If You Dare - You Will Probably Win!
Today is a day for locking metal stuff or unlocking it.
The first thing I should tell you all is that Big Steve and Ali (the
Two Brass Monkeys) have released their latest creation, the
Bag O'Tangles
and you should all go there and buy it/them. I saw the pre-production
version at the last MPP and immediately decided that I needed to buy a copy
when I saw it there - it has just gone up for sale and I have placed the
order to pick it up at the next MPP at the end of the month. If you aren't
sure then read
Allard's review
to be convinced. Apparently they can all be nested together for a final
master challenge - if nothing else convinces you, then that certain should!
In August last year, I purchased the 6th in
Shane's series of
lock puzzles. When you have all the others it would be rude not to continue
collecting and Mrs S definitely agreed with that.
Whack! Ouch! or maybe not! 😱
The Who Dares Wins puzzle is still available from the
Two Brass Monkeys site
and you definitely should get one whilst they are still available. I had no
idea what a
rim cylinder lock
was until I got this. I had always called the classic door lock on a British
front door a "Yale" lock but that is apparently a trade name for the type of
lock I grew up with on my front door and certainly in retrospect, from the
top this thing would not be out of place embedded in a door. Shane had
created a prototype puzzle from one of these and showed it to the monkey
boys and they all colluded to create something that did not require a
puzzler to carry a door around with them (Mrs S would definitely have
disapproved quite strongly had I brought in an extra door!). As soon as they
were available to purchase one arrived and I took me customary photos. It is
nicely shiny in brass and some anodised aluminium with a key on a keyring
and a helpful tag with the instructions - open the lock and find the golden
padlock. It is all delivered in a Jute bag. This thing is pretty weighty at
380g with dimensions of 36mm diameter and 88m long.
I'm glad this one was so attractive as it stayed on display in my pile o'
puzzles to solve for many many months! I played and played and played with
it daily, then weekly then monthly since August last year and got absolutely
nowhere! At some point during the 9 month wait I even retrieved the jute bag
and turned it inside out searching for hidden tools in the sewn edges. I've
been caught by that sort of thing before and refuse to be caught again - at
least until the next time!
Looking at it, there is not much to really see that gives any immediate
clues. Putting the key in the lock and trying to turn does the usual nothing
at all - it won't turn but at least the key comes out again. Fiddling with
the brass collars gives a teeny hint that they might be involved at some
point as there is a fraction of a mm movement in one of the three but no
rotation. After discovering that, there is nothing else to be found for a
VERY long time. I am sure that all of us do the usual of trying to insert
the key to varying depths and attempting to turn it - no, that doesn't work
either. Then it's time to attempt it with the puzzle in a whole lot of
different positions. I am getting a bit too old to be doing handstands with
a puzzle but at least I didn't hurt myself.
Looking very closely at the puzzle does give a small hint at one of
the things that Shane has done to the insides of this thing to convert a
standard lock into something that won't open with a key but seeing it
doesn't really help. At least it didn't help me! Remember, I am not
terribly bright.
Right from the very beginning there was something that I wanted to do but
didn't have what was required to do it and with these you are not allowed to
use anything that you haven't been given. This was one of the reasons I went
to the jute bag at least 3 or 4 times to see whether I had missed anything. I
really wanted to do one particular thing but never had the courage to do it.
This was a deliberate part of Shane's devious design! He knew that no puzzler
would be happy doing what he knew was necessary, hence the name of the puzzle
- if you were going to win with this one then you had to be daring and try
something special. I was a coward! Month after month I didn't dare to try it
until in desperation I did the unthinkable.
AHA!
OMG! I cannot believe that he did that! All of a sudden after 9 months of
cowardice, I was daring for the first time and I managed my first step. Now it
was time to explore further. Don't solve this puzzle anywhere where you might
lose small pieces because after a further 10 or 15 minutes you will find some
"stuff" dropping out (in my case into my lap and into the grooves of the sofa
cushions).
|
|
Solved the bloody thing - I had my golden padlock!
|
Once the lock is open you can see how simple and yet ingenious the design is.
Shane is relying on people not having the courage to do what is necessary and,
from what I can gather talking to other puzzlers, he is absolutely right - not
many of us are willing to be daring. at least not until we get absolutely
desperate. That man is a genius! I texted Shane when I had finally solved the
bloody thing and he actually wrote:
"I wanted to psychologically f..k people over I guess
it worked perfectly!"
It certainly did! B.st..d! But finally after all this time I can place
it on display in the lock section of my display cabinets, much to the pleasure
of Mrs S.
|
| MW Puzzles keyring |
I had missed out on the whole of Matthew Williams'
puzzle designs as
they seemed to go viral via the Mechanical puzzle discord and I just don't have
time to get involved in that. I saw a few of his incredible creations at the MPP
and they all looked fabulous but I resigned myself to only getting to look at
them at puzzle parties. I even missed out on the second run of Pinball Wizard
puzzles because they went up for sale whilst I was anaesthetising a weekend
trauma list and they sold out in about 5 minutes - I was 2 hours late! ðŸ˜.
|
| Get that key out |
My only experience of MW puzzles' creations was the Keyring 1 (I have
heard that a Keyring 2 might be released sometime soon). I managed to acquire
this at a Midlands puzzle party and I think I received it as a gift from
Matthew (thanks mate!) This lovely little thing is made of steel, brass ands a
few acrylic bits as well. It has been in my work bag for over a year! The aim
is to remove the key from the lock and then put it back and trap it again.
The key is inserted in the keyway at one end and doesn't move much at all.
There is a very small amount of wiggle room but it certainly won't turn or
pull out. Looking at it you cannot see what mechanism inside might be
preventing the movement.
The only thing that you can do is move the brass collar - it can rotate and it
can be pulled a few mm towards the far end to pushed back. At some point
during the movement of the collar you can see a red something inside.
|
| Red insert inside? |
|
|
There appears to be a pin
|
Fiddling with this collar eventually reveals a pin and it feels like that pin
can be moved but when the collar is rotated back to the start position the pin
is always back in place. It feels like that pin needs to be extracted outwards
into the brass collar to release something inside.
I spent over a year trying to get that damn pin to do something and failed.
Now, with many puzzles there are lots of things to try and you keep
attempting different combinations of various things until you get enough
information to progress to the next step. Both of today's delights have none
of this progression - there is absolutely nothing new to try and only one or
two tiny little movements which don't get you anywhere. I sometimes think that
these puzzle designers are out to drive me crazy......crazier than I am
already!
After a year of fiddling and doing the same 1 or 2 things over and over
and over again, I noticed that something had changed. It would appear
that Einstein was wrong - sometimes doing the same thing again and again
for a very long time does actually make something happen on one
occasion. Or maybe it happened every time but I failed to notice it.
That was rather interesting; if only I actually knew what was the cause.
Determined to put another puzzle away, I continued with my repetition
and before I knew it, there was a major change inside. More repetition
was required until I had yet another of those
AHA!
moments!
I had no idea how this was working but I finally had my key:
 |
| At last! Another puzzle I can put on display. |
Could I put it back to the start? Yes I could. It's very clever and I am slightly ashamed of myself that it took me so long to work out what was required. Thank you Matthew for keeping me occupied for a year! I need some easier puzzles for a while!
