people and even the most difficult combination was assembled
successfully. I now have the option to try them myself in the privacy
of Puzzlemad HQ without anyone laughing at me with every failure.
Another advantage of a 3D printer is that all the wonderful new TICs
that get designed can be quickly added to a collection without having
to wait for a craftsman to make them in wood. I adore TICs and
interlocking puzzles. Allard had 3 new TICs from Alan Lunsford sitting
to be taken home. They were smuggled into the house with my MPP box
and secreted quietly where she can't see.
Caduceus
Cobra
Hydra
I can't wait to work on these.
So, in the absence of my own 3D printer I will be "forced" to attend MPPs so that I can endure being made fun of but still manage to pick up plastic toys without being told off. See you all at the next one.
Trust Steve to produce something funny with an extra twist in it! Boarin'
Burr - the boars appear on every surface
First of all, I MUST give proper attribution to the origin of last weeks
main puzzle. The wonderful version of the Diagonal Star puzzle that I wrote
about
last week should actually be named the Sequential Cube. It was designed by the
amazingly talented George Bell as a variant of Lee Krasnow's very rare
Sequential Star. Practice does improve things with this puzzle - I can now solve the
Sequential Star version and the 9 move version quite easily. The 14 move seems
to be more problematic for me but I keep trying. If you get a chance to play
then go for it - it's very mind-bending.
I should also point out that we have a new blog in the puzzlesphere - Fraser,
whose name I forgot last week, has started an unassuming little place on the
internet where he asks the useful question:
Can an idiot solve it? This looks really useful to me - I have been an idiot my whole life (I'm
pretty old now) and am rubbish at puzzles. I will be using his advice to see
whether I should bother trying to solve some of the puzzles I see on the
internet. Go show him some love/views!
Today, I am writing about a couple of puzzles that look like burrs and sort
of work like burrs in that they are composed of interlocking sticks but
there is something twisted inside both figuratively and literally.
The IPP provides all of us with a list of puzzles we want. I am lucky enough
to be given a few of them every now and then. Everything that the
TwoBrassMonkeys
do should be added to your list of things you want because there is always
something special about them. Here, I have Steve Nichol's exchange puzzle.
He designed a burr with some extra challenge to it. The theme is both the
boars that are often found zooming around Italian towns causing havoc
(Steve, cause havoc??? Oh yes! everywhere he goes) and of course, the name
refers to the fact that pieces rotate like bores. and effectively double
lock the burr sticks. Steve likes interlocking puzzles but always seems to
want to make something a bit more interesting than a standard version. He
has created them from
hexagonal sticks
and
round sticks
to confuse you. He's made
odd movements
and
multi-step sequential discovery burrs which won my
puzzle of the year for 2024. There seems to be no end to the ways that Steve wants to play with your
head. In this case he has a burr with boars that got bored and bored their
way inside your burr:
If you push on a boar then it unscrews from the puzzle!
This is interesting and very ingenious. It is quite reminiscent of
Oskar's screw burr but extra confusing! Obviously this cannot be entered into Burrtools so you
will need to be careful. Luckily everything is sequential and you quickly can
produce a bunch of very odd looking sticks. Make sure that you mix them all up
so that you have no idea what came from where and what orientation they were
in when you started. This was one of my mistakes initially. It did not occur
to me that stick orientation would be that critical when I scrambled them and
I really struggle to reassemble it the first time.
There's nothing boring about this puzzle! I have absolutely no idea
how he designed this
The multi-coloured sticks can be assembled into a six piece burr in lots of ways
but the locking mechanism comes from the bores/boars. Take a look at the notches
in the sticks and with a little care it is possible to put it back together
again with only a little trial and error as sticks may need switching end over
end.
Great fun, with a twist - just as we would expect from Steve. Thanks mate. I
assume that this will be put up for sale at some point. Keep an eye out on the
Two Brass Monkeys website.
SV Burr by Richard Williams (P91 puzzles)
This burr is a fascinating design by Richard Williams. The aim is to disassemble and reassemble the burr and, most importantly, in the process, understand why it has the name SV Burr - what is SV? I bought it at an MPP last September having watched lots of people struggle both with the disassembly but also get caught out by the reassembly. I made sure not to watch what they were doing and what they had found along the way. I took it home and began playing. Initially it has absolutely no moving parts and takes quite a bit of pushing and prodding to make your first move. Very quickly a tool is o=in your hands - not what you would usually think of as a tool - it's just a bolt. What can you do with a bolt in a burr?
There are a couple of holes in the puzzle where you can poke the bolt but no real clue as to whether this is having any effect. After poking and pushing and screwing and unscrewing I did find something and then movement happened. Yay! After that, nothing else was possible but I did have another hole. I "screwed" my courage to the sticking place and put the bolt in the hole and closed up the burr in the hope that I could now use gravity to pull or push something inside. Well, that was a stupid thing to do because now I couldn't move anything. After a day, I contacted Rich to see whether I was on the right track and apparently I had been very stupid! He had never even considered that anyone would be so stupid as to do that and advised me to try and undo what I had done. As always, never underestimate my stupidity! Eventually, I did manage to undo the mess that I had got myself into but it took a couple of days - phew! Then, of course, there was more stupidity! I tightened something to much and stripped some of the plastic off - this rendered my puzzle non-functional! Aargh! Yep, I'm an eejit!
At the next MPP, I had to give it back to Rich to fix. I eventually got it back at the last MPP and promised to be more careful with it this time. I started again determined not to prove myself too foolish. I did the first moves again and achieved my sliding burr moves. This time I did not lose a piece inside. I worked on various other possibilities and somehow managed to get more movement. I was screwing and unscrewing but not understanding why it changed things inside. Despite that, I managed to progress. At some point a new too dropped out and I had no idea where it came from. A little exploration revealed a hidden compartment which had been the hidey-hole. The new item was an odd looking tool but there was only one place it could go and in it went. In fact it went in and out several times causing some more screwing movements and another piece came off/out. Turning the puzzle over caused yet another tool to drop out and this time I had noted where from. After searching about there was only one place to try it and yes, more screwing about. Then the final piece was removable and the burr came fully apart:
A six piece burr? Nope! A lot more than that.
After this it becomes clear what the SV stands for - I'm not going to give it away. You need to get your own copy of this and work it out for yourself. Thanks Rich!
So we have to burrs that have lots of twists in the tale and twists in the puzzling. Fabulous - I need to lie down now as I'm really quite dizzy.
Simple Star Puzzle (by Brian Menold) and the Superstar (by Chris P)
This has been written and published in advance quite quickly because I am working this weekend. If you see any errors then let me know. I had to do it quite quickly.
I am very lucky to have friends with 3D printers! Not only does that make them
superstars in my eyes, but in this case Chris actually made me the Superstar
puzzle.
At the MPP in May, Chris was showing off his amazing printing prowess and
amongst them was a version of the star puzzle that had pins and maze plates
attached. Like a magpie, I was immediately attracted to the new shiny thing
and proceeded to play with the Superstar version that was ready for play. The
movement was beautiful and very very confusing. I expressed my lust and Chris
said that he might be making more sometime. To my huge surprise, when I
arrived at the July MPP, he sidled up to me with a wonderful gift. I have my
very own version to bamboozle myself and a nice set of maze plates to prove
how useless I am.
From the left: Diagonal Superstar, 9 move, 14 move and 36 move
challenges
Lots of variants - all come apart and collapse the same way
When I received the puzzle, Chris had not fully assembled it and I spent a
little while taking it apart and marvelling at the smoothness of the moves - 3D
printing has really improved over the years. AS with all the star puzzles, it
comes apart into 2 pairs of triplets which will fall apart quickly if you don't
hold them right. I am sure that all of you have experienced variants of the star
puzzle and remember that heartsick moment as it collapses in your hands:
Beautifully made with exchangeable maze plates
Chris even thought through a way to ensure that the 2 pairs are assembled with
the correct chirality. A printed C in the sides ensures that I don't attempt to
assemble an impossible version.
These will line up to slide together
Pins and mazes lined up
The interesting thing I find with this is that even knowing what the mazes
look like, this doesn't seem to help me with the assembly. Once the pins are
all engaged in the mazes, it's a matter of exploring which pieces can move. It
is made very confusing by moving diagonally and also having several pieces
move at once. I found a very nice sequence and seems to be making progress
until boom...I pulled it apart without realising that I had made my way
through the maze and back out again. It exploded into pieces on my lap and
frightened the cat next to me. Nearly frightened me to death too.
Try again! And boom round in a circle (or was it a figure of eight?) and
explosion again. Wow! I could not keep track of the process at all. I managed
to make it fall apart on me (gulp) at least a dozen times before I finally
managed the full assembly. Despite having gone through the maze many many
times, I still do not have any idea how I managed it and have an assembled
Superstar next to me (not Chris!) and am dreading dismantling it to try the
next maze. I think I will try the 9 move version next - hopefully that will
prove easier. Thanks so much Chris!
I met someone new at the MPP who seems much better at puzzling than me (isn't
everyone?) I am ashamed to say that I cannot recall his name but he has
instantly become a great friend because he has made a small dream of mine come
true. I also suggest that he probably should stay as far away from Mrs S as he
possibly can. He has alienated her by providing with a big pile of plastic
which she hates and I adore! I have put them away very quickly and plan to get
them out in dribs and drabs as and when I get a chance to play.
What is it? I can hear you shout at your screens. The voices are quite bad for
me these days! 😈
Akaki's Picnic Basket - PLUS a whole bunch of extra challenges
A few years ago whilst on holiday in Edinburgh visiting the outlaws, I managed
to
solve and blog about the incredible puzzles designed by Akaki Kuumeri. My copy was made by the
late
Eric Fuller
from beautiful woods. I had not gotten around to them for ages and had been
hoping that Eric would eventually get around to making some of the MANY others
which had subsequently been designed. Unfortunately, Eric passed away before
this could become a reality and I was stymied in my chance of getting any more
by the lack of a 3D printer of my own. I was flabbergasted (and incredibly
grateful) when my new best friend announced that he had a whole bunch of these
picnic cubes available to be given away just as I was about to leave the MPP! I
immediately jumped at the chance as did Tamsin. Tamsin took the basket and the 3
that were in the original set and I blagged the rest. I have another 11
challenges to play with (I actually don't know how many there are in the series
but hopefully I can get the rest sometime). The wonderful thing is that these
plastic cubes are made with the same voxel size as the version that Eric made 5
years ago. I cannot wait to play - but first, I'd better try another star
puzzle.
Thank you to my two new best friends for some wonderful challenges.
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