Holey 2D Symmetry, Batman – Rising Sun & LUV Potion

In a departure from the usual 2D Symmetry puzzles, I present Rising Sun and LUV Potion.  Not only do the pieces have to be arranged to make a symmetric shape but the holes in the pieces must support the symmetry as well.  Both puzzles were designed by Frederic Boucher and made by Nothing Yet Designs in acrylic.  And neither puzzle indicates the type of symmetry required to solve it. 

Rising Sun

Rising Sun consists of 2 pentominos and 1 tetromino, each with a circular hole through it.  I’m assuming that the holes are not simply decoration but there to single out a unique solution from multiple other potential solutions that may exist if the holes were not present.  However, I don’t recall finding any other symmetrical shapes disregarding the holes.  Although I didn’t find it too difficult, it was more challenging of the two.

LUV Potion

Similar to Rising Sun, LUV Potion consists of 2 pentomino pieces and 1 tetromino piece but the holes are shaped like hearts giving them directionality.  As with most 2D symmetry puzzles, the pieces don’t want to cooperate and seem downright unfriendly.  However, this is understandable since each lacks a heart.

Instead of making things more difficult, the directionality of the hearts provides additional information revealing the type of symmetry needed to solve this puzzle.  This turns out to be quite useful, making this puzzle one of the easier 2D symmetry challenges.  It’s not that difficult to find the solution among the many symmetrical shapes you can make disregarding the hearts.

I’m sure that it’s challenging to determine the optimal locations for each heart when designing the puzzle.  It would be interesting to see the 8 previous prototypes.

If you would like to get your own copies of Rising Sun or LUV Potion, Nothing Yet Designs has these puzzles available as well as other puzzles from Frederic Boucher and 2D symmetry puzzles from other designers.

No Problem Puzzles, Update #10

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

This post continues the review of the No Problem Puzzles as the models are being released.  Since the last review (No Problem Puzzles, Update #9), more No Problem Puzzles have become available.  All level of difficulty ratings are from the puzzle descriptions and are on a scale of 1 to 5.

Drawbridge

Drawbridge is a 3D packing puzzle with 3 tetracube pieces that need to be packed within an articulated frame.  2 of the 3 tetracubes are identical.  The objective is to make a 2x2x3 cuboid with the 3 pieces pieces inside the frame, which is large enough to hold a 2x2x4 cuboid.  The frame consists of 2 joined parts consisting of a base and a top that can rock back and forth.  The frame has a lot of nice added detail to add character such as brick siding, decorative X-braces, and triangular patterned holes.

At a difficulty rating of 3, it makes for a nice challenge.  I tried various methods to insert the pieces past the tilting top until I landed on the correct one.  In hind-sight, the solution is more straight-forward than most of the ones I attempted.  Part of that was applying things I had seen in other puzzles but didn’t end up applying here.

Nest Box

Nest box consists of 5 polycubes that need to be packed within a box shaped like a bird house.  The house is complete with a perch, round doorway, cathedral ceiling, and a chimney. 

The only objective given is to pack the pieces within the box.  Even though this is a level 3 puzzle, I popped them in within minutes.  My rather inelegant solution lead me to believe that I was missing a constraint or two.  Considering that my solution had a piece stuck in the chimney, I decided to try finding a solution that had the chimney unoccupied.  And after some additional effort, I had them packed with the chimney unoccupied.  Was that the solution?  Maybe not since I used a rotation and I was beginning to suspect that if the word rotation is not used in the description then it’s not to be used.  Taking once last shot, I finally came up with a solution that packed the box with the chimney empty and without using rotations.  Whew!  BTW – the rotational solution was rather clever but difficult to undo.

Tumbler II

Tumbler II consists of 3 pieces that need to be packed in a 3x3x3 box with a bar across the middle of the open top that can rotate to each side.  And there are poke holes on all the other sides of the box including the bottom.  It has a difficulty level of 3.5.

I really should read the directions before solving these puzzles.  It requires no rotations and the 2 open rows on the top should be filled.  So much for tumbling the pieces in the tumbler.  The requirements removed some of the cool tumbling moves that I found.  In my defense, I have an expanding collection of these puzzles unsolved on my shelf and casually take them down to solve without going online and looking at the directions.  Perhaps I should consider writing the constraints down since the puzzle is really incomplete without them.

The solution to this one was nice and sneaky.  It took awhile before I groked the sneaky bit but after that it was quick going.

Slideshow

Slideshow is a level 3, 3D restricted packing puzzle with 4 pieces that need to be packed in a box with a sliding top.  However, the sliding top is at an angle and is not removable.  Unlike other puzzles, I knew exactly what to do here and proceeded to assemble the pieces where they needed to be.  Oddly enough, they couldn’t quite get there so I proceeded to tweak the assembly.  And I continued proceeding to proceed until I finally lighted upon a move that allowed me to further proceed.  At this point, I knew the movements needed to solve the puzzle but that’s only half the problem.  The other half is being able to accomplish those movements in a restricted space without access.  I’d like to point out that there are no poke holes in this puzzles since slideshows require darkness.  I finally manged to solve this one with my patented hopeful shaking technique.  But not to worry.  Unpacking is much easier than packing.



If you don’t have a 3D printer, you can obtain copies of No Problem Puzzles from Nothing Yet Designs based in the US or the PuzzleguyStore based in the EU.

No Problem Puzzles, Update #9

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

This post continues the review of the No Problem Puzzles as the models are being released.  Since the last review (No Problem Puzzles, Update #8), more No Problem Puzzles have become available.

Slats

To get back to solving the No Problem Puzzles that have been coming out, I grabbed Slats simply because it looked like the easiest solve in the expanding collection of puzzles yet to be solved.  It consists of a frame and 4 slats that have to be added and centered withing the frame.  It also comes with a heart that needs to be transplanted inside.  It has a level of difficulty rating of 4 out of 5 but I found it much simpler than that, especially considering how much trouble some of those other level 4 puzzles are giving me.

Staying true to my take a whack at it approach, I jumped right in by trying to add pieces to the frame.  Even with a cavalier attitude, it is evident that there are only a couple of ways to add the pieces to the frame.  With some fancy maneuvering, I had all 4 slats in the frame.  All that was required was to add the heart.  Whereupon it became evident that the slats were not configured correctly to accept the heart and had to be reorganized.  Once I had them in the correct position, it was a simple procedure to add the heart.  Truthfully, the steps required to add the slats in the correct configurations required by the heart were simpler than the first configuration that I found.  It may be worth your while to determine what your heart is telling you before getting engaged with Slats.

Bunk Bed

Bunk Bed consists of a frame with a rotating top and 6 pieces.  The bunk bed consists of an upper bunk and a lower bunk.  The upper bunk can be rotated downward for storage, which is the required position for the solution, creating a 2x3x4 enclosed space to contain the pieces.  The pieces consist of 3 pairs of identical pieces, two of which are planer.  The non-planer ones are there to get in the way.  The objective is to get all the pieces within the frame.  Of course that is easier said than done requiring shifting pieces as well as rotating the top to get them all packed within the bunk bed.  A quick calculation indicates that there will be no voids when the beds are packed providing the first significant clue to the solution.  This one was not very difficult but that is to be expected with a difficult rating of 2.5.

Toolbox

Toolbox consists of 4 tools that have to be placed in a toolbox tray to make an apparent 2x3x4 cuboid.  And the tray is even equipped with a swiveling handle.  There aren’t many ways to fit the pieces within a 2x3x4 space, resulting a very restricted search space.  You just need to break through that Aha moment to find the solution.  It has a difficult rating of 2 and it reminded me of Akaki’s easier Picnic Basket puzzles (A Tisket A Tasket, Puzzles In – Akaki’s Picnic Baskets).

Toggle Box

Toggle Box is a 3D restricted entry packing puzzle with 4 identical pieces that make an apparent 2x3x3 cuboid.  The restricted entry has a rotating door that toggles the opening between 2 configurations.  I found Toogle Box to be a quick solve, which is reflected in its difficulty rating of 2.  A great choice for introducing someone to 3D restricted opening packing puzzles.

 

If you don’t have a 3D printer, you can obtain copies of No Problem Puzzles from Nothing Yet Designs based in the US or the PuzzleguyStore based in the EU.

Hangers

Hangers is a 2D Symmetry puzzle developed by Master Symmetrist Alexander Magyarics.  It consists of 3 polyominoes that form a symmetric shape.  But the type of symmetry is not specified.

I find 3 piece symmetry puzzles fall into that sweet spot in terms of level of difficulty.  They immediately look near impossible when they consist of 4 or more pieces due to the exponential increase in piece location combinations.

Once again, I naively bought into the this puzzle looks easy feeling expecting a quick solve.  And as usual, it was anything but.  Even though I knew the obvious piece placements were a trap, it was hard to not to fall into them.  And fall into them I did, multiple times, thinking that there would be a difference.

Although I spent a lot of time just fiddling with the pieces, I eventually turned on some brain cells to speculate on the solution.  One arbitrarily firing brain cell provided the type of symmetry used while a couple of others produced the solution before passing out.

I really liked this one.  It survived a lot zoom meetings.  I find these puzzles perfect for these meetings since they lay flat, move easily, and don’t making clacking sounds next to the computer mic.

My copy of Hangers is 3D printed by Alexander but you can also get a laser-cut acrylic version from Nothing Yet Designs.

No Problem Puzzles, Update #8

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

This post continues the review of the No Problem Puzzles as the models are being released.  Since the last review (No Problem Puzzles, Update #7), more No Problem Puzzles have become available.

Chain Stitch

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

Nineveh

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

 

Quintessence 

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

 

Rhomble

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


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

No Problem Puzzles, Update #7

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

This post continues the review of the No Problem Puzzles as the models are being released.  Since the last review (No Problem Puzzles, Update #6), more No Problem Puzzles have become available.

Squeezy

Squeezy consists of 5 pieces that have to be packed within a holey frame made from 2 identical pieces that slide together.  And the sliding is hampered by all the pieces that have to be stuffed inside.  Of course, this is one of those puzzles where you don’t have much to start with, find some things to hang your hat on, discover some key moves, realize what you had been missing, and end up saying - of course.  The things that I got right didn’t hurt me whereas the things that I got wrong led me astray.  In the end, after discovering some rather nice movements, I managed to get past my short-sightedness and strangle, I mean squeeze the frame together.  Squeezy provides a really good challenge for a level 3 puzzle.

I lied when I said that the 2 halves of the frame were identical.  One piece has the puzzle information debossed on it.  Ohhhh, is that a clue?  Maybe, maybe not.  But I did reverse the 2 halves after I initially solved it.  Make of it what you will.  Just for the record, my wife believes that I have no clue what clue really means and that I don’t give out clues because I’m clueless.

I Box

The goal of I Box is to pack 5 pieces within a box with a v-shaped opening.  It has the same difficulty rating of level 3 as Squeezy but is completely different.  For this one, I would recommend that you solve it before you solve it.  In other words, have a well defined plan when adding the pieces to the box since it is a bit fiddly to get pieces back out once they are in the box.  Especially since the pieces need to be rotated and enter/exit the box at a 45 degree angle.  Also, unlike Squeezy, it doesn’t have a lot of finger holes for manipulating the pieces - 0 versus 18 unless you count the opening.  However, I did find the solution much quicker and with a solid plan, manipulating the pieces into place was not that difficult.

Mecon

A truncated octahedron by any other name, such as macon, would look as wondrous.
    - Not Shakespeare

Macon is a level 3 puzzle requiring packing 12 truncated octahedrons, or macons, into a cubish form that can be displayed in the provided stand.  But wait, the macons are split in half resulting in 24 semimacons.  Groups of 4 are then reattached to make 6 semimacon tetraclusters.  Except the process was botched and they weren’t reattached where they were cut.  Of the 6 tetraclusters, there are 4 of one type and 2 of another.  It’s up to you to rejoin the unmated halves.  To make it a bit more interesting, not all semimecons are mated to lend it a more cubish appearance.

The puzzle is not difficult, but it does take some time to adjust to the geometry.  And having done it more than once, it didn’t seem to get any easier the second time around.

But why were the truncated octahedrons made hollow?  Probably because they make a cool pattern when the puzzle is solved.  But of course, now everyone is going to wonder if you place a space-filling cuboid in each mated center, would you still be able to assemble it?  I would go with no but they tell me you never no.

Multiplex

Multiplex consists of 4 square chipped tiles that need to be packed within a square tray.  In essence, you need to map the pointy bits into chips.  The description says that Multiplex is a level 2 puzzle with 196,608 theoretical combinations to try.  Not hard, just takes a long time to solve.  I don’t know how the number of combinations was computed, but lucky for us, it seems a bit inflated.  Disregarding the edge details of the pieces, I think there would be 12,288 combinations.  And if you’re observant, you can quickly knock it down to 3,072.  After that, you will certainly avoid trying every possible combination and only check the ones with matching edges to converge on the solution.  I appreciated the thought that went into this design that rewarded the solver with a significant clue in the beginning to avoid a lot of unnecessary and tedious tile swapping.


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

No Problem Puzzles, Update #6

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

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

3OPc

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

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

Pyre

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

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

7 Spiders

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

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

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

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

Hexatanglers

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

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

 

Jigsaw Box

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



 

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

Avoiding The Dangers Of Wood – Splinter 12

Splinter 12 is the latest design by Nan Ma, continuing his series of coordinate motion wonders.  As with the prior designs, it is made by Nothing Yet Designs (NYD) and was featured in their last release.  It looks fantastic, 3D printed using gradient green filament.  And it’s a lot heavier than I expected, eschewing the default 3D printer infill setting and using something much more solid that gives it the heft of wood.  However, attempting to make Splinter 12 out of wood would be unrealistic.

The geometry of Splinter 12 is amazing!  It consists of 12 identical pieces that form a cube when assembled.  The pieces look a bit like winged creatures where each wing provides a large flat surface on the side of the cube as well as small triangular shape on an adjacent side.

Splinter 12 arrives fully assembled and the first challenge is to take it apart.  This can be accomplished in 2 different ways.  You can take the time to carefully analyze the cube to determine how to elegantly manipulate the cube to extract the pieces or you can take the crude and oh-so-effective shortcut of Blast-Hedroning it like I did.  Either way, you’ll end up with 12 identical pieces that now need to be reassembled into a cube, a much more difficult endeavor.

As with all the puzzles in the series, the difficulty is not figuring out where the pieces go but to actually perform the simultaneous movement of all the pieces so that they collapse into their target shape.  Luckily, with Splinter 12 being a cube, there is a nice flat surface that can be nicely supported by a table, which is a huge advantage.

Putting together 4 pieces to form a side is the warm up exercise.  Using that as the bottom, adding the next 4 pieces is not too challenging either.  However, those last 4 pieces are a different matter.  I’d describe adding them as: 1 – Not that bad, 2 – Same as 1 if it is directly opposite of the other and still reasonable if it’s adjacent, 3 – This is the eye opener to the looming problem, and 4 – Getting that last piece in place is nigh impossible.  Looking at the cube with 1 piece missing, it slowly dawns on you that the last piece has to be simultaneously under and on top of things which requires everything to be expanded to its limits.

There were multiple times when my expanded cubic universe collapsed in disarray, leaving me with a pile of unbound splinters.  Getting that last pieces in place is so challenging that I started to work on developing piece subsets that can be put together.  And if you took it apart slowly, it would give you a clue on how that could be accomplished.  However, if you’re like me, we don’t need no stink’n clues to solve a puzzle.  I won’t mention how many puzzles I have hanging around in the unsolved state and quietly segue to the finale.

After several attempts I managed to get all unders under overs and overs over unders so that the pieces collapsed into a single united entity in one coordinated group hug.  Kumbaya!

Splinter 12 is an excellent addition to Nan Ma’s series and as of this post is still available at Nothing Yet Designs.  If you enjoyed the others in the series, you will certainly enjoy this one as well.  Can’t wait to see what Nan will come up with next!

Reviews of the prior puzzles in the series can be found here:

• Nothing Yet Designs Release: 13 January 2025, 12:00 PM EST
• Blast-Hedron 4
• Blast-Hedron 6
• Nothing Yet Designs Release: 7 February 2025, 12:00 PM EST
• Blast-Hedron 12
• Nothing Yet Designs Release: 20 March 2025, 12:00 PM EDT
• Blast-Hedron 8

No Problem Puzzles, Update #5

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

This post continues the review of the No Problem Puzzles as the models are being released.  Since the last review (No Problem Puzzles, Update #4), another set of No Problem Puzzles has become available.  They consist of Push Pull, Hash^3, Trio, Pakze!, and T On Top.  For this batch of puzzles, the specified level of difficulty varied between 2 and 4 on a scale of 5.

Push-Pull

What a monster.  I had intended to include this one in the last update but I was unable to solve it over several days.  You have to respect these difficulty level 4 challenges. 

Push-Pull consists of 5 pieces that have to be packed in within a 3x3x3 box with double swinging doors on the top.  The doors are situated such that each carves out a 1x3 space within the box as they move.  And once they are open, you end up with a 1x3 opening that is roughly a quarter of a voxel in from the side.  Thus creating an opening of about 2.5 voxels wide in the center of the 3 voxel space.

While trying to solve this one, many things seemed obvious to me.  And what was obvious to me, obviously changed as I went along.  My assumptions concerning the last piece to place in the box, how they would move, impossible orientations for pieces, etc., etc., etc., were all called into question.

I kept trying the same things over and over to gain some insight on how to proceed.  I found a couple of assemblies where 1 piece would be able to be removed but the others would be stuck.  I had assemblies where it would have worked if one of the pieces were replaced with its mirror image.  I even had inspiring assemblies where pieces slid nicely back and forth but wouldn’t allow both doors to close.

Eventually, I ran myself dry and was clueless on how to proceed.  So I took a break to work on other puzzles.  Several breaks actually.  Many times, I would come back to one of the configurations that, like several other puzzles, just had the air of being The One.  But it just wouldn’t work.  Until it did!  With exact placement and a little nudge, I was able to close the doors on this one.  Whew!

Trio

Trio consists of 3 identical pieces with the objective to make 3 cubes simultaneously.  It immediately reminded me of the Impossible 3 Cube Triangle Puzzle by Andrey Ustjuzhanin although those pieces were all different.  It is not difficult to solve with a difficulty level of 2 but I did find that it took a bit more than negligible force to get the pieces together.  Once together, although they are very loose, they will not fall apart.  So loose in fact that it can be posed to look unsolved.

But wait, there’s more!  If you print another set of 3 pieces you can make 6 cubes simultaneously.  Yes yes, you could just make 2 sets of 3 cubes but the new challenge is to have all 6 pieces intertwined.  It’s not much more difficult than solving the 3 cube puzzle but does have the advantage of going together without any force.  Of course you can’t throw it around the room without it coming apart like the 3 piece version.

Pakze!

Pakze! is a ball packing puzzle with a difficulty level of 3.  There are 4 tri-ball pieces and 1 di-ball piece that have to be packed within a box through a large open slot in the middle of the top.  As with any of these types of packing puzzles, you need to start with determining what type of packing is required for the space provided.  Once that’s determined, it’s not to difficult to perform the packing.  However, I did have to backtrack to get the di-ball in the proper location.

T On Top

T On Top is a 3D packing puzzle with 4 pieces that have to be packed within a restricted opening box.  The box has openings on all sides except the bottom.  In the solved configuration, 3 pieces have to occupy the 3x3x3 space in center of the box while the long T piece has to block the short T opening on the top.  With a difficulty level of 4, I expected this one to be a challenge and I was not disappointed.  It always seemed like the box was forcing the pieces to be misaligned.  Although, I spent a lot of time trying to work out different morphing configurations, once the solution is known, it’s not that complex.  However, there are a couple of key rotations that have to be performed.  The only detractor is that it’s a bit fiddley when trying to move the pieces within the frame.

Hash^3

Hash^3 consists of 6 identical pieces that make a hash cube, i.e., a cube with each of the 6 sides showing a hash symbol.  Each pieces is constructed from 2 parts that need to be glued together.  I was feeling a bit Halloweeny when I printed them in 3 different colors.  I also decided to swap the parts of the pieces so that the pieces were bicolor.  Each piece is now different while still being exactly the same.  This allows for adding different challenges such as having each side a solid color, different colors, etc.  Even with these additional challenges, Hash^3 is not difficult to solve as it looks as it’s stated level of difficulty of 2 would suggest.

Unlike most of the other puzzles in this series, it does not have the name of the puzzle or the designers on it.  However, it does come with a stand with the No Problem Puzzles logo.  It is comprised of 3 identical pieces and relies on the thinness of the plates for the assembly.  And once together, it won’t fall apart.  Personally, I think the puzzle displays better without the stand.

This is the fifth blog post continuing the review of No Problem Puzzles as they are released on the Printables site under the No Problem Puzzles collection.  The prior posts and the puzzles that they cover are:

Preserving a Legacy – No Problem Puzzles
Sandbox
Swinging Lid Tray
3U Frame

No Problem Puzzles, Update #2
Turn Around
Unmatch Box
Quinta Cuboids
Dizygotic

No Problem Puzzles, Update #3
Boon
Sliding Doors
Pivot Window
Orange Perplex
Salmiak
Vixen’s Antlers

No Problem Puzzles, Update #4
Black Cat, White Cat
Pizza Panne
Donut Perplex Junior
Twist Them In


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

Playing – Ketchup

Haym Hirsh has been a prolific designer of 2D packing puzzles of late.  I suspect that he has 57 varieties by now.  I missed out on one of his recent puzzle designs when it first came out but I managed to snag a copy from Puzzle Paradise.  Now I’m playing Ketchup.  I wasn’t sure how well it would go in my collection but people tell me it goes with everything.

Ketchup is a 2D packing puzzle designed by Haym Hirsh and made by Nothing Yet Designs (NYD).  It consists of a red bottle-shaped tray with black highlights and 4 sets of white pieces consisting of a 5 and a 7.  The tray has a dedicated space to store one pair of 5 and 7s when not in the solved configuration.  The goal it to pack all 4 sets of pieces in the square section of the tray.

I anticipated solving this one quickly, but it made me wait until I fully explored it.  You notice early on that the square packing area seems one unit shy of making things easy, forcing you to attempt different ways of packing those 5s and 7s.  Although the 5s seem harder to pack, it’s always a 7 that you’re looking to place at the end.  In fact, it’s not all that difficult to pack everything except for a single 7.

And then to my horror, I saw it!  No, not the solution.  The fact that this is just another S&L puzzle!  (Nothing Yet Designs Release: 20 March 2025, 12:00 PM EDT)  Aghhhh!!!  Haym is just sneaking that S in as a 5 and the L in as a 7.  Will this turn out to be another crisis?

Crisis?

No.  No crisis here.  'Cause these are the good old days.  Where all the doubters are wrong, all the solvers are hard-working, and all the puzzles are above average.

It may have taken me a little bit of time but I managed to slip that last 7 into the tray.  All 4 sets of pieces where now nestled in the square area.  It was worth the wait.

And speaking of ketchup, the April release from NYD was yesterday with a couple of new designs and few restocks.  As mentioned in the last release post (Nothing Yet Designs Release: 20 March 2025, 12:00 PM EDT), this release was significantly scaled back as day-job requirements reduced production capacity at NYD.  However, NYD has just acquired another laser-cutter to widen the production pipeline a bit for future releases.

Nothing Yet Designs Release: 13 January 2025, 12:00 PM EST

The first puzzle release of the year from Nothing Yet Designs (NYD) will be this coming Monday, 13 January 2025 at 12:00 PM EST.  Don’t forget to put it on your calendar and set your alarm.

Recently, I received a box full of puzzle goodness from NYD with the puzzles for the upcoming release.  They all came nicely wrapped with NYD’s signature packaging that is now easily recognized in the puzzle community.  The release consists of a variety of puzzle types that I’ve had the pleasure to play with for several days.  And now it’s time to share these puzzles with you

Artefacts – Frederic Boucher

It all started a decade ago.  A puzzle designer named Frederic Boucher submitted a puzzle called Artefacts to the Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition at the 35th International Puzzle Party (IPP) where it won ... nothing!  However, a clever craftsman with a keen eye for great puzzle designs by the name of Eric Fuller (Cubic Dissection) recognized the brilliance of this puzzle and made a run of less than 50 the following year.  You can find the blog on it here – Digging Through Puzzles – Artefacts.  Cubic Dissection (CD) was planning to make another run in 2020 but it never came to pass.

The CD version had a single frame with 4 challenges – pack the pieces in the frame with the peg lying on its side (3 solutions) and pack the pieces in the frame with the peg standing up in the round recess at the bottom of the frame (unique solution).

Frederic Boucher modified the design for his exchange puzzle at IPP39 by flattening the pieces and making the packing frame double-sided.  The first side supported the original packing problem with the standing peg changed to a fixed disk mounted in the frame.  Since the pieces were flattened and the disk permanently attached, the other 3 packing problems were lost.  However, the reverse side had a different frame where the objective is to pack four of the pieces flat in the frame and you had to determine which piece needed to be left out.  

Fast forward to now when NYD is bringing Artefacts back in all it’s glory.  It has a double sided frame with the original 4 challenges on one side and the additional challenge on the other.  The double sided frame is made from acrylic with a nice matte finish with the name of the puzzle and the logos for NYD and Frederic Boucher debossed on one side.  The 5 pieces are nicely made from exotic hardwoods.  And the peg is no longer just a peg but a totem peg.  It looks awesome with a different face on each hemisphere depending on your mood.

There is a lot of puzzling packed in Artefacts with 5 challenges.  The pieces fit nicely in the frame within the frame and are nice and snug for the challenge where the totem peg is standing since the frame is specifically sized for this packing challenge.  Although the pieces are not loose in this solved configuration, you’re not permitted to tilt the totem piece in its resting place.  I’m soooo tempted to give you a hint.  Just a wee tiny piece of advice.  But nope, can’t do it.  Good luck!

Comparing all versions, it’s apparent that it’s all about the peg.  Frederic squashed it, CD weaponized it, and NYD made it art.  Those artistic touches are what I really like about NYD’s puzzles.  The decision to make a totem out of the peg to align with the theme of the puzzle is awesome.  And they made it out of 3D printed it out of Rosewood wood filament to keep the aesthetic.

Minima XIII – Frederic Boucher

Who knew that a 2x2x3 packing format could be so fruitful?  The Minima series of puzzles by Frederic Boucher and other guest contributors has put any doubt to rest.  This series continues to supply many awesome puzzles with no end in sight.

NYD has produced many puzzles of the Minima series and is now making lucky number XIII available.  The first thing you notice about Minima XIII is that it’s 3D printed.  The second thing you notice is the reason for the first thing.  Not all of the cubes are cubic.  3 of the 4 pieces have a cube with an angled cut.  And to continue the discovery process, you will notice that the Z piece has a dot on one end to match the box.

Minima XIII was designed by Frederic Boucher and made with a sparkly dark gray box and red pieces.  It should be noted that the box is very nicely made and printed as a single piece.  To complete the color scheme, the name of the puzzle is highlighted in red on the box and the dot on the Z piece uses the sparkly dark gray.  The pieces move very nicely within the box even though you may be tempted to wonder if a little force is warranted.  It’s not.  Don’t be tempted.

The object of Minima XIII is to pack the 4 pieces in the box.  Oh, and you have to ensure that the little dot on the Z piece is not visible in the packed configuration.  This helps you know where that particular piece needs to be placed.  It can be viewed as either a gimme or more appropriately as a gotcha since packing the pieces with the dot showing is trivial.  You can even store the pieces that way when you are done.

Since this particular Minima puzzle had a 4-cube piece, I placed it in the box first and started to work out ways that the other pieces could be added.  And then I remembered that 3 of the pieces had malformed cubes that must serve some kind of purpose.  Thought I had it – nope.  Thought I had it again – nope.  This is the time where you need to refrain from the temptation to force a move and rethink.  During one of these sessions where I was doubting my underlying assumptions, I discovered that one of those assumptions was indeed wrong and that the misshapen cubes had opened up another path.  Once that hurdle was cleared, the function of all the misshapen cubes eventually (note I didn’t say immediately) became apparent and with some fiddling, Minima XIII was packed.  Awesome!

Frederic Boucher is puzzle wizard being able to create so many of these amazing packing puzzles.  If you enjoy 3D packing challenges, don’t miss getting this one.  And if you’ve been collecting the Minima Series puzzles, you certainly won’t want to skip this one.

Ace of Diamonds – László Molnár

In 2020 László Molnár entered a 2D packing puzzle called 10 of Diamonds in the 2020 IPP Nob Yoshigahara Design Competition where it was in the top-10 in voting for the Puzzlers' Award.  It was also used by Gergő Prémecz as his exchange puzzle at IPP40.  The goal was to pack 10 diamonds, 5 pairs of 2 conjoined diamonds into one of the 2D frames on each side of the puzzle.  Although the original competition copies where made in wood, later copies utilized more colorful acrylic with a white frame and red diamonds.

László’s new puzzle, Ace of Diamonds, follows suit with another diamond level challenge.  It ups the ante by being a restricted 2D packing puzzle with the goal to make a red diamond on a white background.  Not only do you have to find a configuration for the pieces to fit in the tray, but you need to determine how to add them through the restricted opening.  And with 68 possible piece configurations, you not only have an issue finding one but finding THE one and recognizing that it is THE one is a bit more of a challenge.  That’s what makes the puzzle interesting.  I don’t recommend that you try to find solve this puzzle by finding and trying all 68 possible configurations.

Ace of Diamonds is made from laser-cut acrylic.  The frame is white with a clear acrylic top providing visibility as pieces are moved inside.  The name of the puzzle, designer, and NYD logo are provided around the border in red on the underside of the clear top, which really stands out especially after the puzzle is solved and there is a nice red diamond in the center.  Of course that red diamond is composed of 7 red pieces that need to enter the restricted opening in the top and moved into their correct position.  Initially, I thought that they pieces were made from triangles but silly me, they’re diamonds and half diamonds.  

As with many puzzles, Ace of Diamonds looks daunting upon initial inspection.  This initial phase is when your brain is trying to find a handhold to start the climb to the solution.  I’m here to confirm that such handholds exist and there is a route to ace this challenge. I found that applying a little thought morphed the solving process from an endless lets try every combination process to more of a where does the next piece go approach.  This approach starts with identifying the location of a couple of key pieces and the rest start to fall into place from there.  Finding and exploiting those opportunities are what makes puzzling fun and interesting.

I usually work on these types of puzzles with the pieces outside and when I think I have a solution, test it with the frame using the sequence of insert, rotate, move, tilt operations to get everything in place.  Everything worked great with Ace of Diamonds without any binding of pieces but if you find yourself in trouble, you can always remove the fasteners and take the top off.  Just make sure you don’t loose the spacers between the top and the rest of the frame that permit the pieces to move freely.

I really enjoyed solving Ace of Diamonds and found 2 solutions.  So there’s a double challenge for you.  I’m looking forward to seeing what’s in the cards for the future!

Blast-Hedron 4 & Blast-Hedron 6 – Nan Ma

These puzzles are a blast, figuratively, no literally, maybe a bit of both.  These are both a take-apart and a put-together challenge.  The AHA moment for solving this puzzle is awesome – if you know, you know, if you don’t, you don’t but you’ll love it when you do.  If you’re not in the know, you’re pretty much obligated to get at least one of these to join the knowers.  I used the term solving casually above since you’re only half-way there after you take it apart.  The second AHA (pronounced Uh-Oh this time) moment comes in play when you realize that you have to reassemble it.

I originally thought that the numbers in the names were associated with their placement in a series but quickly realized that it identifies the number of pieces in each puzzle.  BH4 is a regular octahedron, although it is rather special here, consisting of 4 pieces and BH6 is a truncated octahedron consisting of 6 pieces.  The pieces within each set are identical and remind me of flowers.  My wife said that it’s OK to leave those pieces laying on the living room table.  That’s one way to solve the reassembly problem.

Of course the elegant disassembly process does not require any external tools and I was specifically warned that this included fingernails.  So I dutifully cut my nails before taking these apart the correct way, AHA!

Assembly takes a little dexterity, but I didn’t really have an issue with either although BH4 is a little easier with only 4 pieces.  Both puzzles are 3D printed and operate exceptionally well.  Between the design and the implementation, I was impressed how impossible it seems to take them apart.  I believe that one of the contributing factors to how well it operates and feels is the addition of the extra inner shell.  And it certainly adds to the how nice the pieces look.  For the versions that I received, BM4 uses vibrant contrasting colors and BM6 uses color changing filament.  I think they both look fantastic and I still can’t decide which one I like best.

Even if you know you know, you may want to consider picking these up.  They’re really good!

2025 Puzzle – George Sicherman

I always start the year with a George Sicherman puzzle.  George has provided a New Year Puzzle since 2017.  This year’s New Year’s challenge utilizes 4 pentominoes to make a rectangle.  The pentominoes are P,L,T, and Y and together they provide PLenTY of challenges – 4 to be exact.  Each challenge is to build a rectangle with a specific number of holes in the interior of the rectangle.  0 holes, 1 hole, 2 holes, and 3 holes.  The holes can be any shape and separate holes may have touching corners.  And yes, you can turn the P, L, and Y pieces over to use their mirrored forms.  You can think of them as being 2-PLY.

Although not difficult, this puzzle provided a nice warm-up to a year full of puzzling.  It’s amazing how 4 simple pieces can be so engaging.  What surprised me most is that I solved them in order, 0 to 3 holes.  I assumed that after the solid rectangle, I would stumble on the others randomly but that was not the case.  It makes a nice to carry around in your pocket for challenging others.

New Tiles –  Frederic Boucher

There’s no getting around it.  New Tiles is a scary looking 2D packing puzzle.  Simple looking frame, simple looking pieces, exudes a sense of easy victory – all signs of a great challenge to a veteran puzzler, especially from a designer like Frederic Boucher.

Frederic Boucher originally designed New Tiles in 2016 but ramped up the difficulty for NYD’s release in 2021.  Comments from solvers on the MPD indicated that Frederic had successfully increased the challenge.  NYD is now releasing another run for those who may have missed out on the first one.

New Tiles has a classy look with it’s black and white motif.  It is made with laser cut acrylic with white pieces on a black tray with matte finish.  The name and logos debossed on the tray are highlighted in white to match the pieces.  The 9 pieces are rectangles of various sizes with 2 opposing corners chipped off to make the packing easier – Bwahahaha!

I was able to spend a little time working on New Tiles but can’t tell you how I solved it since I haven’t.  I can attest to the fact that Frederic has certainly made it challenging.  I’m looking forward to solving this one and will let you know when that happens.

Muñiz Bundle – Alexandre Muñiz

It’s simple math: 2, 2D packing trays + 4 sets of piece = 10 challenges.  How are they? –  They’re great!  How are they to solve? – Haven’t solved a single one.  Zip.  Well mostly zip.  I did get one of the warm-ups before the challenges.  Maybe it was a mistake to save these for last.

The Muñiz Bundle is made from laser-cut acrylic.  Each of the two 2D packing trays are white and support 2 different sets of pieces with the debossed names on the tray color-coordinated with with the pieces.  The smaller tray fits nicely in the larger one and each set of pieces comes in it’s own bag.  Each set of pieces also has an instruction card with the directions for the challenges.  The 4 sets are:

• Slash Mob
• Little Pypsum
• Big Pypsum
• Symmetrominoes

Slash Mob

Slash Mob consists of 8 red pieces that need to be packed in the smaller tray.  These 8 pieces are divided in half to provide 4 unmarked larger pieces and 4 smaller pieces marked with daggers.  All the pieces have angled cutouts in them that are addressed in the challenges.  They are also all cut off at an angle on one end through the cutout leaving one half of the cutout where the cut is.  For all the challenges the daggers must be face up.  The direction that they point in is not important.

Each of the challenges requires the configuration of the pieces within the frame to meet a symmetry constraint.  They are 1 – reflection symmetry along the vertical axis, 2 – reflection symmetry along a diagonal, 3 – 180 degree rotational symmetry.

 

Little Pypsum

Little Pypsum uses the same tray as Slash Mob.  You just need to rotate it 180 degrees.  It consists of 6 purple pieces divided into 4 L triominoes and 2 dominoes.  Each square of the pieces also has 0, 1, or 2 pips.  There are 2 challenges: 1 – pack the pieces so that each row and column has 3 pips, and 2 – pack all the pieces so that each row, column, and main diagonal has 3 pips.  Of course successfully completing the second challenge also completes the first.

 

Big Pypsum

Big Pypsum is the big brother of Little Pypsum and uses the larger tray.  It consists of 9 dark blue pieces with 4 L triominoes, 4 straights, and a single square.  Each cube of the pieces also has 0, 1, or 2 pips.  It works exactly like Little Pypsum except everything has to sum to 5.  So the challenges are now: 1 – pack the pieces so that each row and column has 5 pips, and 2 – pack all the pieces so that each row, column, and main diagonal has 5 pips.  And again, successfully completing the second challenge, completes the first.

Symmetrominoes

Symmetrominoes uses the same frame as Big Pypsum.  It consists of 12 pieces in 3 different colors with 4 pieces each, which are made from blue, green, and orange transparent acrylic.  Each set has 2 L and 2 Straight pieces.  No wait, The orange set is malconfigured with 3 L’s and 1 Straight.  Each piece also has laser-cut markings that are used to support the challenges.  These markings restrict how you can place a piece in the tray by requiring that all pieces of the same color have all their markings in the same orientation.  The markings are configured such that blue pieces can be rotated 180 degrees, green pieces can be flipped over but then need to be rotated 180 degrees to align the markings, and orange pieces can be flipped over but then need to be rotated 90 degrees to align the markings.

Symmetrominoes comes with a warm-up in addition to 3 challenges.  Normally I scoff at warm-ups but decided to try it anyway.  The warm-up was to simply pack the pieces in the frame ignoring colors and markings.  Did I mentioned that there was a malformed set resulting in an odd number of L’s and Straights.  After several minutes of being scoffed at by this warm-up, I finally had them all in the frame.  Whew!  At the conclusion of this grand success I was out of time and had to start thinking about putting out a blog.

The 3 main challenges for Symmetrominoes are: 1 –  Place all the pieces in the tray with the markings of the pieces of each set in the same orientation, 2 – Same as 1 with the pieces of each set forming a connected group, and 3 – Same as 1 with no 2 pieces of a set touching along an edge.

Although I didn’t get very far in solving the Muñiz Bundle challenges, I definitely think that they are well thought out and made.  There is a lot of value in this 10 challenge bundle and I’m looking forward to a deeper dive after this blog goes out.  These seem like they will be serious challenges.