44 Piece Packing Puzzle - David Klarner by John Devost

I only made one of these puzzles and it was my inspiration for David Singmaster’s 25 Piece Packing Puzzle that became my first puzzle offering on CubicDissection.

According to David Singmaster this design was conceived after he was discussing with David Klarner about the least amount of pieces in a ‘brick packing’ design.

There are 4 distinct solutions to this behemoth!

This particular puzzle was made over 20 years ago and remains in my wife’s personal collection!

I just recently decided to add a Box with Lid crafted from Leopardwood with Wenge Slipfeathers.  Pieces are Walnut with a Cherry Sleeve.

The Skull Puzzle - DaveMakesStuff - printed by Ivan Danik

It didn’t take me long to purchase this cool puzzle from Ivan’s Etsy Shop as it has the Halloween colour and theme.

It features 6 pieces that serially interlock so even though it’s not difficult to assemble it does require some planned assembly!

The design is by David Sweet - DaveMakesStuff

Here’s Ivan’s description:

“The Skull puzzle is based on a classic 6 piece puzzle. The goal of the puzzle is to take it apart and to assemble it again. Any person despite of the level of experience in solving puzzles will be able to take it apart and assemble again.”

Jack in the Box - Rod Bogart by Craighill

I noticed this puzzle when it first appeared on the kickstarter campaign but never did purchase a copy, I did finally acquire one and was pleasantly surprised by both its design by Rod and its high quality build by Craighill.

Here’s the description with links to the Kickstarter video and Art of Play’s website:

“The Jack In The Box is a packing puzzle with a hidden secret that’s either revealed or concealed — depending on how you put it together. It has two equally correct solutions: one which boasts a proud place on its own little pedestal, and another that makes that very pedestal disappear within itself — with seemingly no change to its size.

Designed by esteemed puzzle master Rod Bogart, and originally brought to life with the help of Craighill and Art of Play’s incredible Kickstarter community, the Jack In The Box Puzzle is now available to captivate and perplex the wider public.”

Box is Black Limba with Leopardwood Top/Bottom/Sleeve and Maple Slipfeathers.

Cogas by Garrett Mathias at Mojo

 

I don’t collect metal puzzles although when I have acquired them occasionally in the past they always impress me and this one is particularly amazing!

It has a tactile feel and the solve is very cool and ingenious!

Here’s the description from Garrett:

“The Cogas Puzzle is a machined puzzle made of brass and aluminum(plus a few other metal components). Measuring almost 3 inches tall and almost 1.5 inches in diameter.

The Inspiration:

I wanted to create a puzzle that could potentially be useful. In other words, a puzzle that you can put things in. In this case it would be small things. When I started designing this puzzle I wanted it to resemble a medicine bottle to pay homage to one of the greatest accidental puzzles of all time.”

Box Top & Bottom are Padauk with Holly Slipfeathers and Oak Sleeve

Brick Wall - Lucie Pauwels by Pelikan

I recently acquired this cool puzzle from a fellow collector, it’s a ‘put-together’ type puzzle with room underneath to store the pieces.

I’ve previously seen similar tray designs by Alfons Eyckmans and this particular one by Lucie is quite difficult.  

My plan of attack for solving these is a process of elimination by placing the oddest shaped pieces first then filling in the rest, however that’s still a tricky endeavour with this one.

I was surprised by the overall size of this puzzle by Pelikan and it’s cleverly made so that you need to flip the pieces out once you hit a dead end!

Kevin Sadler wrote about it:

“I have been watching Lucie Pauwels’ designs with great interest over the years. She seems to create them in her head using simple home-made blocks and always manages to produce puzzles that are very different to those of the other designers out there today. There does not seem to be a computer used in the design process and this means that the puzzles that she creates are human solvable and require proper thought and logic to do so. The Brick wall is a chunky puzzle (20.5x15x3cm) made from a gorgeous vibrant Bubinga and Maple. The reverse side of the puzzle is a tray which holds the pieces (Maple) which are to be the grout in the tiled wall. There are 11 differently shaped pieces of grout which need to be assembled inside the wall. The premise is very simple but the actual solution is not. I started as I always do with a random insertion of pieces in positions that looked good. With Lucie’s puzzles, this approach really doesn’t tend to work well and it ended for me several times with an almost, but not good enough assembly: After a whole 2 days of failure, I decide that it was time to think© and use some logic. The pieces are shaped in such a way that there can be only one solution and the best way to go about it is to restrict the positioning of a certain few pieces from the very beginning. Once that has been done, the sequence for insertion is really pretty logical – there is a little trial and error where a piece has a little vertical symmetry but it only requires a quick test to see which way around it goes to allow other pieces in. Despite the fact that this looks like an impossible trial and error challenge, believe me, it is not. Like most of Lucie’s puzzles, this is a test of logic which you will really enjoy once you have decided to go that path. It will also look absolutely gorgeous on display.”

I decided to make a box to keep this puzzle in out of Black Limba with a Red Zenrawood Sleeve and Wenge Slipfeathers.

The Lambada Cube - Harold Cataquet by Wayne Daniel

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

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!”

Box I made is Peruvian Walnut & Bloodwood with Ambrosia Maple Sleeve.  Top is Cherry, Bottom is Zebrawood with Maple Slipfeathers.

Pyracube & Distorted Cube - Designs #29/61-A by Stewart Coffin - Crafted by Brian Menold at Wood Wonders

I recently acquired this special set of ‘Edge-Beveled’ pieces that can make the many combination of puzzles from Stewart’s ‘Pyracube’ as well as ‘Distorted Cube’.

Brian has used a cool technique of laminated pieces for this set and they’re gorgeous!  Adding the ‘Distorted Cube’ pieces gives you much more possible combinations to play with and they’re a lot of fun!

I previously blogged about Eric Fuller’s version of Stewart’s ‘Pyracube’.

Brian at Wood Wonders said:

“Stewart has always been one of my very favorite designers. He is also the designer of most of the first puzzles I ever made. When I decided to make a few Distorted Cubes I figured that since the Pryacube shares a couple of common pieces, that I might as well make both. You can use the 2 common pieces to solve the 4 piece Distorted Cube or the 5 piece Pyracube. A sheet included in the bag shows several of the shapes you can make. Maybe there are others with all the pieces?”

I decided to make a box that contains all of the pieces in the velvet pouch instead of making the typical cubic box that usually fits the pieces, it’s made from Red Zebrawood with a Padauk bottom and top.  Slipfeathers are Wenge.

Burrglar - Peter Hajek & William Strijbos by Pelikan

This is a very clever puzzle that I really enjoyed, I’m often struck by puzzles with only three pieces that are so much fun, it reminds me of Stewart Coffin’s ‘Three Piece Block’ puzzle that has stumped many puzzlers! 

I originally missed Pelikan’s drop of this cool puzzle but thankfully they released a few more and quickly snatched up my copy, special thanks go out to Pelikan.

Here’s Pelikan’s description:

“Peter Hajek’s exchange puzzle at IPP40. This is a 3-piece burr with simple notches. You are even shown its solved state shape. So far so simple. The problem is that this thing was designed by Peter Hajek and Wil Strijbos.”

I decided to make a box to house the pieces disassembled so the ‘Tom foolery’ can be continued once you open the box, lol.

Box is Walnut/Ash/Canarywood with an Ash Sleeve.  Top and Bottom are Ambrosia Maple with Roasted Ash Slipfeathers.

The Mummy’s Curse - Harold Cataquet by Wayne Daniel

This is a puzzle that I’ve had my eye on over the years and finally was able to acquire it, and was Harold’s IPP 19 Exchange puzzle in London.

It’s another beautifully crafted puzzle by Wayne Daniel/Interlocking Puzzles and features 11 pieces that make a 4x4 cube as well as flat 8x8 square along with a 3x4x5 (similar to the well known ‘Pentomino Set’ brick shape).

You might think that finding a solution to either of these shapes would be easy but I can tell you it’s extremely difficult to find any one these.

I finally got around to making a box to house the assembled cube shape.  Box is Walnut and Bloodwood with a Maple Sleeve.  Top and Bottom are Zebrawood with Maple Slipfeathers.

Christmas Tree - Stephan Baumegger by Pelikan

This is a fun burr puzzle that I acquired from a fellow puzzler after having missed out on it at Pelikan’s release.

While not an overly difficult puzzle, I really enjoyed the subtle opening moves that Stephan incorporated into it.  The base is a cool added piece that I couldn’t stop twirling around..

Here’s a description from Kevin Sadler:

“I can't have a Christmas tree at home because the last time we did have one it was destroyed by the cats in a most upsetting manner. They are absolutely fascinated by it and whilst tinsel may look funny going in the front end, it very much is NOT funny when it exits the other! This year however I shall have a Christmas tree on display in my living room! It will be on my mantelpiece…it is a beautiful design from Stephan Baumegger. It looks like a burr puzzle but initial exploration shows that it is more like a wood chuck puzzle. A piece slides and then another and then I got stuck for a bit. After a close look at what was revealed I was able to proceed and after that quite rapidly has a pile o'pieces. The disassembly probably took me 10 minutes and was quite fun. The real challenge is to reassemble it with all the colours in the right place. The first couple of times I put it back together with great satisfaction only to realise that the light cubies weren't all aligned properly. It took me an extra 5 or 10 minutes of fiddling around before I got it right. This is a perfect seasonal gift and a nice little challenge for the new puzzler.”

I also added a box to store the puzzle inside, although I did make a mistake when I glued in the sleeve so now the puzzle needs to be disassembled to fit all the pieces inside.  Box is made from Peruvian Walnut & Bird’s Eye Maple with a Walnut Top and Bottom.  Slipfeathers are Roasted Ash and Fir.