No Problem Puzzles, Update #11

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 #10), 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.

Möbius Cut Rings

Möbius Cut Rings consists of 2 rings that are cut with a Möbius strip and then cut radially on one side to produce 2 halves that can then be separated with minor flexing.  The objective is to make a pair of linked rings.  It’s trivial to make a pair of separate rings but worth the effort to see exactly how the pieces go together.  I expected the linked rings to take just a little bit more effort and with the help of the difficulty rating of 3, I underestimated it.  More than once, I had to back out of a 4 half-ring tangle.  You really need a plan going into this one.  I had to sit down and examine this one closely to construct the interlocking rings.

SOS

SOS consists of 3 pieces that have to be packed within a frame with lots of openings.  The name comes from the shape of the frame as you descend through the layers.  It’s not difficult to add the pieces with a few rotations but the description indicates that it takes 21 moves to put in the last piece, which is way more than I originally used.  Yes, you guessed it, no rotations allowed although this is not specified in the description.

Solving this puzzle without rotations is much more involved and hence earns it’s level 4 reputation.  Without rotations, the orientations of the pieces are limited to how they can enter the cage.  This provides a lot of information on the assembly of the pieces within the available 3x3x3 space.  That along with the limited ability of the pieces to move will narrow it down to the winning assembly pretty quickly.  Then you just have to assemble the pieces within the cage.  I have to point out that now that you don’t want the pieces to rotate, they are prone to rotate on their own and you have to keep an eye and a grip on them.  It’s well worth the effort to solve it without rotations.

Ringed Tetra’s

Ringed Tetra’s is a restricted-opening 3D packing puzzle consisting of 10 pieces that need to be packed within a box.  The 4x4x3 box is entirely open on one side except for a half-voxel lip all around.  The ten pieces completely fill the 4x4x3 space within the box.  There are 2 rings and 8 tetracubes.  The tetracubes include 3 L pieces, 3 B pieces, and 2 Z pieces.

At first glance, and with a difficulty rating of 4, this puzzle appears daunting.  However, I found it fun to play with and was able to narrow down possible piece placements fairly quickly.  I was surprised that this one ended up being a one session solve.  The solution is very nice and I ended up liking it a lot.

Viking Shield

Viking Shield is a 2D packing puzzle with the goal of packing 9 horny helmeted vikings in a shallow shield shaped tray.  It’s not too difficult to squeeze 8 vikings within the tray but it takes some effort to get all 9 in.  Those horns keep getting in the way and are continually boinking their neighbors where they’re not supposed to.

After a short session I managed to get all the vikings encamped.  However the layout wasn’t clean.  The puzzle appears to use a triangular grid and my solution utilized 2 triangular grids that intersected with each other at an angle.  Another short session revealed a proper solution with a single grid.  The level 3 difficulty rating was spot on.




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.

Vibrant Houston Flower

Vibrant Houston Flower was created by Jean Claude Constantin and used by Wil Strijbos as his exchange puzzle at the 41st International Puzzle Party (IPP).  It consists of a tray and 24 metallic beads.  The beads are divided into 11 pairs with each pair having a different color.  The tray consists of an outer ring, a middle ring, and a color key in the center.  The outer ring has spaces to hold all 12 pairs of beads while the middle ring can accommodate 9.  The color key in the center has a fixed set of 12 smaller beads matching the colors of the pairs along with how many spaces are required to exist between the pair of beads of that color when they are placed within a ring.  The number of spaces run incrementally from 0 to 11.

There are 2 challenges.  The first challenge is to place the first 9 pairs with required spacing from 0 to 8 within the middle ring.  The second challenge is to place all 12 pairs in the outer ring so that they meet the spacing requirements.

Lacking a real strategy, I started with the first challenge by placing the pairs from the shortest to longest distance between them.  Eventually, you get to the point where it’s not possible to add the final beads in the spaces that remain.  However, instead of backing up, it is possible to start shifting pairs around into the available spaces to arrange the vacant spaces for the remaining beads.

Having solved the first challenge, I proceeded with the second using the same approach.  After shifting a lot of pairs, I finally got it down to 1 pair left to place.  And after a lot more shifting, I still had not placed that last pair.  So I put it on the shelf.  Several days later, I took it down for another session and noticed after a few minutes that shifting 2 pairs at the same time opened up the space that I needed and I was done.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a nice algorithm to arrange any number of pairs.  However, the 9-pair and 12-pair challenges seemed to be good choice for solving it without such an algorithm.

Barcode Burr

I’ve finally gotten around to playing with Barcode Burr and what an amazing design it is.  It consists of 6 mostly identical pieces that form a mostly complete cube.  Mostly identical, because the pins and mazes on each make them unique.  Mostly complete since there are grooves in the pieces.

Barcode Burr was developed by Lee Krasnow and was originally made in wood with metal pins.  Each piece had an identical pattern on the outward facing sides that meshed with the other pieces to provide an amazing pattern when the cube was assembled.  It was entered in the 2004 IPP Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition where it won an Honorable Mention award.  Stiff competition that year.

To provide a more economical means of providing puzzles like this to the puzzle community, Lee eventually created his own 3D fab lab to print his fabulous puzzles.  Not only was Barcode Burr made available but also other code burrs using the same overall format but different mazes.  There are now 17 different designs in the Barcode Burr family.

For these puzzles, each piece is comprised of 3 components.  There is the main body of the piece that makes up the outer shell of the cube and 2 other components that allow for customizing the maze and pin configurations.  One is a long protrusion that mounts to the main body and the other is a plate that mounts onto a shorter protrusion on the main body.  Each of these pieces supports interacting with an adjacent piece on 2 sides providing a total of 4 other pieces that each piece interacts with, i.e., all but one other piece.  Since pieces on opposite corners move along the same diagonal line, albeit in opposite directions, it is not possible to have them interact via a maze.

Not wanting to bite off more than I could chew, I decided to start with the rainbow colored Barcode Burr.  Why rainbow colored.  Because, I was a bit concerned that if all the pieces were the same color, it would be more difficult to determine where each piece goes and the order that they have to go together.  AND, there are 3 solutions with 2 being non-intended solutions with shorter solution paths.

To be honest, once I started playing with it, the colors and the expected movements took away any intimidation I had expected.  It was just fun.  I’ve taken it apart and put it back together several times just for the fun of it.  When the pieces start coming out, it does get a little fiddly but never falls apart.  At some point, I’m going to have to try the single color version and scramble the pieces to determine how difficult it is to solve.

As of now, Barcode Burr appears to still be available in Lee’s shop Pacific Puzzleworks if you want to get a copy of your own.  It’s well worth playing with.

Three Caterpillars

How many caterpillars does it take to make a butterfly?  No clue!  But apparently, it takes more than 1 to make a symmetric shape.

Three Caterpillars is a 2D symmetry puzzle designed by Alexander Magyarics.  You may never guess that it consists of 3 caterpillars that need to be arranged to make a symmetrical shape.  The type of symmetry is not specified.  And if that is not enough, each pair of pieces can be used to make a symmetric shape as well.  Four challenges for the price of one.

The pieces are 3D printed and the heads are a different color than the rest of the body so you know which way they are looking.  The colors have no relationship with the symmetry constraints unless I completely misjudged it.

The 3 challenges for making a symmetrical shape with 2 pieces are not that difficult and make for nice warm-up to the main challenge.  The 3-piece challenge is a bit more involved than the 2-piece challenges but I didn’t find it as tough as some of Alexander's other symmetry puzzles.

Update: Alexander contacted me and indicated that the solutions do indeed have to take into account the symmetry of the colors. 

One Match Left

I recently had the opportunity to acquire some 3D printed hand-me-down puzzles from a kind soul on the Mechanical Puzzle Discord (MPD).  Among the nice selection of puzzles was a copy of One Match Left.

One Match Left is a 3D packing puzzle designed by Jorgos Anastasou.  It consists of 3 pieces that need to be packed within a cubic tube.  Both ends of the tube are open and there are 2 protruding obstructions on the inside that keep the pieces from simply falling out.  One is single voxel and the other is a double.  Two of the pieces look like burr pieces and the third is in the form of a match.  The version that I received was printed with extra attention to detail to make the match piece look like a match with a white body and black tip.

This puzzle is one of Jorgos’ easier puzzles and not difficult to solve.  Determining how the 2 burr pieces are oriented within the box and where the match goes is straight-forward and once you have that, putting them all within the tube is a quick process.  One Match Left is a great introduction for this type of puzzle and good warm-up for tackling more difficult puzzles of this type like 4 In Frame (Foreign Fame - 4 In Frame) or Wheel Lock (An Impediment to Rolling Along - Wheel Lock).

 

Gears

Not being much of a gearhead, I was a little apprehensive of tackling Gears designed by Hirokazu Iwasawa (Iwahiro).  It is a 2D restricted-opening packing puzzle made by Constantin Puzzles that Iwahiro used as his exchange puzzle at the 41st International Puzzle Part (IPP).  It consists of a frame with a hinged door on the side that can be opened to allow gears to pass through.  There are 9 gears in all.  2 of them are fixed in the center of opposite sides of the frame and can rotate freely.  The remaining 7 loose gears are the same size and have the same number of teeth as the fixed gears except for 1 that lacks teeth.  The frame also has a large opening in the clear acrylic top in the shape of an I to provide a means of manipulating the pieces when they are inside.  Lastly, there are a couple of pointy bits in the frame to throw a wrench in the gears.

The objective is to add all the gears to the frame and close the door.  I started to putter around with adding gears but it took a while to get the gears turning, in my brain that is.   It all starts out easy enough, but as more gears are added, they need to rotate as they pass through confined spaces eventually leading to gears disagreeing on which direction they should be rotating.

Shifting my brain into high gear, I finally settled on where the toothless wonder needed to be.  Of course I tried all the other places to rule them out for certain.  Even then it was not obvious to me how to proceed.  Eventually, I shifted gears and tried something a bit more complex that set the machine in motion and allowed the lid to close with all the gears inside.  A very nice AHA moment.

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.

Windows 2

Windows 2 is a 5x5x5 Turning Interlocking Cube (TIC) designed by Andrew Crowell.  This bicolor puzzle consists of 6 pieces that form a white shell around a blue 3x3x3 apparent cube in the center.  Each side of the white exterior has 4 windows that allow you see the blue core.

When I pulled Windows 2 out to work on it, I only meant to sit down with it for a couple of minutes to figure out where the pieces went.  However, I was having such a good time that I ended up solving it before getting up.  Rather a bittersweet finish since this was the last 5x5x5 TIC in my backlog.  Luckily for me, I think I still have some 4x4x4 TICs that got pushed further back into the back of the backlog.

Initially, Windows 2 reminded my of Templars Cross (A Spirited Journey – Templars Cross) with the corners still intact.  However, I found it quite a bit easier to solve.  The last 2 pieces weren’t nearly as difficult to get in place and pieces just seemed a bit more accessible for manipulating.  If you are planning on doing both (recommended), I’d suggest starting with Windows 2 as the warm-up.

If you want to print your own copy of Windows 2, the model files are available on ARC Puzzles as part of the second volume of 5x5x5 TICs.

RMF

RMF is a 3-piece 2D symmetry puzzle designed by Alexander Magyarics.  Each piece consists of 3 squares but 1 square of each piece has been cut in half diagonally and the halves have been separated.

The goal is to place the pieces together to make a shape that you can rotate, mirror, or flip and still end up with the same shape.  Only one of those operations is required but you are not told which one.  And there is only 1 solution.

You can try to devise a robust mathematical framework for analyzing these these types of puzzles but it’s really more fun to use them as fidget puzzles.  They’re perfect for zoom meetings.

This one didn’t take me as long to solve as some of Alexander’s other puzzles I recently blogged about but I still appreciate how devious the solution is.  Maybe something is sinking in.

I wasn’t sure where the name RMF came from but thankfully AI cleared it up for me:

The RMF symmetry puzzle is named after its designer, the puzzle inventor Alexander Magyarics.  The letters represent the initials of his first name (R... [Alexander is often known by his surname]) and the M and F indicating Magyarics Family or a similar personal arrangement.

If you are interested in acquiring a copy, RMF as well as many other 2D symmetry puzzles from Alexander and other designers are available at Nothing Yet Designs.

HolopTIC

HolopTIC is a 5x5x5 Turning Interlocking Cube (TIC) puzzle designed by Andrew Crowell.  As with HoleyTIC and HolisTIC (Getting Everything Back Together – HolisTIC, HolopTIC has a hole in the middle of each side of the puzzle that runs through the cube.

This one was a lot of fun with some higher order rotational moves.  However, you need to make sure that you don’t cheat on the rotations.  It is possible to make some questionable rotational moves that bypass a sequence of other moves if you’re not careful.

As usual, the more pieces you put together, the more effort is required to add the next piece.  Until you end up scratching your head with one last piece to go.  One piece in particular required a lot of attention.  It didn’t play too nicely with the others and seemed like it would be better to add sooner than later.  Figuring out when and how to add it was the major challenge.

Fairly early on, I singled out a piece that could possibly be added last with a quick rotation but decided that the rotation would be blocked.  However, preliminary tests indicated that the rotation would work just fine.  When I had all the other pieces in place and just needed to add that last piece I verified that the tests were indeed preliminary and not conclusive.  Of course, the piece didn’t just rotate in and was indeed blocked.  Yay!  More puzzling to be had.  Not much longer after that, I had it solved.

I always enjoy solving these TICs and look forward to more to come in the future.  I’m almost at the end of my 5x5x5 TIC backlog.

Elbow Room

Elbow Room is a 3D restricted-opening apparent-cube packing puzzle designed by Goh Pit Khiam.  It was entered in the 43rd International Puzzle Party (IPP) Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition where it was deemed the Puzzle of the Year.  It won both the Puzzlers’ Award as well as the Jury Grand Prize.  Key considerations by the panel of judges include: innovation, physical design, and the fun of solving the puzzle.

The puzzle consists of a little bit more than 4 pieces that have to be packed within a box.  The box has a single corner missing to provide access to the interior.  The pieces are adorned with keys and keyholes and the trick is to get them all locked in place as they are added to the frame.

Needless to say, I had to try solving thee Puzzle of the Year.  It didn’t take long to get familiar with the pieces and determine what needs to be done to pack them in the box.  I found it to be a quick solve.  I would guess that many people had the opportunity to solve this one at IPP43 since it doesn’t take a lot of time.  The version in the competition was also made from wood, which would add to attraction to play with as well.  It also has a nice fiddle factor going for it as well.
 

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.

Three Keys

Three Keys is a 2D 3-piece symmetry puzzle designed by Alexander Magyarics.  Each piece consists of 2 conjoined squares with one of the squares missing a corner.  And the corner that is missing is different for each piece.  The goal is make a symmetric shape but the type of symmetry is not specified.  There is only a single solution.  To be quite honest, I usually pick out the 3-piece puzzles from the 2-do 2-D symmetry pile first and then the single solution ones from those.  Of course that ends up leaving me with an ever increasingly daunting pile of shame.

At first glance, Three Keys reminded me of Hangers and I was all set for an easy solve thinking that the solution would be similar.  Yes, I never learn.  The solution was not similar and I ended up having to think about this one after I couldn’t cram it into the Hangers mold.  I tried a couple of strategies before alighting on the winning combination.  I didn’t find it as difficult as hangers but it was still a good challenge. 

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

HoleyTIC

HoleyTIC is a 6-piece 5x5x5 Turning Interlocking Cube (TIC) designed by Andrew Crowell.  It is a nice addition to the collection of 5x5x5 TICs that Andrew has created.

Determining the assembly is not difficult.  The location and orientation of each piece can be quickly determined.  The effort is getting them into position.  Especially since there are a few rotations along the way.

I divided the 6 pieces into 2 groups.  Major framing pieces and smaller finishing pieces.  The four larger pieces were allocated to the major framing pieces although 2 are bigger than the others.  Starting with the 2 largest pieces, I was pleasantly surprised that getting them together was not trivial.  And once those 2 were together, adding the 3 piece was interesting as well.  The forth piece just slides into place but you have to keep in mind that the there are 2 more pieces yet to go and it may not be as easy if those pieces have to go in first.

As expected, those last 2 small pieces are where the magic lies.  It is fairly simple to add each one individually but adding them both is a real effort.  The finishing movements required to solve HoleyTIC are as awesome as you would expect from Andrew’s TICs.

You can purchase the 3D model file for this puzzle from Andrew’s online store, ARC Puzzles.  It is bundled with model files from 5 other 5x5x5 TICs to keep you happily engaged for a while.

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.

Hamstersaurus

Over a year ago, I reviewed an amazing 6-piece burr dissection designed by Steve Nicholls called Smelling Of Roses (New Puzzle Comes Out – Smelling Of Roses).  It appears that Steve has been at it again with another 6-piece burr dissection called Hamstersaurus, which was his International Puzzle Party (IPP) exchange puzzle at IPP42.  Steve has now graciously made it available for anyone to download the Hamstersaurus model files from MakerWorld to print their own copy.

Hamstersaurus is as fun as Smelling Of Roses.  This time around, Steve upped the ante and made the destination shape 2 intersecting pyramids instead of a single one.  Initially, it takes some effort to get oriented with how the pieces are used to form the final shape.  And once you get that down, there seems to be many ways that the pieces can be joined.  But eventually, all the pieces come together.  It’s not difficult but it is a fun challenge.  I’m looking forward to seeing the 6-piece burr dissection based on 3 intersecting pyramids.

Dark and Foreboding – ApocalypTIC

It’s dark.  It’s foreboding.  In fact, it’s downright ApocalypTIC.

Back in the dark ages when the scourge of DIY 3D printing was just getting started, Richard Gain embarked on creating Printable Interlocking Puzzles (PIP).  These were interlocking puzzles where the pieces could be printed without supports or assembly of sub-components.  At some point, his level 11 PIP #4 was used as the seed of destruction for Andrew Crowell’s phenomenal Turboencabulator that stripped the PIP restrictions and brought a new level 17 challenge to life.

ApocalypTIC is a 5x5x5 Turning Interlocking Cube (TIC) consisting of 6 pieces.  Since it was TIC’led (not pink obviously) by Andrew, we know that it is going to be challenging.  

The first challenge is to find the assembly.  This is not as easy as most TICs since it lacks a large frame piece to use as a starting point.  In fact, each piece occupies no more than 3 layers with most of them only occupying 2.

Although some piece relationships seem obvious, there also seems to be many ways to create sub-assemblies.  And manipulating those sub-assemblies is a bit fiddly until you manage to get enough pieces to hold each other accountable.

At some point in the process, an assembly materialized from attempts at interweaving the pieces.  Swapping pieces in and out converged on a nicely morphing assembly of 4 pieces.  All that was needed was to determine how to get the, hopefully last 2 pieces, inserted.

I spent a lot of time on those last 2 pieces.  It got to the point where I could add either of them but not both at the same time.  After a lot of back and forth, I finally managed to confirm that these were indeed the final 2 pieces to go in and everything came together into a cube.

For a TIC, there are not a lot of rotations but the movements are well done and make a nice challenge.

Venatio Formicarum – Ant Hunt

It’s that time of year again where ants start showing up in the house.  It happens every year and I’m longer surprised, especially since I haven’t done anything different with the house that would lead me believe that this year would be any different.  So just like every prior year, I was left to hunt them down.

As I was on my ant hunt, it dawned on me that I had an International Puzzle Party (IPP) exchange puzzle from 2024 that I hadn’t solved yet.  Straining my brain a bit, I came up with the name: Ant Hunt.  I started playing with it in 2024 but didn’t completely solve it.  I succeeded in getting to what I assumed was the half-way point but didn’t succeed in completely solving it.  Instead of leaving it in a half-solved state, I reset it back to the beginning and put it on a shelf where it has resided unsolved until now.

Ant Hunt is a puzzle lock developed by Boaz Feldman and used as his exchange puzzle at IPP41.  The puzzle consists of a padlock with a key chained to the lock.  The padlock sports a couple of additional holes that you would not normally find on a lock not infested with ants.  It also comes with a nice information card outlining the goal to open the lock and free the ant as well as the taunt that even a chimp can fish ants out of holes with tools.

Well versed in the comings and goings of ants, I knew that working over a tray would be the smart thing to do.  And it was definitely confirmed during the solving process.

The lock arrives with the key on a chain that also runs through the locks shackle.  The key cannot be placed within the keyhole attached to the shackle in the way that it arrives.  The first step is to free the key.  This is really a gimme but there are stories of key holders tripping up lock solves.  My apologies to anyone out there refusing to ask for a hint and still trying to use the key still attached to the shackle.  And yes, once the key has been liberated, it does fit in the keyhole and turns as well.  It supports a 90 degree turn and you can get some idea of what is happening by peeking in the holes.

On my initial attempt in 2024, I took a clue from the supplied material and tried a simian approach and monkeyed around with the lock.  I used my patented Remove Ants In Detention process of inserting, outserting, twisting, tilting, rotating, and any number of other random techniques to give me some hints of how, what I assumed was the ant, traversed the metallic forest.  Eventually, the ant escaped the jailous lock and showed up on the tray.

At this point, even though I ant’d up, the lock was still securely closed.  Not having time to complete the solve, I managed to get the ant reincarcerated to live through another future solve from the beginning.  

For my recent attempt, I decided to spend some time and determine how the ant went about its business.  After some more monkeying around, I think I had a reasonable idea how the ant was getting around and invited him back out again to play.  This time, between the two of us, we then managed to go the final step and open the lock.  Not only does the lock open but the shackle is removable and you can see first hand what you had already assumed in order to solve it.

Ant to conclude, I was wrong.  So very wrong!   The puzzle was wronged!  This whole description was wrong!  Well at least some of it was wrong.  I almost missed it.  I made a bad assumption and almost failed to completely solve the puzzle.  There was one more thing to do!  NOW I believe that I have completely solved the puzzle.  I could have easily walked away thinking I had solved it before reaching the final stage.  So if your solve matches my description above, you’re not quite done.

3-Pronged Puzzling Approach – TritanIC Series (1-6)

A short while ago, just over 5 years, I reviewed a set of 3-piece 4x4x4 Turning Interlocking Cubes (TICs) designed by Andrew Crowell (Puzzle Candy - ThreeTIC, TriadTIC, TripleTIC, NeuroTIC, TriumviraTIC).  These TICs provided quick enjoyable solves to brighten the day.  Recently, a kind soul on the Mechanical Puzzle Discord (MPD) passed on another set of Andrew’s 3-piece TICs that I was more than happy to accept, but this time a 5x5x5 format.

The 6 TritanIC puzzles were designed by Andrew Crowell and like the prior 3-piece TICs, they provide a quick shot of TIC adrenaline to help get through the day.  I managed to hold myself back and do 1 a day over 6 days instead of binging them all in one sitting.
  

TritanIC

TritanIC, which I assume is the first of the series since it lacks a posterior numerical designator, is a nice start to ease you into the series.  One piece has more volume than the other 2 proclaiming itself as the base for adding the other 2 pieces.  The solution requires 1 straight forward rotation.  At least one other nice rotation is possible but not required and it made me wonder if it would be possible to alter the design to require it. 

TritanIC 2

I found TritanIC 2 to be twice as hard and then some as TritanIC.  I took this as a good sign that we were on a good trajectory.  TritanIC 2 has everything you would want in a 3-piece TIC where pieces have to added in orientations far from where they need to end up.  Determining how to simply put the 2 largest pieces together is not a gimme and takes some thought.  And trying to add the smallest piece to the mix is a challenge.

TritanIC 3

TritanIC 3 is a nice follow-up to TritanIC 2.  There are some nice rotations that have to be navigated to get the pieces in place before they collapse into a cube.  And you are almost guaranteed to have to back up and rethink the ordering of the pieces.

TritanIC 4

This is where the trajectory falls apart.  I found this one to be extremely easier.  Less than 2 minutes easy.  If you acquire the series, you may want to start with this one.  The most difficult part is getting the first 2 pieces together, which isn’t that difficult.  The third piece just flops in place before it it closed.  This one didn’t stand up compared to the others in the series.

TritanIC 5

TritanIC 5 gets things back on track.  In fact, it reminded me a lot of TritanIC 3 in terms of approach, rotations, and how the pieces go together.  It’s certainly it’s own puzzle, but has the same overall feel as TritanIC 3.

TritanIC 6

I found TritanIC 6 to be a tricky bugger.  Multiple rotations are required to get the pieces into position before they can start moving into place.  In fact, a few days later, it was non-trivial to determine how the pieces came apart.  A nice way to end the series!