A Solid Challenge? – NotchedTIC

ARC TICs are extremely cool puzzles and most of the ones that I have solved have been 4x4x4 cubes.  One notable exception being MagellanTIC (Space, The Final Frontier - MagellanTIC), which is a 5x5x5 apparent cube and an awesome experience.  And now we have NotchedTIC, which is a non-apparent cube.

There’s just something so satisfying about solving a Turning Interlocking Cube (TIC).  However, it’s been a while since I’ve tackled a TIC by Andrew Crowell, aka ARC Puzzles {https://arcpuzzles.com}.  In 2020, I reviewed a different TIC by Andrew each month, with December’s being CagedTIC 1 (Ending With a Beginning - CagedTIC 1).  That post also had the links to the other 11 TIC posts for that year.  Although there were more ARC TIC posts, they weren’t as frequent and eventually trailed off.  How did that happen?  Well sometimes I get easily distracted. SQUIRREL!!!  Squirrel? Squirrel squirrel squirrelsquirrelsquirrel…

NotchedTIC is a 3D printed 6-piece 5x5x5 TIC designed by Andrew Crowell.  It gets it’s name from each edge having a missing voxel in the center.  And the puzzle arrived disassembled, which is my preference for attacking most burr puzzles.

The pieces to this puzzle fell into place fairly quickly.  Piece placement was obvious and pieces were able to be added 1 at a time with backtracking where needed to add a new piece.  Assembling the puzzle takes 28 moves with about a dozen of them required to add the last piece.  Along the way, 2 rotations are required but you don’t need to worry as they are not complex and obvious when needed.  In fact when taking the puzzle apart, the rotations will execute by themselves as pieces scramble to evacuate the TIC infested region.

I would classify NotchedTIC as more fun than challenging for experienced puzzlers.

Although I bought my copy second hand, you can buy the 3D Printable STL files for NotchedTIC and 5 other 5x5x5 TICs as part of a 6-puzzle set from Andrew’s site, ARC Puzzles.

Don’t Sleep On This One – InsomniAC1

Wow!  Just Wow!  What a ball buster!

Given the way the title is presented and the fact that this puzzle is not a lock, you figure there is a good chance that this puzzle was designed by Andrew Crowell.  And you would be right.  And being designed by Andrew Crowell, you know it’s going to be great.

InsomniAC1 was Yacine Boucef’s exchange puzzle for IPP41.  It is an apparent cube (or squat cube in this case) packing puzzle where all the openings need to be filled.  The woods are not provided on the packaging but I would guess that the pieces are made with Wenge, Padauk, and Mahogany with a Maple box.

I found the assembly early on but that was the easy part.  I’ve learned with these types of puzzles that if it looks like a good assembly and has a couple of good moves, it’s probably the one you are looking for.  All you need to do now is discover the sneaky moves that are required to complete the insertion sequence.

This one was tough.  Not only was the solution a challenge to find but the required rotations, were not simple to perform.  This was exacerbated by the diminutive size of the puzzle.  It’s not easy to manipulate the pieces through the opening and of course the pieces conspire against you by getting in each other’s way.  And no, this is not one of those puzzles where when it’s solved, the first piece drops right out.  Far from it.

Usually, I store these puzzles in the solved state so they take less room but for this one, I’m a little concerned that I may forget how to get the pieces out.  I may store this one in an alternate configuration.

I recommend getting one if it becomes available.   And if you have the opportunity to acquire a larger one – go for it!

X-tra Protection – T Lock

Last week’s blog got me thinking about protection so I thought it might be time to circle back and cover T Lock, the second of Andrew Crowell’s 3D printed burr locks that I recently acquired.  It certainly has secured a well-deserved spot in my collection of enjoyable puzzles.

Like Side Lock (www.zenpuzzler.com/2022/01/put-it-to-side-lock.html), T lock has a main frame (for all you old programmers out there), a shackle, and 4 T pieces that are packed in the frame.  The pieces are nicely 3D printed in gray, red, and yellow.  Since it doesn’t have the fifth piece running side-to-side like Side Lock, I expected it to be slightly easier.  Of course, it turned out to be slightly harder.  T Lock requires 15 moves to remove the first piece compared to 19 moves for Side Lock, but T Lock requires a rotation, which gives it that boost in difficulty.  Recall that puzzle difficulty = cube root of total voxels * pieces * highest piece moves * log(10 + rotations * 100)  / 100.  {Factors to compensate for things like n-ary inflation have been dropped for simplicity.   Compensating factors for piece surface area have also been removed since they are a pain to compute.  However, for designers that needlessly increase voxel resolution, these factors should be added back in.}

I’d like to describe how easy the original disassembly was, but it was so long ago I can’t remember.  This became all too obvious as I worked to get it back together.  In fact, I forgot that a rotation was required, which really is the crux move of this puzzle.  Needless to say, accomplishing the solve was a challenge.

The frame has 3 impeding cubies attached inside to help you figure out where you can, or more appropriately, where you can’t, put pieces.  These cubies only permit the shackle to be inserted in one orientation, so you can also add the shackle to places where pieces can’t go.  With some work, you can then determine where the 4 T pieces go, although I admit to doubting this configuration many times and re-examining it.  Trying to get those 4 pieces in the frame took some effort.  Once I finally figured out which 2 pieces needed to go in first, I had a devil of a time trying to get them situated in the frame.  

Typical Crowell puzzle scenario – struggling to get 2 small pieces in a big open frame.  Been there many times.  This is where I spent most of the time in the assembly until I finally enjoyed the Aha moment that resulted in not just the first 2 pieces in the frame, but all 4.  

T Lock is difficult and very satisfying as an assembly puzzle.  Having done it several times now, although not as difficult as an assembly puzzle, attacking it as a disassembly puzzle is interesting as well.  You can get copies of T Lock on Andrew’s online store, ARC Puzzles.

Wonderizing Puzzles – Benno’s TIC 2.0

As I was enjoying perusing through the myriad of beautiful puzzle photos on the Mechanical Puzzles Discord (MPD) server, I saw a particularly attractive puzzle made from several exotic woods.  Paduak, Redheart, Canarywood, Yellowheart, Maple, and Walnut comprised this intriguing puzzle made by George Syriaque.  The story behind the puzzle was as interesting as the puzzle itself.

George was fascinated by a puzzle designed by Benno de Grote called Favorite.  It is level 7 puzzle and George was interested in knowing if the complexity could be increased.  To scratch that itch, he shipped the design off to Andrew Crowell to pass it through his Magical Puzzle Wonderizer.  For those of you unfamiliar with the Andrew’s Wonderizer, it takes a plain puzzle design as input, breaks it down to its core puzzle DNA, injects complexity steroids, and reconstitutes its components into its new uber form.  So what would happen if you put in a design that was already great to begin with?  Would it strip out the elegance and produce a quotidian block of wood?  As it turns out, the Wonderizer took the level 7 puzzle and produced a level 16 puzzle with some added rotations sprinkled in, which was summarily named Benno's TIC 2.0.

For a long time now, George has been posting enticing photos of the puzzles that he has been making, whetting everyone’s appetite for more wooden puzzles.   Certainly not immune to that allure, as I gazed upon the photos of Benno’s TIC 2.0, I said to myself, “I’d love to give that puzzle a try”.  And then I moved on since they were not being produced.

Several weeks later, I received a package.  A package from my good friend George.  A package that contained a single cubic box.  The kind of nondesript white foldup box that puzzles sometimes come in.  Inside this box was, you guessed it – some foam wrapping!  Yes!!! Foam wrapping!   That's such a good sign!  And sure enough, protected by that foam wrapping was Benno’s TIC 2.0 that I saw on the MPD.  WOW!!!

Instead of drooling over pictures on the MPD, I now had one in hand.  TICs are my thing and…I can’t find the first move.  That first piece fits snuggly in the cube and took a couple of minutes to locate.  After a couple more moves, things start to open up and you may find that you are going in circles.   However, once you break out of that circle, pieces start emerging from the cube.

The dance required to separate the last 3 pieces was particularly nice.  Looks like it would be easy, feels like it’s impossible, and is greatly appreciated when you finally successfully traverse the correct path.  Need I say that the path is a bit twisted.

Reassembling the puzzle right after disassembly while all the moves are fresh in mind is easy.  It is much more interesting to leave it unassembled and tackle discovering the moves in reverse.

Since I don’t have a copy of the original Favorite design by Benno, I can’t comment on the differences between the original and the wonderized version.  I can say that the Benno’s TIC 2.0 is a great design and fun to solve.  Thank you George!  Thank you Andrew!  Thank you Benno!

Put It To The - Side Lock

It had been awhile since I’ve played with an Andrew Crowell puzzle, so I headed over to the arcWoodPuzzles shop on Etsy to see what’s new.  Andrew is a prolific puzzle designer and there’s always something new.  Amongst the fine selection of puzzles, I discovered several intriguing burr lock puzzles and decided to give them a try.  The first of the two that I selected was Side Lock.

The first thing that surprised me when the puzzles arrived was how big they were.  They were twice as big as I was expecting, providing a nice heft for 3D printed puzzles.  The puzzle consists of the frame and 6 other pieces: 4 short burr pieces, the longer burr side piece, and the shackle.  As expected from puzzles 3D printed by Andrew, the fit and movement of pieces is excellent.  The puzzle is also quite attractive, made using a marble-like filament for the frame and shiny blue, green, and purple filament for the pieces.

Since Side Lock arrived assembled and my preference is to attack these types of puzzles as assembly challenges, I quickly disassembled it and planned to leave the pieces untouched for a couple days while any vestiges of piece movement memory quickly decayed.  Quite honestly, at this point in my life, anything over 5 minutes is overkill.  A couple of months later, I found the pieces and attempted the reassembly.

With an empty frame and 6 pieces, I began tackling the reconstruction of Side Lock.  There is a feature within the frame that matches one of the pieces thus revealing the location of the first piece.  With the location of the first piece known, the location of the next piece becomes obvious.  At this point, I’m thinking, “This is easy, only four more pieces to go!”.  However, this was the end of Easy Street forcing me to kickstart that old clunker of gray matter.  Where once the old brain could breeze through these problems, I can now feel it wheeze through the process.  Eventually, the pieces found themselves in the shape of a lock once again.

I really like these lock shaped burrs and at 19 moves to remove the first piece, it’s a nice little challenge.  The one thing that I would like to see changed with the puzzle is to have the name debossed on the outside instead of on the shackle hidden in the frame.  I like to be able to reference the name without having to disassemble the puzzle.  However, I realize that this is my personal opinion and that there are people that don’t care to have the outside of their puzzles defaced with any type of lettering.

Per Aspera Ad Astra - StarTIC 1-4

Although it has taken several decades, I finally found something tangible that explains my college motto: Per Aspera Ad Astra - through adversity to the stars.  This something comes from the fiendish mind of that Turning Interlocking Cube (TIC) master Andrew Crowell, who knows that the only thing better than a puzzle is a cluster of puzzles.  With that in mind, he embarked on creating a series of StarTICs.  Of course, he attempted to pack as much adversity as possible within each to entertain us along the journey.

The StarTIC cluster consists of 4 heavenly bodies.  Each has its name debossed on the outside and Andrew’s name debossed on the inside.  Each has its position in the series at the end of the name except for the first, the original StarTIC.

The StarTICs occupy a 5x5x5 cubic dissection space.  Each consists of a gray shell surrounding an inner 3x3x3 core with a unique color for that StarTIC.  Although the core appears solid, each is comprised of several pieces.  The objective is to have the core go critical and eject its mass from the center of the shell.  Bits of the shell may remain stuck to the pieces while some bits of the core may be left behind on the empty shell.

StarTIC

Starting the cluster is StarTIC with its red hot core.  When assembling StarTIC, it’s easy to determine where the pieces go within the shell.  The largest piece contains a large section of the shell and can only go in one place.   Once that piece is in place, the remaining 4 pieces can be divided into 2 that add 2 cubes to the shell and 2 that add 1 cube to the shell.

After careful examination, you can determine that 3 of the 4 shell vacancies look like they can be satisfied by 2 of the core pieces.  The fourth can only be completed by one of the core pieces but it can go in that spot in 2 different ways.  However, it is immediately obvious that only one of them makes sense.  Once that piece is in place, it is obvious where the other 3 core pieces have to go.  The only thing left is to determine the order and movements required to get them in place.  Of course, some rotations will be required, but they are minimal.  

My favorite rotation involves the “T” piece that gets translated halfway through the rotation.  I designed a puzzle around this type of move about a decade ago called Interrupted.  It was the only thing that this puzzle had to offer.  One of the reasons that I like Andrew’s puzzles so much is that they have so much more to offer than just a single interesting move.


StarTIC 2

StarTIC 2 has a cold dark blue core.  Unlike StarTIC, the StarTIC 2 frame is only missing 3 small pieces, which can be found connected to 3 of the 5 pieces that comprise the core.

If you are tackling this as a disassembly challenge, you appear to be presented with a catch 22 situation.  It looks like a 2 block chunk of the shell connected to one of the core pieces needs to be removed to get the core pieces out.  However, it also looks like this piece can only be pushed into the core and not pulled out.  It appears that the main challenge is to figure out how to remove this plug from such an obvious exit portal.  Or is it?  You’ll have to see for yourself.

As an assembly challenge, you need to discover the very specific order of adding and rotating the pieces to the frame including plugging that 2 block gap in the shell.  Of course, when adding the first few pieces, a lot of movement and rotations are possible.  Even fully assembled, quite a bit of movement is allowed.


StarTIC 3

StarTIC 3 sports a cheery orange core, which is comprised of only 4 pieces.  One of these pieces also has a significant portion of the shell attached.  You would think that this puzzle would be easy with the shell separating into such large chunks.  You wouldn’t be wrong either.  I found StartTIC 3 to be the easiest of the StarTICs in the cluster.

With either the disassembly or assembly, it is not difficult to figure out what is going on within this StarTIC.  Rotations and movements are straightforward and shouldn’t prove to be difficult for most users.  If find yourself intimidated by this cluster, start with StarTIC 3.

StarTIC 4

The fourth StarTIC has a cool green core.  As with the other StarTICs, for the disassembly, you will be tempted to remove the piece with the largest piece of the shell attached.  Although there doesn’t appear to be much holding it in place, it refuses to come out.  It takes a lot of experimentation to determine the convoluted dance required of the core pieces, including numerous rotations, to release the first piece.  Once you have accomplished that, it’s all over. The other pieces can simply be plucked out one by one.  If you yank them out quickly without paying too much attention, you can also enjoy the following assembly process.

The assembly process is a lot of fun with StarTIC 4.  All the core pieces have a piece of the shell attached and aren’t difficult to place.  However, finding the right order to add, move, and rotate them will be challenging, especially considering the lengthy sequence of movements and rotations to get all the core pieces in place once the last one has been added to the shell.  


The StarTIC cluster is a worthy addition to Andrew’s TICs.  Not a single loser in the bunch -  they’re all stars!  

Per Aspera Ad Astra

Ending With a Beginning - CagedTIC 1

This is the 12th and final post of the monthly Andrew Crowell Rotations and Obstructions Series - Turning Interlocking Cubes (ACROSTIC).  A year ago, I decided to do a post every month during 2020 of one of Andrew’s TIC puzzles after buying a large batch of them.  Of course, I acquired many more of them during the year and the later posts are of more recent acquisitions.  You can tell from the newer acquisitions that Andrew has the 3D printing process figured out and the quality of his puzzles has become excellent.  

CagedTIC 1 is a perfect puzzle to end this series on.  It looks great, it’s difficult, and the “1” seems to indicate that there will be more to follow!  Did I mention that it’s difficult?  Even though I almost always recommend that you receive these puzzles disassembled, you can get this one assembled if you want.  It’s a challenge to even get all the pieces out of the frame.

So let’s get into it.  The puzzle fits within a 5x5x5 cubic area.  The simple frame comprises all of the cubes edges and is made from a marble PLA with the name of the puzzle debossed on one edge.  The 7 pieces that get packed into the frame are made from a light blue PLA and Andrew’s name is debossed on one of them.  The packed pieces leave the center of each of the 6 cubic faces unoccupied to make a pleasant design.  The pieces fall into 3 categories.  

Pieces 1-3

The first 3 are filler pieces that serve as spackle to construct that attractive final shape and each can simply be pulled from the puzzle in a single move.  However, the filler pieces do serve an important function for the puzzler.  They help identify how the other pieces need to be oriented within the frame.

Piece 4

The fourth piece is not difficult to remove but can’t be pulled out in a single move.  It also requires a rotation to extract it from the cage.  

Pieces 5-7

The final 3 pieces are the real challenge.  With only 3 pieces left to remove, you would think that it would be easy to just shake them out.  However it is far from easy and, needless to say, requires several rotations to accomplish.  It’s not even easy to determine which of those pieces need to come out first.  I wasn’t certain which one it was until I managed to free it.  Removing the remaining 2 pieces is not that difficult.

I had originally taken the puzzle apart when I first received it and didn’t tackle the reassembly until months later, leaving me with a good challenge.  Of course, I easily got 6 pieces in without one of the difficult trio and them spent quite a bit of time trying to get the trio established within the frame.  Of course, I had to take it apart again for the blog photos and struggled again to get the trio back out.  I know how those 3 pieces have to go within the frame but it’s a struggle every time.  Brilliant puzzle!

Although this is the last of the monthly series of TICs from Andrew Crowell, never fear.  I’m a fan of Andrew’s puzzles and I’ll certainly be including more of them in next year’s posts.  I’d like to thank Andrew for his awesome and prolific output of TICs and other puzzles over the last couple of years and look forward to seeing what the future brings.  I hope these TIC posts have inspired some of you to try and enjoy Andrew’s puzzles.  He usually has some available on his Etsy shop, arcWoodPuzzles, if you are looking for them.

You can find the prior posts of the series here:

January: Puzzling DNA - GeneTIC

February: TIC, TIC, TIC - PackTIC II

March: Green Beer ‘ill Cure What Ails Ya - BioTIC

April: The Proper Way to Solve a Puzzle - PedanTIC

May: Will This One Really Be Better Than The Others? - SkepTIC

June: Space, The Final Frontier - MagellanTIC

July: Hanging in Suspense - PackTIC V

August: Fantastic 20+ Move TIC with an 11 Move Non-TIC Alternate Solution - PatheTIC

September: I Had This Feeling That I Was Going To Like This Puzzle - MystTIC

October: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy - Fantastic

November: Puzzle Candy - ThreeTIC, TriadTIC, TripleTIC, NeuroTIC, TriumviraTIC

Puzzle Purchasing Pandemonium – Cluster & Inelegant Box

Puzzle madness has gripped the world!  A once humble community of puzzle enthusiasts has morphed into an insatiable world-wide puzzle-gobbling beast.  Reports of shopping cart thefts and shop crashing are now commonplace on puzzle messaging sites.

Puzzle demand now far outweighs the supply generated by a few key craftspersons around the world.  The entire internet can be felt sagging as puzzlers around the world refresh their screens multiple times per second in the anticipation of newly released puzzles.  Mom & Pop puzzle shops are collapsing under these loads forcing a migration to more sophisticated ecommerce website providers.

For the holiday season, Brian Menold at Wood Wonders decided to embrace this madness and held a special 24 hour “Snatch the Puzzle” event on Black Friday, 27 November 2020.  During the event, puzzles were randomly made available at deeply discounted prices as a way of saying thank you and providing some holiday fun for the puzzling community.  It consisted of puzzles from recent and future releases as well as some other goodies like puzzle stands.

However, Brian took pity on everyone.  To avoid having everyone repeatedly hit the refresh key for 24 hours (please don’t take this to mean that I don’t think there aren’t people up to such a challenge), he periodically posted clues via Facebook on 25 and 26 November 2020, providing hints at the times that he would be releasing puzzles:

• Will you be looking for puzzles in prime time, or when you're having a piece of pumpkin pie?
• I wonder if a label might come in handy?
• Let's start early. Same time forward or backwards.
• Is it a time or an airplane?
• There may be an emergency or two tomorrow!
• Why are those guys all sitting cross-legged on the floor on such a windy day?
• Another time, same backwards and forwards, and upside down.
• Police - Location (US)
• And finally, should I repeat myself?

Who couldn’t pass up an opportunity like that!  Like everyone else around the globe, I continually mashed the refresh key at what I hoped were the release times in an attempt to grab a puzzle.  Most of the time, I managed to get a puzzle in the cart, only to have it disappear before checking out.  The event was almost over before I managed to successfully acquire a puzzle.  When my wife asked me what I bought, I sheepishly looked at her and said “I have no idea.  If you have to look at it before you buy it, it will be gone.”  Of course, all of Brian’s works are wonderful and you really can’t go wrong.  Shortly after the event, I received a box from Wood Wonders with 2 puzzles.

Cluster

I initially had the opportunity to solve a copy of Cluster prototype that Brian brought to RPP last year (A Decade of Puzzling - RPP 2019) and was glad to finally acquire a copy.  The version that I received was made from Cambodian Ormosia.  It has an awesome grain looking like black bolts of lightning running through the wood.  It also has an interesting distinctive scent that reminded my wife of Sandalwood.  Cluster was designed by Andrew Crowell and it should come as no surprise that rotations are required to solve this puzzle.  In fact, all the pieces require rotations.  One of the pieces makes a rotational circuit through the puzzle, which I consider the highlight of the puzzle.  The puzzle is not very difficult, but the crystal shape requires some out-of-the-box-shape thinking.

Inelegant Box

Inelegant Box is my second acquisition from the Inelegant Puzzle series by Haym Hirsh made by Wood Wonders.  My first was Inelegant Fake (Not Your Elegant Hoffman Packing Puzzle - Inelegant Fake).  Like Fake, Box is made from 4x5x6 unit blocks that have been joined into 6 "L" shaped pieces consisting of 4 blocks each.  Since this consists of only 24 blocks, the completed cube is missing 3 blocks.  One of those blocks is the center of the cube making it hollow – aka a box.  This puzzle is not that difficult, but you do have to keep in mind that that there are missing blocks and you may have a difficult time solving this puzzle without that in mind.  The version I received from Brian was made with Canarywood and has a beautiful reddish grain to it.  It also came with a Curly Maple frame that shimmers as you tilt it.

Brian enjoyed providing this event to the puzzle community and is considering making this an annual event.  I’ve already started a finger training route in anticipation of next year’s event.  Thank you Brian for a fantastic time (12:21, 2:33,  3:14, 3:35, 4:06, 7:47,  9:11, 10:20, 11:11, AM/PM)!

They’re Everywhere! But This One Is Special! - ACorn

This time of year, there is nothing but acorns everywhere you look.  They cover the yard, they cover the sidewalk, they cover the street, and you can hear them raining down on the cars.  You have to be especially careful when you are out walking to avoid having them roll your feet out from under you.  You also learn pretty quickly to cover your head anytime there is a slight  breeze.  Even as we near the end of this year's acorn barrage, I was still happy when one particular ACorn hit my house.

This new ACorn is one of Andrew Crowell's new Apparent cube puzzles. It’s 3D printed with a light brown frame with the name debossed on the side.  Like ManiAC, which was the subject of last week's post (Apparently Another Crazy Puzzle - ManiAC Shuffle), it has 2 separate challenges.  Each challenge involves taking a set of pieces and packing them into the seemingly wide-open frame so that it appears to contain a squat 3x3x2 cube.

The first challenge uses a set of 3 marble pieces debossed with the number 1 on them.  This challenge is a warm-up and much easier than the second challenge.  The rotations required were fairly simple and didn’t require any dexterity to accomplish.  If you’re new to these types of puzzles, this is the one to start with!

On the other hand, the second challenge consisting of 4 black pieces debossed with the number 2 was a real challenge.  Although there is a rotation, this one is not about rotations.  There are only so many ways to insert the largest piece and I found myself going around and around and doing the same things over and over.  I finally gave up and started to think about the problem.  The key thought that led me to the solution was a[sigjfi[j giegr[erjoier gjerg [eji9g[e9jge[ 9rjgeg ijergad fgjldjgioe wrkj gioekr kgjdgj;ek gjrkiejg  - Sorry, nodded off and my forehead took over the typing.  Where was I?  Oh, yes - this second challenge is what makes this puzzle a must-have and the first challenge is simply an added bonus.  

ACorn is a great puzzle with both an easy and difficult challenge.  Something for everybody!

Apparently Another Crazy Puzzle - ManiAC Shuffle

That maniacal puzzle designer, Andrew Crowell, has been at it again.  Back in September, I reviewed Andrew’s initial foray into developing what is being referred to as apparent cube puzzles (Apparently Packing Puzzles - Corner Cube, Edge Cube, Angle Cube).  The objective of these puzzles is to pack some reluctant puzzle pieces into a box with one or more restricted openings such that the box appears completely full.  I say reluctant, because it can be difficult to cajole those pieces into their proper positions with multiple twists and turns.

Andrew’s new apparent cube puzzles come with two sets of pieces for twice the frustration.  The first one that I tried was ManiAC Shuffle.  Please note that Andrew highlighted his initials in ManiAC - or does that stand for Apparent Cube?

As with the prior apparent cubes, ManiAC shuffle is 3D printed and consists of a gray frame and a set of 4 bronze pieces debossed with the number 2 and the another set of 3 blue pieces debossed with the number 3.  Andrew had help with naming the puzzle and number 1 got lost in the shuffle.  Apparently, the honor of naming the puzzle went to the first person to solve it on the Mechanical Puzzles discord group.  The blue and bronze pieces are made with the shiny PLA and look awesome!

One good hint for solving this type of puzzle is the realization that it takes several moves to take the first piece out when it is assembled.  If you are contemplating a configuration of pieces where the last little piece just gets shoved in a hole in one move, you’re on the wrong path.  Another little hint for you is that the debossed numbers on the pieces are not visible when the puzzle is solved.  Before you all start jumping up and down crying that I’ve just ruined your solving enjoyment, Andrew placed all the numbers on inside faces of the pieces.  You didn’t really think that I would give you any kind of useful clue, did you?

I initially solved both ManiAC challenges a couple of weeks ago and then solved then again to refreshed myself on the solutions for this post.  The first time that I solved ManiAC, I started with the blue pieces that were numbered 3 and I did the same when I solved it this time.  I just assume that fewer pieces equates to easier and I always like to start with the easy one.  Well, I can tell you that after sitting around for a couple of weeks, it wasn’t any easier the second time around.  Tough little bugger for only three pieces.  One piece is 3x3x1 so it can only go in the 3x3x2 frame laying flat and there only seems to be one way that it can be inserted.  With one piece down, you would think that it would be close to being solved.  Not quite.  It took some effort to figure out how to add the other 2 pieces.  Of course, every piece has to be rotated and one of the rotations is a real dexterity challenge!

The bronze set seemed easier than the blue set, but to be honest, when you’re working on a few of these at a time, your brain gets a little warped as you work through them and you can start to see around the corners more easily.  Unlike the blue set, not all the pieces have to be rotated.  However, you will start to recognize the common theme of having to insert a piece in an orientation that does not seem possible.  It’s also amazing how many moves such a small number of pieces require to make an apparent cube in the frame.  A lot of these moves are accomplished by tilting the box in various directions to get the pieces to slide where they need to go.  Yes, you’ll look like a maniac.  Be sure to do it with your tongue hanging out!

Puzzle Candy - ThreeTIC, TriadTIC, TripleTIC, NeuroTIC, TriumviraTIC

 

There is something nostalgic and completely satisfying about a dish full of colorful treats in an assortment of pretty colors.  Delicious!  However, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve had to replace sugar with plastic.  Thanks to Andrew Crowell’s new Turning Interlocking Cube (TIC) designs, I can continue to feed this habit.

Andrew has been developing several TIC designs that consist of only 3 pieces, which I refer to as puzzle candy.  Not a meaty solve that you can sink your teeth into, but something refreshing that you can experience in short burst of time.  It may only take you a couple of minutes, but will surely leave you with a smile.  And the best part, there are no filler pieces.  All 3 pieces are integrally involved in the solution.  These 3-piece wonders also don’t have externally visible voids.

With only 3 pieces each, it is not difficult to determine where the pieces go.  The entire effort is in discovering the moves and rotations required to entangle those pieces and cajole them into looking like cubes.

I have done 5 of them and recommend them all.   Each was made with a white piece, a gray piece (light or dark), and a unique color to make that puzzle stand out from the others.  A veritable rainbow of colors enticing you to grab one to enjoy.  Each puzzle requires an amazing number of moves and rotations that you can marvel at.

ThreeTIC

White/Light Gray/Light Blue.  Level 7.9 (Although the 9 is mostly rotational moves, which are difficult to enumerate).  After figuring out how the first 2 pieces are aligned, you’ll need to determine the sequence of rotational moves to get them in place.  Keep in mind that most of the 9 moves are rotations.  If you’ve done several of these types of puzzles, this won’t be a problem.  If it’s your first, I suggest holding them both up next to each other in their final respective orientation and imagine that they are together while moving and rotating one of them until you have an imaginary separation.  Now reverse the process and assemble them for real.  The final step is to imagine the third piece in the assembly to figure out how that would be removed/added.  This puzzle is the easiest of the bunch and can be solved exactly as you would expect.

TriadTIC

White/Dark Gray/Light Green.  Level 12.5.  After solving ThreeTIC, you may think that the solving process would be the same for all of these puzzles - but you would be wrong.  TriadTIC has a very different ordering of assembly for the pieces making it slightly more difficult than ThreeTIC.  Of course, you will discover this the hard way when solving it.  This puzzle requires a lot of moves to complete like the others, but has the least number of rotations in the solution.  Only 2 simple rotations are required to solve TriadTIC.  With the explosive growth in TIC designs in the last 2 years, these 2 rotations can be considered on the easy end of the TIC spectrum.  If you are unsure whether you would like rotational moves or not, this one is for you to get a taste of what it’s all about.

 

TripleTIC

White/Dark Gray/Dark Blue.  Level 14.3.  TipleTIC is reminiscent of TriadTIC and although it has its own sequence of moves, it will seem familiar.  I think it is the same level of difficulty as TriadTIC or maybe ever so slightly harder since it’s 2 rotations are paired together in a sequence.  Of course you should get them both, but if you decide to get only one, I’d recommend this one for the slightly more interesting rotations.

 

NeuroTIC

White/Dark Gray/Orange.  Level 13.3.  Like TriadTIC and TripleTIC, NeuroTIC only requires 2 simple rotations.  However, one of these simple rotations is rather sneaky and I found this one to be more difficult than the prior 3.  It looks so easy now, but it did take me a while to figure out that rotation.  Yes, I know that his one doesn’t start with a “T” and makes it stand out like the ugly duckling.  But just like the ugly duckling, this one turns out to be awesome!

 

TriumviraTIC

White/Light Gray/Purple.  Level 16.2.  This puzzle is the hardest in the set and requires all pieces to be rotated at some point.  All 3 pieces are equals in the TriumviraTIC and they are all required to start working together from the beginning.  The rotations were more difficult to discover for this puzzle and it was a lot fun determining how to accomplish them.  TriumviraTIC was my favorite of the puzzle candy set.

 

If you have never solved a TIC, this is the place to start.  If you are an experience TIC solver, you will find these to be enjoyable little excursions.  My recommendation would be to get them all and have them delivered with all the pieces mixed up together in a Sadleresque puzzle pile - so named after that master puzzle blogger who has his friends mix up his puzzle pieces for him.  If you were worried in the past about receiving puzzles unassembled, this is your opportunity to give it a try.  You can acquire your own copies on Andrew’s arcWoodPuzzles Etsy shop.

This is the 11th post of the monthly Andrew Crowell Rotations and Obstructions Series - Turning Interlocking Cubes (ACROSTIC).  You can find the prior posts of the series here:

• January: Puzzling DNA - GeneTIC
• February: TIC, TIC, TIC - PackTIC II
• March: Green Beer ‘ill Cure What Ails Ya - BioTIC
• April: The Proper Way to Solve a Puzzle - PedanTIC
• May: Will This One Really Be Better Than The Others? - SkepTIC
• June: Space, The Final Frontier - MagellanTIC
• July: Hanging in Suspense - PackTIC V
• August: Fantastic 20+ Move TIC with an 11 Move Non-TIC Alternate Solution - PatheTIC
• September: I Had This Feeling That I Was Going To Like This Puzzle - MystTIC
• October: A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy - Fantastic

A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy - Fantastic

 How do you get everyone to say that your puzzle is fantastic?  You name it FantasTIC of course.  And then you emboss it on the puzzle so there can be no doubt.  This way when someone hands it to a friend, they’ll have to say: This one is FantasTIC.  Nobody will ever be able to deny it.  Great marketing!  Simple but effective.  I’m going to start giving my puzzles names like, Best Puzzle Ever, A Must Have, and maybe even Better Than Fantastic.

Of Course, FantasTIC is fantastic since it was created by TIC master Andrew Crowell.  My 3D printed version is one of the many TICs that I bought from Andrew last year.  The puzzle consists of 5 pieces that make a 4x4x4 cube with a complexity of 7.7.12.4.  The last 3 pieces to be removed all require rotations.  The frame and one other piece are printed in yellow PLA and the other 3 pieces are printed with black PLA.  The embossing on the frame declares that this puzzle is….wait for it…. FantasTIC.

Since I received these puzzles unassembled, my description is from the assembly perspective.  Attempting to insert the piece within the frame from largest to smallest will rapidly reveal where each piece has to go within the puzzle.  I’m sure it will come as no surprise that this is not the order that the pieces have to be inserted within the frame.  It’s also much easier to determine the insertion order than actually inserting the pieces.

Trying to get those first 2 pieces within the frame, you may find yourself muttering something like, this $!@#%@!#$ FantasTIC puzzle!, which pretty well summarizes how puzzlers enjoy being frustrated.  It takes some effort to figure out how to insert each piece within the frame and then even more to get them within the frame at the same time.  They seem to work well together at not working well together.  Once you get those first 2 pieces where they need to be, you’ve surmounted the crux of the puzzle.  The remaining 2 pieces are interesting but fairly straight-forward to add.

This is the 10th post of the monthly Andrew Crowell Rotations and Obstructions Series - Turning Interlocking Cubes (ACROSTIC).  You can find the prior posts of the series here:

• January: Puzzling DNA - GeneTIC
• February: TIC, TIC, TIC - PackTIC II
• March: Green Beer ‘ill Cure What Ails Ya - BioTIC
• April: The Proper Way to Solve a Puzzle - PedanTIC
• May: Will This One Really Be Better Than The Others? - SkepTIC
• June: Space, The Final Frontier - MagellanTIC
• July: Hanging in Suspense - PackTIC V
• August: Fantastic 20+ Move TIC with an 11 Move Non-TIC Alternate Solution - PatheTIC
• September: I Had This Feeling That I Was Going To Like This Puzzle - MystTIC

Apparently Packing Puzzles - Corner Cube, Edge Cube, Angle Cube

The latest fad for packing puzzles is to pack a few puzzle pieces into a box with one or more restricted openings such that the box appears completely full.  Usually, the pieces dance around each other within the box to acquire their final resting position.  It is surprising how many moves some of them take to solve.

The 2 most popular sizes for these puzzles are 3x3x3 and 3x3x2.  The solved appearance, making it look like a complete cube (or squat cube) within a box, has led to these puzzles being referred to as Apparent Cube Puzzles.  

These types of puzzles are very approachable and a great way to introduce puzzles to non-puzzlers.  They are clever little conundrums that can be enjoyed without requiring a large intricate attack strategy.

Recently, I had the opportunity to play with 3 of these types of packing puzzles from Andrew Crowell: Corner Cube, Edge Cube, and Angle Cube.  All 3 were 3D printed by Andrew in a variety of colors. All the cubes are of the squat 3x3x2 format and each of the puzzles has the name nicely debossed on the outside.  Everything is perfectly sized so that the pieces move extremely well within the boxes.  Occasionally, a piece will rotate out of alignment, but this is easy to remedy and not a real problem.

There has been some debate recently on whether it is obvious that the box should look completely filled instead of simply getting all the pieces within the box.  For those that don’t apparently get it, Andrew has addressed this issue by providing the following message on the inside bottom of the box: COMPLETELY FILL THE OPENING.  I’m sure that this will be followed by photos of pieces crammed in the openings and hanging out at all sorts of angles.


Corner Cube

 

 

 

 

 

 

Corner Cube consists of a brown box and 4 yellow pieces.  The opening of the box is in the corner and is unusual in the fact that it is not an integral number of voxels (think of voxels as the cubies used to construct the pieces).  It is 1.5 voxels in each direction.  I hope you weren’t thinking that the extra half voxel in each direction was to help you get the pieces in.  It’s there to provide a larger area that needs to be filled by the apparent cube within.

The 4 pieces look rather innocuous with 2 of them being simple di-cubes.  Don’t let that fool you however.  It takes 8 moves to get the first piece out once it’s assembled.  The solving procedure is very satisfying, and as with many packing puzzles like this, there is a lot of box tilting to get the pieces to move where you want them.  And yes, there is a rotation involved.  I hope you weren’t surprised by that.


Edge Cube

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edge Cube was made with a dark green box and 5 black pieces.  With the 2 dark colors, the contrast isn’t as striking as the with the other 2 puzzles.  I think that swapping the dark green with the lighter green of the Angle Cube might be a better choice.  

Like Corner Cube, the opening is 1.5 voxels in each direction.  The difference is that it is on the edge instead of the corner.  Are you grokking the naming scheme yet?

This one took me the longest to figure out even though it is the easiest one to repeat.  I had a good idea early on what the first piece to be removed was but couldn’t find a way to make it work. I tried a couple of other assumptions but in the end, I went back to the first assumption and finally found out how to make it work.  There is a very nice movement required and once that is figured out, the rest falls into place.  And yes, rotations are required.


Angle Cube

 

 

 

 

 

 

Angle Cube has a shiny light blue box with shiny gold pieces.  Don’t you just love the sound of that - A box full of gold pieces.  Is anyone else thinking that there should be a treasure chest puzzle available sometime in the future.  I have to say that the filament used to make the gold pieces is awesome!  They really stand out.

The box for Angle Cube is missing an entire edge.  But to make up for taking a piece of the bottom out, a 1x1 triangular wedge has been added back on to the top and bottom to provide an opening with an angle.

Only 3 pieces to pack in the box.  Should be easy!  However, 7 moves are needed to remove the first piece when they are all in the box.  At this point do you even have to wonder whether rotations are required?  Of course they are!  And this one has the most unusual use of rotations in the series so far.

In summary, Andrews’s Apparent Cubes are nicely designed and clever.  I highly recommend them.  As a puzzle designer myself, I appreciate the effort required to come up with a good design and, for the Andrew’s Apparent Cubes in particular, the design considerations concerning the shape of the box openings.  

I Had This Feeling That I Was Going To Like This Puzzle - MystTIC

After having done so many of Andrew Crowell’s TIC puzzles, I’ve developed this sixth sense that lets me know that I will enjoy the solving process, and so far, it hasn’t been wrong.  The latest of these is Andrew’s puzzle, MysTIC.  

MysTIC is a 4x4x4 Turning Interlocking Cube (TIC) cube consisting of 5 pieces.  It is 3D printed with the 2 main frame pieces printed in red and the other 3 pieces in green.  The colors are really vivid and stand out nicely.  As with all of Andrew’s 3D printed TICs, the name is conveniently debossed on the outside of the puzzle.  Very handy when you have dozens of these puzzles and are looking for one.
 
Right off the bat, I like the fact that there are no filler pieces.  In fact, it takes 10 moves to remove the first piece from the completed cube.  And some of those moves require rotations.  However, since I received the puzzle unassembled, those 10 moves define the completing sequence.

When assembling MysTIC, you just know where the pieces need to go.  It’s spooky.  You also get the feeling that there are going to be rotations required to assemble the cube.  It always amazes me how I can just tell that a TIC is going to require rotations.

It’s quite obvious how the 2 frame pieces go together when all you have is the 2 frame pieces.  It’s altogether a different matter when you have to get them together with the other interlocking pieces getting in the way.  With a little bit of investigation and some rotational magic, you end up with most of a cube and 1 piece left to put in place.  If it’s the correct piece, you are 10 moves away from completing the challenge.  It it’s not, a little bit of meditation is in order.

I have to admit, it took me longer than I expected to add that last piece.  For some reason, I was just not getting it.  So what if it takes 10 moves to complete the cube when adding that last piece and that 2 of them are rotational moves.  It’s not that difficult and I was chagrined to have not seen it immediately before the chanting.

MysTIC is another great puzzle design from Andrew Crowell and sure to awaken the inner cosmic puzzler in you.

This is the 9th post of the monthly Andrew Crowell Rotations and Obstructions Series - Turning Interlocking Cubes (ACROSTIC).  You can find the prior posts of the series here:

January: Puzzling DNA - GeneTIC

February: TIC, TIC, TIC - PackTIC II

March: Green Beer ‘ill Cure What Ails Ya - BioTIC

April: The Proper Way to Solve a Puzzle - PedanTIC

May: Will This One Really Be Better Than The Others? - SkepTIC

June: Space, The Final Frontier - MagellanTIC

July: Hanging in Suspense - PackTIC V

August: Fantastic 20+ Move TIC with an 11 Move Non-TIC Alternate Solution - PatheTIC

Fantastic 20+ Move TIC with an 11 Move Non-TIC Alternate Solution - PatheTIC

PatheTIC is another wonderful Turning Interlocking Puzzle (TIC) developed by Andrew Crowell.  It consists of large cage piece and 6 smaller pieces that fit within the cage.  3 of the pieces are what I call filler pieces and can be taken out in a single move.  The other 3 perform the rotational dance that makes these TICs so appealing.  The version that I have was 3D printed by Andrew with a yellow cage and green pieces.  I didn’t find this puzzle difficult, but the rotations were very satisfying.

However, PatheTIC has a dark side.  I really couldn’t remember why this wonderful TIC was named PatheTIC.  After all, I received these puzzles last year and have been really good at restraining myself to solving only one a month.  I went back and looked at Andrew’s email and there it was: PatheTIC has 2 solutions, a pathetic non-TIC solution which only requires 11 moves... and the PatheTIC solution which requires 20+ moves and several rotations.

I don’t know about you, but when I find a solution, that puzzle is solved - Done!  If a puzzle can be assembled in thousands of different ways, I’m not the type of person who has to discover all of them.  In this case however, since there was only 1 TIC solution and only 1 non-TIC solution, I figured that someone was bound to call me out if I didn’t find both.

I now had to go back and find the non-TIC alternate solution.  Of course, the first question you ask yourself is how different are the 2 solutions.  Are all the pieces in different positions or just a subset.  Maybe only 2 pieces have to be swapped.  It probably took me as much time to find the non-TIC solution as the TIC solution.  You can just refer to this as the Muggle solution since it lacks the magic of the TIC solution.  Yes, I’m reading HP again.  Sorry for that.

If a person unfamiliar with TICs attempted this puzzle, they would most likely find the non-TIC version.  For someone like myself, who has done a lot of these TICs, a lot of rational moves are expected and not avoided.  Instead of thinking it looks impossible to get this piece at that location, we search for ways to rotate pieces to get them there.  It’s a different mindset.

So, is this puzzle a TIC or not?  And how many other non-TIC puzzles are out there that have an alternate TIC solution that BurrTools could not find a solution for?  For me, I was lucky and discovered the TIC solution first, so this was definitely a TIC for me.  For you, it may be different.

This is the 8th post of the monthly Andrew Crowell Rotations and Obstructions Series - Turning Interlocking Cubes (ACROSTIC).  You can find the prior posts of the series here:

• January: Puzzling DNA - GeneTIC
• February: TIC, TIC, TIC - PackTIC II
• March: Green Beer ‘ill Cure What Ails Ya - BioTIC
• April: The Proper Way to Solve a Puzzle - PedanTIC
• May: Will This One Really Be Better Than The Others? - SkepTIC
• June: Space, The Final Frontier - MagellanTIC
• July: Hanging in Suspense - PackTIC V

Hanging in Suspense - PackTIC V

Recently, while I was on the phone, I pulled out the pieces of PackTIC V to keep my hands busy.  Does anyone hold a phone to their ear anymore?  Before I hung up, I had a complete 4x4x4 cube sitting on the table next to me.  Needless to say, I found this one easy and much easier than the other ACROSTIC puzzles that are rated as difficult.

Is PackTIC V really easy?  That’s not as easy to declare as you would think.  There is a tendency to equate the amount of time it takes to solve a puzzle with how difficult it is.  If you do enough of these, probabilistically, you’re eventually going to get lucky on making initial guesses for piece placements.  Many puzzlers have quickly solved a puzzle and declared it to be trivial only to be challenged in subsequent attempts.  Of course, the more puzzles you do, the luckier you are, and I’ve done quite a few of these TICs.

PackTIC V was designed by Andrew Crowell and my version was 3D printed by Andrew.  It consists of 6 navy blue pieces that have to be inserted within a gray frame to make a cube with no visible voids on the exterior.  6 pieces is a lot for this type of puzzle and usually makes finding where the 6 pieces belong within the frame the major challenge.  However, for PackTIC V, I discovered where the pieces went rather quickly.

The predominant effort of solving this puzzle is getting the first 3 pieces in the frame.  The 4th piece requires a small rotation to place it in the frame and the remaining 2 are filler pieces that can be added or removed in a single move.

Inserting any 2 of the first 3 pieces within the frame is trivial and when adding the 3rd, the other 2 always seem to get in the way.  Getting them in place requires determining the correct order of insertion and the rotations required to accomplish it.  All 3 pieces need to be rotated in the process.  Unlike some of the other ACROSSTIC puzzles, the rotations for PackTIC V are not that complex.  However, I did benefit by having thin fingers to accomplish one of them.  If you have a small version of this puzzle and large hands, beware.  Finding and executing this rotation is the hardest part of the solve and hidden pretty well.

The stand used to display the PackTIC V pieces is a tensegrity structure.  These have become popular lately as self-quarantining people are looking for things to do.  This one was made from STDs (yes, that’s standard tongue depressors) and string.  A side effect of the current pandemic will be a plethora of these homemade tensegrity structures.

This is the 7th post of the monthly Andrew Crowell Rotations and Obstructions Series - Turning Interlocking Cubes (ACROSTIC).  You can find the prior posts of the series here:

• January: Puzzling DNA - GeneTIC 
• February: TIC, TIC, TIC - PackTIC II 
• March: Green Beer ‘ill Cure WhatAils Ya - BioTIC 
• April: The Proper Way to Solve aPuzzle - PedanTIC
• May: Will This One Really Be BetterThan The Others? - SkepTIC
• June: Space, The Final Frontier -MagellanTIC