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.
You cannot have too many Turning Interlocking Cubes! Especially made by
Brian Menold or
designed by the "Master of the TIC" - Andrew Crowell. Brian's last update had 4
TICs in it and I picked these 2 because I already had copies of the other two
(SkepTIC previously from Brian and remaining unsolved as well as XiTIC from
Bernhard:
XiTIC pieces
XiTIC assembled
I really need to find my copy of SkepTIC and solve the damn thing - I seem to
remember that I bought it in March last year and could not assemble it and
have put it down somewhere - who knows where!
SkepTIC pieces still to be assembled
When Brian offered these puzzles that I did not have in my collection, I could
not resist. Well, you all know that I struggle to resist many puzzles that are
put on sale and have really annoyed Mrs S by continuously increasing the size
of my collection and failing to put them away. She was distinctly unimpressed
when they arrived. I had been hoping to intercept their arrival without her
noticing whilst I have had a few days of annual leave over the last 2 weeks.
Unfortunately, she had me doing DIY and gardening for much of the time off and
I couldn't get to the door in time to intercept before she got there. I was
wiring in replacement smoke and fire detectors and up a ladder when the
package arrived! I nearly fell off the ladder in my haste to get to the door
first but she's too damn quick!
In the evenings after finishing my enforced chores and (for once) not
electrocuting myself, I set to playing with these fascinating TICs. The fun
thing about both of the new arrivals is that they have only three pieces in
each:
TripTIC made from Paduak, Canarywood and
Angelique
wood
NeuroTIC from mixed woods
I started with the "easy" one, TripTIC, as it only had 2 rotations and 11
moves. and quickly found the end positions for each of the pieces and
individually found the rotations but when trying to put all three pieces
together the pieces interfered with each other's moves. until I found a very
nice little position for one that opened up a hole for the introduction of
the other and after about 15 minutes I had a lovely little cube:
See! I can solve the odd puzzle occasionally!
Time to move onto the harder one...NeuroTIC also has 3 pieces but despite
having only 2 rotations, it has a higher level of 13.3 and as Brian puts it:
"some interesting moves". I definitely struggled on this one. I quickly
determined the final resting positions but putting any third piece into the
mix quickly blocked me. I couldn't seem to work out which piece to use first
and I ended up having to solve this over 2 days. Yes, I forced Mrs S to allow
me a little puzzling time during my time off.
Whack! Ouch! Sorry dear. As Brian said, there
are some really clever moves involved here and the final rotation that allows
the rest of the puzzle to slide together is absolutely delightful.
Absolutely wonderful assembly process
Disassembling the puzzle caused me a little trouble. I got all caught up and
had a piece trapped and unable to release it despite working out the correct
rotation first. This could easily also be a disassembly puzzle.
I really never know how to store these puzzles - should I keep them
disassembled? Or should I keep them as lovely looking cubes to be taken apart
- this would help with storage but decrease the repeatability of the
puzzles.
Of course, I couldn't buy just 2 TICs from Brian. I had to make the postage
worthwhile - I also couldn't resist a third one being released by him from
the amazing
Haym Hirsh, the Green T-Box:
Green T-Box
I had already bought the original T-Box by Haym back in December 2021
and thoroughly enjoyed the sole process of packing 6 T-shaped bars into a
beautifully designed box so how could I possibly resist a reworking of the
original idea with another 6 T's of different dimensions and a different set
of obstructions in the box? Again, it was beautifully embellished.
What is next for Brian and Haym? Will we have Black T-Box? Oolong T-box? Who knows! Whatever it is, I will not be able to resist.
Thank you, Brian for a week of delightful puzzling to take my mind of the DIY and gardening. In fact, I have had quite the roll this last couple of weeks - I look forward to showing the completed puzzles off to you over the next couple of weeks.
A rather large box arrived earlier this week and an annoyed Mrs S muttered "not
again" to me. I gritted my teeth, kept my head down and promised not to leave
them lying around once I had solved them (there is a rather embarrassing number
of puzzles just strewn all over the house just now and I need to put some away
before there's a bloodbath in PuzzleMad HQ.
This time there is a huge selection of puzzles from your favourite designers
and a variety of different types of puzzle with varying difficulty levels to
suit everyone.
From top left above:
Zack Die Krone by Stephan Baumegger (2 versions available)
The Horns of Booth by Dr Volker Latussek
PSI by Girish Sharma
5 Balls by Frederic Boucher
One Match Left by Jorgos Anastasou
Serial Square NTC by Lucie Pauwels
LOL by Frederic Boucher
Sam Duo by Frederic Boucher
Heavy Lifter by Girish Sharma
Yes U Can by Frederic Boucher pictured separately
Jakub has asked for me to give some reviews as quickly as possible and so I
will be spreading them over two weekends of blogs. Expect them to go on sale
quite soon.
Zack Die Krone
There will be 2 versions of Zack Die Krone by Stephan Baumegger, both are
absolutely beautiful. This fabulous puzzle is not for the faint-hearted. When
I first picked it up, I thought it was a 6 piece burr in a frame and expected
a huge struggle as a result. When I had a closer look I was relieved to see
that it is "just" a mere 3 piece burr within a cage that has a big hole in the
top. How hard could it be? OMG, it is a serious challenge!
There are a few possible moves at first but after that the possibilities open
up quite a bit as there is plenty of space to look at what is happening and
also plenty of space to move the pieces around each other an around the frame.
Initially the frame really gets in the way of what you want to do but after a
bit of fiddling a way method of getting around it can be found. Once this has
been done, you will need to carefully control the pieces as they appear to
become quite unstable. Rotations won't happen easily but are possible and you
will need to prevent that. I managed to unlink one side of a piece from the
others and then got very badly stuck being completely unable to progress and
needed to backtrack to the beginning again. Luckily, I found that it's usually
pretty easy to backtrack if you paid attention but I dare say some of you
might get lost at some point.
I remained stuck at the same position for a whole evening before I managed to
find a possible move. It's a huge advantage being able to see more or less
everything that is going on and sort of planning what you can do. With great
satisfaction I found a path to release a piece from both the others and then a
simple matter of releasing it from the frame. I had my 4 pieces and could take
a photo. At level 21.8.3 for the complete disassembly, this is a huge
challenge for anyone and only the very best of you will be able to reassemble
it without Burrtools (I certainly needed it)
An incredible challenge The magnets hold it stable when assembled
One Match Left
Looks just like a matchbox
As expected - one match inside
A new designer I've not heard of before,
Jorgos Anastasou seems to have been designing for a few years but this is the first of
his that has been mass produced. This beautiful cute little puzzle is made to
look like a matchbox (very reminiscent of the
matchbox playground
from last year). It's made of Jatoba, Wenge, Maple & Cherry. Only two of
the woods are visible from the outside of the box. There appear to be two but
pieces inside the box which can slide and reveal a lovely little single match
left in the box (hence the name).
After six moves the match can come out but the tray formed by the two but
pieces still won't slide out. A further 7 moves leads to one more part removal
and a further 2 to complete disassembly. It's not terribly difficult but it's
lovely and really quite cute. I suggest that you leave the pieces for a couple
of days before attempting the reassembly. It will keep you nicely for a little
while. Not hard but just right for a little light puzzling. Indeed,
Jorgos wrote about it:
"Sometimes the simple things can be the most enjoyable! The "One Match
Left" is a moderately difficult level 6.7.2 disassembly challenge with a
unique solution reassembly. It's fun to determine the position of the
small match piece trapped inside the seven unit burr pieces and frame.
Τhanks to Pelican for making my design a reality with their high quality
construction and materials! Have fun!"
He's right, it is a simple thing compared to may others that have been made but
it is a delight and very beautiful.
Leave it for a few days and assemble from scratch
Heavy Lifter
Arrives incorrectly assembled
5 pieces
This wonderful interlocking 4x4x4 cube puzzle is by the amazing
Girish Sharma. It has been stunningly produced in some lovely woods - Zebrano, Acacia,
Wenge, Maple and
Massaranduba. It has been incorrectly assembled for transport and quickly comes apart
into 4 rather complex shapes and an L. I did not receive any instructions and
from the start assumed that it was a TIC. As a result, I set to work looking
for the position of all the pieces and then rotational moves to get them
interlocked. The process took me about an hour whilst watching TV with Mrs S.
It was really very satisfying to work it out and seat the pieces into place. I
was so delighted that I did it repeatedly that evening.
The following day I got my instructions from Jakub and was stunned to realise
that it was not meant as a TIC...he wrote:
"Over the last few months, I have been tinkering with the idea of high
level 4x4x4 IC which form a full visible cube. So far, I've known the
highest level to be 11 by a few designers. The challenge I took on
myself was to design something with a higher level. This is first of the
many designs that I have coming up in future.
Heavy Lifter is a level 12.2.2.2 IC with 5 pieces. The puzzle comes
disassembled and the goal is to assemble the pieces into a 4x4x4 cube.
Once you have assembled the cube, you might realise the importance of
the name of the puzzle."
Amazingly, it was actually an interlocking cube very similar to many of the
wonderful Microcubology puzzles I bought way back at the beginning of my
puzzling odyssey but MUCH MUCH tougher. The following evening, I just had to
try again and do it without the rotations. This was a huge challenge as the
TIC part had given me some preconceived ideas that I needed to get rid of.
Girish has created an absolute monster of an interlocking cube which is
absolutely wonderful to work on. The "proper solution" took me well over an
hour and was joyous - this might well be my absolute favourite of the bunch.
This was an absolute joy to solve
LOL
Laugh out loud?
This made me laugh when I managed it
How can anyone resist a new puzzle designed by Frederic Boucher. I certainly can't and if it's called LOL then there is guaranteed to be something sprecial about it. This puzzle is very reminiscent of the Galette by Osanori Yanamoto in that there is a small flat box with a limited entry and a set of pieces to insert inside. There's no window in the front so it will all need to be done with dexterity and gravity along with quite a lot of thought. The puzzle is beautifully made from Jatoba and Cherry with the puzzle name on the surface which I think might be Marquetry (it's something I've never seen from Jakub before).
The 5 simple pieces are to be put inside to make a 4x5 voxel rectangle. It's made more complex by the fact that the largest piece can't even fit through the 2 voxel opening - it requires a rotation to get inside and maybe there will be rotations needed inside the box without easy access?
Subsequently I received the instructions and found there was another challenge to be had:
Frederic wrote about it:
"LOL is an assembly puzzle with a very simple goal: Assemble the five pieces to make the acronym LOL, respecting the following rule: the 3 characters must have the same size (height and width). Will you discover the trick and succeed in the challenge? Exclusively for the PELIKAN version, a box is included. As a second challenge you must pack the pieces completely into the box. I hope this puzzle will make you laugh out loud!"
It appeared that I had only done the secondary challenge. The primary challenge still awaited me. This took me another hour or so yesterday and the important thing is to assemble the letters standing up on a flat surface. There is a very special trick that has had be done during the manufacture of the pieces to make it work. Another laugh out loud moment!
Finally for today, I have a wonderful caged 6 piece burr from Tyler. He has been quite prolific over the last few years and has designed several different kinds of puzzle. This is a caged 6 piece burr which has had 2 opposite corners chopped off to allow quite a lot more freedom of movement for the burr sticks. It really adds to the challenge and allows it to reach quite a high level. I loved it but it might be too difficult for many of you if you are nor big burr fans. It has been beautifully made by Jakub and Jaroslav in Mahogany and Acacia. The angles of all those cuts must have made manufacture a bit of a nightmare to produce but the effort was well worth it. Obviously, it needs disassembly and then reassembly.
Tyler wrote about it:
"Sierpinski's Burr is a variation on the traditional framed 6 piece burr, in which 2 opposing corners have been removed. The resulting shape is one I hope you find quite interesting! It adds a few extra moves to the puzzle, and also provides small windows through which possible moves can be deduced. At level 40, it may sound a bit daunting, but keeping track of the solve is manageable, without too many dead ends. I don't think this one will be the hardest burr out there, but it should be a lot of fun to work out. Of course, the puzzle is named after the Sierpiński Triangle, which the triangular faces of the burr resemble. Pelikan's build of my design adds a lovely tactile feel, as well as being a beautiful wood combination. I hope people enjoy it! :)"
He is absolutely right! This is a huge challenge but is definitely manageable.there is a particular sequence that recurs several times and each time it is done it allows further progression before being undone and moving other pieces. The entire disassembly is level 40.6.3.1.2.2 so once the first piece is out then the rest will follow quite easily by looking inside and working out what is possible.
A fabulous burr
Having taken my photo there was absolutely no way I could reassemble it myself and off to Burrtools I went. So much fun in one small cube!
I have only had 5 days with the puzzles so far and managed to solve 5 of them in that time. I plan to work on the rest for next Sunday - come back for them.
My pick from this bunch is the Heavy Lifter and the LOL puzzle but all are absolutely fantastic!
Twisted Rabbit by Girsh Sharma made by Brian Menold
Last week
I reviewed a fabulous assembly puzzle designed by
Girish Sharma
(Shiba Inu) from Pelikan (2 still in stock) and marvelled at the amazing way he is able
to create burrs as assembly puzzles that are accessible to the average puzzler
(although still very difficult) and very interesting in their challenge and
design. Shortly before the Pelikan puzzles arrived, I received a lovely little
batch of beauties from
Brian Menold's
Wood Wonders store.
When they were announced, I had to force myself to decide on just a few to add
to the collection because I can no longer see even a hint of my desk and the
piles of puzzles to be solved are starting to get embarrassingly large in
several other rooms of the house much to the disgust and anger of "someone else"
who lives here. She has just said that I remind her of those hoarders that we
see on TV occasionally living in filth. I did have to protest that they are all
very clean which earned me a stare and an implied threat.
Not only does Girish design burrs but he also designs Turning Interlocking
Cubes (TICs) which have gotten more and more complex over the last few years.
Some of them are quite fearsome in their complexity. There were 3 in Brian's
recent release and I got them all.
First up was Snake Eyes - I had thought that having only 2 pieces, it might be
a nice starter, slightly easier puzzle to begin with having not done any TICs
for a while. The copy I received was made from
Cerejeira
and
Movingui which made a beautiful contrast. The international postal service had
broken a joint on mine and I was delayed in my play by having to glue it back
together again. Interestingly, there is only one way the 2 pieces can be
interlocked into each other which is always helpful at first and then I
realised that there were lots of possible rotations that can be done. I
started moving them about and getting increasingly worried that I will never
get them apart again when I found that I had gone in a full circle and they
fell apart on me. That was unexpected! Try again and yet again they rotated
around each other in a full circle before finding myself at the beginning. I
was obviously missing a move (or 2 or 3 or ...). In fact, this reminded me
very much of quite a few of the wire disentanglement puzzles I have played
with over the years. Lots of moves that I struggle to remember before ending
up at the start. Frustrating but fun. Having done Einstein proud by repeating
the same thing over and over again, I finally had enough memory of my moves to
be able to recognise my path and also explore ways to get off that path.
Several of them ended up nowhere but finally after about 2 days of fiddling, I
got my Aha! moment. It is lovely - just 2 pieces and yet so very clever:
Two Twisted rabbits intertwined...at last
Next up was the 3 piece TIC released at the same time (also by Girish) - Snake
Eyes
Snake Eyes by Girish and Brian
This version is made using Cerejeira, Wenge and
Sipo. I expected this to be a significant step up in challenge and was not
disappointed. Brian wrote this:
"Lots of moves and rotations. I think I lost track of the rotations at 9
and the moves at 30! A really fun challenge always has lots of rotations.
This puzzle holds up its end in that regard."
3 pieces make my cube - the Snake eyes are visible
I have some serious concerns about being able to take it apart again. I have
absolutely no idea how I did it! Yay! Brilliant fun - always looking for more
from this great pairing of craftsman and designer.
Yesterday was the last MPP of the year and for once I wasn't working. I headed
down to Birmingham and joined the boys for a day of fun, puzzling and a kebab.
I am sure that Allard will be writing a story about it soon. Mrs S immediately
commented on my arrival home that I had left with 1 box of puzzles and arrived
home with 2! Whack! Ouch!
Here is what I got:
Not a bad puzzle haul - it includes what Ali brought back from IPP for
me The cardboard box is a new one from Kyle Chester Marsden with a
Xmas theme (I'm saving it for then)
When I took the photo, I actually missed the extra gift from
Stefan
- he has perfected Micro 3D printing and made a Soma cube with box that are so
small that you need tweezers. The one I got was the big one because age made me
fearful of not being able to focus on the even smaller one!
