New Puzzle Comes Out – Smelling Of Roses

I’m lucky to have many friends like myself in the warped-mind community.  In an effort to appear as regular people, some have attempted to come close by becoming regular tetrahedron people.  This has resulted in several tetrahedron puzzle designs popping up of late and this is the story of one such great pyramid puzzle.

Smelling Of Roses was developed by that famous guy from Two Brass Monkeys, Steve Nicholls.  Not to be confused with that other famous guy from Two Brass Monkeys that designed Rock-It Burr that we gushed over in a previous post (Drill Baby Drill! – Rock-it Burr).  Smelling Of Roses is made using …  well that depends on what you use to make it.  Steve made the design available on Maker World for anyone to download and make their own copy.  My version is 3D printed using a single color of PLA.  Not for any aesthetic reason but simply because I was too lazy to change the filament for additional colors.

Smelling of Roses takes a typical 6 piece burr and transmogrifies it using tetrahedronagonyal geometry.  This is basically a process of weaponizing the pieces by providing many pointy bits.  It also has the advantage of making the pieces difficult to grip since they are no longer rectangular and squeezing them tighter just launches them from you fingers instead of securing them.

Thorny Problem!

You would think that having 4 obvious corners would make the piece placement a no-brainer. However, there were several times I was considering putting those obvious corners in some not so obvious places.  Although, I didn’t think it possible, the pieces support going together in many unhelpful ways.  It took me several tries to find the correct assembly and when I finally had it, it was an effort to figure out how to move the pieces to get them all in place without loosing track of the assembly.  All this while juggling the pieces and attempting not to launch them.

Steve did an excellent job in picking a 6-piece burr that requires multiple moves before any pieces can be removed.  No key piece requiring a single move here!  In fact the movements are nicely executed in the tetrahedral space that the pieces were developed in.  I have to give Steve a lot of credit for using the BurrTools tetrahedral-octahedral space grid.  I find it very unintuitive to use.

The copy of Smelling Of Roses that I printed is a bit tight (the description uses the friendlier term - snug).  When all the pieces are coming together, they have to be cajoled into position.  It also adds a level of difficulty during disassembly since the moves are not obvious and nothing moves with casual prodding.  You have to prod with intent.  And multi-piece movements require more intent than single piece movements.

This is an awesome take on the 6-piece burr puzzle and kudos to Steve for making it freely available to the community on Maker World!  So download Smelling Of Roses and give it a try.  But whatever you do, don’t leave this caltrop of a puzzle sitting on a chair!  Assuming that you can put it together of course.

Drill Baby Drill! – Rock-it Burr

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

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

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

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

Puzzle Within A Puzzle – Lone Star Burr

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

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

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

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

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

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

Puzzling Preparation Purgatory – Helical Bits and Pieces

I recently had the opportunity to acquire some nice helical puzzles from one of the Two Brass Monkeys.  I’ve been eyeing these types of puzzles for years and finally acquired some when a set became available on Puzzle Paradise.  Included in the set were: HeLLical Burr, Oliver Twist, Twiddle Dee, Twiddle Dum, and Dodekastar (improved).  The first 4 were designed by Derek Bosch and are from his line of helical burrs, which he has been expanding over many years.  Although Dodekastar is not a helical burr, it is a great puzzle designed by Yavuz Demirhan and tweaked by the Two Brass Monkeys to be more difficult.  A nice little additional fidget puzzle was also included, which was the only puzzle to arrive already disassembled.

Puzzles arriving in their solved state is a sin and need to be disassembled into purgatory before being redeemed into a solved state.  Although a sinful puzzle and one that has been redeemed share the same outward appearance, deep down, you know the difference.  Every serious puzzle collector is able to scan their collection and weigh their sins against redemption.

Having received this batch of sinful puzzles, I quickly (or not so quickly) banished the puzzles to purgatory (a nice looking decorative bowl) for all eternity (the average amount of time it takes me to get around to solving puzzles).  Most were straight-forward, but one of the Twiddle twins (I really don’t know which is which), was a bit of a challenge.  I was also surprised to find out that Dodekastar was a challenge to take apart as well.  A lot of movement, but no obvious exit point.

Stay tuned for further updates on these puzzles as they are redeemed and take on their divine forms.