Sliding Arrow Through The Bottle

Here's a nice sliding block puzzle that does not have a stratospheric number of moves. Its also a cute and colourful one and this was designed by Serhiy Grabarchuk, who is very well-known for his eye-catching and interesting looking sliding puzzle designs. 

START POSITION

END POSITION

I have two of his other works which were reviewed earlier, his Sorter and One Fish Another Fish. I obtained the Sliding Arrow puzzle via a private exchange with fellow puzzler Dinair Namdarian, who also produced it. The puzzle is precision laser cut and well-made.

The Sliding Arrow measures about 14cm x 11cm and consists of a typical tray and 9 loose pieces. Unlike most sliding puzzles consisting of squares and rectangular shaped pieces, Serhiy had designed some of the pieces in the shape of a "bottle" and an "arrow". And this was fashioned into their shapes using translucent green acrylic for the bottle and yellow for the arrow. The "shaft" of the arrow is not another individual moving piece but cleverly recessed into the base of the tray.

The object is to get from the Start to the End positions as shown in the photos. Officially, the least number of moves to arrive at the final solution is 31. Not a lot compared to some other other sliding puzzles, for example, those from Minoru Abe. However, the moves are tricky and if you get the sequence wrong from the early stages, you will hit a dead end(s) and will have to re-arrange the pieces and begin all over again. This happened to me quite a number of times! Good thing most sliding puzzles have exposed pieces!

The Sliding Arrow is one of Serhiy Grabarchuk's more well-known designs and while the number of moves is not a lot, it is far more challenging than it appears.

Sorter

I had the pleasure of meeting renowned sliding block puzzle designer Serhiy Grabarchuk at IPP34 in London this past August where we exchanged puzzles. This is how I got his Sorter. 

Start Position

This is my second sliding block puzzle from Serhiy. The first was One Fish Another Fish reviewed earlier.

Very nicely constructed of colourful laser cut acrylic, the Sorter is a "sealed" puzzle; meaning the sliding pieces are encased in the tray and you can't remove the pieces....not unless you unscrew the top cover...which is not intended.

Finished Position

The object is this - to move the coloured pieces (which has various shapes cut into them) from their starting positions, to correspond with the cut-outs on the top cover. Only linear moves are allowed, no rotations permitted.

It took me a good several minutes to get the pieces into their intended positions and after the first time, I re-solved it and counted about 38 moves from start to finish. I am not sure if this is the optimal number of moves (probably not), so if anyone who has done it in lesser moves, please feel free to drop me a note.  

Overall a nice sliding block puzzle with an appropriate level of difficulty, just right for an exchange puzzle.

Edit 28 Oct 14: A well-known puzzle collector and sliding block puzzle designer has messaged me to say that the Sorter needs only 22 moves to solve!....well there you go!

Cast Coaster

Name
Cast Coaster

Designer
Serhiy Grabarchuk; who is very well known for a number of sliding puzzle designs including One Fish Another Fish reviewed here in this blog. To see his many puzzle designs, some which have been commercialised, click here. If you wish to play his sliding puzzles digitally, click here.

Manufacturer
Hanayama. Launched back in 2006, the Cast Coaster is available from various online retailers and Ebay.

Type & Classification
Take-part; disentanglement

Dimensions
6.5cm (Length) x 6.5cm (Width) and 0.5cm (Thickness)

Materials & Construction
Made of zinc alloy (I think) covered in shiny chrome. Quality of construction, finish and fit is very decent. Again I would have personally preferred a matt surface.

Overview
Its obvious why the puzzle is called "coaster". It fully resembles one (even looks like one of those Celtic designs). From a practical standpoint, not that useful as a coaster especially for cold drinks since the condensation will go through the cracks and gaps.

The object is to "break" apart the Coaster and reassemble it. The Coaster consists of three interlocked triangular shaped "rings" giving the Coaster its round shape.

Disassembly was simple enough, easily done in seconds. The reassembly is where the real challenge is. On each of the triangular rings are grooves which allow the rings to intersect and fit within each other. All three rings are non-identical in the sense that the grooves are all in different positions on each ring and the number of grooves are also different for each ring.

I went through a good couple of hours trying to fit the pieces back together but somehow the solution just eluded me. Whenever I thought I could fit two and get the third on, I'll be stuck. Not easy to solve by trial and error since the tolerances are tight and leaves little room for chance solutions.

Eventually I lost patience and went for the solution. There are about half a dozen videos on YouTube on the Coaster. But only one or maybe two of the videos are easy to follow for the solution. I will leave readers to figure out which ones.

Difficulty Level
Hanayama rates the Coaster at 4-stars (out of 6). I am more inclined to give it a 4.5 or even a 5 instead.

Summary
This is one of those puzzles very hard to figure out, but once you do, easily repeatable solving. After I learnt the solution and memorised the few necessary steps, I could re-fix the Coaster in under thirty seconds. Visually its aesthetically pleasing given its charming pattern. Certainly something you can leave on your coffee table for show!

One Fish Another Fish

Name
One Fish Another Fish

Designer
Serhiy Grabarchuk. One of his many numerous sliding puzzle designs (see here). Serhiy also designed the Cast Coaster for Hanayama.

Start Position

Finished Position...well sort of...the lower  left  corner
blue tile is actually supposed to be on the top left corner)

Manufacturer
Diniar Namdarian.

Type & Classification
Sliding

Dimensions
15.1 cm (Height) x 12.1cm (Width) x 1.0 cm (Depth).

Materials & Construction
Entire puzzle is made of acrylic (plexiglass). Construction fit and finish is very good as the puzzle pieces are laser cut to tight tolerances.

Overview
The One Fish Another Fish came to me courtesy of Diniar Namdarian, puzzle designer and collector (thank you Diniar). From the design, you can tell why its called the name its called. The very good combination of colours for the pieces consisting of orange, blue and yellow enclosed by a white tray gives the puzzle a very bright, cheerful and attractive appearance.

Initially one would not think its a very difficult sliding puzzle given that its only 11 moving pieces (one space is left empty). This is what what I thought too (after my most difficult encounter with my Cat & Dog sliding puzzle, which still remains unsolved).

Well I should have remembered after so much puzzling that a puzzle that looks simple usually isn't and true enough as I started playing, I realised that not every single piece will move in every direction when it came to the corners. This clever restriction limits the movements of the pieces and makes the puzzle far more challenging than it looks.

I took a good forty five minutes with trying all sorts of moves before arriving at the "finished" position ie the reverse image of the fish...but alas, still not quite there. But I was happy with my personal result and didn't go further.

Difficulty Level
Moderately difficult. Moving the quarter-circle shaped pieces to their intended locations do require some forward planning of sorts since movements may be restricted now and again at the corners.

Summary
Overall a nice well-made sliding puzzle that provides enough challenge (and one that does not take a lot of time to complete). Good for puzzlers that don't have much experience with sliding puzzles (like me). I should have started with this one instead of the Cat & Dog.