Heat Wave

As I was trawling through my box of IPP35 Exchange Puzzles (hoping to find something interesting and not too difficult to play with), I came across Yee Dian Lee's puzzle called Heat Wave. 

My prototype on the left and Yee Dian Lee's Exchange Puzzle on the right

Heat Wave is one of many 2D packing puzzle designs from Goh Pit Khiam. Goh has designed a number of 2D and 3D packing puzzles including some award winning ones such as the IPP33 Puzzlers' Award Dancing Shoes as well as two Honourable Jury Mentions during IPP35 for his Road Blocks and Number Blocks. Very prolific indeed!

Prior to receiving Yee Dian Lee's puzzle, I had already obtained Goh's Heat Wave design a couple of years earlier and with his permission had laser cut a prototype copy for myself based on an even earlier prototype wooden laser cut copy made by Walter Hoppe for Goh. In keeping with the name of the puzzle, I chose bright yellow and red acrylic for my copy!

Goh's original version has 5 pieces which has to be fitted into the tray that has a covering on the top with a square hole that the pieces have to go through. Lee's exchange version is the same design, except that his has an additional small square 6th piece and Lee's top covering has dimensionally smaller square hole than the original design. Lee's version also has a transparent cover to better let you see how the pieces form up inside the tray.

Beautifully laser cut and great attention to detail
with the pieces each having their own slots at the back

Heat wave is not an easy puzzle at all and I needed Goh's help to solve his version back then. Hmm...maybe things may have been less frustrating if I had used a clear cover instead. Lets just say its not your typical packing puzzle (those who have played with Goh's puzzles would know what I mean) and a number of "unusual" moves are required to fit all 5 pieces into the tray underneath the cover. Can't say more without any spoilers.

With a transparent cover, I feel Lee's version is a tad easier since you can see your progress or mistakes as you move along. Although it's actually meant to be harder than the original. But to be fair, I had played with the prototype previously. A newcomer may find it very challenging indeed. And as Heat Wave was one of my earlier packing puzzles from Goh, it did give me the experience necessary to later solve his other packing puzzles such as Retrofit and Fusion.

A great (and difficult) packing puzzle, unfortunately none commercially available except Lee may have some spare copies left over from his Exchange.

Puzzle Wine Pot

Name
Celadon Wine Pot

Designer
Unknown

Manufacturer & Availability
Replicas are available from China and there is even one appearing on Etsy.

Type & Classification
Puzzle Vessel

Dimensions
19 cm (H) x 15 cm (diameter)

Materials & Construction
Porcelain.

Overview
Here's a puzzle that is totally different...

This was a gift to me from fellow puzzle collector Yee Dian Lee, whom I featured a while back. Lee wrote to me to give me more information about this wine pot:

"....the puzzle winepot (倒流壶 Daoliuhu) which you brought back, it is a replica of a Tang Dynasty celadon piece that was unearthed in 1968 in Shaanxi Province, China. That piece is now kept at the Shaanxi History Museum (陕西历史博物馆) in Xian, Shaanxi. 

A giant replica of this now sits in front of another museum in Yaozhou district near Xian (see the bottom of the page here - http://blog.sina.com.cn/guwan2005 )

More details here in Chinese (which can be Google translated) -

http://www.kaogu.net.cn/cn/kaoguyuandi/kaogubaike/2014/1106/48089.html

The Lilly Library also holds a similar replica (Lion Wine Pot) with some info in its puzzle vessels collection.

Difficulty Level

You fill the vessel from a bottom filling hole...and pour out the wine/liquid from the Lion's spout like an ordinary tea pot. There are a number of illustrations on the internet showing the internal mechanics of the pot and how the vessel is filled and used. I will leave readers to discover these for themselves.

Summary

This the first and so far my only puzzle vessel in my collection. A big thank you to Yee Dian Lee for his generosity.

Yee Dian Lee - Puzzle Books Collector Extraordinaire

Its always nice to get together with fellow puzzlers/collectors and last week while I was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for business, I had the pleasure of having dinner with Yee Dian Lee at his home and spending a great evening with him talking about puzzles and admiring his extensive collection.

The puzzle den is actually longer than what the photo shows

Some of you puzzlers would know Yee Dian pretty well, especially those who have attended past IPPs. Yee Dian attended his first IPP at IPP12 in Tokyo in 1992, over twenty three years ago. Since then he has not missed a single IPP to-date! I had met Yee Dian the first time over three years ago at IPP33 in Japan and since then we have regularly kept in touch. it was only now that I paid a visit to his home and see vast puzzle and puzzle books collection.

Yee Dian is an Electrical Engineer by training and graduated from Osaka University, Japan. Professionally he a corporate trainer working mainly with various Malaysian government departments. Apart from mechanical puzzles, Yee Dian is also the Testing Procter for the Malaysian Mensa as well as Secretary of the Malaysian Sudoku Society. 

I was hosted to a sumptious dinner by Yee Dian and his lovely wife, the meal home-cooked by Yee Dian's mother-in-law. Thereafter I spent the rest of the evening in his puzzle room. As I ascended halfway to his puzzle room, Yee Dian's puzzle vessel collection greeted me. It occupies an entire wall and the cabinet houses several puzzle vessels/pots from all over the world. What a sight to behold!

Puzzle vessels galore!

Yee Dian's puzzle den occupies the better portion of the third floor of his three storey house with both sides lined with shelves from floor to ceiling. The right shelves comprise mainly of puzzles and some books while the left are almost all puzzle books. I have never seen so many puzzle books in my life!

His IPP Exchange Puzzles, which number over 2,000 are not in the same puzzle den; there is just not enough space for them. Instead they are kept in boxes (all marked and numbered by year/country) which line one side of the corridor leading to his daughter's bedroom. 

Yee Dian does not just collect mechanical puzzles (his main interests being puzzle vessels and interlocking) but also focuses on puzzle books. While his mechanical puzzle collection numbers several thousand (he says he has lost count), his puzzle book collection is well over 5,000 titles! They are in several languages including English, Japanese and Chinese. 

Outside of Japan, Yee Dian has the largest private collection of puzzle books in South East Asia. A real treasure trove of puzzle literature acquired over many years with each and every title/details recorded meticulously. His passion is hunting for rare puzzle books both on the internet and when he travels abroad.

All puzzle books here

To go through just his mechanical puzzles alone, it would probably take a whole week. Yee Dian recounted to me that there was once a European collector (a pretty well know name in the puzzle community whom I shall keep anonymous) who visited some years back; he had spent three days in the puzzle den only coming out for meals and toilet breaks. Yee Dian welcomes any puzzler visiting Malaysia to drop by his home for a visit. Nowadays I go to Malaysia for business quite regularly. I am already looking forward to my next trip!

Well, enough said, I will let the photos do the rest of the talking....

Ultra rare puzzle books on this shelf

Notice some of the wooden puzzle boxes at the lower right?
These were from Akio Kamei before he became famous

Yee Dian and I exchanging gifts. 
I received a very nice puzzle vessel (a wine pot) 
which will be the subject of a future blog post

IPP33 Exchange Puzzles

At each and every IPP (International Puzzle Party), one day out of the 3-day event is dedicated to a "puzzle exchange". Here is where the exchange participants get to swap their own (or with permission, someone else's) puzzle design with one another. 

In the early days, some exchange participants purchased "off the shelf" puzzles and used these for exchange, but today, the rules are strict; designs have to be original and not something commercially available in the market prior to the exchange.

Featured below are 3 exchange puzzles that I had the opportunity to acquire during IPP33 in Tokyo, Japan last August.

Peak Performance

This puzzle came from Malaysian puzzle collector Yee-Dian Lee, one of several Asians (outside Japan) and the only Malaysian who attends the annual IPP regularly. Lee also has the honour of being one of a handful of participants who have attended more than 25 IPP events (to-date 27) in the 35 year history of the IPP since its inception in 1978.

A rather unusual but interesting and fun puzzle, the object of Peak Performance is to "walk" the red man from the START position to reach the top; the CEO position. This puzzle is made of acrylic and the plate has multiple holes drilled all over. 

The red man must have at least one foot in a hole at any one time, while moving towards the goal. It may seem pretty easy at first, jumping from hole to hole towards the top but the solution is not as obvious as it would appear. There is a subtle trick to this puzzle, nicely tucked away in a little corner and likely to be hidden from most,  me included!

City Block

City Block came from David Litwin. City Block is a collaboration between David and Bram Cohen, the latter who originated the concept behind David's design. For an interesting account of how they created City Block, check out Saul Symonds' interview with the two gents on Saul's blog.

An acrylic packing puzzle using "patterned" acrylic to form building shapes (with windows even), there are two challenges. The first is the "warm up" challenge - use the pieces to form the silhouette of the building skyline that appears at the top of the tray. The main challenge is to fit all the pieces, including the one with its own slot within the tray. 

I didn't attempt the first but went straight to the second harder challenge. Took me a while before I got all 7 pieces into the tray. Challenging but not overly so, compared to some other packing ones which I could never solve without the solution. However, based on what I have read on Allard's and Saul's blogs, I am not exactly sure if my solution is the intended one?

David has his own website selling some of his other puzzle designs.

Eight Squares

When I first played with James Kerley's puzzle here, I thought it was the easiest packing puzzle I have ever come across...place the 12 diamond shaped pieces (kites) into the tray. Did it in under a minute...my fastest ever solve!

Only then I realised that it couldn't have been that easy...and this wasn't the intended solution. In fact it wasn't even a packing puzzle to begin with! But rather the object is to use the 12 kites to form 8 squares (now that's why its called Eight Squares!) outside of the tray. The 12 pieces fit into the tray only for the purpose of storage.

No...this is not the solution...this is how the puzzle is to be stored or transported

I couldn't quite figure what to do with this one until I checked the solution, then I understood. I guess I am really thick here! Eight Squares is a great one not just for puzzlers, but also for mathematicians, geometry enthusiasts or folks who like to play with shapes!