Spring With Pelikan (part 2)

Pelikan spring release - coming 17th April 2pm CEST

I do apologise to all of you and especially to Jakub and team about spreading the reviews over 2 weekends! I was just too busy to work on all 6 in one week and have any chance at all of solving and understanding them. It did not change Jakub's intended release date but has inconvenienced him by being late getting my reviews for him.

Today I finish off the final 3 and they are something else in terms of complexity and difficulty. They are also very beautiful!

Euklid for Bernhard

Euklid for Bernhard - simply gorgeous

This fabulous addition to the Euklid series (I have still not managed to solve the Euklid for Nick!) is a tribute from Dr Volker Latussek to the amazing puzzler, collector and friend, Bernhard Schweitzer. Volker wrote the following about the design of this puzzle:

"When Bernhard Schweitzer told me that he was winding up his puzzle collection, I remembered our first meeting at Bernhard's house. Back then, I had designed my first puzzle, which I wanted to enter in the Nob Yoshigahara International Puzzle Design Competition in 2011 after doing some web research. I didn't know that the IPP was being held in Berlin at the time, and Bernhard hadn't told me, but he encouraged me to send in my two copies. WAY is still the most important puzzle for me today. I called it the Puzzle Construction Set because it could be used to formulate very different challenges. I didn't win a prize at the IPP, but the puzzle was published by Popular Playthings under the name ROUNDABOUT. Unfortunately somewhat modified. But back to Bernhard.

Bernhard showed me his collection at the time. I had never seen anything like it before. He told me stories and anecdotes about some of the puzzles from the community, a world that was completely unknown to me. I still remember the HASELGROVE BOX by Jenifer Haselgrove: it was probably my personal key experience that gave me time to think about what I should, and hopefully will, come up with over the years.

With EUKLID FOR BERNHARD, I want to say thank you for the encouraging comments on my ideas and the time we spent together at the puzzle parties at Bernhard's home in Glattbach.

It has become a EUKLID with an addition. When the six blocks are packed into the box, give the puzzle a good shake and then open your ears for a short walk with Jenifer Haselgrove to empty the box again.

Thank you, Bernhard."

Volker tends to stipulate not only the delivery packing as well as the dimensions of his puzzles but also the wood choices as well. His decision this time was absolutely inspired as it is an absolutely gorgeous combination of Purpleheart for the box and Downy Birch for the pieces. Interestingly the pieces are all very similar in size - 21mm deep with 3 pieces 47x25mm, 1 of 47x47mm, another 47x30mm and the other 52x25mm. There are only a few combinations of sizes that will fit within the walls of the box.

Now I had not read this tribute when I received and worked on my copy of this puzzle and had no idea that it might have a common feature with the Hazelgrove box. That would not have helped me much because I don't own and have never played with one of those famous puzzles. I set to in the usual way that I do with this sort of puzzle - I look at all the pieces and try to see which dimensions are combinable inside the confines of the box. 

I found several ways that all the pieces would fit inside but the restricted opening meant that I was unable to achieve the vast majority of them. I played for a couple of days with it and failed every time until I had a sudden Aha! moment and all 6 pieces were inside. I was very pleased with myself and took my obligatory photo. Only when I received the introduction from Volker did I begin to question myself. My solution did not have any fancy locking mechanism and seemed a lot simpler than most of the previous Euklid puzzles. I looked at the solution that was provided by Jakub and my solution was different. You have 2 challenges here - an easier one (mine) and a REALLY fancy one that was the one intended by the designer. The intended solution requires thought and dexterity - it is very impressive (rather like Bernhard!)

Stefka-Flop

Stefka-Flop by Dr Volker Latussek

This is another (and to me, unexpected) entry in the Flop series of packing puzzles. I have said on several occasions that this Flop series of puzzles by Dr Latussek are an incredible feat of puzzle design and when coupled with Pelikan's magnificent craftsmanship and wood choices, they are some of the highlights of my packing puzzle collection. This one was stipulated to be made with a glorious Purpleheart box and Acacia soma pieces. Volker wrote the following about this puzzle:

"Since 1987, the 1996 Bulgarian Olympic champion, Stefka Kostadinova, has held women's high jump the world record with a height of 2.09 meters - providing a fitting conclusion to my little series of packaging puzzles with the STEFKA-FLOP. As previously announced, LITTLE TETRA-FLOP will come as an encore, however, I would still like to pursue the principle further and use the term FLOP here and there, e.g. perhaps for a COFFIN-FLOP.

STEFKA-FLOP with seven pieces follows DICK-FLOP with its six Tetra cubes and FRITZ-FLOP with only five pieces. The boxes are completely filled, and the opening is so large that some pieces have to tumble out of the box. STEFKA-FLOP has a very unusual, and very beautiful, new turning movement in before a flop.

Oskar van Deventer has previously published STEFKA-FLOP under the name UNFOLDED-FLOP. The seven pieces corresponds to the SOMA CUBE with an unfolded v (I). That was a consolation, because at first, I couldn't find a SOMA-FLOP with all seven pieces of the SOMA-CUBE."

They are not just packing puzzles with restricted openings...they are also variants on the Soma cube, using entirely Soma shaped (or a subset of them) and also are TICs as well with the very important requirement that a few of the pieces cannot fit through the entryway without rotation and then often need rotation into place inside the box which adds a special requirement for the correct order.

The Soma cube has 240 3x3x3 assemblies and I am still ashamed to say that it takes me quite some time to find even one of them! And that is without the restriction of doing it within a box and also without further hindrance of restricted entry and rotational moves! This is going to be a hell of a challenge for any puzzler. I spent 3 days attempting this amazing feat of puzzle design and had to peek at the solution to find the last 3 pieces to be inserted. Having restricted the number of pieces I needed to experiment with, I finally managed to find a bunch of cubes that assembled that way and then still could not get them into the box. With a deadline looming I looked at the cube assembly that was required and spent another happy hour or so working out how to put it inside the box. Even with a huge clue, it is still a decent challenge. I am sure that the rest of you with more time to play will manage this without help.

This is a fantastic addition to the series and I cannot wait to see the others that Volker intends (I am sort of hoping they won't be quite so tough).

SISU

SISU by Benjamin Heidt

The word Sisu is a Finnish word - it is not easily translatable into English but it roughly means:

Strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity. Sisu is not momentary courage, but the ability to sustain that courage. 

Does this mean that it requires enormous strength of will to solve it? I also noticed that there is a hole in the box which goes all the way through and remembered the scene from the recent movie where the hero stabbed a Nazi in the head through and through with his knife. I've added the image below - it's not suitable for people of a nervous disposition or children - You have been warned! Don't look unless you really want to know what the Finnish war hero, Sisu did.

It has been beautifully made by Jakub and team from Mahogany, Ash, some magnets and a steel ball bearing. It is a restricted entry packing puzzle as we have seen many times before and also has pieces that are based on the Soma puzzle. Making this one very different from the others we have seen before, the pieces have some beautifully drilled holes in them. Some of these holes are blind ending and others are part of a channel through the piece and out another hole. The aim seems to be to assemble the pieces in the box and close the lid on top and then to roll the ball bearing through the maze that has been created until it comes out the other side. This means that the assembly requires the formation of a maze that goes entirely through the puzzle. This significantly adds to the challenge!

Now this is an interesting puzzle to write about! I have so far not come even close to solving the full thing. Just before starting to write this review, I have finally managed to assemble the pieces into a cube shape - I am ashamed to say that this has taken me a whole day! I then went to BT and discovered that there is only one possible assembly for these pieces into a cube. I will then need to see how to get them into the box through the H-shaped entry - I assume that only one of the 6 possible orientations of the cube will be possible to assemble in the box and probably not without some fancy sequential moves. The pieces that have rotational symmetry will need to be oriented correctly to form the complete maze - whilst the piece shape might be symmetrical, the holes and channels are not. After this I will have a blind maze to negotiate with the ball bearing.

I love a puzzle with multiple challenges and this will require some significant "Sisu" to achieve it! Despite not having completed the challenge yet, I know that this will be an essential purchase for you all. Hopefully Mrs S will not get upset with my muttering and stab me through the head later tonight!

Thank you Jakub, Jaroslav and team for the wonderful challenges and also to the amazing designers - you are all brilliant. 

Get there at 2pm CEST on 17th April to get your pick of these puzzles.

Interlocked Kube and one with wheels

Kubus

I am a huge fan of interlocking cubes (different to burrs but great fun and often very challenging) and during a discussion with my friend Bernhard (you really should visit his store) this design by Yavuz Demirhan was discussed. Bernhard got permission to make 2 copies and one quickly came to me for a few Euros. Made of Maple and Padauk a few movements ends up with it split into 2 mirror halves:

A great collaboration!

Doors and Drawers

Trigo cube (Chain loop edition)

Mike Toulouzas is an amazing craftsman who I was very pleased to meet and attempt to solve a puzzle with at the last IPP. He is a brilliant craftsman, designer and a perfect gentleman who for very good reason won the Puzzler's award at the IPP design competition this year. Allard had extolled his virtues as a craftsman several times over the years. The only puzzle of his that I owned up until the IPP was the Trigo cube (Chain loop edition - made from Bubinga, Rosewood, Palisander, and Sugargold Maple) of which there have only been 17 made and because of the difficulty in manufacturing them there will never be any more made. For some reason I have never reviewed this puzzle and I'm afraid I cannot recall enough about my attempt at solving it to do so now! After one of Allard's and Neil's reviews I couldn't resist trying to get another one and am on the waiting list for an Illusion puzzle and hopefully it will arrive this year! I very nearly bought one of his entries (Cross Links) in the design competition but unfortunately had already spent more than my budget had allowed - sigh!

So how does this make for a "collaboration" as stated in the title of the post? Many people admire Mike's work and puzzles but he is never able to make enough to keep up with demand! At the beginning of his puzzle designing career he designed a 3 piece burr with blocking pieces - hence it is a sort of combination of a burr and packing puzzle. Mike is a good friend of Bernhard Schweitzer and during their discussions about his puzzles they made an agreement that Bernhard would employ the New Pelikan workshop under Jakub and Jaroslav to partially manufacture his design and Mike would make the more fiddly pieces. This would allow a decent number of this puzzle to be manufactured and make it affordable to the general puzzling world. Bernhard told me about the design months before IPP and I knew that I would be buying one when we met! It is now available from Bernhard for a very reasonable price.

Is Wood Puzzling?

Recent Puzzlewood Delivery

Is wood puzzling?? Of course it is!

Puzzlewood is a brilliant site run by the fantastic puzzle collector and puzzle craftsman, Bernhard Schweitzer. He manufactures some wonderful puzzles for various people to exchange at the yearly International Puzzle Party and afterwards puts them (and some others he finds or makes) up for sale. Recently he announced the availability of another batch and being my usual indecisive self I couldn't choose which to have so I bought them all! Luckily his prices are very reasonable - although the present Mrs S may not agree when she noticed quite how many puzzles I had bought over the last 3 months!!!

A few weeks ago I received this first batch from him - Yes!!! there are more coming!

Broken heart?

By George! Burr

Elvis sang:

Please don't break my heart in two
That's not hard to do
Cause I don't have a wooden heart

I can hear you all now!! "he's lost his marbles again!"

Bear with me - there is a point to this!! You all know that I just love wooden puzzles (in fact I have just realised how much I love them when I looked at my puzzle database and saw how much I have spent on them over the last 2.5 years!!). So I was heartbroken to see that wooden puzzles can be broken very easily! Now when my package arrived from Bernhard Schweitzer (Puzzlewood) it looked like the Royal Mail had been playing football with it and unfortunately 3 of pieces had broken a glue joint. This meant that when I picked it up, it just fell apart in my hands and there were a lot more than the 6 pieces there should have been! I asked Bernhard for information on the pieces and he sent me a copy of Ishino's listing of the puzzle. My DIY skills are pretty reasonable for doing things around the house but I am by no means milimeter accurate! The problem, then, is 3 fold:

1. Can I work out which piece goes where?
2. Can I glue it and clamp it with enough accuracy to leave me with a functioning puzzle (tolerances are really tight on these)?
3. Can I avoid being murdered by Mrs S for getting glue where I shouldn't?

I managed to work out what went where, got my trusty clamps and wood glue out (Thanks Ali for stopping me using Superglue - I did get quite a lot everywhere and had it been Superglue then a trip to the Accident and Emergency dept would have been required - she packs a mean kick/punch/stab/laser stare and whiplash tongue). After 24 hours, I put the now perfectly formed pieces together according to Bernhard's instructions and it's a perfect fit! Nice and tight but still moveable!!!

So back to the puzzle!
George Syriaque is a prolific collector of puzzles and has recently started to design his own. This 6 piece burr is his first design and it's a cracker. This was another one of the puzzles I bought from Bernhard Schweitzer. It was available in either 3 different colour woods or as a single colour made from Robinia (pseudoacacia). I chose the latter because I think it is always such a beautiful looking wood with a lovely deep colour and great grain; also being only 1 colour will add to the difficulty. I left it for a couple of weeks to allow my feeble brain to forget the reassembly I had just done and then worked on disassembling it. It took a fair while to work out which piece moves first - whilst it is called By George Burr, and looks a normal 6 piece burr shape, it is not actually a burr puzzle! It is an interlocking solid. It is not immediately obvious which piece moves and which direction either - for an awful moment I thought I had actually stuck it together with the glue!!! Eventually I found the "sweet spot" and Thwack! it slides apart! After this it is a nice series of discoveries to take the next 2 pieces out. You are then left with a nice simple construction of three parts which can slide on each other but don't seem to come apart - Burrtools is no use to you with this one! Rotations are required. Being a bit thick, it took me about 20 minutes to get the final disassembly! It is disassembly level 2.4.3.2.3. You end up with these pieces:

By George! Burr in pieces again (6 of them!)

It is a beautifully made puzzle and is unexpectedly difficult but not too awful. For a seasoned puzzler you might attempt to start from the disassembled state! Berhard may have a few left!

The next puzzle in that delivery is one that you cannot get at the moment. It is the Diagonal Loop 1 cube by Thai Pham:

Diagonal Loop 1

This puzzle was a very generous gift from Bernhard for helping him with a little translation work he needed. This is a prototype which may yet be produced in greater numbers. I think it has been made from Maple and Walnut. It doesn't show all the usual hallmarks of Bernhard's perfect work - there are no chamfered edges, the alignment is out by a tiny tiny amount and the fit is very very tight. But I have to say that I love this puzzle!!! It is level 1.2.4 and requires rotations.

The first piece comes out pretty quickly and is quickly followed by the next! At this point there is one move that easily occurs and bang! No further! The final 3 pieces come apart with a very carefully aligned series of coordinated rotation moves - it is beautiful when you finally get it apart. In fact I was so delighted that I immediately sat back and forgot what I had done! You end up with these pieces:

Diagonal Loop 1 Pieces - see the loop?

I realised how stupid I had been in not paying attention and left it for about an hour before trying to reassemble it! It took me an hour to put it back together!! Working out what goes where is very easy but it is really hard to work out the exact sequence and alignment to actually make it happen.

I brought all my Puzzlewood puzzles to the Midlands Puzzle Party a few days later and whilst having a play, Ali had it fall apart in his hands (he was absolutely mortified!). In a way it was good for me because he was able to give me proper advice on how to glue puzzles together! Previously I had risked life and skin using Superglue but now I am fully equipped. Thanks Ali!!!

If this puzzle ever comes available from any of the fine wood craftsmen out there then just say yes! It is is just brilliant. Having done it many times, it still taxes me when I try to do it again!!

So in Elvis' words:
Treat me nice
Treat me good
Treat me like you really should
Cause I'm not made of wood
but
even if you are made of wood then please do the same!!!
And you wondered where the hell I was going with it!! :-D

Some Pelikan Beauties

Trap R2

Last week I showed off the recent delivery of puzzles from my friend Jakub, one of the co-owners of the New Pelikan Workshop. He lets me purchase them in advance and as a service for him I solve them as quickly as I can and write a paragraph about some of them for him to put up on the description page for each puzzle when they go up for sale (it depends whether the designer can speak English and feels capable of writing something themselves). The last few times I have been aware that me being so busy has caused a delay in the puzzles going on sale. This time I ignored everything I was supposed to do around the house to ensure that I did not delay the posting of the puzzles for sale and I had my spiel written in just a few days. I try to put my reviews up on my site to help you decide what to buy too.

The first puzzle for me to review is the Trap R2 by Osanori Yamamoto. My copy is made with Purpleheart but it will also be available in an equally beautiful version with Wenge. When you think of puzzles by Osanori Yamamoto you instantly think "rotations". With Trap R2 you won't be disappointed but this puzzle is very different to any other puzzle I have seen. Initially, it looks like a couple of solid boards joined at the corners with a small wide cylinder between them. The cylinder can move about fairly freely with some interesting limitations but that is it. With a little curious fiddling, you will find an unexpected move or two which opens up other possibilities. These unexpected moves can be in several directions and will lead to blind ends. It is extremely unlikely that random moves will end up with this one coming apart. I have to say that this puzzle needs a good bit of careful exploration to get a complete mental image of the shapes involved and then proper planning to arrange them so that disassembly is possible. It almost needs a full mental understanding of the shapes inside to be able to solve it. The first part has to be done blind which makes it a fun challenge. The Trap R2 is an absolutely marvellous puzzle -  it is totally unlike anything I've seen before and a lovely challenge - for me it has made a great worry bead for the last week. As always with a puzzle from Jakub and Jaroslav, the fit and finish of the puzzle is simply perfect - you cannot see any seams at all in the assembled puzzle and they appear to come out of nowhere when things are pressed in the right places.

The pieces are hidden behind the show/hide button - if you are thinking of purchasing one then DON'T look until you have solved it:

Trap R2 pieces

Square Target

Square Target

Square Target is another puzzle by the amazingly prolific Osanori Yamamoto, which will, of course, require rotations. There are 4 pieces in a frame and the hole is shaped such that they can only be extricated after turning them to the correct orientation. Having said that, the main challenge of this puzzle is actually to find the correct linear moves to make space for the rotations to occur and working out which order to remove the pieces. This puzzle has a fairly complex set of moves to make enough room to let the rotations/removal occur. The reassembly is also a challenge...especially if, like me, you don't pay attention to all the moves you made in the dismantling process. It is very clever and beautifully made by Pelikan. This is a perfect choice for someone just starting out with puzzles that require rotations.

With this one, I can show the pieces as that will not give too much away:

Pieces of Square Target

Shield

Shield

The third puzzle by Osanori Yamamoto could easily be called the "Hashtag" - 4 very simple shapes are assembled on a frame in a # shape and need to be removed after arranging them into the correct orientation and position. As one would expect from Osanori, rotations are required...quite a LOT of them! This is trickier than one would expect as the sliding movement and rotation of the pieces is very blocked and requires quite a bit of planning. This one took me the longest time of the three new puzzles. Eventually, I succeeded in my disassembly only to spill the carefully arranged pieces off my sleeping cat! Needless to say, the reassembly from scratch is a huge challenge and involved a good amount of swearing and the odd Whack! Ouch! It is, however, perfectly solvable with thought - the reassembly took me a good hour. A great idea and a worthy challenge to any puzzler.

Pieces of Shield

Wourie

Wourie

Alfons Eyckmans designs puzzles ranging from fairly simple to massively complex and Pelikan has chosen just the right level with this one - only a very small number of puzzlers want to work on burrs with 40+ moves to take out the first piece (I personally really struggle when the 1st level goes above 30). Wourie is perfect for the puzzler who is either a beginner to burrs or an enthusiast. It looks stunning in the four different woods and the mix of boards and sticks are interlocked with a fun but challenging sequence which has a blind end or two - it actually took me a good 20 minutes to find the first move. Having found the first move, the remainder of the disassembly is not too hard but then the reassembly becomes a real challenge if you scramble the pieces and leave them a while. It is definitely solvable as an assembly puzzle but maybe that part should be left to experts. The fit and finish of the puzzle is wonderful with moves that are silky smooth - it is perfect to display in any puzzler's collection.

Pieces of Wourie - looks easy? Think again!

Rotacube

Rotacube by Lucie Pauwels

Bernhard's version

Rotacube is another delightful challenge by the very talented and extremely prolific Lucie Pauwels (pwbp shows only a tiny fraction of her designs). I originally had the Rotacube drawn to my attention by the King of the Turning Interlocking Cubes (TIC), Bernhard Schweitzer who contacts me occasionally when he has discovered and made a new TIC and offers one for me to play with. Quite a few months ago Bernhard sent me a copy of Rotacube which I played with, enjoyed and forgot about after a month or so. I remembered about it when Jakub had his Pelikan version for sale. I was interested to see how Bernhard's version compared...plus, I'm not terribly bright, and had forgotten the solution completely! I think that it does benefit from the several types of wood used by Jakub but I do prefer Bernhard's rotated top cubie as a handle.

There are a couple of simple but unusual moves to remove the first 4 pieces and with the Pelikan version the fit is so perfect that it feels like one is held in by suction! Once the 4 simple pieces are removed then one is left with a cubic frame made from 2 identical pieces which require multiple rotations to be separated. It is a lovely sequence and not too tough. Even after scrambling and leaving the pieces the reassembly is not impossibly challenging and even suitable for beginners to TICs. This is a very nice puzzle and well worth adding to your collection.

Very clever pieces

The remainder of the Pelikan puzzles are yet to be solved. Keylock has been produced for PuzzleMaster in the past and I am not sure whether this production will also be sold by Pelikan direct. It is a very tough burr (level 47.4.3.2.2.2.1.1.2) designed by one of the IPP design competition winners, Stephan Baumegger.

Keylock

The Droid is another fascinating puzzle with a mixture of boards and sticks by Stephan with a level of 35.2.2.3.3.3 which also was made for PuzzleMaster and I am not sure whether it is being made available from Pelikan this time. My copy below came direct from Stephan - it took me 5 months to dismantle it!

Droid

The 3D Onat Contrast is yet another complex burr by Stephan constructed from some very simple burr sticks into a beautiful cubic design - it has a moderately difficult level of 37.10.4.1.2.2 which makes it less suitable for beginners but probably still do-able with some perseverance. It is stunning and I couldn't resist buying a copy myself:

This should be fun!

Excaliburr (available from PuzzleMaster) is another fantastic puzzle designed by Stephan and is definitely not for beginners! At level 79.18.5.5.5.2.1.2, it is aimed at real burr enthusiasts or people who are seriously addicted to everything related to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. I own an original from Stephan and as yet have never solved it! I might have a bit of a problem though!

Excaliburr

Swords in puzzles!

Keep an eye on the Pelikan site as well as look at PuzzleMaster to see when these new toys come up for sale. There is something for everyone here - beginners and burr experts alike will enjoy these puzzles which are, as always, stunningly made!

Improved Hexsticks 159a

Improved Hexsticks (#159A)

A forum post from Bernhard Schweitzer of Puzzlewood fame announced the availability of some brand new wooden puzzles. These are Stewart Coffin's improved Hexsticks (#159a) which he has available in several different woods (Robinia, Padauk, Wenge and a light Walnut. After some emailing (Bernhard is very prompt with his replies - an absolute pleasure to deal with), I decided on Robinia which I have never seen before. The puzzle arrived, very well packed 6 days later. Now that's what I call service!!

The puzzle looks very similar to another puzzle I have bought - Bill Cutler's Hectix revisited. I have been saving this one up for a rainy day. Oh all right! I have actually been too frightened to dismantle it!!!

A Fascination with Cubes

Mayer Cubes - 4x4 Interlocking cubes

Mrs S is often exasperated with me for the constant procession of packages containing yet more and more puzzles! She cannot seem to grasp why I keep buying them when they are "just all cubes". When I tell her that they are all different and provide new challenges and fun she reiterates that there is no difference between them and that they are "just all cubes". Looking at today's blog post, she might have a point - they are a lot of cubes but certainly not "just cubes"!

At the end of last year, I was reminded on Facebook of the existence of the fabulous puzzle designs for 4x4 interlocking cubes designed by Derek Mayer. As far as I know, only one was ever produced commercially and that was a very long time ago by the Pentangle puzzle company (sadly now no longer open). Looking back using the Internet Wayback machine, they used to sell what looks very like Mayer cube 9B. In the entire 8 or 9 years, I have been puzzling they barely ever had any stock of anything and all I was able to do was drool wistfully. When I saw (and commented) on some of the designs someone had posted on Facebook, my very good friend (and interlocking cube expert) Bernhard offered to build a few for me with some offcuts of nice wood that he had left. The very first delivery of 2019 was a series of 4 of the best Mayer cubes. From the left, there is Christmas cube 3, Mayer cube 9B, Mayer cube 10C and Mayer cube 7B.

Mayer cube 9B

I quickly set to with 9B and, as always with Bernhard's craftsmanship, everything was very nicely finished and beautifully tactile. A few moves were found quickly and I proceeded with my usual to and fro to ensure a muscle memory developed of the path back to the beginning. Considering it is only a 4x4 puzzle, this was remarkably complex. At some point during the process, I must have been holding the puzzle the wrong way and it sort of collapsed on me. Mrs S, who had been watching me play for a few minutes, burst out laughing at the sort of horrified look on my face! I had absolutely no idea how it went back together.

Lovely pieces!

According to the Pentangle site, the real challenge is the reassembly. Hell yes! They are not wrong! I could easily work out where everything was supposed to go but for a very long time, I could not reassemble the damn thing. Eventually, after about 3 hours, I finally managed to get it back together with a huge sigh of relief and then proceeded to make a Burrtools file for my (and Derek's) collection.

Mayer's Christmas cube 3

Next up, after a few days breathing space to collect my nerves, I moved onto the Christmas cube 3. It did not take long to take it apart and yet again, collapsed into a small pile of wood but this time without the gale of laughter from "she who mocks me".

More lovely pieces!

Somehow I was able to reassemble these fairly easily - it is a really nice sequence of moves which I find quite soothing to make over and over again. Of course, a Burrtools file will be essential for the collection. Next up I moved on to Mayers cube 10C:

Mayer cube 10C

This seemed very unstable from the moment I picked it up and I realised that one of the glued joints had come apart on a piece. This happens not infrequently and I am fully equipped with clamps and wood glue. Under the beady eye of "the frightening one" I carefully glued the piece back into the puzzle and clamped it being very careful not to get any glue on the granite worktop! No matter how many times I tell her that wood glue is easy to remove, she always gets upset whenever I bring glue into the kitchen (Whack! Ouch!). This time no glue escaped the cube but it did seem to escape the confines of the pieces that I had glued deliberately together - I prefer to glue within an assembled puzzle to ensure that everything is perfectly squared off as even a tiny error in angulation will mean a puzzle becomes impossible to assemble. Unfortunately, the little escape of glue onto an adjacent piece had the disheartening effect of rendering the second move impossible - I had glued the pieces together! In fact, I did not know what the second move was supposed to be - Aaaargh! I was too ashamed to email Bernhard for help straight away and an in-depth internet search revealed a photo of the second move on an auction site. At least I knew what was supposed to move and which direction but how to achieve it? It took me 2 evenings of many different attempts before I worked out where to put my pressure and during a particularly riveting episode of Silent Witness on TV I pushed really hard to achieve a sickening crack and a fully functioning puzzle.

Yet more lovely pieces!

After that, a quick disassembly was possible and I established that I had only broken the incorrectly joined pieces and then a rather prolonged reassembly occurred over the next two evenings! Delightful! Another Burrtools file to be made!

Mayer cube 7B

The last one I had was 7B. This one was left until last because of its' instability. When I picked it up and rotated it around a bit, 2 pieces quickly dropped out. Rather put off by this I decided to put them back and wait until I could be seated in my comfortable chair. When I got around to it, I immediately and carefully removed the 2 pieces that fell out the last time and continued to explore.- promptly another 2 pieces fell out of the core and the rest of the cube made a sliding movement and collapsed on me! OMG! I had no idea where the interior pieces came from. It didn't take long to separate the last pieces and examine what I had. I don't think I have ever seen an interlocking puzzle with simple sticks of length 1, 2, 3 and 4 in it. Very weird!

Lovely but odd pieces!

I did worry that there must have been another joint fracture in the post but there is no sign of that on any of the pieces at all. This puzzle is essentially a frame with a tiny packing puzzle inside - it is not difficult to reassemble from scratch but still quite enjoyable. Another Burrtools file done! Thank you, Bernhard, these were great fun and are a really nice addition to my collection.

This pushes all my buttons!

Next up, it was time to try a more complex cube (maybe Mrs S has a point?) - I had bought the Pushbutton burr from Tom Lensch after the IPP had finished last year. This was a design by the amazing Ken Irvine which had been entered into the IPP design competition in San Diego. Tom had made it beautifully from Canarywood with Indian Rosewood push buttons. It is wonderfully heavy in the hand and looks stunning. The dark buttons need to be pushed in just the right order and one ends up with a nice spikey cube. Only after all the buttons are pushed out is it possible to move any of the frame pieces and then a really pleasant sequence for the removal of frame and buttons occurs one at a time. It is quite therapeutic to do it and I left a nice carefully arranged line of pieces on my lap and the arms of my chair ready for the same sequence in reverse to put it back together again. Suddenly both cats zoomed across the room, over my armchair and across my lap. I screeched due to a claw or two in my delicate parts and they zoomed off after each other again! Once my eyes had stopped watering, it was clear that I was going to need to assemble the puzzle without help from my arrangement - the pieces were everywhere!

There is no way I will be able to assemble this!

I tried to put it back together for days! It is possible to get most of the way there with relative ease but for me, no way I could put it back together. Time for another trek to Burrtools. I have disassembled this puzzle multiple times and still cannot remember the sequence and orientation of the pieces - one day I will manage to work it out from scratch...hopefully!

I thought this was the Sequence cube

I also recently received yet another cube (OMG! She is right!) from Aleksandr Leontev. I had thought that it was the incredible Sequence cube with an enormous level for the complete disassembly (8190.4094.2046.1022.510.135.121.126.62.30.14.6.2). It is an N-ary puzzle which I adore despite some very disparaging comments on them on Facebook. I set to work on it during the week and quickly got lost and produced many many more moves than were needed! After 3 evenings of toil I had the first piece removed:

All pieces moved 1 unit

First piece out - Phew!

After removing the first piece, I continued the sequence (I did it several times because I a) got lost and b) hit a dead end and back-tracked several times. I could go no further and so I emailed Aleksandr. It would appear that the sequence cube cannot be built because it is too unstable to work with and this particular puzzle is a variant with only one removable piece - this puzzle is the 136 minutes puzzle with 8189 moves. I assume the name is for how long it should take to get from beginning to end - it certainly took me MUCH longer than that! I also have an extra piece which you can see in the first photo. Using this piece turns it into the 205 Minutes Box puzzle and requires 12,282 to assemble and disassemble - Do I dare to attempt it?

Move 1 done - 12,281 left! GULP!

The question is...what puzzle should I attempt next? I seem to have gotten a bit rusty at twisty puzzles - it took me nearly 2 minutes to solve a colleagues 3x3 Rubik cube which she had brought in to work for me to fix for her. That is shameful! I think I should move onto a puzzle that has been taunting me for a while - the Elite Skewb. I had absolutely adored the Master skewb puzzle when I reviewed it way back in 2013.

Elite Skewb

4 layer version of the Master skewb

I had been looking at it with fear ever since I received it from Calvin in late 2018. It was time to get to it! Despite having no idea how to go about solving it, on Friday I threw caution to the wind and did this:

What have I done?

In reality, I did not just scramble it. I was seeking algorithms and got lost on my second attempt and the scramble just happened by accident! Lord help me!

Hmmmm! There appears to have been quite a lot of cubes here! Is Mrs S actually correct?