No Problem Puzzles, Update #6

No Problem Puzzles provided over 100 amazing puzzles designs for the community between November 2020 and April 2023 until the tragic passing of Symen Hovinga on 7 April 2023.  Theo Geerinck, the other half of the No Problem Puzzles duo, decided to graciously allow the puzzle designs to be made available to the puzzle community for anyone to print their own copy to keep the legacy alive.  Mr BurrTools himself, Andreas Röver, is currently in the process of verifying and publishing the stl model files over the next several months.  These are being made available on the Printables site under the No Problem Puzzles collection.  Another contributer, Crab on Printables, has also tweaked some of the models to improve them.

This post continues the review of the No Problem Puzzles as the models are being released.  Since the last review (No Problem Puzzles, Update #5), more No Problem Puzzles have become available.

3OPc

Packing squarish pieces within a circular area is always challenge.  It just seems to mess with your head.  This particular puzzle has 3 normal squares (aka O’s) and 3 warty squares (aka P’s) that need to be packed within a circular tray.  Lacking a brilliant solving approach, I started putting pieces in the pan and swirling them around, occasionally flipping them over to make sure that they were done on both sides.  And then I had an epiphany!  Maybe they weren’t warty squares after all but really disabled rectangles.  Or maybe there were some of both.  Turns out that they were all disabled rectangles when I found the solution.

This is a nice example of packing squares in a circle.  It’s rated with a level 4, but I didn’t find it as hard as some of the other level 4 puzzles.  You just have to know the difference between a warty square and a disabled rectangle.  Of course, you may just see rabbits or ducks but that’s just silly, and it’s not going to help you.

Pyre

What could you make with a lot of sticks.  27 sticks to be exact.  A pyre?  Yes indeed, a pyre puzzle.  This particular Pyre is cubic and constructed from 9 bundles of 3 sticks.  And each of the 3 sticks is oriented on a different axis.  This results in a cube with a 3x3 grid of sticks oriented along each axis.

My initial attack on Pyre was to start from the outside.  However, I quickly had the spark of an idea on how to start the Pyre and shifted to working from the inside out.  Following this approach and shifting some pieces as I went along, I ended up with an assembled cube.  However, I did perform some wonky rotations and squirrelly movements, which leads me to believe that this assembly is not The Assembly.  This is the second week in a row of this now and hopefully will not become a habit.  I’ll just have to set it next to 12 Logs for another shot after the holidays.  The level 4 rating is well deserved. 

7 Spiders

Halloween has come and gone but we can still enjoy a cluster of spiders within a pumpkin.  7 Spiders is a 2D packing problem consisting of ... um ... let me see … oh yeah - 7 identical spiders that need to be packed within a pumpkin tray.  Initially, the spiders seem very territorial and don’t nest together very well.  However, after a bit of coaxing and jostling, you can find some nice tiling patterns.  Unfortunately (or fortunately for your continued enjoyment), the 2 obvious ones are not in the solution.

There are a variety of ways to easily place 6 spiders within the tray, but the 7th is a bit more recalcitrant.  It looks like there is a nice big opening, but all those legs get in the way.  I found at least 1 configuration where everything fit except for the very tip of a single leg.  My approach to interlocking the spiders was to spin them until I had a nice web of spiders that fit within the pumpkin.

This is a very nice Level 3, 2D packing puzzle and will definitely come back out next October.

Aghhh!  I just read the puzzle description and it said that the eyes, nose, and mouth of the pumpkin need to be covered.  Is that possible?  I see bits of each peeking out from behind the spiders.  Luckily, rotating the web of lying spiders completely covered the pumpkin features.  So it is possible and looks even more awesome in this solved state.  And it’s certainly a big clue when solving that I missed out on.

Hexatanglers

This 3D packing puzzle has 6 identical pieces that need to be placed within a restricted opening box.  I naively thought I could see the answer, but when I finally printed it, it was just shy of being able to slip the final 2 pieces in.  Now it was a proper puzzle.

With a slight change in perspective, It was easy to add 5 of the 6 pieces with room to move them around.  However, there never seemed to be enough room to squeeze that last piece in.  It could have been forced in but that should be avoided.  Taking another look at potential assemblies outside the box, I found one that worked like magic.  The pieces just slide in with no resistance.  There is even a nice Aha moment associated with inserting the pieces.  It’s a nice introduction to 3D packing puzzles with a difficulty rating of 2.  

 

Jigsaw Box

With a difficulty level of 2, this one is a quicky.  The 4 jigsawy pieces along with 2 floating panels comprise the 6 sides of a cube.  Once the cube is constructed, it’s loose but will not fall apart.  In fact the looseness is required to assemble and disassemble the cube.  It’s nice and compact so you can keep it in a pocket to share with others.



 

If you don’t have a 3D printer, you can obtain copies of these puzzles from Nothing Yet Designs based in the US or the PuzzleguyStore based in the EU.