I was absolutely delighted to chat with Yavuz again in Italy in June. He is such
a delight to talk to - about puzzles, about business, about family... he's
absolutely wonderful and, as I have
said before, very very talented both as a designer and as a craftsman. His
Step by Step was the very winner of a very well deserved
Honourable mention award
from the Design Competition jury and it also received one of my 5 votes as well.
It is an incredible piece of puzzle design and amazing woodworking technique to
manufacture something so complex in its movement. I spent quite a lot of time on
it during the IPP and actually managed to solve it. I suspect it did not
win an award from the puzzlers because it is really quite a complex difficult
solve.
Cube dropped out of the frame
When it came to time to buy Yavuz' puzzles, I had already spent most of my
free cash and had to decide whether I purchase the Step by Step which I had
solved or go for another new challenge. In the end I decided on a new
attractive puzzle which Yavuz had released earlier in the year. I went for the
Kubro which is a mixture of Oak, Wenge with steel posts and acrylic framing.
It was packaged in the solved state and Yavuz suggested that I undo the top
mirror screws to release the upper acrylic plate and drop out the pieces.
Having done that I scrambled the pieces and set to trying to put them back in
the reassembled frame. Oh boy - This is not for the faint of heart! Creating
the 3x3x3 cube outside the frame is not terribly difficult and Burrtools tells
me that there is only one assembly. This means that you will have 6
orientations to try to place them in the frame.
Initially I thought that it might require sliding pieces in from the sides but
realised that the genius of Yavuz has made that impossible because the cube is
3x3x3 but the middle layer of the frame is at the halfway point. This means
that pieces can poke through it but not actually enter or exit that route.
Only the top hole can be the entry and this is restricted. Interestingly, it's
not restricted by much with only 1 voxels covered at two diagonally opposite
corners. I initially thought this might be relatively simple - I always try
and solve these in reverse by making the shape and working out how to take it
out of the frame by moving the pieces around next to the frame but outside of
it. With this puzzle, I found the way the frame blocked at the half-way point
made it very difficult for me to visualise the interaction. Several
orientations of the cube could be discarded very easily but there was one that
had me absolutely convinced I had found the correct orientation. I was
completely fixated on it but at the last 2 piecesI just could not place them.
To my huge embarrassment, I got stuck here for ages and even contemplated
rotational moves. After a day or so I slapped myself and told my self that
Yavuz would never do such a blasphemous thing! I was forced to try an
alternative. I did eventually find an interesting sequence that should work. I
was able to do it outside the frame and carefully placed the pieces in the
right orientation and order to keep my memory working. When it came to
repeating it in the frame, it is quite fiddly because the pieces at times are
widely separated from each other and the frame tends to tip them over inside -
this requires a bit of dexterity to control. I watched in awe as the pieces
were forced to dance around each other a couple of times before every piece
was inserted. A very excited shout of success from me made the cats actually
look up from their resting positions. Picture of the solved puzzle behind a
spoiler button:
My goodness - that is very clever!
Whilst I am ever so slightly wistful that I didn't go home with the Step by
Step which is a masterpiece of design and woodwork, I am very pleased that I
went with Kubro as it will look fabulous on display and was a very fun solve
which took me an embarrassingly long time to solve.
Squary Pack 1
Yavuz kindly also insisted on giving me a gift to go home with me - he handed me a small box with one of his earlier packing puzzles - this one is Squary pack 1. The aim being to put the 4 square pieces inside the 2 layer square box. There's a big hole to place them through! Should be easy? Yeah! Maybe not. It's easy to put 3 pieces inside but they then block any 4th piece you try.
I always got stuck in this sort of scenario
This is quite a diminutive puzzle and very fun to play with. I kept doing the same thing over and over again and then trying it in different directions to no avail. Eventually I had wonderful aha! moment and got the 4th piece placed inside. Where Kubro is probably too difficult for a casual puzzler, this is perfect to torture your friends with or to take to work - I plan on doing this very soon. Squary pack 1 is the first in a huge series of similar packing puzzles which look incredibly fun. The full set can be seen here. I probably need to get the rest of them some time if I can sneak them pasty Mrs S.
If you want to buy Yavuz' designs then there are a lot of his puzzles made by
himself as well as PuzzleMaster on the
PuzzleMaster site. If you want to buy from him direct then you can contact him by email (contact me if you want his address) or via Instagram (yd_puzzles).
Having returned from the IPP, sneaked my new puzzles in (in their rucksack) and secreted them around my study, I started to work my way through them. I thought I was doing pretty well and felt I might just manage to get a few blog posts in before anything else arrived (I might have a couple on the way). Just when I thought I was safe, Jakub contacted me to say that he was ready with the next batch of Pelikan wonder. My first thought was: "Hooray! More gorgeous beauty and fabulous, difficult challenges" This thought was rapidly followed by another: "She's going to kill me!" Luckily, this time, the box arrived, and it was smaller than the previous ones. She who must be feared thought there were fewer puzzles in there, but don't tell her...they have just been packed tighter. Gulp.
There have been quite a few creations on this blog from Benjamin. He designs interlocking puzzles and burrs that are just the right difficulty level for most puzzlers, with some very interesting design features and a lovely sequence to explore. Many burrs are much too complex for most due to multiple long blind dead ends, or alternatively have too simple a sequence and no challenge. Benjamin always gets it right, and Matruschka is a beautiful example. This chunky puzzle is made from Wenge, Cherry and Acacia with a diminutive stand made from Merbau. Looking at it, I was slightly confused as there only appears to be Wenge and Cherry visible, but after a couple of moves, the reason for the name and the extra wood type becomes apparent. A matryoshka doll is the name for the Russian nested dolls, but here Benjamin and the Pelikan team have taken the idea and altered it a little bit to make a nested burr.
The initial exploration reveals quite a few possible moves, and I was worried about having lots of long blind ends to explore, memorise and discount on my way to the correct solution. You can be reassured that, as usual, Benjamin has got it just right. There are quite a few possible ways to start, but the sequences are short before they stop, and you are forced to look elsewhere. The tolerances of the burr manufacture are superb, with everything sliding beautifully. The correct sequence is very well hidden, but once found, you are quickly on your way to the disassembly, and more and more pieces can be removed after you look for the unlocking sequence. The burr within a burr is revealed nicely:
Acacia burr nested within the final 3 large burr sticks
Once the inner burr is released, it can also be disassembled into 6 very
beautiful sticks and then the whole lot displayed.
That's a LOT of burr sticks!
The reassembly would actually have been possible for me without the use of burrtools, as I had sequentially removed pieces and placed them in their correct order and orientation on a table. I think most puzzlers should also manage the reassembly if they are careful to do this. Unfortunately, a cat decided to run across my carefully arranged table and scatter the sticks widely. A few unsafe for blogging words were uttered, and Burrtools was going to be my next step.
Once you have done the reassembly that you found then it is time to do it all over again! The 3-piece stand that is interestingly burr shaped can actually be reassembled inside the 6 piece burr so we end up with a burr in a burr in a burr! This is simply amazing!!!
This is a wonderful challenge for all burr aficionados, just the right difficulty level! With an extra twist at the end.
There seems to be no end to the puzzle design skills of Frederic Boucher - there are several of his designs in this upcoming Pelikan release. This delightful packing puzzle is fun and should be perfect for all puzzlers of all levels. The puzzle is made from Acacia and a very vibrant Purpleheart. It is quite reminiscent of some of the packing puzzles by Yuu Asaka. There are 4 longer pieces with curved ends, and half-circles cut out, plus 5 disks, all to be fitted into a tray that is too small to take the long pieces side-by-side. If you look at my photo, the top-most large piece is tilted as it doesn't fit in.
Finally, after several days of work, I had a special thought (unusual for me!) and realised that
there was something very unusual about the design. My jaw dropped when I
finally succeeded - Frederic is a genius!
Over the 15 years of this website, I have reviewed
several versions
of the Convolution puzzle by the amazing
Stewart Coffin. This incredible interlocking design is not solvable by Burrtools due to the
requirement for a rotational move with one of the pieces (does that make it a
TIC?). I have a version from Brian Menold and a fabulous
spherical version from Pelikan.
I personally would say that a Convolution (as well as its associated cousins,
Involute and Involution) should be part of every serious puzzler's collection. All 3 are essential. If you
don't have this, then you owe it to yourself to buy a copy. The Pelikan team
have done a wonderful job creating this out of multiple different beautifully
vibrant woods and the fit is just perfect!
Only 7 pieces but great fun!
The next bunch of puzzles will be reviewed next week - they include more from Dr Volker Latussek, another from Benjamin Heidt and then yet another unusual puzzle from Frederic Boucher. Wish me luck solving them!
Last week
I mentioned how I had suddenly started to make progress on Idan's amazing INML
puzzle after many weeks of attempting to do the same thing over and over again.
Having gotten started on it, at various intervals during my work, I found myself
stalled with no obvious way forward and at least once, no way back either.
At this point, I have to extoll the virtue of having a puzzle friend. Either
someone who has done it before or as I have done many times in the past,
someone (Shane) who simultaneously solves it and we help each other along. With this
puzzle, I had the company of Dominic who was the one who initially
recommended Idan's puzzles to me. The wonderful thing with solving this puzzle
with Dominic in the background was that he knew all the pitfalls and was able
to give hints that really were barely hints. Looking through the email chain,
I can actually see that he barely said anything at all. The main feature of a
good clue giver is someone who can just remind you to look where you've
already looked, he doesn't tell you to do anything just a hint to focus
somewhere. I am vey grateful for this support because I still feel like I have
actually solved the puzzle myself but not gone off on some awful tangent for
too long or done something damaging to the puzzle.
At the end of last week's post, I had found the first part of my lunch and had
gotten stuck at that point. I didn't know what I had actually done to get it
and actually wasn't sure where it had come from. More worrying, I found myself
unable to backtrack. Initially this had been a source of stress until I went
back and re-read the instructions that Idan had given me. He said that
"Resetting the puzzle is another piece in itself as part of the overall
solution of the puzzle".
This made me realise that the reset was not going to be just a matter of
reversing what I had already done. I could continue toward on it in the
knowledge I was getting myself further and further in the "proverbial sh1t"
but there would be a way to puzzle my way out of it.
I could see a potential locking mechanism but had no way to get to it. Or did
I? What if I try this??? Nope! Blocked again. What was blocking it? This
puzzle keeps you searching and thinking at every single step. So much stuff
has been crammed into one very diminutive shell. I quickly manipulated the
block and started using my tool to remove the blockage. Ooh! I needed a second
tool and then a third before using my fourth tool at the same time, I had the
next stage open.
LUNCH IS SERVED! There's no clue behind the button but the aim of the challenge can be seen.
All that effort for a beer and a sandwich!
Having whooped with delight at getting my lunch, I turned to resting the damned thing. I had upset Mrs S by using one of her Tupperware containers to hold all the parts - there were 16 separate parts plus a whole bunch of loose bits within the main body of the puzzle. It was going to be one hell of a job getting this thing back to the beginning. Especially as several of the moves didn't seem to be reversible. At one point during the solution the obvious dovetail had been slid but was now locked open. Nothing seemed to allow me to reverse what I had done so it was obviously I had to look harder. The piece that I needed was very very well hidden but once I had it, there were a number of things I could do with it. Only one of which got me anywhere. I got stuck thinking the wrong thing after that and Dominic came to my rescue yet again. No need to tell me what to do - another of his skilful hints about how to think what might be possible with my current configuration and all of a sudden I was back on the correct path.
My goodness! That first part of the reset was very clever! Idan is another genius like Derek. I am amazed yet again. After that clever move the reset is partly a matter of remembering what pieces came out of which hole and also remembering what order they had been released to me. Luckily I had taken extensive notes and I was back at the beginning in about 15 minutes.
A repeat solve showed that I did understand it and I took my photo of all the parts that could be released from the puzzle. No I am not going to publish it for general viewing.
So much packed into one small package!
Idan has an incredible puzzle brain! This is one of the best puzzles I have ever solved - it is very rare for me to write about the same puzzle twice in a row! It will be at the top (or close to it) of my top ten(ish) of 2026. I can't wait to see what he manages to produce next. If you get a chance to own or even just play with this puzzle then jump at the chance!
Thank you, Dominic, for recommending this puzzle enhancing my experience so significantly.
Allard
reviewed this
last week which motivated me to get to it as well. Cutting to the end of his
review - it's great and you should buy it! The
preorder
is currently sold out but maybe Tye will have pity on you and open it up again
if more of you request it.
This is the 3rd in the Jammed series by Frederic Boucher (Jammed Gem, Jammed Gem
Again and, earlier this year,
Jammed Coin) and has been heavily influenced by the amazingly talented Josh Clouser. The
original Jammed Gem (pictured left was made by the late and dearly missed Eric
Fuller in collaboration with Frederic. I have owned this since it was released
in 2022 and have singularly failed to solve it. I have obviously completely
missed a crucial feature which was a common feature when Eric made a sequential
discovery puzzle. I have literally gotten nowhere and actually ended up putting
it away. I think I will now have to go back to it.
Frederic wanted to make a sequel and did so in 2024 where it won a
Jury Honourable Mention award
in the design competition - it was called Jammed Gem "Again" and was
beautifully made from wood. I am not sure who created that one but it was
never made generally available for purchase. Just recently, Josh recreated it
in PLA, and Tye Stahly (let's not forget Amanda Stahly) put it up for sale on his
Nothingyetdesigns store. Whilst it is not as gorgeous as the wood version (I am always biased
towards wood), it is still a very attractive puzzle and is very pleasant to
look at and hold. I did say to Tye that it doesn't feel 3D printed - it has a
lovely texture and feels much more solid than many 3D printed puzzles. There
are also quite a lot of other parts inside including magnets and various other
metal parts.
It comes with some very "helpful" instructions. Allard posted my copy to
me when I notified the MPP group that I had to work during the last puzzle
party. It consists of one of Frederic's usual Minima style boxes (2x2x3
internal dimensions with holes in the sides and some panels that won't
move at all. After I admired it, I set to work and realised immediately that
none of the interior shapes would move at all. I obviously needed to release
something first. easier said that done! Playing with it quite quickly got me a
couple of tools including a broken key chain. The first step in releasing the
interior was quite quick after this discovery except it didn't release the
interior. I had a hole I had something to put in the hole and nothing
happened. Damn! I'm not very good at puzzles.
Frederic has put some of his tricks from other puzzles into this and the
sequence of discovering new parts, new shapes and new moves is a wonderful
journey. It rapidly got so complex with a steadily enlarging pile of pieces
and potential tools that I felt the sudden urge to take notes. Gradually, I
made progress using various combinations of pieces and suddenly I found the
first gem (very nicely hidden (or even "jammed") and then I got stuck again. I
was stuck with one gem and no obvious progression for quite a while before
contacting Tye to tell him of my progress and asking whether I had missed any
pieces in my path. He acknowledged that everything had gone as planned and I
needed to look at the puzzle properly to find the next step. Hmmmm!
The reset is easier than the solve but you still need to remember what you had
done and what went where. This beautiful creation is a definite candidate for
my top ten(ish) of 2026. I intend to take this to work and show it to some of
my more mechanically minded colleagues. I am definitely going to have to go
back to my copy of Jammed Gem and also my Jammed Coin. Frederic is just a
genius!
A few weeks ago I received an email from Richard Hensel, informing me that he
was completing a batch of his latest wooden locks and suggesting that I might
like to avail myself of the opportunity to look and feel stupid (my words not
his).
Having just paid for and received, over the last month or so, quite a large
number of rather lovely puzzles (including the Stickman Midas Touch Box, the
Angel's Wheel, Idan's I Need My Lunch, the latest releases from Mine and of
course the large delivery from Jakub), I figured that discretion was probably a good
idea and I asked Dick to wait for a new month before I bought and
received yet another toy that would make "she who makes the world shake in
fear" angry. I think it worked in that when it arrived, there was just a little muttering and no noisy shouting or pain in the back of my head.
This is the fourth in the series (obvious from the name I guess) and looks fun. It shares the family resemblance with an oak lock and acrylic window on the front allowing the whole thing to be seen. But seeing is not understanding as I was about to find out. I set straight to work after I had finished work yesterday (I missed an MPP yet again). As the title of the blog post says - this puzzle gave me 5 learning/thinking points:
Always take your photo before starting to play - I couldn't resist fiddling and managed to make things happen that I couldn't get out of and then I realised that I might not be able to take my initial photo.
Look at the damn thing properly before doing anything - it might help you plan what you can do and it might help explain why certain things move/change/happen.
Don't stick your fingers inside small holes - stuff can move and then you are in real trouble!
Dick is a sneaky bastard!
Having finally gotten back to the beginning, I took my start position photo and started again. needless to say I didn't really understand what I had done. Time to start afresh.
The first thing to notice is that on the left hand side of the lock (as with several of these in the past) can slide and it moves an obvious piece inside:
One edge sides and moves "stuff" inside
Ball bearing present
Having realised the obvious, I couldn't see how that would help. The slider is all very interesting, but it doesn't seem to engage with anything and after a few seconds of opening and closing it several times in various positions, I came to the conclusion that there was more to this puzzle than that. as you can tell, my level of genius is well below that of Derek. I gradually realised that there must be something else hidden inside that I needed to find. Memory of several previous Window Locks left me the feeling that there should be a ball bearing somewhere to help use manipulate internal parts. Rotating the puzzle from side to side, I could hear something rolling about but it couldn't be seen. I turned it over to look at the back and then when I had it right side up the ball bearing was visible. I had no idea where it came from! The BB could be moved around most of the right hand side of the lock where it did absolutely nothing. At this point, I obeyed the thing I learned in point 2 above - LOOK!
It is relatively obvious what is locking the shackle in place but not what is stopping the locking mechanism from moving. I did find a channel or two for the BB and in one of them I promptly lost it. It went in and didn't want to come out again. There was a tantalising view of it peaking below part of the mechanism but it didn't want to return to the play area. Bugger! I am rubbish at puzzles! I figured that this must have been where it was when I first picked it up so I had better do the same thing again to get it out as I had initially. Except I didn't really know what it was. After 5 minutes of fiddling I eventually figured that out and I could make the ball disappear and reappear at will. Phew! I couldn't make it do anything but at least I had it where I could use it.
I used learning point 2 and 3 again to decide where I could place the BB to try and manipulate the interior. There is a rather subtle feature that is easy to miss but if you notice it and do something then there is a click and something changes. I had no idea what had changed but the click was quite obvious. To me a click was very useful - all of a sudden, I could move the BB somewhere else and all sorts of stuff inside slid around and BINGO! The lock was open:
Solved it! No spoiler here
I had it open and was able to see the mechanism that had revealed itself. Very clever! But that's not all of it. We are now onto learning point 5 - Dick IS a sneaky bastard. Whilst I understood the last part of the unlocking mechanism, it didn't mean that I understood the puzzle. I was able to return the pieces inside to the initial configuration and the shackle was closed. BUT, when I tilted the lock, it spontaneously opened again. I had missed the critical part of the mechanism. The click had changed something and I didn't know what it was. I could put everything back but it wasn't actually locked.
At this point, I decided that maybe I had a couple of pieces in the wrong order of positioning (if you have opened it, then you know what I mean). I tried to change the order and gravity wouldn't do it. Time to put one of my fingers inside through a small hole to hold things in place whilst I used gravity. Here we arrive upon learning point 4 - I managed to rotate one piece that should not have rotated and then it fell out. Aaaargh! After a short panic, I managed to put it back and then rotate it into the correct position so that it wasn't going to fall out again. At this point I heard a clatter and had a race with a cat. Yes, the ball bearing had fallen out! Luckily I intercepted the ball before it was actually swallowed. I reckon a trip to the vet might have cost me my life - "she" doesn't know about that aspect of this puzzle and I'd be grateful if none of you told her.
Allard's review said that he took a couple of days to work it out and agreed about the sneaky aspect. Everyone can agree on learning point 5 - "sneaky bastard"!
If you get a chance to play with or buy this puzzle then jump at the chance. It really is a lovely design with not quite everything on show but enough to work out what is required. My set is now up to 4 of them now and I'm already looking forward to a future one. I still have one of Dick's locks that predates the Window locks - it has been sitting on my desk for years now and I have no idea how to open it!
Sigh! I have been working on this puzzle for since I got it in amongst a large
batch from Mine way back in February 2021. Yes, that is 5 years! It has been in
my work bag for the whole time and I would take it out to play with it at least
once every week or two and even let colleagues play if they showed interest and
could be trusted not to use force. It never got solved. It's a pretty simple
challenge. There are 4 tetrominoes (2 pairs of chiral shapes) to be fitted into
a 3x3x2 box through a diagonal opening in the top. There are no other holes or
widening to be useful. It really shouldn't be that hard.
It certainly should be clever because it won a Jury honourable mention at the
2021
IPP design competition. Usually puzzles that are incredibly tough don't do particularly well in the
competition. It requires a solution to be beautiful or unusual or really
clever. Despite the supposed lack of extreme difficulty, I just couldn't seem
to solve it. I had tried what I thought was every possible move and every
possible assembly and just failed every time.
Always easy to get 3 of the 4 pieces in!
Usually after a period of several months, I remove failed puzzles from my work
bag and transfer them to the desk in my study or one of the various caches of
unsolved toys around the house. But I hadn't done it with this one for several
reasons. My study desk is now so completely covered in stuff I either haven't
solved or haven't gotten around to putting away that I daren't add any more for
fear of the whole leaning tower coming crashing down. The other puzzle stashes
are starting to annoy the present wife (actually they started that about 3 years
ago) and so I am trying not to clutter them up more. So, I kept on trying week
in and week out.
Recently I have received some rather amazing complex toys and have been working
on them:
Emerald Vault
Rune Lock
Two fabulously beautiful challenges from Dedwood crafts - I haven't managed to
solve any of Dee's puzzles for a very long time. I don't know why - maybe I am
rubbish at puzzles?
Gravity Box
I need my lunch
These fabulous challenges take a long time for someone as dim as me and so I
need a few nice quick and easy puzzles to write about as well. In desperation
with nothing to write about after I spent 7 hours writing the on-call rotas for
our department, I decided to torture myself with something that I had failed on
for 5 years. What could possibly go wrong?
As usual, start outside the box, make some shapes that will fit in and see
whether they can be taken out piece by piece. There is a very specific set of
requirements for the pieces to be removed. I was able to cut down the solution
set quite quickly and found a few positions where 1 piece would easily be
removed but a second would be impossible. I also (for the 100th time) found a
nice arrangement where 2 pieces were removable. Now I needed to work out how I
could get the remaining 2 into/out of the box. It was going to need rotations
and they were going to be hard to find. There really isn't much room for
manoeuvring once one piece is inside. Nothing seemed to work! I found a few
nice possible rotational moves but either they wouldn't work when another
piece was inside or they took me in the wrong direction. Aargh! I vaguely
remember Derek (remember,
he's the genius) mentioning to me that one of these puzzles from Mine required a coordinate
motion. So I tried that and also got nowhere.
I spent yesterday evening muttering to myself and still failing. Aargh! This
morning, I had a nice lie in and came downstairs nice and refreshed - ready
to crush it and write up a wonderful review. Mrs S and I have got on board
with this intermittent fasting thing and don't eat anything until about 1pm.
She duly came into the kitchen for breakfast to find me with my head in my
hands and muttering to dark oaths to myself and wishing I had some hair to
tear out. As any good wife would, she laughed at me and said I was useless
at puzzles and should give it all up. This made me sit up and drop a piece
into the box where it sort of fell onto its side in a way that I hadn't
thought would be possible.
OMG! By taunting me, she had forced me to find a new move!
AHA!
Don't look if you don't want to see a spoiler - otherwise click on the button for a solved view.
Why had I failed for so long?
I had suddenly found a wonderful move that should have been perfectly
obvious from the very beginning. It wasn't even that difficult a move but I had not been able to see it for all those years until a combination of desperation and ridicule made it possible. Maybe I need to get Mrs S to make fun of me more often? Maybe not!
Burrtools tells me that there are 10 possible assemblies of the pieces into the 3x3x2 shape but only 2 (mirror images) are possible solutions. I didn't use BT until after I had solved it.
I can see why it won the honourable mention. It is not actually that tough but is very clever and well hidden. I just love almost everything that Koichi-san designs. He's a genius too!
These come up for sale periodically on Puzzle Paradise and it's definitely worth getting hold of a copy.
Happy New Year to all you crazy people out there who also are hooked on
puzzles! 2025 has been an odd year for me. I should have had more time for
puzzling due to dropping some clinical work but the admin/committee work I
picked up in its place seemed to have taken up just as much, if not more time
and I seem to have had less time for puzzling and oddly even bought less
puzzles than previous years. The puzzles that I did manage to get were very
high quality and also rather difficult. Quite a few were so difficult that I
haven't managed to solve them yet which means they cannot technically be
included in my top ten(ish) puzzles.
Of course, I do have to show them off as top puzzles obtained but not
completed.
Not Solved Yet
The Twins box alongside its predecessor, the Angel Box
The Twins box has been discussed for several years. Wil has had it in his head
to create for many years but sourcing the parts has proven very difficult. This
year, it finally reached fruition and was made available to owners of the Angel
box with matching serial numbers. Mine arrived damaged thanks to UK customs and
also the first step had been opened. I took it to the last MPP for Ali to reset
and have been fiddling with it for a while. It is bloody heavy and hard work to
play with. I suspect this will take me a very long time.
Jukebox from MoonTree puzzles
The Jukebox won the Jury grand prize in the 2024 IPP. I was staggered when it
was going to be produced in significant numbers but put my name down straight
away. After months of waiting and lots of updates showing progress, it arrived
in July. I have admired it, and put it on display but had no time at all to play
with it. I am sure it will end up in my top ten when I get to play.
Gordian Knot
The Gordian knot by Robert Yarger has been a holy grail puzzle for me for years now. I was so pleased when it was made available in a cast resin from Lewis Evans. I have gotten lost with this recently and put it down for a while. Unfortunately one of the metal plaques stuck on it has come off but once I've worked out where it came from I can stick it back on. It is a beautifully made creation and has fulfilled a long time wish of mine!
Clutch Lock from Andrew Coles
I bought the Clutch Lock at an MPP in March. It is a beautifully made heavy
creation and like many lock puzzles, I have absolutely no idea what I am doing!
I managed to unlock the shackle and now have a lock that I can open and close
but cannot remove the key from the keyway any more. I have picked this up
regularly throughout the year and have no clue what to try next. This might take
me a decade!
OPUP from Dan Shane
One piece packing took me a while
I have to admit to being slightly biased...I do tend to prefer puzzles made from
beautiful wood or meticulously made from metal. It is unusual for me to really
love a plastic puzzle but the OPUP from Dan Shane really caught my attention. It
really shouldn't be that hard but it is and I managed to trigger the packing but
despite weeks of trying have completely failed in the unpacking challenge.
There's one obvious step and that's as far as I have got! Bugger! One piece in a
box and a cable - how hard can it be?
The original one piece packing puzzle from Eric Fuller took me a very long time so I expect that the unpacking puzzle might take me just as long!
Iteration 23
Crawl Space
Dead Mortimer
Pinhead
Over this year I received several sequential discovery boxes from Dee Dixon
and haven't managed to solve any of them. NOT a single one! I am rubbish at
puzzles!
Finally we actually reach my top ten(ish) puzzles of 2025 and here we mean the
puzzles that I have actually managed to solve. In retrospect it has been a
rather good year for collecting and puzzle quality!
Almost Top Ten
Tetra claws by Derek Bosch
Hardly a year goes by without an entry from the genius that is Derek
Bosch. His awesome brain seems to work in more dimensions than the rest of
us creating interesting geometric shapes and here he managed to create
some N-ary puzzles with pieces that have an odd mind-bending way of
interacting with each other. I adored these and for the tougher ones in
the series had to take notes on how the sequences went.
Horns of Booth
Petit Albert
Dr Volker Latussek has designed and produced with the help of Jakub's Pelikan team, a LOT of fabulous challenges. They are all stunning of course and amazing challenges but two particularly stood out to me in the sheer elegance of their solutions. They were wonderful and the fact that they are in my almost their list shows just how good a year we had for puzzles. Thank you Volker and Jakub.
10 - Interlocking puzzles from Juno
Juno's Euroka 10x3 remained in pieces for 2 years before I finally managed
to assemble it - the shout reverberated around the house and upset Mrs S but
she did end up pleased that I didn't have a pile of pieces lying around any
more.
Tornado burr
At the beginning of the year Juno also released this amazing and fun version
of the Tornado burr which required a LOT of courage to dismantle and a lot of
fun - it's a masterpiece!
9 - Safe by Pelikan
Safe from Pelikan
Every year Pelikan produce something large and fabulous. This year I was
able to get a copy of the Safe. It's beautifully made with a really nice
mechanism. It has a fun little story to it and best of all, it looks great
on display. Thank you Jakub, for another brilliant challenge!
8 - Who Dares Wins by Shane and the Two Brass Monkeys
Damn! This took me a long time
When the lock brain of Shane gets together with the manufacturing expertise
of Steve and Ali, you know you are in for a fun time. Those buggers kept me
frustrated for 8 bloody months! Eventually I had to be brave and do the
unthinkable and of course, it worked. Absolutely astounding puzzle which
takes pride of place alongside all my other Hales puzzles. Thanks guys!
7 - Ages by Brian Young
It lived up to its name!
Hell! This one is almost embarrassing. Brian named it Ages after how long
Burrtools said it would take to find the solution. Indeed, it took me AGES!
Nearly 6 years. The Aha! moment was amazing but even after that point there
was a tremendously difficult burr to solve that included a rotational move and
then a sequential discovery element to release the small piece of Opal inside.
I was so relieved to finally beat it but I cannot bring myself to put it away
yet as I keep picking it up to fiddle with the interesting mechanisms. Thank
you Brian.
6 - Keeboxes
All four Keeboxes bought together
Having been shown these at an MPP and forgotten about them until the next
MPP, I finally got around to purchasing the whole set at once. Much to the
disgust of Mrs S who is not keen on chunks of plastic lying around the house
(she barely tolerates the beautiful wood). However, the puzzling involved in
these amazing sequential discovery creations is truly fabulous. They get
progressively more difficult until the last one, yellow, which is level 4
out of 5 and took me many hours of failure before I got there. They have not
made a version which is level 5 yet but the thought frightens me a lot. I
keep looking at their Etsy store in the hope that there will be another one.
5 - Locks by Boaz
Loophole
Ant Hunt
When Boaz produces something we all sit up and pay attention. These arrived
in 2024 but took me many months to solve. They are beautifully logical and
magnificently well made. This reminds me that he has produced a new one
recently and I haven't bought it yet. I will need to remedy that when my
bank account fills back up.
4 - OMG! Minima's, So Many Minima's
Minima's 1 to 8
Minima's 9 to 12
When Frederic Boucher designs something we are all interested. The fact that
Tye Stahly and Jakub manufacture these puzzles is just confirmation of how
good they are. The Minima set appeared in my top ten last year but they were
beautifully recreated by Pelikan this year and everything is improved by
wood. Also having boxes that you can't see through makes them even more
challenging.
But that wasn't all...
Minima Texas
Minima Duo - Tye's IPP exchange puzzle
Then addition of a ball to the challenge makes things even more interesting
with Minima Smiley in two guises :
There were even more but I have to stop or I will never manage to finish
this post!
3 - Popplock T14
Quite possibly the best one yet?
Rainer produces something special every year or two. They are ferociously
expensive but you can see and feel the quality. There are a few over the years
that I have not managed to solve but this one led me on a nice path from the
very beginning. It was absolutely wonderful with a sequence of mechanisms that I
have never seen before and would actually not have thought possible. Absolutely
amazing!
2 - Moonage M5 by Stephan
Moonage M5 by Stephan Baumegger
This incredible creation from Stephan was one of the top 10 voter getters by the
IPP attendees in 2024. It looked stunning and having won such admiration, I
couldn't resist getting a copy. I wasn't disappointed - it looks amazing and has
a whole series of Aha! moments that lead you to the end goal of creating the
lunar landing scene. Just fabulous and only just beaten out of the number one
spot.
1 - Tortoise Protocol by Juno
Tortoise Protocol
Having missed out on the award winning Hippo last year (funds were low), I
made sure that I had enough available for the next Junichi Yananose sequential
discovery puzzle. This one is beautiful and packs a series of unbelievable
challenges into the solve process. It made me do unspeakably awful things to a
tortoise but the end result was fabulous. Even the reset had a little trap to
it. Juno is an absolute master of design and woodwork. Thank you, my friend!
There are still an embarrassingly large number of puzzles that I have bought
this year and previous years that remain unsolved. To name a few...The Crazy
Double Circle Cube frightens me to death and I have left it alone for the
whole year! The Box of Celts remains locked at step one! Sigh! A big bunch of
wire puzzles from Aaron seem to be impossible for me but I keep trying!
Do you agree with my top 10? If you have any different thoughts then please
comment below or even use my
Contact page
to tell me how wrong I am. I look forward to your thoughts.
Happy New Year to you all!
I really hope that you all have a fabulous year in 2026 with good health,
success and plenty of wonderful puzzling. I look forward to entertaining and
maybe helping many of you in this year.
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