Getting Everything Back Together – HolisTIC

After the last 2 Andrew Crowell spirit-crushing Turning Interlocking Cubes (TICs) that I worked on, 6 Face (Little Nightmares – Six Face) and Templars Cross (A Spirited Journey – Templars Cross),  it’s nice to take a step back and do a little HolisTIC puzzling.

HolisTIC is a 5x5x5 TIC designed by TIC master Andrew Crowell.  It consists of 7 unique pieces entwined in TIC magic.  It’s amazing how Andrew can just crank out all these complex puzzles with his TIC-it-tron.  As it’s name might suggest, there is a square hole bored through the center of each axis making it appear like a well-known Stewart Coffin design.  But this ain’t no Wookey Hole.

Unlike the last 2 TICs I worked on, this one falls on the lighter side TICdom.  I found it very approachable and the solving process moved along smoothly without any major hangups.  Of course, there are the obligatory backup and insert pieces in a different order, but for the most part, the piece locations are easy to determine as well as the movements and rotations needed to get them there.  It’s obvious where each piece enters until you discover that it enters from the other side.  You may also find that the last piece that you need to insert has to be added first.  And then when you do that, you realize that it’s in the way of other pieces forcing you to continually update the order of adding pieces.

Along the way, there are several very nice rotations that play out during the solution to add to the fun.  Some don’t become obvious until the end when you have to rotate pieces out of the way.  I’ve assembled it several times to enjoy the movements along the solution path.  

HolisTIC is obviously a puzzle designed to make you feel better.  And I appreciated restoring some of that confidence lost on 6 Face and Templars Cross.

Andrew’s puzzles can be found on his online shop, ARC Puzzles.

No Problem Puzzles, Update #8

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 contributor, 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 #7), more No Problem Puzzles have become available.

Chain Stitch

This was Theo Geerinck’s exchange puzzle at the 28th International Puzzle Party (IPP).  It consists of 6 planer pieces that somehow form a 3D shape.  But what is that 3D shape?  Since it’s designated as a level 2.5 puzzle, I decided to make it extra challenging by not looking at the final shape.  Which was extra challenging.  Too challenging in fact and I resorted to peeking at the photo of the final shape.   Even knowing what the final form looked like, it wasn’t trivial.  Unless you have a crochet background, I’d recommend looking at the photo.  It also comes with a stand.  And it’s big, really big, so big!    

Nineveh

There are several puzzles that involve packing 9 V tricubes into a 3x3x3 cube.  This one stands it on end.  The goal is place the 9 Vs in a stand that is only big enough to hold a 2x2x2 cube.  Of course, you have to do it in such a way that the pieces overhanging the sides do not fall down.  At a difficulty level of 3 it’s not super challenging.  This is helped by the fact that there are 7 solutions.  Then again, if you’re objective is to find all 7, it may prove to be a little more challenging.

 

Quintessence 

Who doesn’t like a good dodecahedron puzzle.  The objective of this one is to take 6 identical shell pieces, each configured with a different hook assembly, and make a dodecahedron with the hooks weaving around each other inside.  Doesn’t look so bad and with a difficulty level of 3, it should pop together quickly.  On second thought, maybe it’s a bit more involved.  Then again, after several interesting moves, it wasn’t that difficult to get together.  However, I have the nagging suspicion that I used a sketchy (off-axis) rotation.  I’m not considering this one done unless someone indicates that a sketchy rotation is required.

 

Rhomble

Here’s a puzzle that was skewed twice over.  Or is it thrice skewed over.  I wasn’t confident that I could immediately discern whether it was twice or thrice so I had to think about it for a bit.  In the end, I convinced myself that you lose a pair of squares for each skew performed and that Rhomble was a Soma cube that had been skewed 3 times.  This puzzle has a difficulty level of 2 and makes a nice little challenge to skew ya bwain a tad.


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.

Decadent – Triple Dip

What do you do when you go to make a symmetry puzzle from a highly symmetric shape cut into 10 congruent isosceles triangles and then lose one of the those triangles?  Well, if you’ve been at this for a while, you randomly glue the triangles up and hope nobody notices.  And just to be sure that no one catches on, you theme the whole thing on 3s – 3 triangles, 3 pieces, triple ...
 
Triple Dip, designed by symmetrologist George Sicherman, is a 2D symmetry puzzle consisting of 3 pieces, each consisting of 3 isosceles triangles.  All 9 triangles are identical and are one tenth of a decagon.  Most 2D symmetry puzzles are laser-cut or 3D printed but the Triple Dip puzzles offered in Wood Wonders last release are of the decadent variety, made from a selection of exotic woods.

I got the triple Triple Dip made from 3 different types of exotic woods.  The choices where 1, 3, or 9 different types of exotic woods.  Having each piece with the same 3 different types of woods seemed like the most mind-bending option.  We’re all used to symmetry puzzles in a single color.  9 different colors would start to shake things up a bit.  But having each piece made from the same 3 different woods starts to pull the brain out of whack as it tries to align the colors.  Already possessing a herniated brain, I simply enjoyed the swirling colors in my mind as I ceaselessly shuffled pieces in front of me. 

Triple Dip arrives in a nice drawstring pouch with the name of the puzzle lasered on the bag.  Of course, the object is to arrange the 3 pieces into a symmetric shape once you have stopped admiring the eye candy.

I’m always amazed with how non-straightforward solving 3-piece 2D symmetry puzzles are.  I just know that there is a mathematical approach to solving them but I haven’t cracked it yet.  It always looks so easy and I always end up spending way more time than I expected on solving them.  Needless to say, they are awesome and I have quite a few of them.  Perfect fidget puzzles and they travel nicely.

After working on Triple Dip for a while, I discovered that I could make a symmetric shape with just 2 of the pieces.  The third piece wasn’t really needed after all.  Pretty sneaky I thought as I put the puzzle on the solved pile where it sat all alone.

Missing the swirling colors in my mind, I took Triple Dip back out for another twirl.  I spun those bits around like there was no tomorrow until it looked like it was ready to take off.  It was then that I noticed something peculiar.  The left side looked kind of like the right side but reversed.  Checking to be sure that a mirror hadn’t slipped in during the frenzy, I concluded that I must have come across a 3-piece solution.  Undaunted, I quickly scrambled them back up and continued twirling them around with a big smile.  Pretty wood ...

If you want to dip into symmetry puzzles, Triple Dip is still available at Wood Wonders.  And you can choose between having the puzzle made from either 1, 3, or 9 species of exotic woods.