Flattenry Will Get You Nowhere – Soma Tray

Over the last several years, the Soma Cube developed by Piet Hein has suffered a lot of abuse.  Since the 7 pieces forming a cube has 480 solutions, various tortuous methods have been employed to jettison 479 of them leaving the puzzle with a unique solution.  One of these time-honored methods is to squash it.  This involves picking one of the 480 (or maybe more appropriately 240 to avoid the mirror) solutions and scaling it down along one of it’s 3 dimensions.  To be quite honest, I do not know if every combination results in a unique solution but I’ve always assumed that squashing the Soma cube is a uniquifying process.

Soma Tray was designed by Rick Eason in 2016 and used as his exchange puzzle at the 41st International Puzzle Party in 2025, suggesting it sat on the shelf for 9 years.  In fact, it looks like it was buried on a shelf resulting in a somewhat flattened appearance.  OK, a very flatted appearance.  My guess is that it’s flattened shape under a heap of other puzzle prototypes had doomed it from seeing the world.  However, as we now know, it successfully escaped and made itself know. 

The puzzle consists of the 7 squashed Soma pieces with 1 dimension about a quarter of the size of the other 2.  All the pieces are flat with 5 of them having a single squashed cube added on top.  As the name of the puzzle would indicate, there is also a tray.  The tray is 5x3x2 with the 2-layer Z dimension representing the flattened dimension.  There is also a 1x3x1 shape affixed to the bottom of the tray, 1 unit from the end.  This provides a 2-layer 3x3 area on the left and 1x3 area on the right.  Both the pieces and the tray are made from laser-cut veneered wood.  The tray also has the name of the puzzle as well as additional information debossed along the rim of the tray.

Soma Tray comes with 2 challenges.  The first is to build a typical, albeit squashed, Soma in the 3x3 area of the tray.  I’m assuming that this is a uniquified Soma cube but I didn’t verify that.  The second challenge is to fill the tray with all 7 pieces.

The puzzle arrives nicely packed in the tray except for a single square sticking up from the tray.  Needless to say, filling the tray is not achieved by simply flipping that piece over.  Since the tray arrives with 1 piece sticking out, I obviously wanted to fix it and started with the second challenge.  I immediately dumped the pieces out to start with a clean state and embark on fixing the problem.  I know I said that you couldn’t just flip over that one piece in the original packing state to solve it but honestly, I just assumed that.  Maybe the joke is on me.

Since the right side of the tray limited that pieces that could be placed there, that’s where I started.  This definitely turned out the way to go as the spillover into the 3x3 side helped put the final pieces in place there.  I should also note that I solved it a second time and ended up with the a mirror image of the first solution.

Having completed the first, or technically, the second challenge, I proceeded to work on creating a squashed cube.  After some random attempts, I decided to think about the relationship between the pieces with and without the extra cube.  This gave the direction that I needed and soon after, I had a squashed cube nestled in the tray.  Since the other challenge had a mirror solution, I checked the cube as well and sure enough, the solution to this challenge had one as well.

Soma Tray is not a difficult puzzle but I did enjoy the challenges.  I also like how the pieces store in the tray.  And you can never have enough Soma variants.

In Mint Condition – Dr. Bell's Curiously Warped Mints

Dr. Bell’s mind is jam packed with mind-blowing packings.  Why, sometimes he’s imagined as many as 6 impossible things before breakfast.  His warped sense of humor has now brought us a minty fresh take on edge beveled cube packing.

Dr. Bell's Curiously Warped Mints was developed by George Bell and used as his exchange puzzle for the 41st International Puzzle Part (IPP).  Each of the 6 pieces is 3d printed in a different color and comprised of 4 warped edge-beveled cubes.  The objective is to artfully cram all the pieces within an accompanying tin.  The type of tin that you would expect to find a nice assortment of mints to enjoy.  However, you are not expected to enjoy these mints.  The tin explicitly warns to not eat them.  So then why are they made with yummy colors like grape, blueberry, raspberry, lemon, lime, and licorice?

To get you started, some of the pieces are already in the tin and you only have to add the remaining 2.  Of course, I dutifully took all the pieces out and separated them before starting on my journey of 1000 missteps.

Being warped always seems like it should make things easier but it always feels like the opposite.  Examining the pieces, I noticed some interesting clues that I filed for possible later use and proceeded on without them.

The first step in these types of packing puzzles is to determine what type of packing structure is required, i.e., how the web cubes are oriented.  I struggled a while working on a packing orientation that would allow the cover to go on.  Then I unfortunately discovered something significant.  I was proud.  Or I should say the puzzle was proud of the lip of the tin.  I thought that this was a problem until I finally realized that when you placed the lid on, it did not rest on the top lip of the tin and providing a little additional space.  And after considerable effort I was able to pack all the pieces except 1.

It turns out that what I thought was a problem that wasn’t a problem was a problem.  Eventually I reread the goal and it said that the cover has to be screwed down, which screwed the packing approach that I was trying to accomplish.  I hadn’t even realized that the lid was resting on threads.  I now had nothing to be proud about.  Dejected,  I went back to the drawing board mumbling to myself, screw it ... screw it … screw it.

I eventually discovered another packing structure with a lower profile that would allow the cover to be screwed shut.  I also made heavy use of the clues that I had remarked on earlier.  At one point, I had a 3 subassemblies that looked like they would go together to solve the puzzle but would require coordinate motion to accomplish that.  Of course it would require coordinate motion coming from Dr. Bell.  However no matter how hard I tried, I was not dexterous enough to get everything lined up and moving like I wanted it to.  Curiouser and curiouser!  I eventually convinced myself that they would not go together using coordinate motion.  I was so close to victory, I could almost taste it.  Stepping back a bit, a minor tweak allowed me to assemble the pieces within the tin and screw it.

Once all the pieces are assembled, it truly resembles a tin of mints that are all stuck together and won’t come apart as if they were one giant enticing gobstopper.

It’s a clever puzzle and by the time I finally solved it I have to say that I ended up licking it.  Thanks Dr. Bell.

Mixolometragrobology – Get in the Spirit!

Mixolometagrobologist Steve Canfield decided to go all out for his exchange puzzle in last year’s International Puzzle Party (IPP) and deliver a Sequential Discovery (SD) cocktail for us to savor.  After all, he was the host and wanted to make a big splash by leveraging his vast knowledege of puzzle Boxes and Booze to create an intoxicating journey with a bittersweet ending.  To aid him in this grand endeavor, he enticed puzzle genius and master craftsman Lee Krasnow to flesh out the intricate details that make this puzzle shine.

Get in the Spirit! consists of multiple layers of intrigue.  The outside is turned from aluminum with a Walnut and Hard Maple center ring to provide a classy classic look.  This shiny work of art may not look all that difficult but aluminum parts encapsulating various devious movements ring true.  After I solved it, I tested this in a manner that I’m sure will resonate with everyone.  I suspended both and struck them to verify the sonority of each.  Both produced a very nice tone with the top straining longer to sustain its note.

As for the goal, the shaker shaped tag simply said Get in the Spirit!  Preparing for just that, I happily embarked on my SD spiritual journey.  But where to start?  It’s a shaker!  You’re supposed to shake it, right?  Right?  Not so much.  Tilting and rotating will do.  As a matter of fact, I’d recommend not shaking it.

Through the holes in the top, you can just make out a red logo on a dark green background but don’t strain your eyes.  What could it be?

All three parts of the shaker seem to rotate freely and as you twist it and move it around you can hear things moving inside.  I was starting to fear that it might be one big marble maze and was particularly worried about the bottom portion.  I hear that people sometimes get lost in their cups.

With a little bit of exploration, the first move can be found, revealing the first glimpse of the interior.  I’m embarrassed to admit that this initial freebie move took me a full 10 minutes but I was going to savor this journey, by golly.  And with a little bit of additional work, the outer shell was peeled away to reveal … the next layer.

The interior is mostly 3D printed garnished with some metal hardware to facilitate making things more difficult.  Welcome to the inner circle, which sports 5 windows around it’s circumference.  And the inner circle has it’s own inner circle with it’s own set of windows.  It’s obvious that a lot of additional work went into making the design aesthetically pleasing instead of resulting in a strictly utilitarian design.  When the windows line up, you get a glimpse of what is waiting inside.  Through another opening, you can get a good look at a trapped coin although there doesn’t seem to be a way to easily remove it.  

Now you have a clear view of that red logo on top, which kind of looks like the top of a bottle.  With some effort you can get the top of the bottle to stick out.  It seems like it would make a great handle to rotate the bottle inside, which I did.  Rotating clockwise works great!  Rotating counter-clockwise not so much.  It really is a bottle and proceeded to dribble it’s contents in my lap.  I obviously don’t know how to hold my liquor.  At least I managed to limit the damage by quickly retightening it and vowing to never make such an obvious mistake again.

With just one drink under my belt, I stopped making progress.  I hit THE WALL!  At this point I kept trying everything over and over and getting nowhere.  There seemed to be a lot of enticing round holes that were trying to tell me something, but all I was getting was a buzz.  Eventually, I packed it back up and put it to the side for a while, a long while, months, in fact it’s been about a year.  How embarrassing!

After taking it back out after all that time, I blocked out a weekend and quickly (or at least quicker than the first time) found myself back at the wall.  After spending another considerable amount of time looking for a way forward, I finally succumbed and asked permission to do something that I was reluctant to do.  And I received the rare go ahead.  Usually this is followed by lots of laughter as I try it.  However, this time I was lucky.  In hindsight, the puzzle does provide a hint on how to get over that wall but like all good puzzles, you don’t recognize it until it’s already too late.

After a few more moves, you eventually end up with a token that is a bottle of your accomplishment.  Or is it a bottle that is a token of your accomplishment.  In any event, you wind up with both a token and a bottle of spirits.  If you are adventurous, you can take everything completely apart into the dozens of components that make Get in the Spirit!.  

The reset takes much longer than the solve but that’s basically because you just freed up a nice little bottle of spirits.

And that red logo on the dark green background?  Turns out it’s HUA for the H. Underberg-Albrecht company that Herbert Underberg started the day he married Katharina Albrecht to produce natural herb bitters.  

In addition to Get in the Spirit!, the puzzle, Steve also produced Get in the Spirit, the book.  The book provides a collection of fine cocktail recipes and wisdom.  Of course each recipe has a photo of the cocktail with an amazing garnish. 

It is also possible that Lee will make a companion cocktail shaker stand to hold both puzzle and book versions of Get in the Spirit!  Of course it will be a puzzle box and will utilize pieces from Get in the Spirit! in the solving process.  The CAD drawings look amazing and can be seen on Lee’s website, Pacific Puzzleworks.  However the fate of this project is still in flux as insufficient preorders didn’t provide the volume required for the originally projected price point.  Maybe offering an all 3D printed version of Get in the Spirit! for folks that don’t own one but would like the cocktail shaker stand could salvage the original plan.

Monumental – Markus’ Tetrahedron

Only the passing of the great ones are marked by a pyramid.  And a pyramid it was to remind us of the loss of puzzle master Markus Götz to the puzzle community in 2018.  His puzzle legacy lives on through his many designs generated over the years and I’m always happy to run across a new one that I’ve yet to discover.

Markus’ Tetrahedron was designed by Markus Götz and used by Stan Isaacs as his exchange puzzle at last years International Puzzle Party (IPP).  The 4 identical bright shiny green 3D printed pieces can be used to construct a tetrahedron in 2 different ways.  And since these exchange puzzles were made by George Bell, the pieces are constructed from conjoined spheres.

Don’t let the small number of pieces lull you into a sense of complacency.  It took me some time to find the first of the two solutions.  Each piece consists of 5 spheres and the pieces don’t seem to want to go together.  And each piece consists of a string of 3 spheres and another of 2 spheres that are connected by a cube.  Keep track now – identical pieces of conjoined strings of spheres connected by cubes that form a tetrahedron.  I don’t usually give clues on how to solve puzzles but just this once I’ll let you know that the solution uses Face-Centered Cubic (FCC) Packing.  Your welcome!

It doesn’t take long to determine that each of the 4 tetrahedron edges will consist of 4 spheres with each corner sphere belonging to 3 of the edges.  4 edges, 4 corners, 4 pieces, maybe there’s some kind of correlation going on here.  And lo-and-behold, the first solution emerges.

When solving this puzzle, you can ignore the cubes that connects the strings of spheres like I did.  Or you can realize before you solve it that each cube has a sphere connected to 2 of its faces and maybe this is a clue to where the spheres of the other pieces have to go.

It took some effort to find the second solution.  I kept getting the first solution and couldn’t see past it.  I had to step back to give it a good think and I’m getting a bit long in the tooth for that.  Eventually, I thunk (I know, it’s less of a process and more of a sound that my aging brain makes, k-thunk, k-thunk, k-thunk) my way to the other solution, which unlike the first, snaps closed when you get all the pieces together.  Looking at the final assembly, I could easily see why the second solution is much more difficult to find than the first.  I basically needed to jettison all those great ideas that lead to the first solution. 

Of course, once both solutions are discovered, the next challenge is to pack the 4 pieces back into the rather non-tetrahedralish box.  However, this was a much easier challenge than the other 2.

Receiving this monumental puzzle at IPP last year reminded me just how much I miss seeing that energetic, smart, and entertaining puzzle genius at IPP.  He always make everything seem a bit more special.

Markus Götz (1974-2018) attended 17 IPPs, participated in 16 exchanges and hosted IPP31 in Berlin.  He invented over 100 puzzles and authored six CFF articles.  He wrote about this puzzle in CFF 66 (2005).  He is greatly missed!
        - From the Markus’ Tetrahedron Puzzle Insert

RIP Markus!

Welcome To The Home Of Despair – DODECASOMA

What happens when you take a 3x3x3 matrix of cubes, attach identical pentahedrons to each side of the matrix so that each pentahedron completely covers one of the matrix sides, define a new cubic boundary to encompass the new shape, slice the space up into into 27 identical bits, and randomly glue up some of neighboring bits back together?  Well, you get a DODECASOMA obviously.  To save you the effort of doing that yourself, Rod Bogart has done it for you so that you can enjoy the formidable fiddly fun of constructing a dodecahedron from 7 dodecahedronized Soma pieces.

DODECASOMA was designed and made by Rod Bogart and used as his exchange puzzle for the 41st International Puzzle Party.  It consists of 7 green 3D printed Soma pieces that assemble into a dodecahedron instead of the normal cube.  The pieces are nicely scored with the outline of the 3x3x3 grid to provide some guidance on how the pieces are aligned.  The puzzle also comes with a stand for displaying the assembled puzzle.  The stand is also useful to hold partially assembled constructions.  And although it is providing a helping hand, don’t expect any useful advice from it.

It all appears innocuous enough but when someone hands you a puzzle that is an anagram for CASA DOOMED, you have to stop and consider the ramifications.  Are there 240 (or 480 – you’re welcome Nick) solutions?  No!  Which is good since you probably don’t need another regular Soma cube although you should have a least one.  Is the solution unique.  Don’t know!  But trying to solve it, it seemed like it could be.

Unlike a plain old boring Soma made from plain old cubes, the DODECASOMA ends up being made from 4 types of shapes which I’ve come to think of as corners, edges, middles, and the core.  They’re really misnomers, but I’m sure you’ll come up with better names when you start handling them.

I don’t know why I was surprised the first time I had 1 last piece to add and it didn’t fit.  Why would I think it would be any different from any other puzzle that I’ve solved?  A couple rounds of that wiped the smirk off my expectations.

It’s also a bit fiddly and you have to juggle the pieces in your hand as you try different piece combinations.  Unlike the typical Soma puzzle with cubic dissection pieces, not every piece will fit nicely anywhere.  However, there are enough places where they can go together making it non-trivial to solve.

Eventually I had it all together and with a bit more effort, I had it displayed on the stand.  At least I didn’t have to try all 10 sides to find one where it would stand without falling apart.

One Tɍough – Ditch

Ditch was designed by Alexander Magyarics and entered in the Nob Yoshigahara puzzle design competition at the 41st International Puzzle Party (IPP).  Although it did not win a prize, it looked like an interesting concept worthy of spending time on.  And spend time on it I did!

Ditch consists of 12 bi-color pentomino pieces where each piece is comprised of a tetromino of one color and a monomino of a different color.  The goal is to make a 4x4 square outline with the 12 monominoes.  The problem is that all those tetromino bits get in the way of accomplishing this.

The first Aha comes early on to get you started followed by a long period of learning how the pieces can interact with each other.  Some off these relationships will help form the solution while others will lead you astray.  There were some relationships that I was unwilling to ditch that kept me from finding the solution for quite a while.  I found myself reluctant to divorce myself from these poisonous relationships and I found myself in rut with Ditch.

I eventually gained the willpower to break off some of those relationships, giving me the freedom to engage in some new, healthier relationships.  With something old and something new, I successfully managed to extract the solution from the Ditch.

There were many times where I had one piece leftover that would not fit in the available space. The natural reaction is to start moving pieces around to see if you can change the space to something more receptive.  I can certainly attest to that.  However, if you end up with the same troublesome pieces multiple times, it's worth taking some time to find them a good match and treat them as a couple.

Much nicer versions of Ditch in a selection of exotic woods are available at Wood Wonders if you would like to acquire your own copy.

Lacking QC – Messing a-round

Messing a-round is a 2D packing puzzle was designed by Alexander Magyarics and made by alienpuzzles.  It was 3D printed and used by Alexander as his exchange puzzle at the 41st International Puzzle Party (IPP).  The tray is white and each of the 8 pentominoes is made with a different color giving it a vibrant look.

The puzzle consists of 8 pieces that need to be packed in the tray although not all at the same time since the tray can only accommodate 7 of them.  The pieces are rounded and fit together nicely with each other.  However, 2 pieces are missing a couple of rounds and the pointy corners don’t fit nicely in the inside corners of other pieces.  Really, what has become of quality control these days?  At least these unrounded corners were discovered before distribution and the solution statistics were duly updated.  With these unrounded corners, the number of solutions for packing all the pieces except the T piece dropped from 128 to 1.  Similarly, the number of solutions without the Z dropped from 95 to 2 and the solutions without the L dropped from 19 solutions to 1.  It’s almost as if the corners weren’t rounded on purpose.

Although those unrounded corners are initially awkward, you quickly get a feel for what pieces won’t go together well.  Given that roughly 99% of the potential configuration are going to be eliminated by the unrounded corners, you begin to suspect that finding the valid 1 or 2 working solutions is going to be tough.

I experienced the expected almost solved situations several times.  The case where the last remaining opening for a piece matches a piece that was already placed and not the one in your hand.  And the case where the last piece in your hand would fit if only one of those unrounded corners had been properly made.

Of course, I started with the missing Z challenge since there were 2 solutions and it would be like finding 1 of 2 needles in a haystack instead of a single needle.  And sure enough, even though it took some time, I eventually found 1 of the solutions.  Challenge complete.  No, I didn’t feel compelled to search for the other solution.  It’s always there if my conscious starts to nag me but she’s usually after me to do other non-puzzle related things.

I did the missing L challenge next since T pieces are usually a real pain in these types of packing puzzles.   I found this one much more difficult than the missing Z challenge and it took a lot longer to solve.  In fact, I sat down with it several times without success.  I was relieved when the last piece finally went in to complete this challenge.

I saved the missing T challenge for last since I find that the T piece in 2D packing puzzles usually don’t work well with other pieces.  However, the T is so restricted in how it can work with other pieces that it actually supported finding the solution.  There isn’t much you can do with that T so it helped to narrow things down rather quickly.

If you like Messing a-round, Alexander has designed other puzzles where he’s forgotten to round the corners of some pieces.

Answers From The Void – Sixmetry

There is something appealing about a packing puzzle with identical pieces.  I think it has to do with the initial assessment done by the subconscious mind where it realizes that it has less shapes to deal with and throws a couple of dopamine chits your way.  And yes, fewer shapes does equate to less complexity, which in many cases results in easier.

Sixmetry is a 3D packing puzzle designed by David Goodman and made by Vinco.  It was used by Patrick Major at the 41st International Puzzle Party as his exchange puzzle.  The puzzle consists of 6 identical wood pieces that need to be packed in a 4x4x4 wooden box.  Each piece consists of a 2x2x1 board attached to a 2x3x1 board.   The pieces consisting of 10 voxels each only use 60 voxels of the 64 voxel box leaving 4 of them unoccupied.

Even without the clue in the name, I would have guessed that the solution would be a symmetric shape.  In fact with 4 empty voxels in a 4x4x4 box, I assumed we had a Slothouber–Graatsma situation brewing here.  Don’t google that if you want to avoid spoilers.

There are a lot of puzzles that fall into this category.  A lot.  So many!  And after so many, when you are presented with one of these, you basically know where the empty voxels are located, which simplifies determining the solution.  And this allowed me to solve Sixmetry in about 5 minutes.  I’m sure it would have taken a lot longer if I hadn’t know the positions of the empty voxels.

And extra points for Vinco for providing the non-solution packing configuration on the instruction sheet.

Infesting In Puzzles – Parasitic Version

I have a lot of burr puzzles and they seem to be accumulating at an alarming rate.  This seems to be my retirement strategy.  Collect as many wood burrs as possible for the day I can’t afford the heating bill.  Or maybe they’re just fuel for the soul.  

I particularly love 6 piece burrs.  And 6 piece burrs with 9 pieces are even better!  This seems to be the result of an ever increasing tendency to stuff things in burrs.

Parasitic Version is a 6 + 3 piece burr designed by László Molnár.  It was made by Pelikan Puzzles and used by Gergely Prémecz as his exchange puzzle for the 41st International Puzzle Party (IPP).  The 6 main burr pieces consist of 2 pairs each of Wenge, Acacia, and Purpleheart. and the parasites are made from Maple and Bubinga.

You know from the start that getting parasites into the burr will not be easy since Wenge, Acacia, and Purpleheart are naturally pest resistant hardwoods.

I believe that the puzzle came with the 6 piece burr assembled with the parasitic pieces outside.  However, it was such a long time ago from when I originally received it and made a pile of pieces that I really can’t remember how it arrived.  I really don’t know why I keep acquiring new puzzles when I could just redo the same ones over and over again for the first time.  Yes, I do – and you do too!

I started the solving process by assuming that the 6 large burr pieces were actually paired by wood type.  Wouldn’t you?  It doesn’t necessarily have to be that way, but typically if there are 3 types of wood used, the pieces are paired,  This gives you a boost in the solving process since you don’t have to worry about all those other combinations.  Of course it’s also sometimes used to force a single or more difficult configuration.  So using the logic of purposeful intent, I went with the paired approach and started to look at possible configurations.

For each possible configuration of 6 burr pieces, the next step is to determine whether the parasites can be packed within the central envelope.  After a couple rounds of that, the process changed to one of looking to generate specific configurations that will accommodate the parasites instead of testing randomly generated candidates.

And then the fun really starts when you have to insert the parasites.  Of course, you can’t just let them dig their way in.  That would be boring!  You must go through all the proper channels and find the correct way to get them all nestled in their new home.  After spending some time with these buggers, you begin to get a feel for what will pack and what won’t that you can then narrow down to the winning configuration.  Even then, you have to still get it together, which I found an interesting juggling act with 9 pieces and 2 hands.

When everything is said and done, you are rewarded with a 6 piece burr that looks exactly like it did when you started.  But you know the difference because now, you’re infested in the process.

Finding Elegance – Four Pieces

Four Pieces was designed by Emrehan Halici and entered in the Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition at the 41st International Puzzle Party (IPP).  He also used it as his exchange puzzle for IPP41.  It is made from laser-cut acrylic with a double-sided black tray with white lettering and 4 red pieces that need to be packed in the tray.  It also comes in a very nice box specifically made for the puzzle.

The pieces remind me of the great white shark Bruce from Finding Nemo.  He was the character that lead a support group for sharks that want to be friends with other less toothy fish.  And indeed, your mission here is to get these fishy pieces to cooperate within a room.

Each side of the tray has a different shaped conference room for the Fish Are Friends, Not Food meetings.  One side of the tray has a square conference room to be filled and the other has a hexagonal conference room.

I only spent a few minutes trying to herd great white sharks around before really getting down to examining the pieces.   The sharks had the look of being the product of intelligent design leading me to assume that there would be an elegant solution.  With that in mind, I tackled the puzzle in earnest.

I started with the square conference room since it had a higher order of symmetry, which I figured would have an easier discoverable elegant solution.  And I was not wrong.  It didn’t take long to commence the meeting in the square conference room.

The hexagonal conference room takes a bit more effort,  I found a couple of configurations that were just shy of fitting.  I was tempted to blame the contractors but I’m all too familiar with the close but wrong scenario where more effort (mental, not physical) is required.  And yes, my faux solutions were elegant as well.  I eventually realized what I was missing and found the true elegant solution to bring the final meeting to order.

And finally, please note that you are packing great white sharks in conference rooms.  There are no red herrings in these meetings.

Ballsy Name for a Boxy Puzzle – Spherelation

I have several puzzles requiring the packing of 4 sticks in a box like 4 In Frame, Wheel Lock, and Quadripole.  They’re fun and I always look forward to solving them.

Spherelation was originally designed by Tom Jolly and improved by Zack Zieper.  It was used as Tim Udall’s exchange puzzle at the 41st International Puzzle Party (IPP).  Removing Spherelation from it’s packaging, you are presented with a dark brown open-top 3D printed box with 4 beige 3D printed pieces nestled inside, flush with the top of the box.  But it’s cubic.  The box is cubic, the pieces look cubic - calling it Spherelation is a little ballsy.

Since it comes assembled, the first task is to take it apart.  Turning the puzzle upside-down allows the pieces to move out from the top so that you can grab and start to move them while getting a peak inside.  It doesn’t take long to discover that there’s a shooter hiding inside to give you some trouble.  In addition to the shooter, there appears to be several nubs on the inside of the box to keep everything from simply falling out.

Disassembly requires moving the pieces around the nubs and each other while dodging the shooter.  Eventually, the box will be emptied, providing you with 4 burr pieces and an over-sized shooter.  The box is reminiscent of Pox Box with a couple of extra cubies on the bottom.

Once emptied, you need to leave it disassembled for at least 3 months before putting it back together so that you can completely forget how it came apart.  To be honest, this only takes me a couple of minutes but I dutifully waited the 3 months.

3 months later … I found a box with 4 burr pieces and a shooter.  Must be a puzzle (good thing it was sitting right next to a box with the IPP41 logo on it).  I immediately deduced that the pieces and the shooter had to be put in the box through the open end.  Since 3 of the burr pieces have non-solid ends they need to be located at the bottom the box since it’s obvious that the pieces have to go in vertically.  Further investigation revealed that the locations and orientations of 2 pieces are forced by the box.  This is a huge boost for a puzzle like this.  Given the nature of the shooter, there aren’t too many position and orientation combinations for the other 2 pieces.  The main difficulty is determining the order that the pieces, including the shooter, are introduced to the box.  However, I was surprised at how quickly it came together.  I found that getting the first 2 pieces in the box was the major challenge.  The last 2 pieces were much easier and the time to add the shooter wasn’t difficult to determine.

So is it more difficult to disassemble or assemble?  For the disassembly, the process starts out as a semi-blind experimentation process since you can’t get a full view of the internal structure.  From the assembly perspective, you have a full view of everything, but you’re not given the piece locations and orientations.  I found both to be roughly of the same difficulty and that neither was very difficult.

Drill Baby Drill! – Rock-it Burr

Demonstrating remarkable prognostic foresight, a brass monkey produced a future ubiquitous symbol from his well-oiled cognitive facilities.  And once such a thought has been brought into the world, it can never be unbrought.   The magnitude of this shared vision could very well end up defining a nation.

Rock-it Burr was designed by Ali Morris and made by Two Brass Monkeys.   It was used as Ali’s exchange puzzle at the 41st International Puzzle Party (IPP).  When I pulled it out of the box, I just spent some time admiring it.  It’s a masterpiece of 3D printed and metal parts.  The Sucker Rod Pump (the bird like thingy that looks like it’s pecking the ground) is nicely made and feels very solid.  It is mounted to the 3D printed terrain with the sucker rod disappearing underground.  It also has IPP laser cut on one side and 41 on the other, which serve as the pivoting point for the rod.  The cactus is also a nice touch supporting the Texas theme.  When everyone else was running with the Rock-et theme, Ali trod the path less traveled.  Well done!

Examining the ground portion of the puzzle, it looks burrowish with potential pieces that could be prodded to get things moving.  But nothing seemed to move and I was beginning to wonder how I was supposed to solve this frack’n puzzle.  And that was all the clue that I needed to dig in.  I drilled down to the core of the disassembly process and was soon pumped to have all the pieces laying there in a pile.  What a great idea!  And I wasn’t worried about getting the puzzle back together since the pieces are reminiscent of a typical Kumiki puzzle with a twist.  I solved it rather quickly but to be honest, the whole thing was rigged.

It can’t pump jack but it makes a good puzzle!  And they are currently available on the Two Brass Monkeys website.

A Set of Blocks For Adults – Houston, We Have a Puzzle

When I was younger, every kid had to have a set of blocks.  My set was made from 2x4 lumber and my younger brother’s set was smaller and made with smoothly finished hardwood.  Together, these sets were used to make many amazing 2D and 3D structures.  And at the end of the day, they needed to be packed back into a box and stored under the bed.  So even at a tender age, I was being trained to pack blocks into boxes.

Houston, We Have a Puzzle was designed by Oleg Smolyakov and used by Daniel Bain as his exchange puzzle at last year’s International Puzzle Party (IPP).  The puzzle was manufactured by Vinco and consists of 7 rectangular parallelepipeds that need to be packed in a wooden box.  Of immediate note, the box is unrestricted so every configuration would also be a solution.  However, after spending a couple of minutes attempting to figure out how to pack the pieces within the box, you’re quickly left with the feeling that there is a single configuration.

Each of the 7 pieces are a different size and made from a different type of hardwood.  When you spill them out of the box from their non-solution packing configuration, it doesn’t really look that difficult.  And in fact, it’s not really that difficult.  You just need to think about it.  Of course if you are like me, you’ll dicker around with it for a while before resorting to that dreaded thought process.

When you stop to really examine it closely, there is a logical progression.  And the progression is what you would naturally gravitate towards.  Each piece can be added one by one with confidence that it is in the correct position.

The puzzle comes with an instruction sheet with the solution on the inside.  Not that anyone would ever look at a solution sheet.  Extra points for providing the non-solution packing configuration on the back of the sheet.  Although pieces can slide around in this position, they won’t spill out of the box when in the packaging.

Houston, We Have a Puzzle is currently available on Vinco's website.

Nary a Problem – RecTangle - A Ternary Teaser

Nary an indecision, Nary a misstep, Nary a Problem.  The way is clear, the light is good, I have no fear, nor no one should.  

RecTangle - A Ternary Teaser was designed by Goh Pit Khiam and used by Lee Yee Dian as an exchange puzzle for the 41st International Puzzle Party (IPP).  It is a 2D sliding puzzle made from laser-cut acrylic in USA IPP appropriate colors: red, white, and blue.  The frame consists of 2 layers of white acrylic and the sliding pieces are made from blue and red acrylic.  There is also a clear acrylic panel that sits on top to hold the pieces in the frame when it is in its wrapper.  Of course, since it’s a sliding puzzle, it slides into the packaging.  

The objective is to move all 4 of the red pieces vertically from the bottom of their columns to the top.  The left three columns of the puzzle are ternary (i.e., the red piece can be in one of 3 positions), and the rightmost column is binary (2 areas for the red piece).  Advancing the red pieces vertically requires moving the blue pieces horizontally back and forth.  The 12 blue pieces could have been made using only 6 pieces but my guess is that it is more efficient to cut rectangular pieces in lieu of oddly shaped pieces and it obviously fits the theme better.

When I took the puzzle out, there appeared to be a few pieces that can be moved but the first move is obvious if you are even only a little familiar with these types of puzzles.  However, when I went to make that move, it failed to work.  Turns out that the puzzle comes with a clear acrylic spacer to keep the rightmost red piece from moving in the package.  Once it was removed, I was on my way.  With N-ary puzzles, it’s OK to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.  And repeat I did.  And repeat I did.  Thankfully, RecTangle only has 4 columns to demonstrate the concept without becoming tedious.

This is not a difficult puzzle and only takes a couple of minutes to solve, but it is an excellent introduction to how a ternary puzzle works.  The pieces move easily within the frame and there isn’t much danger of losing track of which direction you are moving.  In fact, there is only one path and you are either moving toward or away from the solved state.  And the best part is that you can perform the reset by simply picking up the red pieces and putting them back at the starting point – or any other point that you desire.

 

Puzzle Within A Puzzle – Lone Star Burr

Steve Nicholls’ exchange puzzle for the 41st International Puzzle Party (IPP) was a plastic sphere.  After careful inspection, the sphere was determined to be comprised of 2 hemispheres, one red and the other transparent.  Further inspection revealed other clues such as a dimple in the middle of each hemisphere and some cryptic symbology on the transparent hemisphere.  After referencing my vast collection of books on hieroglyphics, I determined that it was safe to store food in this puzzle in the UK and EU - a good indication that there might by some candy inside as a reward for solving the puzzle.  The dimples turned out to be red herrings.

Having experience in opening many of these types of puzzles acquired from numerous gumball machines over the years, I quickly solved this puzzle and separated the 2 hemispheres from each other.  Secreted betwixt them were a makeup applicator and a card displaying 2 puzzle hamsters with guns drawn ablazin’.  The back of the card indicated that the 2 cuddly gun-totin’ hamsters prefer to be referred to as brass monkeys.  Although there is no indication of pronoun preferences, I can attest that at IPP41, it was required to address Steve as Your Majesty.  And yes, kneeling and groveling was encouraged.

Just when I thought that was it, I noticed that a single hunk of plastic had fallen out of the sphere as well.  For the most part, this starry object was red, white, and blue with some yellowing at the edges.  It looked a bit puzzly, so I decided to give it a whirl.  When this lone star burrst, I ended up with a small collection of colorful little pieces, kinda like caltrops but unexplainably juicy looking.

Lone Star Burr was designed and made by Steve Nicholls and used as his exchange puzzle for IPP41.  The burr consists of 5 pieces and has a red, white, and blue Texas star on each side.  Each piece is a multicolor 3D print.  It may be all gussied up with colorful starry bits but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a regular dodecahedron.

When viewed assembled, the burr appears intimidating.  However, when viewing the disassembled pieces, it definitely comes across as more tractable.  Spurred on by the opportunity of an easy victory, I tackled the challenge. Indeed, some trial and error, balancing pieces, a little swearing, getting things lined up exactly where they need to be, some more swearing, starting over when subassemblies fell apart, stuffing the makeup applicator in the mouth to stymie even more swearing, and then simply sliding things back in place, produces the original shape.  I was surprised about how the final glide path doesn’t look like it would work, but everything slides smoothly together in the end.  Of course, if you don’t have everything exactly lined up, it won’t go together and you may end up with some more swearing.

Lone Star Burr can be purchased on the Two Brass Monkeys website.

What’s The Bu? – Caching Zzzzzz

News flash!  There’s a new puzzle maker in the community!

You’re not going to catch Stefan Garcia sleeping on the job.  Stefan decided that for the 41st International Puzzle Party (IPP), he was going to make his exchange puzzles himself.  Having secured a nice design from László Molnár, he embarked on the journey of 100 puzzles.  With no experience in 3D printing, Stefan bought a 3D printer, learned how to create and slice model files, and produced a fine batch of puzzles for the exchange.  And he didn’t just knock it out of the park, he launched it into space.  

To say that for a first time 3D printing effort that Caching Zzzzzz was nicely printed would be an understatement.  The ZZZZZZs are what you would expect from a 3D printed puzzle, but Stefan put in extra effort to make the frame with color changing filament and deboss the design and puzzle information on the top and bottom.  Extra touches included debossing the IPP41 logo information on one of the pillows and 3D printing the puzzle directions.

Caching Zzzzzz was designed by László Molnár and has 2 challenges.  The first is to fit all 6 Z pieces within the frame so that it makes an apparent cube.  The second challenge is to pack 4 of the Zs along with the 2 pillows within the frame to also make an apparent cube.  The frame has 4 double-voxel openings and 2 single-voxel openings, which makes it seem like there would be ample opportunity to insert the pieces within the frame.  Of course, when all the pieces are packed, these spaces need to be filled.

For the first challenge, you quickly realize that the last piece can’t simply be inserted without apparently leaving an apparent hole in the cube, which is no then longer apparent.  So apparently, there must be at least one more apparent move to complete the apparent cube.  And this is the thread that I pulled to work my way to the solution.  I found that accomplishing this exercise put me in an apparently solving frame of mind that made completing the second challenge easier than if I had simply attacked it cold as a single challenge puzzle.
 
Athough I didn’t find the puzzle extremely difficult, I wouldn’t say it ZZZZZ Z.  I’m looking forward to seeing what Stefan and László cook up for future puzzle exchanges.

 

Panefull Puzzle – Window Packing

You will go through great panes to solve this puzzle.  Four of them to be exact.

Window Packing was designed by Koichi Miura and exchanged in this year’s International Puzzle Party (IPP) by Meiko Kimura.  The puzzle is made from laser-cut acrylic and consists of a window frame and 4 blue tetromino pieces (1-I, 1-Z, 2-L) that need to be packed into the frame.  The 2 outer layers of the frame are made with gray frosted acrylic and have 4 large openings that come in handy to manipulate the pieces within the frame.  The center layer is clear and made from 2 pieces, but I have to confess that I don’t know why it isn’t a single piece.  

You will immediately notice that the O-penings on the front of the puzzle are not the same shape as the pieces to be packed inside.  Hint -  One corner of the middle layer has a single voxel opening (2 sides) to allow the pieces to be inserted within the frame.

This puzzle is not difficult, but it’s not trivial either.  It does require the rotation of pieces within the frame.  However, it should be obvious which piece needs to go in last and that doesn’t leave too many assemblies to check.  The rotations required to get the pieces in position are not difficult and the large openings help accomplish this.
 
I found packing this window frame much more enjoyable than packing the window frame in my old storm door for the winter.  Window Packing is a good entry puzzle for 2D packing.

Octadecahedron by Another Name – Pinwheel Crystal

What was the last octadecahedron puzzle you played with?  I thought so.  You’ve never heard of one.  That’s because of the lack of publicity that octadecahedron receives.  Now if I asked you about a truncated rhombic dodecahedron puzzle, you’d all be jumping up and down shouting that you have one in your collection.  Maybe even the Pinwheel Crystal made by Dave Rossetti.  It’s all in the naming.

I’ve always wanted a puzzle made by Dave Rossetti and I finally got my wish at this year’s International Puzzle Party (IPP).  Dave’s entry in the IPP Puzzle Exchange was Pinwheel Crystal designed by Stewart Coffin.  This is a geometric shaped puzzle in the form of a rhombic dodecahedron with truncated tips.  And the interior is hollow in the shape of a rhombic dodecahedron.

The puzzle is made from Granadillo and Maple and gets its name from the nice pattern made by the contrasting colors of the woods.  The puzzle consists of 6 pieces that are used to construct the truncated rhombic dodecahedron (just roles off the tongue, not like octadecahedron at all).

I’m always amazed at the complexity of these types of geometric pieces.  My woodworking skills top out at cubic dissection constructions.  The jigs and setup up required to make the angled cuts for geometric puzzles like Pinwheel Crystal is a whole other game.

So Dave used his amazing geometrical angly cutting skills to make 24 identical pieces (12 each of Granadillo and Maple) which he separated into 6 piles of 4, sprinkled them with glue, and shook them in a bag until he had the 6 puzzly pieces with a nice finish.  A little more shaking and he had the assembled Pinwheel Crystal.  Repeat 99 times and you’re ready for the puzzle exchange.  Sounds like magic, but everything seems like magic until you know how to do it.

Pinwheel isn’t a difficult puzzle to solve but it is a very attractive puzzle and beautifully made by Dave.

 

Time to Smother – The Blue Bird of Happiness

With a name like The Blue Bird of Happiness, you would expect this puzzle to have an upbeat theme.  However, the goal is to have the other jealous (or if you’re Mr. Mark - envious) birds, Miserable, Wretched, Gloomy, Woeful, and Mournful, smother Happy until it can’t see the light of day.  Yes, it’s time for Happy to have a case of the blues.

The Blue Bird of Happiness was designed by George Sicherman and used by Nigel Croot as his exchange puzzle at the 41st International Puzzle Party.  The puzzle consists of 6 pieces, with IPP41 debossed on each piece.  The pieces are 3D printed with each having a different color representing their personality.  Be careful not to confuse them!

As mentioned above, the goal is to place the blue piece on a flat surface and completely hide it using the other pieces.  Given the nature of the bird-like shapes, it’s not too difficult to discern the orientation of the blue bird required for the bottom of the pile.  One by one, you heap the Miserable, Wretched, Gloomy, Woeful, and Mournful birds on top until The Blue Bird of Happiness has vanished.

I didn’t find it very difficult to smother The Blue Bird of Happiness and I felt kind of sorry for him.  However, I needn’t have worried.  There were plenty of cracks for Happiness to seep through and like the phoenix, The Blue Bird of Happiness rose again to taunt the next puzzler.

Corner Table – End Table

International Puzzle Party (IPP) Exchange Puzzles come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes (and colors and materials and textures and …).  Although End Table is larger than you would expect and smaller than the name would imply, the name refers to the shape/location of the red square piece in the tray and not its size.

End Table wa designed by Goh Pit Khiam and was Khuong An Nguyen’s IPP41 exchange puzzle.  It’s 3D printed with a marble PLA tray and 6 translucent PLA pieces.  I didn’t want to risk breaking the puzzle by undoing the clips that hold the top in place but it looks like a nice mechanism.  They clips appear to be hinged on the top but I don’t believe in unnecessary violence to puzzles (except for the ones that I make – in fact abusing them is a necessary part of the design/manufacturing process and therapeutic to boot).  The translucent PLA used for the pieces allows you to see the infill pattern.  

It’s immediately obvious that this is a multi-color, apparent-rectangle, restricted-opening, 2D tray-packing puzzle.  The 5x4 tray has a 2 voxel opening in the side.  The objective is to place all the pieces in the tray through the opening with the red piece in the upper left corner (assuming that the opening is in the bottom left corner).  Never fear, there is a red square printed in the tray where the red square piece needs to go.  The pieces consist of 2 blue Is, 2 green Vs, 1 purple N, and 1 red O.

Windows for manipulating the pieces are very large.  The size of the puzzle is much larger than you would expect for this type of puzzle.  It makes handling the pieces easy.  I also found solving the puzzle to be easy as well although sometimes you just get lucky.  Placement of the pieces seemed logical with the red square restricted to the designated corner.

Just for fun, I tried packing the pieces with the red square in the other 3 corners without issue.  None were difficult.  However, after looking at the solutions that I came up with for the other 3 corners, I decided that maybe I did get lucky on the official objective since that solution had a property that the other 3 didn’t.