Heart In Puzzle

Here's another Minoru Abe sliding puzzle I played with the last two evenings. It's the Heart In Puzzle with three challenges. The object of each of them is to move the "Heart" block to within the confines of the four identical L-shaped blocks.

Like all current Minoru Abe sliding puzzles available on the market today, the Heart In Puzzle puzzle is well made and packaging is in the form of a nice dark blue box. The instructions are in Japanese but the diagrams are self-explanatory. 

The tray is (likely) made of  pine, while the pieces are a different species of wood. Despite its high quality, Minoru Abe sliding puzzles are not expensive and prices range from about 2,100Y (US$17) to 3,700Y (US$31). They are available from online seller Torito (which unfortunately does not ship outside of Japan), CU-Japan and Amazon. The Heart In Puzzle cost about US$17/-, one of the cheapest.

Start Position No 1

Start Position No 2

Start Position No 3

Each of the three challenges is represented by three starting positions and the first requires a minimum of 28 moves. Not a lot moves compared to Minoru's other sliding puzzles (some of them in the hundreds) but I found this one rather difficult. It took me a rather good portion of an evening to solve the first challenge and the same for the second challenge. I didn't attempt the third. All the moves are linear. Initially I was wondering if the Japanese instructions (which I can't read) allowed for rotations, because if it did, it took me well less than 28 moves to solve. A quick check with sliding puzzle supremo Nick Baxter confirmed no rotations allowed so I had to take the more difficult route.

Solved Position For All 3 Challenges

For those into sliding block puzzles, the Heart In Puzzle is a must have and great value for money. Oh, and incidentally, the Heart In Puzzle does bear some similarities to Serhiy Grabarchuk's 22-move Sliding Stones.

Dinosaur Egg

The name of this puzzle, originally in Japanese, "Kyoryu No Tamago" translated means "Is It A Dinosaur Egg?". Its from Japanese designer Minoru Abe, renowned for his colourful, cute, whimsical and many very challenging sliding block puzzles. This one is no different and was designed 28 years ago, one of his earliest. The Dinosaur Egg today is rather hard to find (no pun intended) and I was very lucky to get my copy courtesy of my puzzling friend, Frederic Boucher who lives in Japan.

START

The object is to slide the pieces within the irregular shaped tray, (rectilinear moves only) from the given START position to the FINISH, which resembles a (dinosaur) egg. There are four pieces each piece forming a quarter of the egg. Three of the pieces have notches which are able to interact with the protrusions within the tray.

The instructions are in Japanese but the accompanying diagrams are pretty clear on what must be done. Frederic did a bit of the translation for me - the solution requires 22 moves. 

FINISH

I played with Dinosaur Egg for a good hour and after getting stuck and resetting the puzzle at least a half dozen times, I managed to reach the end stage. I am not sure if the 22-moves solution is "unique" though? Meaning that you need to get the sequence correct right from beginning to the end or you will invariably get stuck in the middle and have to back-track to the last correct position. Or could more moves be taken and still reach the end?

Only four pieces, but a unique and interesting idea for a sliding block design, and challenging too!

There appears to be very little information about Minoru Abe, the man himself. But check out Holt Davey's FaceBook page here about Abe.

Seven & A Panic Attack

The last couple of evenings I had the opportunity to play with two very different puzzles. Both while challenging, were not unduly difficult. Fun (not frustration) was the order of the day.

Seven
The last time I came across something entitled "Seven" was the thriller movie with Morgan Freeman and Brat Pitt. If you have not watched it, do so...you won't regret it.

Seven (the puzzle) is no less thrilling. It is a 2D packing puzzle by Minoru Abe, who is very well known for his cute and whimsical, colourful and some extremely difficult sliding block puzzles. Minoru Abe puzzles are retailed by Torito in Japan. Unfortunately they do not ship internationally. Your best bet is to buy from CU-Japan unless you happen to have a friend who lives in Japan who can get it for you. My copy came to me courtesy of puzzle blogger Roxanne Wong, who got me a copy while in Tokyo last year during IPP33. 

As far as I know, Minoru Abe designed only two packing puzzles, the "Seven" and the "9 Puzzle" (the latter which I will review another day). If anyone is aware to the contrary, please drop me a note, thanks.

The Seven consists of 7 pieces (all Hexominos; ie 2D or 3D shapes made from 6 square units) and the accompanying tray. Object is to fit the red piece outside of the tray into the tray with the rest. None of the pieces are identical. The pieces and tray appear to be made of pine with the pieces painted over to give them that colourful look. Very well made with both the tray and pieces really thick and chunky and nicely packaged in a blue cardboard box. One corner of the tray has been deliberately cut away to leave space in the packaging for the red piece that needs to go in.

It took me about 5 to 10 minutes of fiddling with the pieces to solve. Only one solution I think. A rather pretty and fun packing puzzle that is not too difficult.

Panic Attack
I am not a fan of wire or string type puzzles. In fact I have only a few in my collection, one of which, the "Tricky Dick" which I had blogged about quite while back and the others are several handmade jungle puzzles.

Panic Attack was loaned to me by puzzle designer Goh Pit Khiam. I had mentioned to Goh that I found wire puzzles too difficult and frustrating and he told me to give Panic Attack a shot. And I am very glad I did. And I also did not for a moment panic while playing with it.

Panic Attack (as marketed by PuzzleMaster) was designed by Kirill Grebnev and was entered for the IPP26 Puzzle Design Competition under the name of "Love Secret", which subsequently was changed to "Clear Heart". Check out the interesting reasons for the change on Kirill's site.

The object is to get the yellow loop completely off the wire heart. At first glance Panic Attack seems like its impossible to solve; no way out for the loop. But this "impossibility" is more illusory than anything else! I am not sure if readers here would agree with me, but wire and string puzzles are probably the biggest group of puzzles which resemble "impossible objects" (things that appear to defy physical laws)....at first sight.

The first evening playing with Panic Attack, I couldn't figure it out and left it. However the next night, out of nowhere I extracted the loop within minutes of trying! With a bit of practice I even managed to repeat solving it in seconds!

It is not too difficult as a puzzle, but pretty tricky. A nice a-ha moment when you solve it. What I like about it is that the design is relatively simple looking. You know its probably hard, but It doesn't intimidate and put you off....unlike the wood and rope puzzles where the rope is so long, it entangles even before you start to seriously work on the solve. And certainly Panic Attack is also nowhere near the difficulty of a puzzle like Tricky Dick.. I am now even seriously considering other similar type wire puzzles to buy!

Both Kevin Sadler and Gabriel Fernandes have reviewed the Panic Attack on their blogs so you may wish to check out their comments.