Angel's Wheel

Jerry McFarland Makes an Angel's Wheel

Classic Bits and Pieces version of Satellite burr

Jerry McFarland never stops thinking about new ways to bamboozle us! This is great for those of us who like new toys but not so great for the rest who are patiently on his waiting list for one of his previous puzzles. His boredom threshold is amazing - he starts making a batch of puzzles for people and then gets fed up and moves on to something new. Out of the blue, he emailed me to say that he had been making the Burrnova 3D but has found a way to improve it (version 3.0) and also still working on (and improving) the incredible Burrlephant for people but wanted to produce something for the next IPP. He has been thinking about a classic puzzle called the Satellite burr and wanted to improve it in the traditional McFarland magnetic way.

The original had been mentioned in the 1893 Hoffman book and has almost certainly been recreated many times. Jerry wanted to make it slightly more interesting with the addition of magnets and brass ball bearings. You know Jerry by now...Of course he did! Jerry also decided to use some rather gorgeous wood (Bloodwood and Jatoba) - I think he specifically does that to entice me - he knows I can't resist it. When he sent me the pictures, he seemed to think that it did not look like a classic McFarland puzzle. I had to tell him that the curved shape of the pieces was the only thing that might confuse people. As soon as anyone sees it, it can only be one of his creations - there is something absolutely unmistakeable about his creations. It is the wood used, the lacquer finish and of course as soon as it's played with, the "clack, clack" of the magnets pulling the pieces back together. 

He wanted to originally call it SatBurr but his grandson came up with the Angel's Wheel instead. 

"Inspired by the Ophanim—mysterious “wheels within wheels” described in ancient texts—Angel’s Wheel is a satellite-style burr that moves freely in all directions while guarding its inner secret."

The Ophanim - I find this image quite disturbing
Ophanim, or "wheels," are a class of celestial beings in Judeo-Christian theology described as wheels intersecting wheels covered in eyes, symbolizing omniscience and guiding God’s chariot throne.

The second copy was made for me and after a bit of PayPal moved across the pond, it was sent over. When it arrived, I was not disappointed with the beauty of it. Luckily there were no eyes in it but there was a fair bit of rattling inside. The secondary aim is to remove the brass balls from there cavity inside.

I had to spend a week or two working on the Pelikan puzzles before I could find time to play with the Angel's Wheel. All I was able to do during that time was marvel at the clacking noise - my goodness, he uses string magnets - don't put it near your pacemaker! Finally I found some time last weekend and immediately set to exploring. I have never played with a Satellite burr so had no idea what I was trying to do. Initially nothing slides or moves and it requires a little careful observation to notice something peculiar about the construction. Once you have noticed this then you can start to move the odd part. It doesn't really release much until you think© a bit and look in other places. There is a nice little Aha! moment and a little feeling that you might need more than 2 hands and at one point I found myself using my nose to push something. Luckily I have a particularly large nose!

Things were moving but it didn't seem to help much. I put it back the way it came with a very satisfying Thwack and thought a bit more. Eventually I realised that I was overthinking it and if I move certain parts in certain ways then it makes space for a really useful move. After that I was well on my way and dismantled all the curved sections. I emailed Jerry in triumph and he pointed out that it was not complete until the brass balls were removed. Doh! I had completely forgotten about that. 

I went back to it a day later and realised that an odd flaw that I had noticed on one of the pieces was not a flaw. It had been put there deliberately by Jerry and there were several of them. There had to be a jolly good reason for that. A quick experiment and I had a cat playing with my brass balls! Mrs S would have been very unhappy if one ended up inside the cat so I quickly separated them and took a photo.

Beautifully made - complete with brass balls!

Jerry has put his usual mark inside and mine has serial number 2 which I am very proud of. This will be taking centre stage in my McFarland display - it is very different to his usual.

This puzzle is very beautiful and fun to play with having its magnetic action but it is much less difficult than Jerry's previous puzzles. Jerry plans on making a few more for sale at the upcoming IPP. If you are interested and will be there then let him know and he might be able to reserve one for you. 

He has a Sick Sick Mind!

Magnetic Madness aka Burrnova 3D

Yes, Jerry McFarland has done it again! You may recall that last year at the IPP he won a prize in the design competition with a fantastic burr puzzle that bamboozled us all due to it's automatically solving section. I wrote about it in this blog post and it reached the number 6 spot in my Top 10 of 2017. In Paris whilst he was showing off his Burrnova 2D puzzle, he also showed the admiring masses a very bare prototype mechanism of his 3D version which we all encouraged him to continue working on. Let's just say that he did that and did it VERY well!

Jerry and I discuss puzzle designs fairly frequently - for some reason, he seems to think that I know something about puzzles (I have no idea what makes him think such a silly thing but I love chatting to him). He had seen the fantastic Angel box design by Wil Strijbos and was really quite tickled by the idea of the figurine inside a puzzle to be released. He worked on it a while and showed me a few pictures in the process and I, of course, encouraged him in his madness! Then earlier this year he asked if I would like to buy a nearly finished prototype of his latest puzzle - he gave me a few $$ of the end price because I would be giving input into the final design and mine may be different to the end puzzle. Who would say no in my position? I obviously couldn't resist and I have had my copy of Burrnova 3D which he renamed to Magnetic madness for the design competition. The aim of the puzzle is, first of all, to remove the key piece and then rescue the princess trapped inside.

I was supposed to keep it quiet and not reveal it to the world and I did a great job up until a few weeks ago when I inadvertently revealed the puzzle to eagle-eyed puzzlers when I showed off my new cabinets:

Can you see it?

Right in the middle of the display of McFarland puzzles, there was a classic interlocking puzzle from Jerry and someone peaking out! Someone did actually spot it and contacted Jerry to ask about getting a copy! I do apologise for letting the cat out of the bag!

The puzzle is absolutely unmistakeable as a McFarland puzzle! There is something completely characteristic about what he makes and it is instantly recognisable! The only new aspect to this one is that it is clear that his mind has slipped a bit:

What has he done?

Jerry has drilled a hole in a burr piece and there appears to be a pretty young lady trapped inside! There is something rather twisted about this but in a humorous way, of course! I laughed out loud when I opened my package to see this.

Having solved the first puzzle in the series I had an idea of how to go about the beginning of this one and was delighted when after finding the first move, I pushed one of the dark sticks for the lovely "Thhraaaap" of 8 sticks at 90º to each other in a lattice went through a really rather lovely automatic solving process. I distinctly remember that Nick Baxter said "who cannot love a puzzle that solves itself?" when he announced that Burrnova 2D had won a prize in Paris. This new version does the same thing only MORE! It is fabulous! I have done it again and again since then and love it. At the moment my copy is a bit sticky with the heat and humidity in the UK but it should improve come the autumn. Between me and Jerry, he made some changes to the ones in the design competition. The magnets are MUCH stronger and now having carried out the first move all it takes is a tiny movement or even picking the puzzle up and it immediately does its' "Thhraaaap" thing again often frightening the poor unsuspecting sap/puzzler in the process! He really has a sick mind!

After the automatic section

After the automatic section, there are sticks poking out but the next move is quite well hidden. If you have solved the 2D version then you can do it but if not it takes a fair bit of searching to find it and then the key piece can finally be removed. With the stickiness of mine, it took me about 20 minutes to get it to work today!

Key piece out but she's still trapped!

Next comes the fun and very challenging process of disassembly. Jerry has really made this tough! The removal of the next pieces is hard to find because he has used STRONG magnets to hold things in place! It takes a fair bit of self-confidence to do the necessary moves to get this thing to come apart:

This must be the hard bit done! Think again!

At one point during the dismantling of this beast, you run into a wall...nothing moves at all. There is a bit of wiggle room in the automatic lattice but that will only come apart with a bit of force and a partial rotation. You know this is not right...Jerry never does that! He's a very sneaky man! He has put a second lock into this one and fastened it with some more VERY strong magnets. It took me hours and hours to find the method to open the lock and then actually doing it requires some serious courage and dexterity, strong fingers...about 14 of them! Eventually, the stage is passed and you can stop muttering under your breath about the evil genius of Jerry!

Now the magnetic lattice can be worked on...for a while anyway!
At this point, I hit a wall!

The disassembly proceeds and the workmanship (with both wood and metal) is revealed. There are some seriously clever pieces here. I got stuck again as only two of the magnetic pieces come out at first.

Not even nearly finished!

After the second lock is passed and further disassembly becomes possible, I try to keep pieces sort of arranged so that I will have some chance to put it all back together again. At this point, one discovers the disadvantage of all the magnets...they attract and repel each other and my carefully placed pieces start to move spontaneously around on the work surface and don't stay pointing the right direction. At one point I took the magnetic lattice structure out and arranged them very carefully but as soon as I let go of them a whole bunch of rotations occurred and I lost the orientation I had carefully preserved.

Finally, after a few hours and a fair bit of swearing, I released a piece and almost dropped the puzzle in shock! An arm fell out! A few moves later, I realised why someone at the IPP had said he has a "Sick sick mind"! Yes, he has dismembered the princess before putting her in her little magnetic wooden dungeon!

This is a little disturbing!!!!

Eventually, I was left with a LOT of pieces spread around the work surface!

The workmanship is incredible - but yes, he is a very sick man!

Of course, the puzzle is not solved until the princess has been properly rescued:

I must be a prince...I have rescued a princess!
Errm wait! She appears to be a mermaid!

What a fantastic odyssey! I can only say that Jerry is a genius, a master craftsman, and a lovely lovely man! He may have a very sick sick mind but I can forgive him for that!

Later, when I came to put it back together, I jiggled a piece with the partially constructed base and my magnetic pieces all went "thhraaaap" again and clung together in a big pile much to my horror! The reassembly was a huge undertaking as he only included a very basic diagram of the magnetic lattice in the paperwork he gave out.

I LURVE THIS PUZZLE! Thank you so much, Jerry!

If you get a chance to buy one then don't even think or hesitate! Just say yes! It will not be cheap - there is a lot of work in these and they take him quite some time but it is one of my most treasured puzzles (hence the prominent position in my new display cabinets).

You might also want to go and have a look at my new additions page to see what else I have been up to recently and to get a heads up on puzzles shortly to be released by Jakub and Jaroslav at Pelikan puzzles.

Snap Right To It

Snappy burr by Jerry McFarland

Yes, as soon as you see a picture like this then it's immediately obvious this was made by the incredibly talented Jerry McFarland.

At the very end of last year Jerry contacted me again to let me know that he had got sidetracked yet again! Yes, Jerry seems to have a very short attention span - he could make a fortune churning out his old puzzles to the new hordes of puzzle lovers that have joined this hobby over the last couple of years and when he produces and is happy with a new puzzle then he does make a bunch. But...he just can't seem to keep his focus on making more of the same and his incredible 3D visualising brain ends up wandering off into more thoughts of what can be achieved by interlocking pieces of wood. Over the last few years he has been very distracted by the possibilities of magnets and has created some of the best and most fun puzzles I have ever played with. 

Apparently he thought he had run out of ideas and then something new sprung to life in his head (I really wish something would show signs of life in my head - I am completely empty, Mrs S will confirm it). Previously some of his puzzles have had the added bonus of being very nice fidget toys as you get to make long sequences of magnets and burr sticks move after a single push. This time he made something that has a fidget toy inside and whilst it can be played with whole as a fidget toy (very satisfying it is too) but the aim is to remove it and play with it outside the puzzle. Jerry did not think it was  a terribly difficult solve but thought it would be fun...he really wanted some feedback - I am delighted and flattered to be one of the few given a chance. My McFarland collection really is quite wonderful now.

A snappy move reveals a hint of a serial number

On unpacking, even Mrs S admitted it was beautiful. It has been made with Mahogany, Walnut, Cherry and Kingwood with the absolutely characteristic finish that marks one of Jerry's creations. Then Mrs S lost her brownie points by saying it's "just a cube" like most of my other puzzles. She was unmoved when I told her that it was actually a cuboid and even then not a proper cuboid due to the side edges being slightly recessed. I wonder why Jerry did that? It became obvious later. Dimensions are 4.01x2.92x2.92".

I couldn't resist a little exploration even if Mrs S wanted me to do some chores instead. I very quickly realised why it was called Snappy burr (or at least one of the reasons). The fidget toy inside is controlled by some really powerful magnets and it snaps back and forth by pushing one way and the other and surprisingly the Kingwood pieces on the top and bottom spring in and out as well - this has a lovely coordinate motion with magnetic attraction and repulsion too.

I spent several days enjoying that movement whilst searching for anything else that might be possible or released by the initial movement. I had a few ideas but nothing was happening. Time to check with Jerry whether I was being silly (something I do very frequently). Jerry provided a little hint which confirmed my initial thoughts and what I had been looking for before. It was not really obvious what else could possibly move - Jerry has taken with his recent designs to putting false interlocking sections that look like they should prevent a movement but in reality don't. I had been exploring some of these pieces and made a discovery about them but had not put 2 and 2 together. Once Jerry sort of reassured me that I was thinking correctly, I tried something new and OMG! that was an unexpected thing to happen! No wonder I had not found it easily - there are some really strong magnets involved.

Another reason for the name is part of that move I just found and also what happens when you reverse it - the puzzle snaps back together with a very sharp click. It's another aspect of the fidget toy in this. After I had amused myself with it for a while I tried to see where that move had led and started dismantling bits. It doesn't come apart completely without thought. I had to work out a few movements to make some space for clearance and then out came a section. Then I managed to get a second section off. I stopped there - I was sitting on an armchair with a cat on my lap and did not want to lose track of pieces or lose anything down the cushions. 

All pieces and a fidget toy

Later in the week I managed to find time to completely dismantle the puzzle - it is not hard to do once you have worked out the initial few steps. The fidget toy is just as compulsive to play with outside the whole puzzle. I am truly delighted to have number 2:

I think Jerry is making another 8

I had scrambled all the pieces but, as with most of his previous designs the insides of the pieces are marked with what position they should go in to ensure they all fit together and align properly. Despite this the reassembly was not straightforward - I did know where everything should have gone but, having constructed the various sections according to the labels, it was not immediately obvious how to get them to slide together. On several occasions I realised that my last section could not be slid into place and I had to dismantle and try in a different order. It took an extra half an hour before I managed to "SNAP" it back together with a very satisfying clack.

Jerry has designed something very different to his previous puzzles - it's not terribly tough but it is stunningly beautiful and wonderfully satisfying. I intend to use it as my fidget toy for quite a while before I put it on display in one of my cabinets.

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Coming soon from Pelikan

Coming soon from Pelikan puzzles

I have received a wonderful new bunch of gorgeous puzzles just a few days ago from Jakub at Pelikan puzzles. The race is on to solve them as fast as possible so that they can go on sale.

Here we have (from the back L to R):

Belopo (Alfons Eyckmans)

Jakub's cube (Alfons Eyckmans)

Euklid version 2 (Dr Volker Latussek)

Pedals (Alexander Magyarics)

Seven Woods (Stewart Coffin)

Victoria (Christoph Lohe)

Hummingbird (Osanori Yamamoto)

They all look fabulous and, as always have been beautifully made. Several of them will be seriously difficult - I have an original Jakub's cube from Alfons and have not managed to solve it yet (I sort of got distracted by a pandemic).

It Would Be Nice To Have Enough Hands For This Burr

Handy Burr by Jerry McFarland

Jerry McFarland has an attention span problem! He makes fantastic puzzles which are always immediately recognisable - I am sure that all serious puzzlers could look at the photo above and know the creator without reading the caption. He gets inundated with requests to make his toys by the puzzling community and happily starts manufacturing puzzles and earning some money and then he quickly gets bored and distracted. Before he knows it, he's thinking about something new and abandons his order book to play with his beautiful wood and, if you've been following his creations from the last few years, his very strong magnets. 

He contacted me a few weeks ago to ask whether I would be interested in looking at his latest creation - the Handy Burr and I practically bit his keyboard off and sent him a bunch of PayPal. The puzzle winged its way across the Atlantic faster than I've ever seen and I got my grubby hands (due to DIY) on it in just 4 days! I did not get much chance to do more than fiddle and admire for the first few days because of said DIY but I could tell straight away that the magnetism was strong in this one.

It is a beautiful cuboid containing 23 pieces of wood and an unbelievable 32 magnets (16 of which are in the key piece - Jerry says this must be a record). There are 2 obvious pins in the puzzle too with some obvious tracks for the pins visible in the key piece. The wood choices are stunning - Mahogany, Bubinga, Walnut, Cherry, Maple and Bloodwood.

Jerry had been initially working on a 3D coordinate motion puzzle but this did not work out so he moved on to a springy puzzle with magnets and this is definitely that.

I started work after I had finally finished constructing my cabinets (still empty) and found that there are 6 pieces that can be pushed in varying directions and need quite a bit of pressure to push them - those magnets are STRONG! If you loosen your grip even momentarily then it all springs straight back into the original shape. Having played with quite a few of Jerry's creations over the years, I sort of had an inkling what to do and managed with 6 fingers plus holding on to various other bits of the puzzle for stability and suddenly the key piece sprung upwards. Progress!

It only sprung up one voxel and the magnetic pieces stabilised. I was then able to work on manipulating the pieces and getting the key piece extended further and further until it stopped dead. Time to explore and find the release mechanism. Here I got stuck for a while and in the end I reset the puzzle by pushing it all back to the bottom and manipulating the magnetic sticks as I went. The final push of the key piece flush with the top releases the magnetic pieces all together and there is a truly wonderful CLACK! as it all reset.

I got stuck here for rather a long time - back and forth to the almost released position and stopped dead in my tracks each time. I couldn't seem to find the correct path - Jerry had hidden it all just out of sight inside. Despite doing this dozens of times, I never tired of the wonderful noise of the reset (this is a feature of a few of his magnetic puzzles).

After a whole day of trying the same thing multiple times, it was time to think© which did hurt quite a bit. I know that Jerry is quite sneaky and I got wondering in the evening whilst watching TV. What if I??

I tried my new idea and found that I needed more than 2 hands - Jerry had sent me a couple of little envelopes with clues in it and afterward I had finally saved it, I opened the envelopes and had a proper laugh out loud moment. I had looked at she who must be feared during the evening whilst wishing I had more hands/fingers/useful body parts. Each time I thought of asking her, I decided that was probably not a good idea. 

😱😱😱

Eventually after I dislocated a digit moving it into an appropriate place, I suddenly had the key piece free and I could see how well disguised the path had been.

Key piece removed (JM mark revealed with serial number on other side

The cat was not impressed with me dropping more wood on his head but he puts up with it. I put it back together immediately and then found that I could not repeat the process - that will teach me to watch TV at the same time as playing with something complex.

The following day, I managed to work it out again and was delighted with how it resisted solution but when you do the right thing it shoots out. I couldn't resist a full disassembly:

Awesome puzzle!

After taking the above picture I did scramble all the pieces and then attempted the reassembly - Jerry very helpfully writes the frame piece portions on them to ensure that the fit is good when reassembled and then I got a bit stuck on the assembly of the mechanism and had to create it outside the frame before attempting the final assembly - picture of mechanism is hidden behind a spoiler button:

A

This is a very satisfying solve and after reading the supplied solution sheet, I realised that there is another aspect to it that I had not seen. I tried the suggested approach by Jerry and this was even better and adds more understanding to the name. Jerry will be making a few more of these in the future and it will be worth while contacting him to ask to reserve one.

Fourfold and a brief MPP tale

Fourfold

Today will need to be a fairly quick blog post. I spent all day yesterday down in Birmingham at the 21st Midlands Puzzle Party and so really owe the present Mrs S some of my time this weekend. She has had me doing chores and the weekly shopping but has generously allowed me to write my weekend post as long as I don't spend too long. I don't want to risk a Whack! Ouch! or worse so this is a quickie (but still a good puzzle to be reviewed).

The puzzle pictured above is the Fourfold puzzle which I bought from Tomas Linden's Sloyd puzzle store. It was designed by Ad van der Schagt who seems to have been reasonably prolific in several puzzle areas. Puzzle Master have some of his burr designs and Sloyd have quite a few disentanglement designs. I picked this because it looked horrific with a very long string intertwining everything and because it was rated as 4 stars out of a possible 4 in difficulty by the producers - Eureka puzzles. I have had quite a few new disentanglement puzzles recently and have singularly failed to solve most of them. Either I have lost my mojo or I have picked out some seriously tough puzzles to work on! I took the Fourfold to work one day in the hope of finding a moment to have a play. Several of my colleagues were fairly horrified at the complexity of it and I expressed the fear that a very large knot may ensue which I might not be able to undo. But these challenges are sent to try us!

Jerry McFarland's Quadlock 1

Quadlock 1

Jerry McFarland is one of the most amazing puzzle makers out there! He mostly makes burr puzzles using equipment he has developed himself (including a computerised automatic notching machine!!) The quality of his finished work is nothing short of stunning. He is the actual manufacturer of Bill Cutler's puzzles but he also has designed quite a few of his own. I have been in email contact with him for a few months now as we swap back and forth ideas for puzzles (and tales of excessive spending by spouses - yes, my wife has as much of a shoe and handbag problem as I do with puzzles!!)

I was very disappointed that at the last BaxterWeb auction one of his original Quadlock puzzles went for rather a lot more than I could afford. He told me that he was retooling his jig to make them again using smaller stock. I asked if I could have one when it became available and he, like the gentleman he is, was true to his word and let me know about a month later when one was finished. It arrived this week and despite being pretty ill with a very virulent bout of food poisoning, I couldn't resist picking it up and having a go!! Jerry describes it as "a 19 piece difficult to take apart flattened cube." The previous version was 3.5" x 3.5" x 2.6" and the new one is 2.9" x 2.9" x 2.2" so it is still a nicely substantial puzzle and made from Walnut, Mahogany and Maple all polished to a beautiful sheen as always. The fit of all the pieces is fabulous. When I showed it to the missus even she admired how beautiful it looked!

Jerry Expands My Menagerie

Burrlephant 3.0

Jerry McFarland is another craftsman whom I consider a good friend! He never fobs me off when I ask silly questions and seems genuinely interested in what I have to say about his puzzles. Many years ago, before I started on this rather expensive time-consuming pathway, I had seen that Jerry had created an interlocking puzzle/burr in the shape of an elephant. I had lusted after one since the beginning and have been badgering him to remake them for quite a few years. Jerry generally has a very low boredom threshold and seldom remakes puzzles or even makes a batch of puzzles for long. He only ever committed to letting me buy one if he every decided to make more.

Why was I so keen on the elephant? I love special shapes and I love Jerry's puzzles. But this had become almost a grail puzzle for me. Ever since my mother died a few years ago, I had wanted one of these as a reminder of her. My mother's family had been refugees from Germany in 1939 and arrived in the UK with only the clothes they were wearing. The authorities decided that England was full at that stage and they sent the later refugees out to the colonies to live. My grandparents were shipped off by boat to Kenya and were told they could buy a plot of land in the countryside with a grant the British government gave them. These store keepers had to learn very fast how to become farmers or die of starvation. My mother was born out there and used to tell tales of growing up with wild animals occasionally rampaging through their farm. She was particularly fond of elephants as several used to wander through quite frequently. After she returned to the UK in her 20s she continued to collect all sorts of ornaments to remind her of her country of birth. She had a nice collection of elephants that I managed to snaffle after she died (many of them had been bought by Mrs S and I over the years). I even managed to get her a puzzle elephant - the rather lovely but not terribly difficult elephant burr from Jakub's Pelikan puzzles. It was one of my favourite things to do when I visited, to take it apart and leave a pile of pieces on her coffee table. She would never even try and assemble it but would harangue me about being a bad son until I put it back together.

She was very intrigued by the lion I bought from Stephan Baumegger and after she died, I took her collection of elephants back into my care and most have been in my living room watching me in the evenings. Out of the blue Jerry informed me that he had some new ideas for a Burrlephant version 3. That was sometime last year and I had almost forgotten about it until he contacts me a few weeks ago to say that he has been successful and would I like to try out the prototype? I doubt that 30seconds went by before I said absolutely and let me send you some money! The puzzle arrived a couple of weeks later and to my horror, Mrs S insisted on a quarantine! She is much worse than a wild animal when angry so I had to just accept her rule. I was absolutely delighted when I took it out of the box:

Ebony eyes mimic the real thing

This puzzle was one of the first that he had made entirely from exotic woods and, as you can see is stunning. This has been constructed from Jatoba, Bloodwood, Bubinga and Ebony as well as metal and magnets. The size is a very decent 11cm high, 16cm long (including tusks) and 5.5cm wide (11cm if you include the ears). It is surprisingly heavy. Jerry always marks the pieces that can be mixed up to ensure that the assembled puzzle is smooth and no small differences in size ruin the look. The feet have been labelled:

All nicely labelled!

Initially nothing can move apart from there seems to be a spring inside as the tail can be pushed in and springs back into position. I pressed this tail many hundreds of times hoping that it would free something up to move - there are quite a lot pieces that are screaming at you to be locking mechanisms (especially if you have seen any of Jerry's other work). Of course he would not have made it quite that simple. I played over a few evenings, gradually finding more and more interesting features and getting further and further through the puzzle. Let me say this puzzle is not for the squeamish - you have to do a series of unspeakably horrible things to the poor elephant before finally tearing him asunder. There are basically 4 locking mechanisms holding the elephant together and, whilst not terribly difficult, they are great fun to explore and discover. The third lock really took me quite a while to work out - 3 evenings before I finally got it.

Having worked out all the locking mechanisms, there was no way I was going to take it apart in the living room with a cat on my lap! I had to wait until the weekend before I could dismantle the lovely elephant completely and scramble the pieces.

No longer recognisable as an elephant!
Certain pieces may not be shown here to avoid spoilers

The "key piece" has Jerry's usual maker's mark and the year. Mine has serial number 2 for which I am eternally grateful. The reassembly is also fun. Not so much because the locking mechanisms are hard to do in reverse but because after scrambling the pieces and not paying enough attention to what goes where, it is a nice challenge to put everything in the right place in the right order.

I know that Jerry will be making a few more of these over the next few months but I don’t know how many. If you want one then you should ask early as Jerry’s poor attention span will force him to move onto something new before long. It’s not a terribly difficult puzzle - I think it is pretty much just right! This is one of my most prized possessions - it is stunningly beautiful, it is a masterpiece by the Master himself and best of all, reminds me of my late mum! It is not on the shelf with my other McFarland puzzles:

Top 2 shelves from Jerry
Below that are cubes from Alfons and my prize possessions - wooden Hales puzzles

Jerry's "Caramel case" aka the 42 Piece burrset

The Burrlephant now lives in my living room watching me whilst I sit and watch TV or play. I think it will stay there forever! The rest of my menagerie is there watching over me and Mrs S:

My little zoo!

Thank you Jerry, you have made a grown man cry!

Happy New Year - My Top Puzzles of 2018

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope that it's a great one for you!

In 2018 I seem to have done rather well in my accumulation of toys that Mrs S says have no purpose other than to prevent me from doing something useful! She might be right as they are a major distraction and that was why I got into puzzles in the first place. I will try and take photos to update my "state of the union collection" post soon.

My aim in this post is to highlight the very best puzzles of the year - I only include puzzles that I have actually managed to solve this year in this list - if I receive a puzzle in a previous year and solved it in 2018 then it stands a chance but others that I have bought this year but not solved may appear in next year's list.

I try to make it a top 10 but that is totally impossible and so I cheat by bunching puzzles into groups too. It might not be technically right but it's my blog and I'll do whatever I want as long as Mrs S lets me. Whack! Ouch!

So let's start off with my close 11th puzzles (yes plural!)

Honourable Mention(s)

We had an absolutely amazing year for new and complex twisty puzzles! Some of them had flaws and were difficult to turn or difficult to keep from exploding on you during a solve but we also had some absolutely incredible puzzles for solving! I am not a great twisty puzzler but here were four amazing puzzles which looked absolutely horrendous but I managed to solve them myself without asking for help from the internet. The complexity of these puzzles is fabulous - we live in a great time for twisty puzzles. Every time I am asked for advice from new puzzlers on what to focus on, I always encourage them to look at twisties and spend the time learning the techniques (not algorithms!) and it really pays off - they are impressive to non-puzzlers, actually do look quite lovely in a collection and provide a LOT of puzzling for a small outlay. Here were the best for me this year.

Multicube - a 3x3 inside a master skewb!	Son-mum cube - split centres and 45º turns
Ordinary Unicorn cube	Crazy Unicorn cube

Interestingly the Crazy unicorn and the ordinary version have completely different solve processes making them both essential purchases! I still have a bit of a backlog of other twisties to attempt.

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10) Sequential Discovery Puzzles

Rex Rossano Perez' Barasoain puzzle

I have known Rex for many years and seen him develop from a twisty puzzle modding specialist into a very skilled puzzle designer now working in Acrylic. I reviewed a few of his creations recently and the Barasoain was my favourite (reviewed here) - there is much more to it than appears at first sight. This is truly a sequential discovery puzzle as a tool has to be found and used correctly. Absolutely stunning and I cannot wait to see what he comes up with next.

Free Me 6

The Free Me 6 puzzle is another sequential discovery masterpiece from Joe Turner was an entry in the IPP design competition this year and a thoroughly fun puzzle to solve. There are a good few pieces to play with and the ever-present risk of losing a piece or having a ball bearing shoot across the operating theatre into an operation site definitely kept me thinking! I would love to get copies of his previous creations one day. This also needs to be in the top 10 somewhere and there have been so many wonderful toys that I've been forced to put it all the way down at number 10!


9) Interlocking puzzles - a BIG part one

I absolutely adore interlocking puzzles. I especially love the puzzles that are different from standard burrs. If there are rotational moves involved then that is even better. Here are one or two or... of my best acquisitions this year.

Spiral Lock

The Spiral Lock (reviewed here), designed by my good friend Christoph Lohe and made by the incredible craftsmen, Jakub Dvořák and Jaroslav Švejkovský of Pelikan puzzles created a beautiful puzzle in the shape of the lock - it was tremendous fun and the reassembly also a brilliant challenge that is definitely achievable.

Ka'apuni

Another cube called Ka'apuni (reviewed here) from Brian Menold was received by luck from my friend Jamie. It is one of my favourite types, the Turning Interlocking Cubes and caused significant difficulty for me and one of my colleagues at work! Like all of Brian's puzzles it is beautifully made and a wonderful challenge - one of my favourites of the year.

Interlocking Cube #4

Another very special challenge this year was, unusually for me, a 3D printed plastic puzzle. the Interlocking cube #4 (reviewed here) was an absolute triumph as an assembly puzzle. I would never usually have taken this away in pieces but my friend Shane had taunted me earlier at an MPP that some puzzles were far too easy for me to have as disassembly puzzles and he forced me to assemble them from pieces. This gave me the confidence to take this one from Rich Gain as pictured above and spend quite a few days working to put it together. When I finally managed it the triumphant feeling was simply wonderful!

Finally let us not forget the 2 most amazing simple designs that were sent out as assembly puzzles and which took me months and months and months to solve! These interlocking puzzles were incredible. Trenta designed by Chris Lohe which took me a whole year before I finally solved it in June 2018 and Osanori Yamamoto's Lucida which I obtained in 2017 but did not manage to solve until January 2018. These puzzles were simply amazing!

Trenta - sent out as an assembly. It took a whole year!

Lucida - so simple but such a huge challenge!

8) Wire/Chinese ring puzzles from Aaron

Aaron Wang has been incredibly prolific this year and I have bought pretty much every single puzzle he has produced! The quality is amazing and the complexity and solution process just superb. I have solved a bunch of them but certainly not all - many are so difficult that even Goetz, the master of the N-ary puzzle, has not managed to solve all of them. The ones pictured below have been my favourites from the ones that I have solved - Of course, the wire puzzles that I put in my "top ten" have got to be N-ary!





7) Boxes, boxes - are they really boxes?

Ixia Box

I know, I know! I don't collect boxes! For someone who makes that claim, this number 7 in my list is rather embarrassing! But, in my defence, these all have something extra to the puzzling. Juno has been absolutely amazing this year - his creations have been spectacular and the puzzling has been very clever. One of the first of his boxes that I bought from him was the Ixia box (reviewed here) and this was purely down to the enthusiasm of Messers Strijbos and Coolen at an MPP. It took me the best part of 6 months to solve it and even then it required help from a blind man before I was able to manage it - Thanks, Ed!

I can't really just mention that one because, embarrassingly, I might have a few more that have kept me very entertained for quite some time:

Quartet Box

Heart Case

The Quartet box, whilst being stunning, also did something that I have never seen any other puzzle do before - it had fancy hinges allowing shapeshifting during the solution - incredible! The Heart case is a case and NOT a box but is fairly unique in that Mrs S approved of it! She's a softie really. Whack! Ouch! Maybe not! Both were reviewed here.

Juno even left me something funny inside for me to counter the protection provided by George!

I also cannot leave out a box that involves a mathematical constant. The Pi Box was a stunningly beautiful puzzle from Jesse Born - I thought it might just be the most beautiful puzzle that I had ever seen. I had a few issues due to the incredible heat and humidity we had this year but after fixing the issue, this now forms a centrepiece in my puzzle collection.

It is just BREATHTAKINGLY beautiful!

6) Cubes - oh, so many Cubes
Interlocking puzzles - an even BIGGER part 2

Arne's Cube

Anke's Cube

This is Interlocking puzzles - part 2!
I absolutely adore interlocking puzzles and burrs. When I saw that Alfons Eyckmans had designed a couple of wonderful looking interlocking cubes with a medium difficulty level, I could not resist. They reminded me a lot of the Cutler cube which took me several years to solve and were a hugely fun couple of puzzles to work on - then playing with Burrtools topped off my enjoyment. I reviewed them here and was careful to let it be known that they were not my fault!

Of course, Alfons could not stop there and started to design a bunch more which I just "had" to have in my collection - three are even named after my cats! I have not actually managed to dismantle all of these. At that point, I thought he would stop there but he decided to branch out into the Happiness cubes from the Japanese puzzle designer, Sekog Yukiyasu. I started with "just six" of them!

Houston, I have a problem!

Holy shit! A HUGE problem!

After the last MPP, I really had a problem - the B%$t@&ds dismantled them all and left them in a pile! I still have 5 of them in pieces in a bag at my feet!

Aaaargh!

Erm! Whilst I'm in the mood for a confession...Bernhard might also have helped me with my cube fetish!

Interlocking #1	Interlocking #2
Juha's 10	Rotacube

Thanks, Bernhard - you are a great friend and enabler!


5) Jigsaws - yes, you read that correctly!

Jigsaw 29

Jigsaw 19

I cannot believe that I have a jigsaw (or even 2) in my top 10 of the year but these puzzles were a huge hit at the IPP in San Diego this year and I had to find out why. After contacting the truly delightful Yuu Asaka and arranging for the purchase of a puzzle (and then another puzzle) I saw just why these were so so good! Jigsaw 29 (reviewed here) and 19 which I also really loved were a truly amazing challenge with quite a few aha! moments and ending with a huge grin after my rather prolonged solve process. Absolutely brilliant - keep an eye out for more from this designer, he is very talented.


4) Locks, Locks, Locks!

This was an amazing year for lock puzzles! I am not particularly good at solving them - the Popplock T10 still sits on the shelf above my desk waiting for me to have a miraculous aha! moment. I still buy them when they become available (especially as my very good friend Shane Hales has become a Master Locksmith and produces the most fabulous puzzle locks and I cannot possibly let him down by failing to solve one of his fantastic creations). There were 3 absolutely standout puzzles this year that I have cheated with and bunched together - they are all fantastic for different reasons.

Rainer Popp's incredible and very large Popplock T11

The T11 (reviewed here) is a tour de force of a puzzle! It took Rainer a very long time to manufacture them and the sheer extent of the puzzling has to be seen to be believed - this is one of the most amazing puzzle locks the world has ever seen. However, I cannot leave this number 4 slot alone with just the T11 because we had 2 other great puzzle locks which were far more accessible to the every day puzzler and also were created from existing real locks.

Hokey Cokey Lock

HalesLock 5

The Hokey Cokey Lock was designed and produced by 2 more very good friends - Ali and Big Steve have collaborated on a new venture making machined metal puzzles of very high quality - the Hokey Cokey lock (reviewed here) was Steve's exchange puzzle and with the fabulous dance that went with it, made it a big hit with the puzzle community and an essential purchase for me. Their puzzles can be found on their Etsy store here and there is even a single Hokey Cokey lock available as I write this. When solving you need to think of the dance and that gives a big clue!! Shane's HalesLock 5 was reviewed here - this also was a modified lock and involved several mechanisms to get to the rather outstanding solution - I have never seen a lock like this and did not understand at all how it worked, thus, it took me rather a long time to solve. Again, a clue to the solution is in the name of the puzzle. Both these are fabulous additions to my collection! Thanks so much, guys!


3) Burrnova 3D - aka Magnetic Madness
Interlocking puzzle - a well deserved part 3

Just a glance and you can see that it is a McFarland puzzle!

In third place is the Burrnova 3D (aka Magnetic Madness) puzzle from Jerry McFarland (reviewed here). This is the third mention of interlocking puzzles in this years top ten and this particular one is incredible. This is the usual McFarland magic of interlocking burr pieces and an even more impressive self-solving section than the previous year. It was made even more challenging by the addition of an extra locking mechanism and then the requirement to disassemble completely to rescue the princess inside - great humour too when discovering that she has been dismembered. Beautifully made with a wonderful sound effect too.

2) Sequential discovery burred box

Just a six-piece burr? Hell no!

Second place has to go to Juno's Sequential Discovery Burred Box (reviewed here). He already has puzzles in my best of year list but this is right up there at the top - hard to separate my top 3. It could be in any of the 3 categories but for me, the use of tools makes it a truly delightful sequential discovery puzzle. It looks like a totally innocuous six-piece burr but once inside the masterful craftsmanship shows through - there are very few craftsmen who can work with wood and metal but Juno makes it look easy. The puzzle is not particularly difficult but there are several wonderful Aha! moments that put this up there with the very best puzzles ever. I loved it!


1) Casino

Casino

Finally, my puzzle of the year for 2018 is "just" a simple packing puzzle! Except it is anything but simple - the Casino (reviewed here), designed by Volker Latussek and beautifully made by Pelikan can only be described as a puzzle masterpiece. The premise is just so simple but finding the solution is just such a challenge and requires wonderful thought and planning. This puzzle kept me occupied for a happy hour or so and is still a challenge now - just BRILLIANT. It is perfect for advanced puzzlers and newbies alike - I carried it with me to work for months to show it off and challenge colleagues.

I am so delighted that Jakub and Jaroslav get to be my number one - they work so very hard and almost everything they do is a masterpiece but this one is on a whole new level - I cannot wait to see what they produce for us all next year! Well done guys!


It just remains for me to wish you all a very Happy New Year - I hope that 2019 will be a happy, healthy and certainly very puzzling one for you all. I look forward to either meeting you in person or hearing from you by email or my Contact page.