PuzzleMaster has done it again...a new Kickstarter Campaign this time featuring well-known puzzle designer Oskar van Deventer's Honeycomb take apart-put togther puzzle. 

I have seen this version of Oskar's puzzle in 3D printed format (aka the Screw Pack) and there is a video of this 3D puzzle on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfP_hOSzHVw). But this latest version from PuzzleMaster is made entirely of metal. Not to mention it is very difficult to solve! It is also very reasonably priced considering its a high quality precision made metal puzzle. Here's the Kickstater link below:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/puzzlemaster/the-honeycomb-metal-puzzle-brain-teaser-from-puzzle-master?ref=iy8bc0

Aside from the Honeycomb puzzle which backers can purchase on its own, PuzzleMaster has also a number of special package deals consisting of different combination of different metal puzzles, all with discounts offered. Take a look at what's on offer!

Anti-Gravity Box

Frederic Boucher's new design, the Anti-Gravity Box reviewed.

http://mechanical-puzzles.com/anti-gravity-box/

Double Feature

Saul Bobroff's IPP37 Exchange Puzzle, the Double Feature designed by Stewart Coffin reviewed.

http://mechanical-puzzles.com/double-feature-stewart-coffin/

OMPIC - One Minute Puzzle In Cube

Dear Readers,

New blog post up on James Dalgety's IPP37 Exchange Puzzle.

http://mechanical-puzzles.com/one-minute-puzzle-in-cube/

Yet Another Clover Puzzle & Chorazin

Two new puzzle reviews posted. 

Yet Another Clover Puzzle by Rik Van Grol

http://mechanical-puzzles.com/yet-another-clover-puzzle/

Chorazin by Yael Meron

http://mechanical-puzzles.com/chorazin-puzzle-inspired-synagogue/

Puzzles Crafted By Eric Fuller For Sale

I have listed a number of puzzles shown below from my collection, made by Eric Fuller for sale on my puzzle site

http://mechanical-puzzles.com/product-category/private-collection/

Please feel free to check them out.

Chequered Cube

I have known Neil Hutchison for the last several years and also met him on a couple of occasions during past IPPs. Chequered Cube was Neil's IPP34 Exchange Puzzle in London in 2014 and the first puzzle design from him in my collection. Neil, also know as "The Juggler" in the puzzle community, is an excellent woodworker and also has his own blog site, where he posts puzzle stuff now and again, but unfortunately not often enough!

Chequered Cube came in a smallish nice fitting cardboard box and when I first opened the lid, I thought it was some kind of burr or interlocking puzzle made out of at most half a dozen or so pieces squeezed into a 5cm-sized package.

Little did I know that as I spilled out the contents, the burr was not actually a burr but a diminutive 3D cube packing puzzle comprising a staggering 13 separate parts made of various dark (walnut) and light (maple) pieces glued together.

The pieces are all precisely cut with sharp edges, and fit together incredibly well and the quality of the workmanship is astounding. I am truly impressed how Neil was able to produce the minimum 100 copies needed for the Exchange.

The object of the puzzle is take apart the cube and re-assemble it into a 2x2 checkerboard cube. According to the instructions, there are four ways to put together the cube but only one solution for the checkerboard pattern on the sides.

While this was a beautifully made puzzle and all those 13 pieces were lovely to touch, the difficulty quotient was totally out of my league. Even just trying to put the pieces back together to form a cube (without checkerboard pattern) proved to be too difficult for me. I simply could not handle that many pieces, the shape they are in, with all their notches and grooves made me want to faint with confusion. But lets get real here...any puzzle with over a dozen pieces (and designed by an experienced puzzler) would unlikely ever be a walk in the park, would it?

Solved State

After much effort and time, I decided to find the solution via Burr Tools. For those of you puzzlers out there who have problems with this sort of puzzles or interlocking/burrs etc, trust me, its still fun, thrilling (and challenging) just to configure the puzzle in Burr Tools to find a solution. Yes....a bit of a lame consolation! Using Burr Tools with the relevant colour constraints, the programme came up with the solution on how to form the Chequered Cube with a checkerboard pattern on all six sides and I was able to put the cube back together in no time.

Chequered Cube is a fine work of art for a puzzle with great attention to detail. For those of you who are die-hard fans of 3D packing puzzles, well, this is one you should try to get from Neil. Not sure if he has any left but he can certainly be contacted via his blog site. I just wished that he had also made a matching wooden box to house the pieces...now this would have been so cool!

Dutch Souvenir Pack

This cute and quirky glass jar containing colourful clogs comes courtesy of Rob Hegge, who designed and produced the Dutch Souvenir Pack (DSP) as his PP36 exchange puzzle. 

The Dutch wooden clogs or Klompen are from the Netherlands and many are sold as tourist souvenirs. The jar is an ordinary looking glass jar with an airtight lid that locks; the type where you can fill it with jellybeans for kids. As far as the clogs are concerned, they appear to be those that can be easily bought off the street.

The DSP is a "3D" packing puzzle, if I can use such a definition and comes with 4 challenges, ranging from relatively easy to impossible:-

1. after removing the clogs and ball, place all 3 pairs of clogs into the bottle;
2. Same as above but close the lid
3. Same as 2 above but all the clogs must be below the lowest metal ring of the locking mechanism.
4. Same as 2 but include the rubber ball inside.

I solved challenges 1 to 3 but had absolutely no luck with 4. #3 was a tad more difficult since the the clogs had to occupy the correct position inside the jar below the lowest ring; hence some serious packing was needed, bu still manageable.

#4 was quite impossible for me! In fact it does look quite like an impossible object. I shall wait for the solution to appear in the IPP36 souvenir booklet to find out how to pack the ball in with the clogs.

As far as packing puzzles go, this one wins the prize for originality and aesthetics... and very appropriate as a (Dutch) souvenir, which doubles as a nice puzzle too!

Trainspotting

Now here's an interesting series of packing puzzles that I received during the course of three puzzle exchanges since 2014.

These are none other than Henry Strout's creations. The only other puzzle I have from Henry is his nice Flower String Puzzle. From what I understand, Henry started doing this series of train packing puzzles for exchange since 2013 and will finish off his series in 2018. Apparently, he's got another car/tender and an engine to complete (if anyone has more accurate information or otherwise, please PM me). 

These are fine works with wheels that spin, a simple coupler cum loop system to link train cars at both ends of each car and lids that are laser etched with the puzzle and IPP exchange details etc. The size of the train cars vary a bit but is pretty large and hefty with an average size of around 18cm x 10cm x 7cm. And all use just one type of wood (although I am not sure what it is).

All the puzzles bear the same style/theme...namely to pack anywhere between 8-10 irregular shaped block pieces into a train "car". Levels of difficulty also vary since each of the train cars or box contain different number of pieces and within each car, there are some protrusions or fixed restraining piece, which makes the puzzle that much harder. 

Each of the train packing puzzles have been/will be either designed by Henry himself, or someone else. As I joined the Puzzle Exchange only in 2014, I missed out on the earlier first train puzzle. What I have are the train puzzles for the last three years:-

IPP34

Sphinks Cargo Car

Designed by Brian Young (a.k.a Mr Puzzle Australia), 

Pack 6 pieces into the box

IPP35

Cutler Freight Car

Designed by Bill Cutler

Pack 10 pieces into the box

IPP36

Henry's Cargo Car

Designed by Henry Strout

Pack 8 pieces into the box

In terms of difficulty, lets just say these are not so easy as they seem. In fact they are pretty challenging. The hardest I think would be the Cutler Freight Car with its 10 pieces and easiest is the Sphinks Cargo Car with only 6 pieces (I know because I was able to solve the latter) and in between Henry's Cargo Car.

A nice idea to create a series of related puzzles for exchange. And for anyone who enjoys trains and/or packing puzzles, this will be an interesting addition to your collection, that is if you can get the complete set.

9 Blocks Box & 9 Blocks Cube

Update 23 October 2017 - Dear Reader, please check out my new puzzle blog and e-store at http://mechanical-puzzles.com

I thought I would start my 401st post here with a brief mention of the above two puzzles, which lucky me, has been made into four different versions with four different sizes. First off, the 9 Blocks Box; this is a design I did in late 2015 which was produced several months later by Eric Fuller in a limited edition run of 50 copies for sale. 

From Left: 9 Blocks Box (made by Eric Fuller), 9 Blocks Box (made by Frederic Boucher),
9 Blocks Cube (made by Eric Fuller) and 9 Blocks Cube (made by Tom Lensch)

 The 9 Blocks Box comprised of a rectangular box and the object was to fit 9 irregular shaped pieces into it. It has a unique solution. I spent a fair amount of time trying to design all the blocks to be different from each other but in the end, I could only managed to do so with 7 of them while two of the pieces had to remain identical.

Eric's version of the 9 Blocks Box was small and constructed to fit a pocket. I think small is a bit of an understatement; it was Lilliputian. Each puzzle measured a diminutive 3.4 cm all round! Made of Holly, Zebrawood and Macassar Eboy, it was rather cute and certainly didn't go unnoticed, which saw all 50 copies sold out within a day after it was listed on his site. He also fashioned the box to have a cover that "locked" magnetically to keep the pieces in place (even in an unsolved state; quite clever I must say) and dimensionally the shape also became more of a cube as opposed to the original rectangular design.

A couple of months later, my puzzler friend Frederic Boucher made a limited run of just 5 copies (of which I received #1). He also upped the ante by machining the 9 pieces in gorgeous aluminium. Frederic's version was a real beauty and came with a wooden box with slanted corners and packaged in a plastic container to boot. He too, as I understand sold out all his copies after pictures of it were posted on Facebook. 

9 Blocks Cube made by Eric Fuller 

Sometime later, Primitivo Familar Ramos from Spain took my design and scaled up the original rectangular box to result in a cube. As a consequence, he was also able to resize the 9 blocks such that now, no two pieces were identical. We jointly entered this version, the 9 Blocks Cube for the IPP36 Nob Yoshigaha Design Competition in Japan last year. 

The first working copies of the 9 blocks Cube produced for the competition were crafted by Tom Lensch. Our competition puzzle was huge! Each cube measured 12.6cm x 12.6cm x 11.4cm. Heavy and rather difficult to lug around. The box was made of Maple while the pieces Mahogany. We didn't win any prizes at IPP36 but this modified design again attracted Mr Fuller, who subsequently went on to produce 150 copies which formed the first release of his "Limited Edition" series via his upgraded website. Eric's interpretation of the 9 Blocks Cube was made of Maple, Walnut and Purple Heart with a much more manageable size of 7.3cm cube. As of the date of this post, there are still copies available at a very affordable US$37.

Magiq #8 & Tango 72

For this year's IPP36 Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition, I submitted two entries. One was my own design (the subject of this post) while the second was a joint entry with fellow puzzler Primitivo Familiar Ramos, which I shall write about at a later date.

START

My first entry was called Magiq#8 and the goal (as can be seen from the photos) is to re-arrange the 5 pieces and change the #8 to a #0. Saying "abracadabra" would certainly help! I didn't manage to win any prizes...but hey, its the participation that counts right? 

Although this year's design bears some resemblance to my entry at last year's IPP competition, the "69", the Magiq#8 is totally different in terms of the solve. My design was expertly crafted by Tom Lensch and consists of exotic woods comprising walnut, holly, shedua and yellowheart. Construction, fit and finish is excellent and I particularly liked the perimeter trim added by Tom to the top edge of the box.

SOLVED STATE

Its not as straight forward a packing puzzle as one might expect and there is a trick to it. No spoilers so I shall not say anymore. What's the difficulty level? I can't say as I have not received any feedback so far, although puzzler Marc Pawliger did casually mention to me in the competition room that he found it quite devilish... If anyone is keen to purchase a copy, please contact Tom Lensch via his website to check on availability. 

My Exchange Puzzle is "Tango 72". This year, I designed a sliding block puzzle consisting of 5 pieces, 4 of which are identical. Like most sliding puzzles, the goal is to rearrange the pieces from a starting position to an end position, while only moving the pieces (left, right, up and down) within the tray. 

START

END

Here the end result is to form the words IPP36 from a scrambled state. It takes a minimum 72 moves to arrive at the final solution. I tried to make my design accommodate an additional but easier challenge with fewer moves, but somehow didn't quite manage to succeed. Tango 72 is made from 3mm laser cut acrylic and I have a couple of copies left for sale if anyone is interested.

Phive Pack

My puzzle this weekend was the "Phive Pack", a play on words, which (I think) means "five" piece packing puzzle, fellow puzzle blogger Allard Walker's IPP36 Exchange Puzzle. 

A somewhat different style of packing puzzle from the norm, this 3D packer does have five pieces; consisting of four odd-shaped ones which form a polyhedron and the fifth being a marble. The object is to place the four pieces and a rather good looking pearl-like marble into the accompanying plastic tube so that the latter is completely hidden within.

Designed by Jane Kostick of KO Sticks, the artisan folks who create incredible looking geometric sculptures and puzzles in wood, the puzzle was 3D printed by Shapeways. It was available in a variety of colours during the Exchange but I chose a bright magenta, the copy you see here. 

The Phive Pack came un-assembled. At first glance, I didn't think the puzzle was that difficult, after all it's only four pieces, and all I needed to do was to pack the four into the plastic tube, but how wrong I was. Of the four pieces, two are identical, while the remaining two look very much alike but have slightly different angled surfaces.    

It took me a good half an hour or more of trying before I found the right orientation of the pieces relative to each other. The angle and facets of the pieces really confuse but once put together correctly, the final shape is a nice symmetrical polyhedron and fits just nicely inside the stubby plastic tube. I wonder if Allard/Jane had designed the puzzle just the right size (about 4cm all round) to fit the tube or the other way round. Any other way would result in some portion of the marble being exposed and the puzzle sticking out, preventing one of the two plastic caps from covering the tube properly. 

Depending on who's playing with it, some may find it really hard, some not. In the words of puzzler Eitan Cher, it's a very "disorientating" puzzle to solve. Agreed! IMHO, its not an overly difficult puzzle but not an easy one either...just somewhere in between with the right amount of challenge for an exchange puzzle. Contact Allard via his blog site if you are keen to get one. 

Restricted Area

This "crooked" shaped box puzzle is Saul Bobroff's IPP35 Exchange Puzzle. For those serious puzzlers, you may know Saul as the guy behind the very unusual and unique impossible object; 4 Street Elbows, which I never quite figured out how to take apart although I have heard stories of puzzlers who have.

When I first un-packaged this puzzle and saw the blue box, I thought it was made by Brian Young, who had produced something physically similar (but straight at right angles) called the Restricted Soma. But its actually manufactured by "Here To There", which I believe its Saul's own puzzle company. 

Now back to Restricted Area - it's a Stewart Coffin design, #270-A and the goal is to pack eight pieces into the box which has a restricted opening, reminiscent of Lacika Kmolnar's L-I-Vator Cube. What is unusual about this puzzle is that the box is slanted at an angle from all sides (not obvious from the photo). Whichever side you look at, you will see a "pararellogram" shape on each face of the box. Consequently the pieces inside; each piece comprising of two glued-together "slanted" squares are also at an angle. Quality is good with all the pieces cut and fitting nicely. Dimensions wise, the box is 6.5cm x 6.5cm x 7cm.

If this was a "normal" packing puzzle with straight edges, I don't think it would have been that difficult; but because of the angle that the pieces have to go into the box and with the different shapes, the packing becomes consequently much harder. 

I fiddled with the pieces, taking each one out very slowly with several involving 2-step orthogonal movements because of the restricted opening. Took a bit of time and practice but after a while I memorized where each piece was suppose to go. I can say its not easy. I didn't want to scramble the lot because knowing my lack of packing skills, I probably won't be able to get them all back in later. I suspect Burr Tools could help here (configuring the pieces in the normal way) but I didn't bother to try. I am also not sure but there could be more than one way to solve this puzzle.

Not an easy packing puzzle by any means and certainly different from your normal box packing puzzles with the angles and all. Hardcore packing fans would most certainly love this one.

Restricted Soma

Name
Restricted Soma

Designer
Martin Watson. This is the guy who designed the famous Digigrams puzzle.

Manufacturer & Availability
Manufactured by Brian Young of Mr Puzzle Australia. Available for AU$45/-

Type & Classification
3D Packing/Interlocking solid

Dimensions
Pretty heavy puzzle measuring about 7cm x 7cm x 7cm.

Materials & Construction
Looks to be Queensland Silver Ash for the pieces. The box is lacquered black. Construction fit and finish is very good.

Overview
This puzzle was Brian Young's IPP35 Exchange Puzzle.

To know what's a Restricted Soma, you need to know first what is a Soma. This Soma is "restricted" because the goal is remove the pieces and to pack them back into the box through a T-shaped opening....which of course makes it harder than the traditional Soma.

The puzzle came packed so the first task on hand was to remove the pieces. Not difficult and soon I had all out. With 7 pieces comprising of "simple shapes", it was not too difficult to remember where each piece went and I actually managed to get all the pieces back to their original positions inside. To aid in the solve, the box has round holes on all sides and the bottom, so fingers can go in to move the pieces about. But (unfortunately) the pieces cannot enter or exit from these holes!

The writing on one of the pieces states that there is more than one solution with rotational moves but only one solution that does not require rotations. I tried searching for this solution for a good part of the evening but not surprisingly, with no success. 

According to Brian on his site-

To find the unique solution without rotational moves is very difficult.  In a recent email even the designer admitted to having some difficulties although to be fair Martin did design it some time back so maybe it’s been a while since he tried to solve.

I don't feel so bad now. Burr Tools showed 3 possible solutions, but with one of the pieces doubling as a cover for the box, there is thus only one solution. And this solution involves some rather unusual moves. A total of 21 moves is required, with the 4th piece alone needing 8. A lot of fingering through the holes!

Difficulty
Not too difficult just to unpack and re-pack, unless you forget where the pieces are supposed to go. But as mentioned, very difficult to find the unique solution without rotation. It is rated as 7/10 by Mr Puzzle.

Summary

A must have for packing puzzle lovers. 

Chain Store

Name
Chain Store

Designer
Goh Pit Khiam

Manufacturer & Availability
Crafted by Tom Lensch. Limited copies may be available but I can't be sure. PM me if interested.

Type & Classification
3D Packing

Dimensions
Box is 5cm x 5.7cm x 6cm. Each of the links in the chain is 4.7cm x 3.1cm x 0.8cm.

Materials & Construction
Box is yellowheart while the chain links are cherry. Excellent construction, fit and finish. Tolerances are just right and everything fits nicely.  

Overview
Chain Store is an old design from Goh Pit Khiam and it wasn't until recently that working copies of the puzzle were produced. The goal is simple; to fit the chain links (which are all interconnected and you can't separate them) into the box flush with the top. Hence the very appropriate name "Chain" - "store". It's been described by John Rausch as a "one piece packing puzzle"...well, quite literally true isn't it?

The links when stretched out look rather long and it is obvious that you can't just stuff them into the box. Because of the tight tolerances, any attempt to force in the links would most certainly result in jamming (and probably damage as well). According to Goh, there is only one solution to pack the links in. Sorry but Burr Tools doesn't work here (even with the "grouping" function).

It is clear that the links must somehow be grouped together in a certain way to take up the smallest and correct size footprint in order to fit into the box just nicely. The links can be rotated in different ways and this is a necessary part of the solving process. But this arranging and grouping of the links is no walk in the park, despite only 5 pieces. In fact it is darn right difficult and I found myself trying a great number of combinations to no avail. Always, one link would be protruding a bit and refuse to go in the box. This puzzle requires you to solve the links outside the box before insertion.

Difficulty
Very challenging puzzle. I don't know whether it was just my lucky day or not, but I managed to solve it in about 40 minutes. Got the 5 links all in their correct positions and popped it into the box. Still, I can imagine some puzzlers would take much longer than that. At the request of Goh, I have not placed a link here to the photo solution. 

Summary

Goh has designed a number of challenging and interesting packing puzzles, including IPP award winning ones such as Dancing Shoes and Road Blocks. But Chain Store is perhaps the most unusual and unique amongst them. A fabulous puzzle with a great design concept.  A must-have in any collection.