A Quick Update

An additional menu choice

Whilst many of you follow me on Facebook and get my update photos there, there are also many of you who do not like or use Facebook so I thought I would add an extra page to my blog. At the top there is a new option - it is the New additions page. I will post very intermittently to it just to show photos of what I have received recently, what I'm working on or stuck on and maybe even what I have solved.

It's a new URL but everything just works

Blogger doesn't allow a second page to have posts added - the extra pages are supposed to be static. To get around this I have copied my template and started another blog called Puzzlemad extras and made links to it from the main blog. It is a bit of a kludge but that is the only way I can work out how to do it!

I suspect it may be time to leave blogger and go elsewhere (maybe Wordpress or Squarespace?) Any thoughts on this will be gratefully received!

Man the Torpedo

Man the Torpedo

Having been to the first Midlands Puzzle Party of 2014 yesterday, I am absolutely shattered today! A good time was had by everyone and luckily there were people newer to puzzles than me so I was actually teased a little less than normal! At least this time I did not do anything too stupid to give them too much ammunition! Pictures can be seen here. Shane also made it and we tortured quite a lot of people with his Circle puzzle - I was very relieved to see that Allard's copy was considerably looser and easier than mine - phew! Confidence restored......for now!

I usually don't like to take along any puzzles that I am frightened to have someone else scramble, dismantle, undo or partially solve because I always end up with a good number to resolve at the end of the day. When I got home last night, I had 4 twisties, 2 N-ary puzzles and an interlocking puzzle to solve when I got home! Yesterday I had actually taken my Hexaminx crystal - a Pyraminx crystal converted into a cube shape by the amazing Traiphum. I have never had the courage to scramble it but decided that if it happened yesterday then that would be fine! But no-one scrambled it for me! Oh well, I'll just have to do it myself!

Pyraminx Crystal

Same puzzle in cube form!

So today, with my fatigue and having someone with a laser stare breathing down my neck to do some DIY asap, I will be posting just a quickie on another of my more affordable puzzles. I do like to keep going with the puzzles that are less expensive and within the reach of the more (shall we say) "normal" human being! I am well aware that I have been buying rather a lot of expensive bespoke puzzles over the last few years and many cannot do this. In fact one of my colleagues actually asked me whether I had developed some kind of terminal disease because I was buying things as if there was no tomorrow! I can assure everyone that I don't! I just am sort of.......addicted! Plus I am lucky enough to have a good job and no children! Hence all the toys are mine, MINE, MINE! Hahahahahaha! Blush! Ahem! Sorry for that!

This week the puzzle I am showing off is a very nice looking thing called Man the Torpedo from Puzzle Master's own metal puzzle collection (note this is a separate category for you to peruse to their wire sets). I own several puzzles of a similar type in wood which I got from the Puzzle pusher, Wil Strijbos and they are part of a very large series from either Hungary in wood or Japan in plastic. I have been thinking for a while that I should get a few more because they look so simple and yet each one is subtly different and requires slightly different techniques. Two of my favourites have been the Canary in a cage, cylinder in a cage and best of all the Dinosaur and box in a cage!

Canary in cage	Cylinder in cage
Dino and box in cage

Now I am always interested in trying new variants of puzzles that I have already and especially if the materials have changed. So when I saw that Man the Torpedo was a similar idea but in brass and aluminium I jumped at the chance - it is only $18! Puzzle Master have rated it as level 8 (Demanding) on their difficulty scale of 5 to 10 and I probably think it would be better rated as a level 7 but I can't be sure that it's not just because I have done a few similar ones before.

It arrived in a fairly large box and was very nicely presented. It looks very nicely made although there were a few marks on it but they were fairly easy to smooth out with my fingers. It could be better made but not for that sort of price - the aim obviously is to remove the spiky torpedo from the cage. No solution is provided in the box but it is available for download here.

Understanding Parity part II

Just 2 pieces to swap? Hmm! Impossible!!!

2 weeks ago I showed you all the fantastic 10x10x10 cube that I got from Cubezz.com and used it as a beginning of an introduction to explain my approach to parities. The parities I discussed were the ones that every beginner to twisty puzzles hates because they seem to be so inexplicable and require such complex solutions. I recall that when I first started on my twisty path, I avoided the even order cubes like the plague because of these parities. But ultimately an understanding that the problem was caused by the reduction technique has given me enough knowledge to be able to work out how to beat them. In fact I know that by avoiding this sort of reduction can prevent these parities completely!

Initially I thought that solving in a layer by layer fashion would avoid the problem but unfortunately all it does is move the parities to the very last layer. Even though that does not solve the problem you should all try it - take your 4x4 up to 6x6 (or larger) and solve it layer by layer. It is a really fun challenge! The final floppy parities can be VERY tough to resolve. One way to prevent the parity situation is to perform an edges last solution - my friends Derek Bosch and Andy Chillingworth have convinced me to try this and it really is a fun thing to do and there are absolutely no awful algorithms to learn! Give it a go! My first approach was to reduce the 4x4 to a 2x2 and solve that way. For the 4x4 this was a fantastic challenge (watch SuperAntonioVivaldi go through it here). Recently he has posted another series of videos showing that it can be done with a 6x6 cube too! I recently got given a 6x6 cube by a Dutch friend (KattenVrienden on Twisty Puzzles) so I will be attempting this myself very soon.

So having explained parity - there is nothing left to discuss? I'm afraid not! The parity so far is that caused by the reduction technique. There is another sort of parity which we see on simpler puzzles including the Void cube (a 3x3 with no centres) and also on various other shape mods of the 3x3. This parity was explained to me (again by the amazing SuperAntonioVivaldi) as the "parity of false equivocation". This sounds horrendous but, again, it is not! It is just a simple way to understand where the misplacement arises and from then it is a "simple thing to fix it".

The puzzle at the top of the post is another fascinating cube that I also received from cubez.com - it is a new puzzle made by Moyu and is called the Evil eye (closed/version I) - like most twisty puzzles it is not expensive and Cubez do it even cheaper than anywhere else at $16.50. The both versions are pictured below. Version II is the "open eye" one and has little holes that reveal colours inside.

Evil Eye I	Evil Eye II
Scrambled and looking horrendous!

Do you want to be a Lunatic?

I'm a lunatic! Do you want to be?

There is a new Kickstarter project up and running that I am sure many of you puzzlers out there may want to go and look at! My friend Marcus Allred, sent a couple of these gorgeous puzzles last year and I wrote about them here. This time there are a variety of price points starting at just $25 for a pocket version (3 x 3 x 1") right up to $320 for  your choice of 4 full sized (3 x 3 x 3") hidden mazes made from the most amazing wood burl and there are lots of options in between. Woods available this time include domestic US woods like Maple, Walnut, Cherry, Cedar, Black Ash, Desert Ironwood & Flame Box Elder as well as Exotic woods - Wenge, Amboyna, Cocobolo, Bocote, Malaysian Blackwood, and Honduran Rosewood as well as some fabulous burls. I am such a sucker for beautiful wood that it is making me drool at the thought!

I cannot personally vouch for the pocket ones as I have not seen one yet but I am sure they will be a great quality puzzle. You can read below for my experience with the full sized ones. Many people are suspicious of Kickstarter projects but Marcus has run several of them before and been very successful (in July 2012, October 2012 & July 2103). Roxanne wrote about her experience here.

The Kickstarter project can be found here (click on the image):

Lunatic Maze Project

The one at the top of the page is one of his hidden maze puzzles made form Bird's-eye maple with Cocobolo accents - within that block there is a series of interconnecting channels ending at a small hole on 2 sides. You can see one ball bearing peeking out above but you are provided with two! There are several possible challenges - the first is to blindly by feel and sound navigate your ball bearing through the maze and out the other side. Easy you think? I thought so too! I started my puzzling with the revomazes and they couldn't possibly be any tougher than that! Could they? Well let me say that I have only managed to solve the puzzle above twice since receiving it and am actually not sure how I managed it!! Then, the task, having gone one way, is to try and reverse the process. No! It's not just a matter of reversing your movements because it depends on where the side branches come off! If you can beat that challenge then try doing it with 2 balls at once! I can't - for some reason they seem to get lost inside! What about doing both in opposite directions - now that is surely impossible!!!

Still a Lunatic - just revealed to the world!

The mazes are also available in a "revealed form" where you can see the maze in all it's glory and the both balls and maze are encased in a perfectly fitting acrylic box. The one above is made (I think) from Bocote. This has very similar aims as the hidden ones and is slightly easier to carry out but adds further challenges: Firstly - navigate both bearings from one end to the next. Then manoeuvre each ball it to opposite ends (very hard to do!), if you can manage this then try it whilst not allowing the balls to touch each other! Finally each ball must make it to opposite ends without returning to the point of origin, or in other words each ball can not touch the others' destination.

The craftsmanship is superb and the woods are absolutely gorgeous - as a testament to this my Bird's eye maple maze is actually allowed on display in my living room! Mrs S is very discerning! Not once has it been plonked on my keyboard in the study like many other puzzles!

Here is a video of Marcus solving one of the visible mazes:

OMG! I think I've lost my mojo?

Euro

Pictured above is the Euro puzzle designed by one of my favourite puzzle designers, Jean-Claude Constantin. It looks so very simple and yet has become my new nemesis causing me to question whether I am losing my puzzling mojo?

I had been eyeing up a few of the wire puzzles by Jean-Claude for quite a while and finally bit the bullet and ordered this one quite a long time ago from Puzzle Master. It is designated as a level 9 (Gruelling) puzzle by the guys at Puzzle Master and I figured that at that level and with no string involved at all, it wouldn't be too bad and might in fact be quite a fun one to explore. None of the other level 9 puzzles recently have caused me much difficulty. Oh how wrong I was!!

It arrived in just a simple plastic bag with nothing more than a label on it - I do quite enjoy the unpackaging of puzzles and feel that some of the distributors are missing a trick by not giving us something to unbox! It is nicely made of anodised steel wire and measures 8.7 x 8 x 4.5cm. The puzzle is named Euro after the resemblance to the European currency symbol. The picture above makes it quite difficult to discern that there are 3 pieces - if you partially butterfly it then this becomes more obvious and also reveals just how interlocked all the pieces are:

Now you can see the pieces properly

 Instructions are to remove the ring from the other 2 pieces (in reality the ring is the first piece to come off - it will actually completely disassemble). No instructions or solution are sent out with the puzzle but if you want to download the solution then it can be found here in Puzzle Master's solution section. Someone has left a 5 star review on the product page but as far as I can tell there have been no descriptive reviews yet.

Parity is to be understood not feared!

OMG! A giant cube and a double parity!

Before you all switch off because it's a twisty post, there's a special little treat at the end of this post and DON'T scroll straight there! I saw you!

Yes! I am sorry to all you non-twisty puzzlers but here's another post about them. My aim really is to try and demystify them and encourage you all to have a go. I agree, the learning curve can be steep but, we are all puzzlers here and should enjoy trying something new and to stretch our solving skills! Today I am going to talk about the dreaded "PARITY" problem and show you that it should not be feared. In fact, it needs to be understood and even enjoyed for the added dimension that it adds to your puzzling. In the process, I will show you some new cubes that I bought from a relatively new shop: cubezz.com has sort of burst on the scene with some really good prices and excellent service - go and have a look.

Lovely like this

More lovely like this?

At the top of the article there is a special view of a fantastic new cube on the market. It is the Shengshou 10x10x10 cube and despite its phenomenal complexity it is smooth as butter and an absolute dream to scramble and solve. I took it to work a few times and everyone was absolutely fascinated by it! It looks amazing either solved or (some would say it looks better) scrambled. I have solved it quite a few times and apart from the hand ache caused by it's sheer size and weight it is wonderful - currently it is my favourite cubic puzzle. This puzzle is what is known as a "knock off" and so not listed on most websites so if you wish to buy it from cubez then just contact them and ask (their price is the best by a very large margin). The "special view" in the top picture is of the cube exhibiting not just one, but two parities and it is really not to be feared at all.

So having frightened you to death, what is a parity and more importantly, why does it occur? At the beginning of last year I posted about a classification of cuboids and then recently republished it in print for the CFF journal and in those articles I talk about several different types of parity. I really would hope that most of you puzzlers at least own a 3x3 cube and have made some attempt at solving it! After all if you are puzzlers then you should not just ignore such an important section of our hobby completely - the founding model should be in every collection. For those of you who have done the 3x3 there is NO parity and you should be very pleased with yourself that you can do what the vast majority of the world's population cannot!

Four Deliveries in one week! Is that bad?

It will be dry bread and water only after buying these!

I'm sorry that this is late - unfortunately I had to work today and not only did it interfere with my puzzling, it also delayed me writing this blog post! Dreadful! Only another 19 years to retirement - sigh!!!

I think it was in November that two of the great puzzle collectors in Europe (Goetz Schwandtner and Michel van Ipenburg) both posted news of a few new Jean-Claude Constantin N-ary puzzles about to come up for sale. When I say a few, this is a small understatement! There were 6!! And they all looked beautiful - very finely detailed and very unusual shapes instead of the more usual linear ones I have seen so far. Well you know by now how addicted to this particular group I am and I immediately asked my puzzle pusher, Wil Strijbos, whether he was getting them in stock! Very soon afterwards his news letter arrived with all of them available and maybe one or two other goodies too!

After a short gulp at the a sheer cost, I decided that Xmas was coming and Mrs S was going to be getting them for me for my Xmas present! What I hadn't realised was that Mrs S had already bought herself several pairs of shoes and boots for her Xmas present and was eagerly awaiting the Mulberry sale for handbags! I'm afraid that it will be dry bread and water for the next few months to pay for it all - I will of course, still be buying puzzles but not food - I must get my priorities right!!

Shortly after my very fast reply to the Newsletter, Wil also mentioned some extras that he had available, the Cast Twist came into stock, 2 more of his fabulous bolts also sort of got added to the list. Poor Mrs S didn't know quite how extensive the order was! But it was on a "need to know basis" and she really didn't for her own good!! Now Wil was hoping to get them out before Xmas but with all of his travelling and issues with stock it just never happened. I had plenty of other toys to occupy me and just waited. This week they arrived - Mrs S was very surprised at the size of the box and even more surprised at how much was inside (the extra was a replacement for the Perrier bottle #2 which had been broken in the mail). These N-ary puzzles will be reviewed in the future.

Livewire puzzles part 10 and a little something special

and it begins again!!!

Part 10? How can that be? In February 2012 I posted my final Livewire puzzles post which was number 9 in the series. In the intervening time more than half of those that I considered best in their line up have been discontinued (so now I'm afraid it is up to you to find them on Ebay) but luckily they have also released an extra 5 puzzles.

At the end of last year, I contacted them and managed to buy the 4 that had been released and they told me of their very latest one about to be released for 2014, the Roller Coaster puzzle and offered me the opportunity to buy it early. They arrived in November and after photographing them and realising that all but one was in the "difficult" range, I sort of fiddled and shied away! My excuse was that I had been preoccupied with work and other puzzles.

But, after a few weeks when Mrs S was off visiting her parents and I was alone in the house for a few days, I could play with them and jingle to my heart's content without having to worry about receiving any damage from the laser burning stare and the whiplash 'cat-o-nine tails' tongue! Yes she has been honing her violence skills! I began with the easiest of the 5 new additions - The Ringleader. This one is the only one of the 5 that is on the level 2 page of Livewire puzzles (rated 7/10) and I was reassured by that.

Ringleader

Paperclip and how about a twisty for the weekend?

Paperclip

Yep! It's another disentanglement puzzle from Puzzle Master! I am so addicted to these - they are really shiny and appeal to my inner Magpie and they have that wonderful tactile nature to them. Plus, they are good value for money and really fun for torturing your friends with (that's one of my favourite pastimes!)

Cast Devil/Menace

The Paperclip puzzle was designed by the great Jean-Claude Constantin and is intended to be a new twist on a classic puzzle. I got this because I remember that one of the very first puzzles that I bought when I began to expand from my Revomaze cubby hole was a puzzle by Professor puzzle in the UK called the Menace. It was really big and chunky and rather than go jingle and get me a laser burn from "she who must be grovelled before", it actually was big and bulky enough to clank! This actually earned me a bruise rather than a burn! This puzzle is also available as a Hanayama cast puzzle - it is called the Cast Devil and is an essential in any collection. I remember that the Menace/Devil took me about 45 minutes to solve and was oddly difficult for the apparent simplicity. When I saw that the Paperclip was a new twist on this classic, I had to have it!

Interestingly the Paperclip is rated as level 5 (Easy) on the Puzzle Master 5-10 point scale and yet the Cast Devil is a level 8. My own experience would say that they both should be a level 6 (Tricky). Whilst the Cast Devil comes in the nice Hanayama box, the Paperclip simply arrives shrink wrapped with a tiny label that my aging eyes struggled to read! It is a nice chunky metal puzzle at 13 x 7.5 x 4 cm - even my orthopaedic colleagues aren't going to be able to cut it or bend it without using serious hardware! It makes a nice clanging sound as you play. It comes without instructions - but it is obvious that you need to separate the 2 pieces and there is no solution supplied. I doubt that you will need it but it can be downloaded from here.

Happy New Year - My top 10 from 2013

Happy New Year to all my puzzle friends, designers, craftsmen and anyone else who has clicked through to this post by accident! I must warn you that this post is rather long - I'm not kidding - it's very VERY long! In fact I'm not sure you should bother to read it really - I'm sure you have much better things to do with your time! But if you are going to stay then enjoy my reminiscing about what seemed to be a very good year in 2013.

3 pictures of my study as it appears from L to R - my pride and joy!

Yet again I have been forced to rearrange my study to improve the organisation! Above you can see the group photos of my displayed collection - it looks good doesn't it? It doesn't end there however - the shelves in the cupboard are loaded with twisties too!

Mass produced twisties in a cupboard

But now I have had to break out of the study due to....  ahem.... "space problems"! Now, whenever something new arrives, if it is made from wood and looks gorgeous then I ask the question:

"Is this one lovely enough to be allowed in the living room"?

This year she has actually said yes on a number of occasions! So the rest of my collection is spread out and pictured below - notice the impossible folded card from Louis - Thanks mate!

Sculpture for her (puzzles for me)

A little theme starting - She didn't realise it would end up like this!

Thank you Louis for the impossible folded card!

But this is not all - I also have the wire and metal ones in drawers in a spare bedroom. So as I say many times:

"Houston, we have a problem!"

but never fear, I will rearrange and make room and I have had permission to use the whole top surface of the sideboard in the dining room - yay!!!

As a small treat to myself for the end of the year I have had a rather long look back at the puzzles I acquired during 2013 and tried to work out what my top 10 have been. I have cheated a bit by grouping some together so there are more than 10 but it's my blog and I get to choose. My criteria? Only that I love it! It can be because it gives me a good memory of someone or something, because the craftsmanship is so gorgeous (even if I haven't yet managed to solve it), or it can be because the solution was so epic or had such a marvellous Aha! moment that I continually get the urge to resolve it or shudder away from it but with a smile at the memory!

I have looked at my database and filtered on the puzzles that I have received during this last year and immediately have hidden that screen from the present Mrs S because it includes a total spend for the year! The amount horrifies even me and if Mrs S saw it then I would be a very ex Dr S!! A nurse's propensity for violence holds no bounds!!

So here we go my top 10 puzzles of 2013: