PuzzleMaster Has An Opportunity For You

Crazy Lock designed by Christoph Lohe

I was contacted a few months ago by Leon Stein, one of the co-owners of PuzzleMaster, to ask whether I would be interested in looking at their upcoming Kickstarter campaign puzzles and would I show them off to the world? Well, I have some experience of the PuzzleMaster Kickstarter puzzles and have heartily recommended them each time. Of course, I agreed. I would be foolish to pass up the new creations and I thought that you, my readers, would want to see my opinion. The Kickstarter is now up and running with a close date of 31st December so if any of these interest you then get over there and place an order. They have reached the minimum to actually go ahead and so this will definitely be happening, with the aim of shipping puzzles to backers in June/July 2026.

This time there are 3 main puzzles in the campaign plus there are 3 add-on puzzles (ones already on the PuzzleMaster store) which can be added to your pledge to get a bit of a discount.

The first one I tried was the Crazy Lock. It's a burr in the shape of a lock - I can't resist burrs, I have a passing fondness for locks and a burr lock is irresistible to me - in fact I have quite a lot of them now. I wasn't disappointed and neither will you be - it is great.

The box states that it is level 8 on the PM 5 to 10 scale and I actually think it should be rated a bit higher at 9. I significantly struggled to dismantle it. The design was made by the late Christoph Lohe and was originally published as Burlock E. 

I have actually solved Burrlock E many many years ago when I bought it from Eric Fuller (he also adored Christoph's designs and always produced great challenges). Way back then I described it as a serious challenge for mere mortal puzzlers like me and it is still that. With a level of 26.2.3.2.2, this has a really significant difficulty to it. It took me about a week to dismantle it and then I was unable to assemble again without Burrtools. Creating the file was a bit of a challenge but at least I was finally able to put it back together again. For those of you who are burr assembly experts, there is an alternative assembly (level 26.3.3.2.2 which has the key hosizontally in the lock at the end. Double the challenge for one puzzle.

Burrlock E from Cubic Dissection (2017)

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Fortress of Shadows by Christoph Lohe

The next puzzle for me to play with was the Fortress of Shadows burr (also by Christoph) it is quite diminutive (1.75 x 1.25 x 1.25") but beautifully made with gold coloured burr pieces trapped inside a black anodised castle with 4 turrets. These turrets very much limited the movements of the pieces. I spent another 2 weeks working on this one. You can see everything that is going on inside but it is still a hugely difficult challenge with level 30.1.2 as the pieces move back and forth progressively making space to allow the first piece out. It looked familiar to me but I couldn't place it properly. I did go back and check my photo database and realised that Pelikan had produced a different version of the puzzle 5 years ago (called Castle) which I had reviewed here - that one had not been terribly difficult but this version is a significant advance in difficulty. 

I would be very impressed by anyone who could assemble it from scratch but I definitely needed a Burrtools file and this was a fun one to make and follow in reverse to fully assembled.

The original Castle by Christoph - similar but different to the Fortress of Shadows

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Twisted Logic by Yavuz Demirrhan

This rather beautiful 4 piece anodised burr looked very familiar to me and, as with all the other puzzles in my collection, I had a vague memory of owning it and solving it once but the process was a mystery to me. Looking back I realised that the original version was a puzzle I had actually solved twice. Chiasma was a design by the amazing Yavuz Demirrhan that PuzzleMaster had made before in a very limited run that I had reviewed back in 2020 and had compared the metal version with the original wooden one from Pelikan. In fact the handmade metal version is still available on the PuzzleMaster site but is not cheap. The newer one will be mass produced for a fraction of that cost.

I recalled that this one had been incredibly difficult. There are 4 identical board burrs that gradually extend apart and then sequentially line up the exit points to allow removal of pieces. I found it very confusing to work on and this is not made easier by the need to prevent the pieces rotating. I don't think there are any rotational shortcuts but it needs you to keep the pieces aligned to move them around safely. It's quite fun to explore but I would suggest that you use a back and forth approach to make sure that you know what you have done as it's easy to get lost. At one point I had the pieces quite extended apart from each other and in a dead end and struggled to return to the beginning. The rather low solution level of 16.4.6 would sort of imply that it shouldn't be too hard but don't be fooled - it is a huge challenge to move around, control the pieces and keep track. The solution is really not obvious. 

Chiasma - Pelikan version

Chiasma - original PM version

I will return next week with a review of the add-on puzzles from the Kickstarter campaign - this is definitely well worth inverting in. They are great challenges, beautifully made and an amazing price.

A Puzzling Tribute to Christoph Lohe

Very sad news

After my last post (about Christoph Lohe's marvellous design, Neighburr) I received an email from both Laszlo Molnar and Goetz Schwandtner with the very sad news that Christoph had sadly passed away at the end of January this year. It would appear that his family had not had contact with him for a  few days and contacted the police and he was found in his flat. It has been judged to be natural causes. As many of us puzzlers are getting older this sort of thing should not come as a shock but he was only 65 years old. I guess that with what I do for a living, I should not be that surprised.

He was a significant scientist having  received a MSc in Experimental Physics from the Technology University Aachen in 1989 and a PhD in 1993. He worked as a Product manager Ferrofluidics, Nuertingen, Germany, 1996-2000. Project manager Aixtron AG, Aachen, since 2001. As a scientist of note he had been listed as a noteworthy physicist by Marquis Who's Who.

I considered Christoph a friend. We had never met and I was not constantly in touch with him but we exchanged emails every few months to discuss puzzles and his wonderful designs. You can still buy some of them from PuzzleMaster here or print them yourself from Thingiverse here.

His amazing skill as a designer is shown by the fact that I have reviewed 20 of his wonderful designs here on my little section of t'internet. I thought that it would be a nice think to look back at a few of my absolute favourite of his designs. 

Collaboration with the TICMaster, Andrew Crowell

Cyburr and Chamburr from Pelikan

Climburr from Matt Nedeljko

When the first 2 came out from Pelikan, I wondered whether these two masters of puzzle design had created a completely new type of puzzle and raved about them. They made my top 10(ish) in 2021. The Climburr was felt to be too difficult to produce in wood by Jakub and it was only when Matt Nedeljkogot the courage to attempt them did we get to attempt the final one in the series. Spoiler alert - it was fabulous and made the top ten in the next year.

Locks, Locks, Locks!

Mini lock 1 & 2

Spiral Lock

Burrlock E

Key Trap

Christoph had a bit of a thing about locks and keys but not in the classical sense. He designed burrs in that shape. The fun thing is that rather than make simple 6 piece burrs where the pieces interact in the 3 axes, Christoph made the burrs with a frame to restrict movement and a key and shackle (and pieces) to lock up in at least 2 of the axes. The one amazing thing about all of Christoph's designs is that they are not terribly high level but are always challenging and fun without being too arduous. I absolutely adored these. The fact that even the late Eric Fuller thought well enough of these to make one of them, does show how good they were.

Framed Burrs

I adore a burr that has just the standard 6 pieces but is constrained in its movement and interaction by the presence of a frame. It makes them so much more interesting.

Neighburr by Brian Menold

Bouquet

Castle

Timburr

Again, we have puzzles that are so good that both Jakub and Brian Menold decided they were worth putting the effort into manufacturing in reasonable numbers. They all had something special and were all great fun without being too difficult.

Unconventional packing puzzles

Whenever I think of this particular type of challenge the names that always spring to mind are the incredible Alexander Magyarics and Osanori Yamamoto. But they were not alone, Christoph also had a fascination with these and designed some amazing puzzles:

Liliput

Trenta

Box with 2 balls

Kamelle Box

This is only a few of his great contributions to the puzzling world as well as to my collection but they include my favourites.

Do you have any favourites that you think should be given special mention? If so then please leave a comment below.

Rest in peace Christoph - I was proud to call you a friend.

Always Take Your Photos First!

Neighburr designed by Christophe Lohe made by Brian Menold

Sigh! I have to say it yet again...I'm an eejit! I caused myself a flurry of work at the last moment for this post because I wasn't paying attention. I blame it on the fact that Mrs S is back "ooop North" again and I am home alone with a disturbed cat and a workload that is just too high including having to work the weekend yet again! The disturbed cat is gradually being made better by Prozac - yes, he's on the happy pills and making me look like a coke addict. Every couple of days I can be seen cutting a white powder on a glass coaster with a razor blade! The capsules are 20mg and I need to give him 2.5mg, hence I open capsules, pour out white powder and use a double edged razor to portion it into eighths and into little spoons for each day. The image is perfect, all I need is a rolled up £50 note and I am ready to be arrested! 😱😱😱

Having given my excuses, here is todays puzzle and what I did:

Bouquet

I had a little splurge with Brian Menold's Woodwonders store (I cannot resist the gorgeous woods and his fabulous choices in puzzles) and one of the delights was a caged 6 piece burr designed by Christophe Lohe - the Neighburr. I love burrs in general but I am hopelessly addicted to caged burrs - especially if they are caged 6 piece burrs because the addition of the cage can turn a relatively straight-forward exploration of simple moves into a wonderful interlocking nightmare. It is also made much more fun when the basic grid for the pieces strays away from the standard 2x2xn grid. The Neighburr has burr sticks based on a 2x3x6 grid and ads in the feature that one end is 2x3 and the other 2x2. This allows for much more interesting shapes and interaction. My copy has a wonderfully white Holly frame and the pieces are beautifully coloured Koto (white), Kirandy (yellow) and Redheart. This puzzle is very reminiscent of the Bouquet that I bought and wrote about a few years ago. That one was a fantastic challenge with a level of 23.3.5.3.3 and this one was described as an even harder level 34.3.2.2 - who could resist? Chris has a special skill with his designs - he always manages to find interesting shapes, interesting moves and just the right difficulty level.

Having received a bunch of puzzles from Brian, I put a few of them in my work bag and started playing whenever I had a brief moment at work. The disturbed cat was interfering with my ability to concentrate at home! There are quite a few moves open to you initially and all but one fails to lead very far which is also part of Chris' special skill. As you work your way in the puzzle does become a little rickety and require a little bit of control of the pieces to allow subsequent moves to happen but no rotations seem to be possible to inadvertently knock you off progress. On several occasions I got lost and couldn't seem to progress or find my way back but always after a little panic found my way to the start. In my usual to and fro process, I managed to gradually work my way in. This puzzle has a wonderful unlocking sequence with a lock mechanism being used, moving a piece before re-locking and then carrying on with another piece. The sequence of Aha! moments is wonderful.

I got to a point where there were a good few pieces sticking right out but not actually free. Everything could be seen inside but I just couldn't find the next move. At this point it was time to extubate a patient and I put it down for a couple of hours. The break did me good, on picking it back up, I could see the next moves straight away and I removed my first piece. Time to back-track. Except...I tilted the puzzle to align the removed piece and a precariously hanging second piece fell out on to my anaesthetic machine. Aargh! I bent down to pick it up hoping that I remembered the correct orientation and tilted it again whereupon 2 more pieces fell out - Double aargh! At this point with my surgeon laughing at me, there was no hope that I would be able to assemble it again without Burrtools. To be honest, I don't really mind that because making the BT file is all part of the fun.

Interesting pieces

I took my photo this morning of the pieces and looked through my photo database and to my horror realised that I had dismantled this one without taking my initial photo. I needed to make my BT file and reassemble it before I could blog about it. As I said above - I'm an eejit! When I went to BT to enter the pieces I suddenly found that this was not an easy one to enter the starting shape without having an assembled puzzle, or at least a photo to use as a reference. Luckily Brian has photos in his archive gallery but even then, this one is a bit awkward to enter into BT without having a puzzle to rotate around and look at from all angles. My initial attempts produced a puzzle with no solutions but after a bit of fiddling with my pieces and pushing them into the frame and rotating it around, I managed it and reassembled the puzzle.

This is absolutely terrific as I have come to expect from Chris. It even has some repeatability due to the lovely locking mechanism. 

Now, it's time to clean the litter tray (yuk!) and spend some time with the disturbed cat whilst playing with some of the others I received from Brian:

Uroborus by Girish Sharma

Persistence of memory by Alexander Magyarics

RIB

RIBlet

RIBeye

Yep! A series of wonderful Ribs designed by Andrew Crowell. These are 6 piece board burrs that need to be assembled with rotations. I hope that I have more luck with these than with the RIPley board burr which I haven't managed to assemble after quite a few years!

Pelikan Produce Perfection...Again!

Upcoming wonders from Jakub, Jaroslav and team

I teased on my "new toys" page that I had received a bunch of wonderful new puzzles from the incredible Pelikan team and that I was working my way through them as fast as my little brain would cope. This was going to be a fun challenge for me whilst the present wife (she's doing ok for a first wife) was up in Edinburgh all week visiting the out-laws. Unfortunately I still had to work but part of it was at a virtual medical conference for a couple of days which did give me a few breaks to play in. I did try to play during the talks but I am not a woman and thus, cannot multitask. Yesterday, I managed to complete the final challenge (with a little cheating) and am ready to produce my reviews for you.

Ladybug

Ladybug by Pelikan - front and back views. It is adorable!

Pelikan have begun producing their own designs recently and are focussing on animals/insects. They are all absolutely gorgeous and have a real character to them. I classify them as "interlocking" puzzles but not burrs - I am not an expert, but I am sure that they count as Kumiki (maybe Frank will correct me if I'm wrong?) The Ladybug is a good bit larger than the previous releases - it stands out vibrantly in the living room (where my collection seems to be expanding much to the annoyance of Mrs S).  It is made from Wenge  and an incredibly red Padauk and is just plain cute. The last one, Snail, was slightly more complex than to dismantle than this one but it is still fun. To make it more of a challenge, I immediately scrambled the pieces and made a pile before trying to reassemble. It is still not very difficult but did take me a few minutes to work out the order and how to interlock them properly. This is a must have just for its' sheer beauty!

A pile o' pieces!

Dino

Dino by Christoph Lohe -Wenge and Acacia

Walnut and Wenge

There will be 2 versions of the Dino puzzle designed by Christoph Lohe. Chris is one of my favourite puzzle designers - he has a huge knack of creating puzzles that have a real quirky challenge to them. they are just the right difficulty level and are genuinely fun. This one is rather different to his usual - it is a fun cute shape and has less pieces than many of his other challenges. I think it is adorable.

The aim, obviously is to dismantle it and reassemble and this is definitely possible without using Burrtools. I had to feed back to Jakub that there was a rotational shortcut in the design that left the puzzle as a level 5 disassembly (Jakub hopes that you will not mind this). Personally I think it adds an extra dimension to the puzzle - first solve it with the rotation and then seek out the purely linear solution. The linear solution has a level 20.7.3.3 and one of the moves took me a very long time to find. Reassembly is possible without Burrtools and for the truly gifted amongst you then I suggest that you disassemble with the shortcut and then make the linear reassembly the true challenge. I think that will keep most of you going for a while.

Dino dismembered!

Shutout

Shutout by Osanori Yamamoto

This fabulous puzzle by Osanori Yamamoto has already been reviewed by me after I bought it direct from the master himself. In fact Allard has just reviewed it as well (summary - he loved it!) This fabulous challenge won a "Top 10 vote getter" prize in the 2022 IPP Design competition and I am so glad that it is being produced in greater numbers than Osanori-san can manage - everyone should get a chance to try this puzzle. It will be available in Wenge and Padauk as well as Wenge and Maple.

The aim is to assemble 6 identical tetrominoes inside the cubic box in such a way that all the gaps are filled. It has a nice "almost there" solution but the true solution requires several lovely Aha! moments. It is actually quite difficult - one of the great puzzlers out there, Naoaki Takashima, had shown it off as one of his puzzles of 2022 (alongside 3 other very serious puzzlers). When Naoaki-san had showed it off he had announced that he had placed a few of the pieces inside and couldn't even work out how he had done it and couldn't remove them. If a puzzler as good as this struggled then it has to be a significant challenge. Even having solved the original version, I struggled to solve it again after a gap of a few months - I remembered the tricks but still couldn't put all of them together into one solution without a struggle. 

No! This picture is not helpful!

It is beautifully made as you would expect from Pelikan and wonderfully tactile. I have to say that this is one of those "essential purchases" from this Pelikan release.

Slider 2

Slider 2 by Osanori Yamamoto

Osanori-san has a second puzzle in this release and it is a significant challenge. I had bought and reviewed the Gem from his in April and absolutely adored the challenge (in fact Osanori and told me that Gem was one of his favourite puzzles). The Slider 2 is like the Gem but on steroids - it is a significantly difficult challenge and luckily has been sent out as a disassembly challenge rather than an assembly one. They share in common the fact that there are plate burrs which ned to be fitted into a cubic frame. Made more complex by the fact that the plates are not flat and protrude out into the z axis. Gem has 3 plates and Slider 2 ups the ante by having 4 plates. It has been beautifully made with Mahogany and Wenge and the finish ensures that everything slides smoothly. Some of the moves are very well hidden. and there are several blind ends and circular routes possible during the exploration. I got stuck for several days with the plates extended out of the frame quite a long way but just could not find a space where it would extend enough to release. After 4 days of trying, I found my missing move with a great shout and removed the first piece. After that it is easy to remove the rest. I then suggest that you leave the pieces for a while before trying to put it back together - it is VERY difficult if you have mixed the pieces up. I failed and had to create a Burrtools file which told me that the disassembly level was 21.2.1.2 

A fabulous challenge

This was a huge challenge for me due to getting stuck so close to the end. Reassembly required Burrtools but after that it was a fun one to memorise and assemble from memory.

Nebelung

Nebelung by Alfons Eyckmans

Rear view

I have a bit of a weakness for caged burrs - there is something about how the addition of a cage around a (usually) 6 piece burr makes it so much more difficult (I wrote about one just a few weeks ago). Alfons is a master of puzzle design and he takes an idea and runs with it until he has created an ultimate version of the genre. I have bought many of the interlocking cubes from him as well as from Jakub over the years and they are just amazing. This time Alfons has taken the caged burr and made it more interesting and more difficult - he has taken a 9 piece burr and placed it in a rather complex cage and created a level 18.1.1.2.2 puzzle which requires some proper exploring and clever moves to solve. Pelikan have made it using a lovely contrasting Wenge and vibrant Padauk (it really is as bright as the picture shows). 

Straight away there are some lovely moves to explore and not too many blind endings to get lost in. I made some fast progress initially before getting stuck for a day. The cage here seems to act to hold the pieces in place but still allows you to see inside and try and plan your moves. It took me some time to find a rather delicious move that I could not have found by accident - I needed to look and plan to get my special "squish" move. This then opened up more pathways and progress seemed to be being made before I was stuck again. I got stuck here for a few more days and, again, had to look and plan. Suddenly after another Aha! moment I had opened up a section which allowed pieces to be removed from the puzzle. It remained remarkably stable until I had removed almost all 9 burrsticks. I did have to resort to Burrtools for the early part of the reassembly but once I had the first 4 pieces inside the frame, I was able to reassemble it from scratch. This was a framed burr made beautifully at just the right difficulty level.

Just look at that wonderful craftsmanship!

Ode to the Bevel aka Fermat for Friends

Ode to the bevel by Dr Volker Latussek

Yes, we have another of Dr Latussek's clever packing puzzles! I was contacted by Volker when he heard that I had received my review copy. I was very surprised that he was almost apologetic about it! He said:

"I had planned to pack five identical triangles into my usual box. I had wished that the triangles were beveled, preferably the tips were trimmed. I made a virtue of this necessity and for the first time designed a puzzle whose solution is only possible with a bevel. Nevertheless, Pelikan had to keep the usual small tolerances. Many thanks for that. The puzzle is an ode to the bevel. I beg the indulgence of the experts among Pelikan's customers, ODE TO THE BEVEL is, like my CASINO, a puzzle for the coffee table."

Volker had designed something very clever but thought that the puzzle may not have the purity and difficulty of his previous puzzles that Jakub and Jaroslav's customers had come to expect. He wanted it to be a family puzzle that is suitable to display on a coffee table for all to play with rather than go in a collection. I have to say that he has NOTHING to apologise for! Yes, this puzzle is not as pure as some others and indeed, it is not quite as difficult as as the others but that does not detract from it at all. I think that this puzzle is FABULOUS! It has been beautifully made from Pink Oak and a vibrant yellow Garapa. 

There are a few interesting possibilities when assembling shapes outside the box. The pieces seem to fit into the box quite easily up to getting the fourth one in and then it gets pretty blocked up and even with my small fingers, I struggled to move them around inside as they blocked each other. This puzzle requires a bit of thought about how the shapes can interact with the box and a bit of planning before you get a lovely Aha! moment and suddenly the final piece sits inside. I won't show the solved puzzle here. As with all of Volker's puzzles, he has a very specific transport assembly which in itself is a bit fiddly to get done - I don't envy the Pelikan team putting them all together!

Tetra Flop

Tetra Flop by Dr Latussek

8 Tetrominoes to fit

Another masterpiece by Volker! This packing puzzle is gorgeous and chunky. The substantial box is Elm and the vibrant pieces are Bubinga. It consists of all eight possible Tetrominoes which need to be formed into a 4x4x2 cuboid but done through a 1½x4 voxel hole in the top. There is a small hole in the bottom which is not quite big enough to let you put fingers through to move the pieces around inside. It quickly becomes apparent that the size and position of this hole is perfect to allow rotations of the pieces in certain directions inside the box. This is obviously going to be a challenging puzzle.

Having removed the pieces for my photo, I wanted to put them back in the same way so that I could carry it in my work bag for a few days. Sigh! I couldn't even find the way to replace them in the transport position which had the 4x1x1 stick just lying on top. This might just prove impossible for me. Volker had also commented on this to me:

"sparked by a call from Oskar van Deventer to suggest new cages for the SOMA CUBE. Although I'd already worked on a similar idea a while ago, I gave it another go, and in fact this time turned out to be more productive than back then and I had a lot of fun playing with the new ideas and especially working with Oskar. (Thanks Oskar!)... 

While I can't definitively say that there isn't one, I have only managed to find one dirty design with an extra opening on the back, which might be a clue to the (unique) solution. For me, the solution contains such wonderful rotations that I decided I had to publish TETRA FLOP despite my reservations."

Yet again he seems to be apologising for a "less than pure" puzzle! The fact that the box needed a hole to facilitate some of the rotations to his mind makes the puzzle less worthy and again, I have to disagree. The purity of the puzzle does not in any way detract from the wonderful sequences of moves that are required to solve it! Again, this puzzle is a masterpiece and I just do not understand how his mind works to find these designs. I initially tried making the required shapes outside the box and then looking to see whether I could do so through the limited opening. Each shape I found has to be looked at in 8 different orientations. I am not very good at Soma type assemblies and having found 4 cuboids and 32 different failed attempts at inserting them into the box, I went to Burrtools to see how many possible assemblies there might be and was horrified to see that there are 695! Aargh!

At this point I had asked Jakub for some help and the solution file was sent to me. I was very careful to glance through squinted eyes and only saw the positions of 3 of the pieces and used this as my starting point. Another 3 days and I had found a few assemblies that might be promising but just could not get them in the box. Back to Burrtools - I constrained the solver to have those 3 pieces in the positions that I had seen and now I had only 60 possibilities and also did not need to bother with rotation of the assembled cuboid. The fourth of the assemblies that Burrtools had found did look promising and I set to. Oh boy! There are a LOT of rotations in this and they must be done in the right order and right position. Volker is absolutely right, this has some wonderful rotations in it which are a joy to explore.

This will not help you in any way!

This is a seriously difficult puzzle! It is not for the faint hearted and only the very best (or luckiest) of you will manage to solve this without help. If I had not been shown the position of 3 pieces then I think I would still be at it for weeks if not years. This is perfect for the puzzle geniuses or the suckers for punishment! Thank you Volker!

What do I advise you to definitely buy? Shutout is an essential for puzzlers - it won a prize for a very good reason. Ode to the Bevel is yet another fabulous Latussek puzzle - being slightly easier than its' predecessors does not detract from the joy I got in its' solution. Ladybug is gorgeous, fun and will look lovely on display. After that, it depends on whether burrs are your thing or incredibly difficult packing puzzles. Personally, I think you should buy them all!