The Lambada Cube - Harold Cataquet by Wayne Daniel - Interlocking Puzzles

I was fortunate to have acquired this awesome puzzle recently and it’s of course incredibly well made by Wayne Daniel.

Here’s an excerpt from Harold’s pamphlet that accompanied this puzzle:

“For this year's exchange, I decided to make a 3D version of my exchange puzzle for IPP #16. 

At the outset, you have five puzzles to solve: 3x3x4, 3x3×6, 3×4×4, 3×4×5, and 4x4×4. The 3x3x6 box has two solutions; the others solutions are unique. However, in playing with the pieces, I found many more shapes were possible, and these offered greater challenges. For example, take the 3x3x4 box and add one cube at each corner of one of the 3×4 faces. You now have what I call the toy box. This too has a unique solution.

Finally, a few thanks. As always, thanks to Bill Cutler for his BCPBOX program. It was invaluable in helping me design and solve "The Lambada Cube". 

Thanks also to Trevor Wood for his comments on an earlier version of "The Lambada Cube". And, lastly, a special thanks to Wayne Daniel and all the great people at "Interlocking Puzzles". 

I am sure that you will agree that they did a wonderful job in producing "The Lambada Cube". In fact, in looking at the sample cube they sent me, it dawned on me that there was another tetracube that I could have used in my analysis: the planar L-shape. I had a great panic that this tetracube would have been a better choice (in that it would yield better packings), so I went back to square one and started the analysis all over again with this new tetracube. Fortunately, it turned out to have too many solutions to the 4x4×4 cube (and many other boxes), so I rejected it. But, for a while there, I was worried that I'd have to redesign the cube.

I had lots of fun designing and playing around with the Lambada Cube, and I hope you will enjoy playing with it as much as I do. PLEASE don't just take this puzzle and put it on a shelf along with your other cubes!”

Dicey Box - Bill Darrah by Brian Young

I was fortunate to have acquired this cool puzzle from ‘Monkeypuzz’ at Puzzle Paradise.

I’ve yet to unscramble this one and reassemble it as per the instructions so I’ll have to update that later..

Here’s the Description from Brian at Mr Puzzle:

“Edward Hordern IPP27 Puzzle Exchange – Gold Coast, Australia. August 2007.  200 made.
Presented by Bill Darrah.  Made by Mr Puzzle Australia. Designed by Bill Darrah.
Original Price: AU$70.00

The puzzle is to disassemble and reassemble the 12 piece wooden burr so that all the decorative routing is symmetrical.

The puzzle can go together in two different ways. One way, without the decorative routing symmetrical, is how the puzzle is presented when sold. You will have to completely take it apart so that you can then put it back together with all the routing symmetrical. This is a lot more difficult than it may first appear.

A very elegant design by Bill Darrah who is well known for designing very difficult puzzles. As well as being a burr it is actually a box with an inside space of 45mm x 45mm x 45mm. Puzzle made from Mackay Cedar.
Size: 100mm x 100mm x 100mm”

IPP 1994 Puzzle - Wolfgang Schneider by Kubi Games (Germany)

This puzzle is one of the coolest I’ve seen.  Obviously by the name it was a puzzle at the 1994 IPP but what makes this puzzle noteworthy is its IPP themed challenges.

The booklet that accompanies this tray puzzle mentions 20 different Challenges including a 4x4 cube.

I have added all of the booklet challenges, see pics below.

The Eclecticube by Kevin Holmes

I was fortunate to have acquired this puzzle.  It’s another gem from Kevin originally designed in the ‘90’s.

If you happen to have Rik & Kevin’s ‘Cube Compendium’ you’ll recognize the exploded view of this particular puzzle on the cover created by Frans de Vreugd.

My One and Only - Stewart Coffin Design #178-A by John Devost

I didn’t keep accurate records of my early puzzle builds so I can’t seem to recall having made any copies of this design.  In Stewart’s 2003 printed edition (by John Rausch) this particular puzzle was not named but now has been.

I decided I should probably make a few with some nice 3/4” cubes I had on hand.

Here’s a description from Stewart:

“I include this seemingly mundane puzzle design to show that there is still room for discovery within even this most common category of dissecting the plane - what I call ‘graph paper’ puzzles. The problem here was to find a combination using the five non-symmetrical pentominoes (made of five joined squares) plus one other pentomino that fit into a rectangular tray one way only. After a long search, this goal was finally achieved.

Then, using an amazing computer program called PuzzleSolver3D, I had the satisfaction of confirming that I had discovered the one and only combination that met all of my requirements. Try to top that if you can.

But there is more. Pleased with this lucky discovery, I generated a catalog of about 20 other symmetrical problem shapes, some with unique solution. Three are shown here, and the others are left to be rediscovered or improved upon.”