Wednesday 23 April 2014

Burrito & Columnata 2P3C

Name
Burrito / Columnata 2P3C

Designer
Yavuz Demirhan. For Yavuz's other designs, click here. As of this post, he has done a whopping 345 designs!

Manufacturer
Pelikan

Type & Classification

Interlocking; both puzzles released in 2013

Dimensions
Burrito - 8cm (length) x 5.2cm (width) x 5.2cm (height)
Columnata 2P3C - 7cm (length) x 4cm (width) x 6cm (height)

Materials & Construction
Burrito - Wenge for the frame and Maple for the pieces
Columnata - Jatoba for the columns and Maple for the pieces

For both puzzles, construction, fit and finish is up to the usual Pelikan standards, very good! All the corners and edges of both puzzles are slightly bevelled and pieces although snug, move smoothly. Nice choice of woods used to provide the contrast of colours.

Burrito
This puzzle consist of 4 congruent pieces interlocked within a frame. I suppose Yavuz chose the name Burrito because it does look like the frame is wrapping the pieces, just like a real burrito sandwich.




Once you start pulling at the pieces, it is quite easy to discover how the pieces are interlocked with each other and the taking apart is pretty straight forward. The Burrito requires 10 steps to fully disassemble. Reassembly is in the reverse and because the pieces are all identical, it is also relatively easy to fit everything right back since the horizontal pieces mirror the vertical pieces.

Columnata 2P3C
The 2P3C stands for 2 pieces and 3 columns. Yavuz also designed three other variants; the 2P2C which is easier than the 2P3C featured here, the 3P2C which is harder and the hardest of the four, the 3P3C has a level 37.9.4 solution, meaning it takes 37 moves to remove the first piece. If ever Yavuz designs a 4P4C, I estimate this will probably take about 120 moves to take apart fully.





The 2P3C is more challenging than the Burrito and this one took me a bit longer to solve. Nonetheless despite a level 12.5 solution, it is still quite manageable given that you can fully see what you are doing and the way the pieces interact with the columns. 

Reassembly will also be simpler if you remember the orientation of the pieces inside the frame. Unfortunately I forgot and it took me a while to get it right and back together.

Summary

Both the Burrito and 2P3C are very good "intro" puzzles for those new to interlocking burrs. 

Certainly they provide confidence and motivation to those like me who are lousy with burrs to play/puzzle with them from time to time. Without too much attendant frustration and without Burr Tools. Much better than just collecting and consigning them to the shelf for display. 

And at great value for money prices, you need not fear plonking down a lot of cash for some bespoke burr, which more often than not causes immense pressure to a puzzler to have to solve the damn thing!

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