This was Henry Strout's IPP 41 Exchange puzzle in Houston, Texas.
With this being Henry’s most recent Exchange puzzle I have now posted about all of them. This particular one is once again a ‘Train’ theme with the goal of packing six pieces into the box, however they all won’t fit in the box, with an opening at one end you literally have to ‘think outside the box’.
Here’s a group photo of all of Henry’s ‘Train’ set of Exchange puzzles:
This was Henry’s Exchange puzzle at IPP 40 in Jerusalem.
It’s another cool packing puzzle with the now familiar ‘Train’ theme. There’s five pieces to be packed into a box with a couple of restrictions.
This is Henry’s IPP 38 Exchange packing puzzle in Kanawaza, Japan.
In an ode to Stewart Coffin’s ‘The Rattle’ (previously used as an Exchange puzzle), Henry incorporated a lone ‘rattle’ piece that can not be removed thereby forcing a tricky solve to this ‘Train’ themed packing puzzle.
This awesome packing puzzle was Henry’s IPP 38 Exchange in San Diego, California.
Henry cleverly decided to take a cue from Brian Young’s previous design of his ‘Euro Star’ to create this cool San Diego packing puzzle. Once again the pieces spell out the name of the puzzle and uses several obstructions making for a tricky solve.
It of course carries on the ‘Train’ theme that has now become a staple as Henry’s Exchange puzzle offerings.
This beautiful puzzle was Henry’s IPP 37 Exchange in Paris, France. It follows his ‘Train’ theme of course, however Brian has cleverly designed the pieces to spell out ‘Euro Star’!
It’s likely that solving this packing puzzle piece by piece will end in futility as a key strategy is needed to fully pack all the pieces in the box with its obstructions.
I don’t usually show a complete photo of the packing pieces, however I think it’s appropriate with this terrific design.
This was Henry’s IPP 36 Exchange puzzle in Kyoto, Japan.
This is another tricky packing puzzle with Henry’s ’Train’ theme, it features ten pieces that need to be packed in a boxcar with interior obstructions that require careful planning to solve.
This was Henry’s IPP 35 Exchange puzzle in Ottawa, Canada.
This is a rather tricky packing design by Bill with a surprising locking mechanism that had me stumped for a bit!
Once again Henry has created a cool addition to his line a ‘Train’ themed puzzles.
This very cool packing puzzle was designed by Brian and is a continuation of Henry’s ‘Train Themed’ puzzles.
This was Henry’s gift at the IPP 34 Exchange at London, England. There are 6 pieces that need to be placed onto the box car with one lone block permanently attached.
This cute little puzzle was Henry’s IPP 33 Exchange in Tokyo/Narita, Japan.
There’s only three pieces that need to be fit in the ‘Coal’ box, however there is a piece attached that makes for a non-trivial solve.
I’m hoping to show a group photo of all of Henry’s current ‘Train Set’ of Exchange puzzles in an upcoming blog post..
This awesome packing puzzle was Henry’s IPP 32 Exchange in Washington D.C.
Once you remove the Caboose box you’ll notice that one piece remains attached to the base and now you must fit all the pieces inside the box and replace it onto the caboose.
The details Henry puts in his puzzles are outstanding, I’m really impressed with his work especially having to make so many copies for the exchange events!
Henry featured this outstanding packing puzzle at IPP 31 Exchange in Berlin, Germany.
This is the first appearance of Henry’s wonderful series of ‘train car’ themed packing puzzles that were featured as his exchange puzzles at IPP events.
I will be featuring each of these up to and including the most recent IPP.
This of course is Henry’s ‘Train Engine’, it has a removable cab (with a trick pin holding it in place). Its namesake is a nod to an earlier Exchange puzzle designed by Stewart Coffin called ‘Blocked Box’, this packing challenge is on par with Stewart’s version!
This awesome puzzle by Henry was his Exchange puzzle for IPP 30 in Osaka/Hakone, Japan.
There are ten pieces that need to be placed in the storage compartment of this very cool truck, however there is a central piece attached to the rear panel that you need to pack around making things tricky! Henry also added a couple of magnets to keep everything packed tightly.
This is another cool packing design by Stewart but this one has a lone piece that remains trapped inside while all the remaining pieces are to be packed in. It’s a very difficult puzzle as the ‘rattle’ piece tends to slide around messing around with the assembly!
Henry crafted this puzzle for IPP 29 Exchange in San Francisco, California.
Here’s Stewart’s description:
“Seven solid polyominoes get stuffed into a 4x4x2 box with acrylic cover through
a 1x2 slot on one side. Not quite your usual packing problem because an eighth piece remains forever loose inside, hence the name.”
This neat puzzle was Henry’s IPP 28 Exchange puzzle in Prague, Czech Republic.
Henry made this diminutive puzzle as a sort of pocket size with a lanyard attached. Also included is a toothpick with a Czechian flag attached which is likely needed to manoeuvre pieces around.
Here’s Stewart’s description:
“Looking Glass has a clear plastic cover and a slot in the side of the tray through which the pieces are inserted.”
This clever packing puzzle was Henry’s IPP 27 Exchange puzzle on the Gold Coast in Australia. Stewart originally named this puzzle EL-Hole and renamed for its subsequent release as an exchange puzzle.
There’s usually a distinction between a packing versus unpacking type puzzles, however this one actually fits into both categories quite nicely. I received it already packed and can certainly attest to its unpacking challenge!
Here’s Stewart’s description:
“Six polycube pieces, five of one kind R and a sixth its mirror image L, are to be assembled inside a slightly oversized 2x3x4 box with L-shaped opening in the top, presumably one way and in one order only, which is quite tricky and involves rotation.”
This excellent puzzle was crafted by Henry and used as his Exchange puzzle at IPP 26 in Boston, Massachusetts.
I found this puzzle a lot of fun to play with!
Here’s Stewart’s description:
“For a while I became interested in the so-called sliding block puzzles, which I suppose don’t really belong in this book since they don’t usually come apart. But my favorite design, Drop Out, actually does come apart and so happily gains admission. The one square and four rectangular pieces slip and slide merrily around inside the rectangular tray with transparent cover. The round disk (ceramic magnet) is dropped in through a hole in the cover at one end, and the problem is to allow it to drop out the bottom hole located symmetrically at the other end. The smaller center hole is just for
access to move the pieces about. It requires 26 moves, some of which are counter-intuitive when the disk is moving away from its goal. But the real fun begins when you hand it to someone already partially solved and let them easily finish it. “Nothing to it,” they say. “Oh sorry, I wasn’t watching. Could you please do it again?” So they drop the disk into the hole, and they can then shift the pieces back and forth until kingdom come without ever solving it because the other pieces got rearranged in the process. They must be restored by eight moves to their original positions as shown before starting again. Pretty neat, I thought.”
