Have I Been Scroo'd?

Even Ice Cream Doesn't Help!

Cooby Scroo from Andreas Roever

My car when I got out of work!

Most of you are aware that there's been a bit of a heatwave in Europe recently! It started whilst I was in Italy for the IPP and then hit with a vengeance when I returned home. The UK is uniquely unprepared for high temperatures despite the fact that we have had them for the last few years. Our houses retain heat (they are built for cold winters) and it feels like hell inside (most of my house was 29-33ºC for the last week and my back garden, being south-facing reached 48ºC for long periods of time). During all of this I have been sick with the lurgy that I caught on the plane and feeling like death warmed-up! The only thing that could possibly make it worse would be to share that hellish space with a "woman of a certain age". As a result of the conditions at home, both physical and psychological, and despite being sick as a dog, I was grateful to go and work in an operating theatre with air-con bringing the temp down to 18ºC. I went from boiling sweaty hot to freezing my nuts off back to boiling again.

As a result of this my puzzling skills were even more sub-par than usual!

Nicely presented with a bag and a card

The Cooby Scroo puzzle had been Andreas Roever's exchange puzzle last year in Tokyo. It was brought to my attention at an MPP afterwards when a couple of people were showing it off and extolling the virtues of such a simple idea, so beautifully created. I even had a play with it and marvelled at the incredibly confusing movement and how it came apart easily but was impossible for me to put back together. This was going to be brilliant - tempted...

When a few people placed it in their top 3 puzzles of the year at Peter Hajek's end of year puzzle party, I broke and contacted Andreas for a copy and arranged to pick it up in Italy.

I got a choice of colours when I picked it up and chose a lovely blue, grey, black and white combo.

When I got home and having taken some photos to show off how it moves, I shied away from actually dismantling it for fear of failure yet again.

One pair moved

Second move possible and it gets scary

I showed it off at work and after getting an appropriate "Oh my God!" response. I stopped playing and put it away again. I did the two beautiful moves again and again at home, trying to make myself familiar and comfortable with the conformational changes and eventually I was holding it slightly wrong and it fell apart on me....Aargh! I should have known that would happen eventually.

This might be how it remains!

I recalled how impossible it had been for me at the MPP and I quailed at the thought of getting it back together. It is relatively easy to make pairs or even a trio of pieces:

This should do it - he hopes

This looks great but isn't helpful!

Over the last few days, in the blistering heat with an angry hot woman in the background, whilst feeling like death, I have repeatedly attempted to reassemble this bloody thing! It shouldn't be this difficult! It's only 4 pieces and has only 2 main moves but you mustn't forget how bad I am at puzzles. Yesterday evening whilst muttering to myself and considering femicide as a way to get a little relief, I suddenly managed to get it together. OMG! The relief! Did I dare take it apart again? Not straight away... I needed to relax a little and then try and redo it slowly.

Today, I can now disassemble and reassemble it to order. I can see why so many people loved it. This puzzle is an absolute masterpiece of good design. All we need is for someone to make it in wood (I guess that might be nearly impossible) or possibly make it in brass. Steve or Ali - what do you think? Maybe a collaboration with Andreas might be in order?

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Gelateria from Alexander Magyarics

Gelateria - Alexander Magyarics' exchange puzzle in Italy

During a heatwave, there is nothing better than a fabulous refreshing cool Gelato. I thought that attempting the Gelateria puzzle might be refreshing for me. Yes, I was wrong!

Alexander was a "greenhorn" at this IPP and previously they have not been allowed to exchange. This year the committee made a change to the rules and newbies were allowed to do so if they created their own design. Alexander has quite rightfully earned his place attending an IPP due to the HUGE number of amazing puzzle designs he has created over the last few years. You can tell that they are really really good when craftsmen like Brian Menold and Jakub Dvorak use the designs to produce gorgeous wood creations. I have reviewed quite a lot of his designs over the last few years and it was simply amazing to meet him in the flesh after such a long time. Unfortunately, we were both so busy that we didn't really have much time to chat and properly catch up. Whilst I was assisting Jerry Loo in his exchange, I saw Alexander's puzzle and decided that it looked a lot of fun and determined to obtain a copy at the main puzzle party the following day. 

Just a few challenges!

Alexander is a "completionist" - he finds a simple design, modifies it to add extra complexity and then looks for as many associated challenges as possible. I have quite a lot of these in my collection and I am absolutely terrible at solving them. Maybe this would be better? It is at its heart a tetromino tray packing puzzle. We have all played with these as kids - I know I used to play with one belonging to my older cousin when I was about 8 - I loved it. The 5x8 voxel tray can be fitted with 10 tetrominoes in many ways - that is easy. Alexander has created a LOT of challenges (the sheet has 48!) to decrease the options and make it MUCH tougher. The tray has holes in it and you re provided with a set of black blockers that can be inserted into it. The tetrominoes are now restricted where they can be placed because they must straddle the blocker. To get you used to it, he gives a couple of challenges with 8 solutions, 3 with 4, 1 with 3 and 9 with 2. All the rest have just 1 possible solution. 

8 possible solutions - easy?

Hell, NO!

I also took this to work and during a rather long boring orthopaedic operation (after 4 hours and no end in sight, I needed something else to think about), Colin and I set to work on one of the 8 solution challenges. 

This is really REALLY difficult! Neither of us were able to solve it in about an hour of attempts. I have been trying at home in the heat and still cannot get it. I need a way to think about these challenges. There must be a logical way to work it out but I am seriously struggling to get my little bwain around it. 

I appear to have Scroo'd by Alexander as well! Maybe I need another hobby? Whack! Ouch!

If you get a chance to buy a copy then you should absolutely do so. There are so many challenges and they are so approachable even if they are impossible. Alexander's puzzles are sold by PuzzleMaster, by Tye Stahly and possibly by Alexander himself via Facebook or Instagram. Drop him a line. He is delightful to chat to and his puzzles are amazing. 

I have not yet tried the One Way or Another puzzle which won a Jury honourable mention prize in the IPP design competition. That is quite a feat!

Jagsaw VI - An Exercise In Logic

Jagsaw VI by Alexander Magyarics

I received a nice big package from Alexander at the end of the year and when opened I was delighted to see a whole bunch of interesting challenges in the box - Mrs S was not quite so delighte, however.

I was intrigued to see something that is new to Alex's repertoire, a jigsaw puzzle. As you know I have been a little fixated on Jigsaws recently having had very mixed success at the wonderful jigsaws in trays designed by Haym Hirsh. 

The interesting thing here is that it is only a six piece jigsaw with no frame and instructions to make a 3x2 array of the pieces:

Instructions that give away nothing except a very big clue...only 1 solution!

 Having seen that there are only six pieces and no restriction of a frame, I decided that this was to be my next challenge this year. After all, how hard can it be? Have I learned nothing from these blasted puzzle designers yet? Apparently not! 

The pieces are standard jigsaw pieces with all the protuberances or orifices being either rectilinear, singly curved or doubly curved which restricts which pieces can intersect with each other. I started initially with random pairing of pieces to see which pieces could interlink and how many possibilities for each piece there was. It quickly became apparent that it would not be possible to solve this with random trial and error. The pieces were too similar and with six of them I could not keep track of what I had tried. Time for a little think©ing. This was going to hurt!

This might make things much harder!

I spent a good couple of days fixated that there would be no interior gaps (i.e. the single curved protuberances would only interact with single curved orifices. I thought that this would significantly limit the number of possible interactions that I needed to try and would leave me with a pure logic based solution. Two days wasted on that - it certainly helped with the logic but, of course, Alex would never make it quite that easy! Eventually the realisation whacked me over the head that there were going to be gaps and irregularities in the outline. The only stipulation in the instructions was that they should fit together in the 3x2 grid. The shapes would restrict the way they could fit together by preventing some fits completely but if there was a gap then that would still be allowable. This then helped me find one piece that could ONLY be oriented in one way on the outer edge. From this, it was possible to work out several possible pieces that might go next but walking this pathway seemed to end in dead ends fairly fast (I was hoping that this was the sort of approach that Alex had intended because my head was hurting quite a lot at this stage). I did need to keep track of 2 or three possible pathways and eventually narrowed it down to decide on another definite external edge.

Once I had worked out this, it became a little bit more logical but still a fair bit of trial and error as every piece had several possibilities.

Finally, after about 5 days, I had my solution. It was very satisfying. This is a rather clever puzzle which needs thought and planning rather than trial and error. It certainly is good for beginners to show them that simple looking puzzles might not be as simple as they appear. Having said that, I think most beginners would give up long before they found the solution. I very nearly gave up myself. I think my Jigsawing period might have to stop for a little while due to brain-ache!

Having found my assembly, I had a fun time putting this into Burrtools to prove to myself that there was indeed only one solution and that it did not fit together with no gaps. Thank you Alex, it was a lot of fun! Plenty more challenges left to do from your box (although Mrs S is threatening to hide the box away 😱.

Oops! I Did It Again!

Happy New Year Everyone 

Tornado Burr from Juno

It has been a very long time since I bought anything from Juno. I missed out on the fabulous Hippo puzzle due to cash flow issues and he has been quite quiescent recently whilst carrying out house renovations. But...he has found time to create some new unique burrs. I couldn't resist them and the flight around the world with them on was the fastest I've ever seen! Mrs S was really unimpressed to see 3 packages arrive in 2 days. The first was the parcel from Juno and Yukari along with a package of a "second" quality Xmas tree from Dee Dixon and then there was a rather large box from Alex Magyarics - I think he is intending me to suffer a painful death from a blunt teaspoon at the hands of Mrs S. She can scoop at parts of anatomy with the teaspoon and cause intense pain and harm as well as death should the fancy take her. Note that we only allow blunt teaspoons in the house as I wouldn't want the damage to be done without at least some effort on her part so that she has to think about it before inflicting it.

We have LOT of toys from Alex - I hope that I can solve just one or two (if I survive)
He is an evil genius wholeheartedly has been equipped with a 3D printer and let loose on the world 

The Tornado burr is not actually a new creation. The original was made by Brian Young in 2008 before I started my puzzle madness. There is a video of Brian making pieces on YouTube and the sheer amount of work is incredible. This does explain why this burr is not particularly cheap. For the workmanship in it, it's a bargain. Brian wrote this about it:

"This ingenious burr was designed by Junichi in May 2007 with “head and hands; no computer”. Junichi had the idea for a multiple rotational movement but did not get to finally apply it to a puzzle until he came up with the Tornado Burr.

People often ask puzzle designers “What was going on in your head to design this puzzle?” What was going on in Junichi’s head when he designed the Tornado Burr? Visualising things going up and down and back and forth at the same time is one thing, but things going up and down, back and forth and around as well is quite another! Junichi says the Tornado Burr “has very eccentric movements” and challenges puzzlers to “Try your luck, and stop this fierce tornado.”

Needless to say this puzzle is not solvable in any computer program that we know of.

This interlocking burr puzzle was recognised for its innovation, design and the amazing puzzle solving experience it provides in the 2007 Nob Yoshigahara Design Competition with an Honourable Mention. Until Brian tackled his Limited Edition of this burr the puzzle had not been commercially available and now Brian knows why. Making the jigs, the number of and complexity of them, was more difficult than making the puzzle itself. As well as conventional check-outs there are routed check-outs and a further 16 sections that must be hand-turned on a lathe."

After reading this, who could resist such a fabulous challenge? I took my photos and put it down to explore. To be honest, I had not seen anything like this before. It very much reminded me of the Kamikaze burr that I bought years ago which also cannot be solved by computer but is coordinate motion rather than rotational.

Pushing and pulling at the sticks immediately reveals that this is not even close to the right approach. After fiddling with it a little bit, the pieces sort of settled into a shape that would give a hint of the approach. I should have realised from the name - what does a Tornado do? It spins!

The pieces just settled like this
A strong sense of foreboding hit me!

Having seen this movement begin of its' own accord, I felt that it was my duty to continue it and the whole thing very rapidly gets warped out of cubic shape. Having moved some pieces (I was very careful to ensure all 4 moved at the amenities time),  I realised that is they were turned enough then it would free up others to also turn. OK, challenge accepted! 

OMG! I backtracked very quickly at that point as the puzzle became very distorted and pieces started to move independently of each other. It was very stable, there was no chance it was going to just fall apart but it became obvious that I needed to concentrate and be aware of what I was doing. The intrepid puzzler started again and very rapidly got himself into trouble - somehow I had turned one of the sticks 90º independently of the others in the same plane and then nothing else was possible. It took me a while to realise what I had done and attempt to backtrack. The heart stopping moment where I realised that the solo rotated piece could not be returned in synch with the others stopped me a bit and in ever increasing panic I tried various moves to extend the gaps that appeared to allow the piece to turn back. Only after about an hour of swearing at myself did I manage to get it back to the start and calm my nerves again. It's very exciting stuff this puzzling isn't it? Why to I scare the crap out of myself so often?

After a rest for an hour or so, I started again and found a combination of moves that seemed to open up the grooves a little bit. A little bit of shookelling about (it's a Scottish term) and I had a wonderful Aha! moment. Oh that moment was wonderful - I took a photo and jiggled the puzzle only to have a slow motion moment of horror! I had a whole lot of pieces in a pile and only a vague idea where they should be. Bugger! Having reached that point and gone beyond the point of no return, I pushed everything together for a couple of photos and now I am wondering what to do next.

Aargh!

Look at the workmanship in those pieces!

It's always good to see Juno's mark.

This reminds me very much of the situation from July 2023 when I thought it was a really good idea to dismantle the Euroka puzzle (also from Juno). I ended up with a pile of pieces and absolutely no idea how to reassemble it. I did get sent a video of Juno showing the assembly but I cannot for the life of me manage it and it remains in a bag as a puzzle to be attempted soon. It is so important that it is in my current to be solved pile in the conservatory. It really needs to go back together and displayed. Sigh, one day maybe!

Euroka

Oops! That was stupid

I really hope that the Tornado burr doesn't end up next to the Euroka over here:

The white bag of shame!

Thank you Juno for the fabulously beautiful puzzles, for the wonderful Aha! moment and also for showing me up yet again!

Happy New Year! My top ten(ish) puzzles of 2024

Happy New Year to you all! I have no idea what happened to 2024. Actually I have a vague idea that I worked my way through it with not enough breaks for enjoying what I love. I only managed to get to 2 of the MPP's of the year which is a bad sign that I am working a lot of weekends. New Year resolution to work less!

Welcome to my customary end of year post looking back at my puzzling highs of 2024. As always, thinking about it was triggered by Peter Hajek's request for the top 3 acquisitions of the year. Peter wants to know the best arrivals in the collection and I always write about my best puzzles solved which makes it a little harder to come up with a good list. I have had a pretty good year of puzzle purchasing much to the disgust of the current wife, but it has felt like a bad year for me in terms of puzzle solving. Having looked back through my year of posts, there have been some absolutely amazing creations. 

Nowhere near solving!

Smack-n-Moles by Stickman - this has been sitting in my conservatory next to me for over a year now and I picked it up regularly throughout 2024 and got absolutely nowhere. I have made a few discoveries but nothing is useful. It remains in my naughty pile and is not getting put away until done!

The coloured plastic version of the Crazy double circle cube was refought towards the end of 2023 when the black version began to have issues with the inner circles catching on me. I duly scrambled this version and whilst it has worked flawlessly, I don't seem to be able to solve it. I get really close to the end game and then lose it - sigh! Another one I will keep going on.

Vertigo from Dee Dixon - it looks and smells lovely! It remains in my kitchen (much to the disgust, yet again, of Mrs S) and to my eternal shame, I have not even managed to find the first move. The top inner disk spins freely and that is it - Aargh!

Blinded, also by Dee Dixon. Another one in my kitchen and if this continues then I am going to get a Whack! Ouch! very soon.

Box of Celts - this won quite a lot of votes at the last EPP and I was very lucky to manage to get one early in 2024. I haven't even found the first step yet.  OMG! I am so bad at puzzles!

I missed out on Juno's tour de force (the Hippo) but at the beginning of the year I did manage to acquire this gorgeous puzzle, the Dual Meanders Box. There are a lot of moves possible with so many maze plates that can move as well as the centre of the walls. I seem to make progress in two possible directions but always seem to hit a dead end no matter what I try. This has been shelved for a while due to frustration.

The Fibonacci box from Jesse Born. Having collected and solved the Pi box, I had to have the next in that series - it is simply gorgeous and has a very complex mechanism with some serious brass inside. I have managed to make things slide but absolutely nothing seems to lead anywhere and I cannot find any connection to the Fibonacci number series. 

Of course, let us not forget that Shane has been quiescent for a while (note that I did not say quiet because Shane is NEVER quiet!) He produced, in collaboration with the Two Brass Monkeys, the Who Dares Wins lock. I am not very good at locks but this one is kicking my butt - yet another puzzle I haven't even found the first move for. I can see something that I'd like to try to do but I don't have anything to do it with - sigh!   

Finally managed to solve with a good bit of assistance

Orbit by Dee Dixon. This took over a year to solve and was only possible with a decent hint at the last MPP. Maybe there is something about Dee's puzzles? There is a massive challenge to them and I just cannot seem to solve them easily. Very good value for money!

Almost made it

There have been so many great puzzles that I had to relegate a few - this doesn't mean that they aren't good - they still deserve a mention and here's a few almost there puzzles:

Mibinity designed by Michel van Ipenburg and beautifully created by Jack Krijnen is a delightful and unusual manifestation of the N-ary puzzle group. It's a lovely little delight, not too hard and fun to fiddle with and, of course, beautifully made. It has reminded me that Stephan Baumegger has created a whole bunch of new N-ary puzzles that I haven't bought yet due to funding constraints. Sigh!

Every year I buy a whole bunch of disentanglement puzzles from Aaron Wang and most of them bamboozle me for the whole year before I give up. This year, Aaron helped produce some wonderful wire only puzzles which had just the right difficulty level and some wonderful Aha! moments. I have not yet managed the string puzzles but I'm hopeful!

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Finally...On with my top ten(ish) puzzles solved in 2024:

Every top ten needs to start at least at 11 because I cannot count! So here we go.

11) Incredible Packers

Over the last few years I have been delighted by some truly wonderful packing puzzles with something very special about them. It may be the wood or it may be the odd technique needed to solve them. In either case they all share a fantastic delightful Aha! moment. Here's a few that I had to mention:

Persistence of Memory by Alexander Magyarics
Made by Brain Menold

Nested Soma by Dr Volker Latussek with Lucie Pauwels
Made by Pelikan

Also from Mine-san:

Perfect entrance

3L x2

Sukiyaki by Frederic Boucher
Made by Pelikan

10) 234 Puzzle Cube

When Mike Toulouzas designs and makes something you know that it is going to be very special and a perfect challenge. This came out of the blue as a gift at the beginning of 2024 and delighted me with it's sheer beauty as well as a challenge that is just tough enough to make me feel foolish and yet smile at the same time. Thank you Mike!

9) Chained Key

Luke Waier had a really good idea

Lots and lots of people have gushed about this beautifully crafted puzzle this year and, as usual, I was late to the party. I quickly saw why so many people loved it - there are lots of steps and each one needs some careful logic and thought©. I have had to put it further down the list because one part of mine had a step that had been overtightened and I could not progress until I received reassurance at the MPP and then had to use an external tool to loosen that bit before continuing.

8) Minima Puzzles - so so many of them!

Frederic Boucher had an idea - he created a 2x2x3 box with holes in various places and odd pieces to fit inside. Sometimes it needs odd rotations, and sometimes there need to be odd holes to allow these rotations. It is soooo good that he made quite a lot of them. I haven't gotten around to solving them all yet but I am working my way through them. 

Minima Tower by Frederic

Recently Minima Smiley

Minima Domino by Frederic

Minima Texas

Minima Ludique

Minima Twig

I think the world thinks it was a good idea based on great reviews from others and the fact that so many other people jumped on this bandwagon to produce their own variants.

The great Laszlo Molnar designed some

Lucie Pauwels couldn't resist it

Even Dr Latussek added something special

7) Vertigo Puzzlebox

Yes, I actually solved a Vertigo puzzle (just not one from Dee Dixon

This is the second of the puzzle boxes made from Lego that I have from Quizbrix. Every time I see a Lego box, I am sceptical but every time I am amazed at the incredible complexity and fun mechanisms that can be fitted into an amazingly small volume. I adored this one and it is still available here.

6) Oleg's Wardrobe

Oleg's Wardrobe by Dee Dixon

I have this here because it is a fabulous puzzle and beautifully made by Dee Dixon. The mechanism was incredible and really fun to solve. It isn't higher up the list because I just cannot seem to reset it at all. I will need to take it to an MPP next time and see if anyone can do it for me!

Whilst I am thinking about Dee's creations, I have to include the Uplift puzzle here. I received it in 2023 and spent months and months spinning the damn thing around. I then finally made progress this year and solved it with a wonderful Aha! moment and a silly grin at the end!

Uplift

5) Twister Box

When Pelikan produce a box it's a "must have"

Jakub and Jaroslav appear more than once in my top ten(ish) of 2024 because they produce some gorgeous puzzles and work with some of the best designers in the world! However, when they produce one of their own designs, everyone should sit up and take notice. Also when they produce a box, it will be something special. Their craftsmanship is second to none and their ideas are amazing! This box made me laugh out loud! I solved it by accident as most people will but the understanding of the mechanism is the fun part - then you can do it easily every single time! Brilliant!

4) Free Me 9

Joe produces an amazing challenge

When Joe Turner sends out an email about yet another of his brilliant Free Me puzzles, the puzzling world really pays attention! I said yes as soon as the email arrived and was not disappointed. The aim wasn't just to free one coin but 3 with a whole series of mechanisms. It really took me some time and needed a little hint.

Three coins this time!

3) Picolock

Boaz Feldman does it yet again!

This amazing puzzle lock by Boaz Feldman won a huge number of accolades at last year's EPP. I finally stopped buying wood for long enough to pick one up and loved every moment of the solve. It's classic Boaz with beautifully hidden mechanisms that are a delight to find.

2) Matchbox playground

The Matchbox Playground by Pelikan and Peter Gal

I adore a puzzle set but I seldom actually attempt more than a few challenges from them. This wonderful set is a fabulous collection of matchbox challenges stunningly made by Pelikan comprising the exhaustive analysis by Peter Gal. I keep returning to it. Even the box looks like a matchbox. Amongst all of the beautiful puzzles that I received in 2024, this is probably the most beautiful item on my shelves - it is simply stunning.

So many pieces - it's a challenge to put them in the box

The simplest challenge

1) Brass Monkey Sixential Discovery puzzle

You knew it had to be this one!

This is an absolute masterpiece of puzzle design and manufacture by Big Steve and Ali. It's a fitting end to the Brass Monkey series. I doubt it can ever be beaten - it might be the best puzzle ever made! There are so many beautifully made mechanisms that lead to one Aha! moment after another. I wish I could solve it all over again. I hope the guys are feeling the pressure because I want another tour de force like this again.

Solved after so many steps!

All six Brass Monkeys

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 2025 with good health, success and plenty of wonderful puzzling. I look forward to entertaining and maybe helping many of you in this year.