The GyroTwisty comprises an ABS plastic (the stuff for 3D printing) circular shell frame l which holds an inner ball. The object of the puzzle is to take apart the pieces and put them back together again. As with the previous Namdarian puzzle Sewing Box, the quality of the 3D printing and finishing here is very good. Tolerances are just right allowing the inner ball to rotate smoothly inside the outer circular frame. My copy of the puzzle looks really cute with a contrasting yellow and blue colour. Physically the puzzle is a nice size for the hands at around 8cm in diameter and about 6.5cm tall. Mine also came in a pinkish drawstring cloth pouch with leopard print.

This puzzle reminds me of Hanayama’s Cast Marble (which I don’t own nor have I played with) and also Peppermint designed by Scott Elliot. While the three puzzles share similar design cues, the solves have their own characteristics. Unlike Sewing Box and Peppermint which I struggled with it, I managed GyroTwisty pretty well. I took apart the puzzle in under 10 minutes and got all four pieces back together in a lesser time. Or maybe I just got lucky. I won’t say its very difficult but its certainly not an easy puzzle either. But I suppose with some persistence, it will pay off in the end as you fiddle the pieces.

There is a technique to the solve. Once I managed to line up the outer shell with the inner ball, which itself splits into two, the puzzle came apart quite easily. Really no force whatsoever is required.

For anyone interested to get a copy,  you can email Diniar via the IPP38 Puzzle Design Competition webpage. Yes, the GyroTwisty was also an entry to the competition. The puzzle costs a very reasonable 15 Euros plus S&H.

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The goal of Double Vision “is to see an undistorted single image of the IPP38 Logo through the “glass” rhombohedron enclosed”. Now what is a rhombohedron you might ask?. Well, it looks like the object below, a sort of slanted cube. The meaning is here.

Double Vision comes in a cardboard packaging which contains a wooden box with sliding lid. Inside is a block of glass rhombohedron and instructions. The wooden box is well constructed with the IPP38 logo printed on a card sitting nicely at the bottom of the box. The block of glass itself looked like it was something extracted from mother earth. It was rough at the edges and not completely clear and see through. In fact it was a bit cloudy on the inside. But still clear enough to see the distorted IPP38 logo. Dimensionally the puzzle is 8.5cm x 8.5cm x 5cm.

Following the instructions, I looked through the Rhombohedron and indeed saw a double image of the IPP38 Logo. I have no idea what is the scientific explanation for this phenomenon. But I needed to see a single image so I turned and flipped the glass on each of its six sides and held the glass in all sorts of ways. But all I saw was still the “distorted double image”.

Well, like I mentioned in the beginning, there is a trick to this puzzle and of course being the dense one here, it eluded me. I looked at the solution supplied and yes, now I could quite clearly see undistorted single image of the IPP38 Logo through the glass. What a neat and cool puzzle!

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The Sewing Box consists of an ABS plastic (the stuff for 3D printing) circular frame which holds six different coloured rods in place. Each of the rods consists of two parts split at varying lengths. The object of the Sewing Box is to remove the rods from the frame. Quality of the 3D printing and finishing is very good. The puzzle looks really nice with all that colour around the sides.

I think everyone would agree that the puzzle is very intriguing and enticing looking and begs to be played with. But the solving is a whole different ball game. I struggled with it for quite some time and got nowhere. The rods can rotate on their own axis and all six rods can also rotate around the frame. Eventually I asked Diniar for a clue. All he told me was that the rods are split at different heights (something which I already knew). Anyway, I persevered on. And through a rather painful process of trial and error, continuous sliding and twisting, I finally manage to dislodge the rods. I say dislodge because it seemed that several of the rods all came apart almost at the same instant. It was only then that I saw the “internal mechanism” of the Sewing Box. I like to think I got the rods out more by chance than systematic skill.

I took a fairly long time to solve, like nearly maybe an hour. Diniar mentioned that three other puzzlers, Jim Strayer, Kevin Sadler and Goetz Schwandtner all had taken apart the thing in only 15 minutes or so. Hey, these guys are experts…what do you expect?! Overall, I would say that the Sewing Box has quite a clever and rather very unique design concept, well executed via 3D printing production. Very challenging would be a bit of an understatement. Solving requires a fair bit of (lateral) thinking. And certainly quite a handful to be juggling so many pieces. I saw the official solution from Diniar. And yes, there is a “method” or rather technique to solving but it is difficult to discover. More suitable for the hardcore puzzle enthusiasts.

For anyone interested to get a copy (15 Euros plus S&H) and I would highly recommend the Sewing Box to those who relish a good challenge, you can email Diniar via the IPP38 Puzzle Design Competition webpage. Yes, the Sewing Box was also an entry to the competition, and the most colourful one!

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But during IPP38 in San Diego this past August, I received one of the coolest (and most high tech) Exchange Puzzles around! This was the Super Cube from George Miller.

A quick demonstration during the Puzzle Exchange by Roxanne Miller showed me that this puzzle is in the realms of the tech/digital sphere.  Nothing like your typical twisty or Rubik’s Cube. It completely blew me away. Having said that, I am aware that there were in the past, electronic versions of the Rubik’s Cube such as the TouchCube and some other variations.

Is this cool or what?!!

The Super Cube comes packaged with not just the cube itself. But you also have to download the Super Cube app onto your smart phone or tablet to enjoy the Super Cube experience. You can just play with the Super Cube in the usual fashion. But the app also provides a number of challenges and “games”.

From a construction stand point, the build quality and finish is excellent. Even for a non-twisty puzzler like me, I can tell that the Super Cube turns with quiet buttery smoothness, almost like a competition cube.

How it works is that Super Cube is connected via Bluetooth to your smart phone or tablet and the cube will work with the app as intended. Obviously there are electrical components inside the cube. That’s why it comes with a charging cable that connects to the Super Cube via a pair of connectors shaped like miniature headphones.

I wasn’t interested in the other challenges. You can see from my iphone screenshots below what sort of extra challenges are available. And I am sure they are fun and many twisty enthusiasts would love them. What I was particularly drawn to was the Quick Solve function! As the name implies, this function allow you to solve a scrambled cube using the app. Once paired, the app is able to detect the scrambled state of the cube, no matter how you may scramble it. It will direct the puzzler to orientate the cube in the correct manner in order to start following the solving directions given by the app.

Once you have got the faces of the cube in the right orientation, you simply follow the on-screen twists and turns. The app will make the first twist and you follow. It will only show the next move after you have made yours. It won’t “run ahead” of you such that you are unable to keep up with the turns. Great for twisty novices and puzzlers like me who have little (or no) experience…haha! I had good fun with it. I posted about the Super Cube on Facebook and it has drawn mixed reactions with some puzzlers saying that a cube is not solved like this. Well, like any new (tech) product, including puzzles, there will be detractors and supporters alike.

Click on the YouTube video link HERE at the which shows how the Quick Solve function works with the Super Cube.

The Super Cube is available from a number of online retailers for around US$40.00. Google Giiker Super Cube and you will be able to sell who sells them.

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Typically, an Exchange participant (pre-registered and approved) is required to produce 100 copies of a puzzle of an original design.The design can either be his or her own or from some other designer. These puzzles must also not be commercially available elsewhere. Out of the 100 puzzles, one copy is donated to the IPP. during IPP, this is displayed on a large round table for all attendees to view. The remaining 99 are used for the exchange.

However, it is only on rare occasions where all 99 exchange participants exchange their puzzles. The number is usually less than 99. There have even been several times where there were more than 100 exchangers. In the latter case, each exchanger will exchange up to the limit of 99 puzzles. More often than not the average number varies between 85 – 95. This year at San Diego, it was a low year with only 78 exchangers. Hence I came home with 77 new and different puzzles. Below are the photos of the puzzling folks from around the world I exchanged with.

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One of the puzzles I picked up during the Puzzle Party was the Hanayama Cast Arrows. It’s the latest puzzle in the Hanayama stable. At the time of this writing, the Cast Arrows has still not be released outside of Japan. Those interested in purchasing may try Ebay Japan. I got my copy from the good puzzle folks of Torito Japan. Lucky me, it was also the last copy they had.

The Cast Arrows was designed by my puzzle friend from Russia Andrei Ivanov. Made of cast alloy, the Cast Arrows consist of 4 arrow shaped pieces and a heart. The puzzle comes with the arrows all arranged in one direction “pierced” through a hole in the heart. The hole is a rectangular slot and has some grooves cut along the insides. The object is to remove the 4 arrows from the heart.

All the 4 arrows look identical and most puzzlers would probably look at the grooves and notches and come to the conclusion that these are useful for positioning the arrows through the heart. The space of the slot is rather limited and only one arrow can come out at a time. The challenge is how to get the first arrow out.

simple looking and is anything but…

The Cast Arrows is rated 3 out of 6 stars by Hanayama, meaning it’s of average difficulty. But I would personally assess it to be at least 3.5 or 4 stars. While it is not frustratingly difficult, it is pretty tricky.

I spent quite a bit of time studying the pieces to see if they yielded any clues. None I could find, at least on the surface. All looked the same shape and size. Next using the trial and error method to see if by chance I could pop out an arrow, but no luck. Most of the time, after what I had thought would be the correct positions of the arrows within the slot for removal, I was confronted with a quiver of stuck arrows. And had to start over again.

But my puzzliing experience as taught me that one cannot defy physics. Given Hanayama’s tight tolerances for their puzzles, I know that somewhere within the puzzle, there must be a way to remove an arrow(s) without use of any force. And like many Hanayama puzzles, there is usually a correct starting point for the solve if you know just where where to look. I won’t say more as I don’t wish to publish any spoilers here. All in, it took me well over half an hour before I managed to get the first arrow out. Very “elegant” and smooth solution…but not obvious at all.

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The Puzzle Party is an official event of the IPP. It is held on the second day and last from about 9am to 3pm. It is a puzzle market where sellers and buyers (and observers) gather in a hotel ballroom to buy and sell puzzles. These puzzles include pre-loved puzzles, new puzzles, new designs, extra copies of exchange puzzles (including those from past exchanges as well as unwanted ones), puzzle books and paraphernalia. It’s one big high-end flea market. Prices range from a few dollars to a US$40,000 for a custom built puzzle cabinet (it happened this year). A lot cash change hands during the puzzle party and some buyers resort to borrowing or PayPal when their cash runs out.

Go to Part 2

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A total of 67 designs from around the world. From what I can see, there are loads of really interesting designs and I can’t wait to play with them at IPP38 next weekend.

Click on the link below to view the wonderful and incredible creations puzzle designers have come up with.

http://puzzleworld.org/DesignCompetition/2018/

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SPIR ALA Rips

Not sure what the name means but Vesa Timonen seems to have done it again. Again just two pieces  but this time with one hole in each piece. The goal is to place the pieces flat on a table such that the resulting shape can be bisected into two identical shapes. I absolutely had no luck with this one but did however enjoy the nice strong woody scent emanating from the Curly Birch used to produce this puzzle.

French Revolution

French colours adorned here of course. Consisting of four pieces, one blue and three red, the goal is to form three possible symmetrical shapes using a combination of the blue piece and any two of the three red pieces. As of this post, I only managed to  find one of the  three possible solutions. Like the name suggest, I kept going round in circles to no avail. The other two shapes have eluded me thus far.

3 Pieces 9 symmetric shapes

A straight forward self-explanatory name for the puzzle but this one is anything by straight forward. And the puzzle consist of only three pieces. The goal is to form 9 symmetric shapes but after two days of play, I managed only to form 3 shapes…a rather dismal result percentage if I may add.

SYM-353

Now this one is from me, yes! SYM-353 was my exchange puzzle at IPP37. Why the “353”? Well, it consist of three pieces; two with 3 sides and one with 5 sides. Sym 353 was a  design collaboration between Stanislav Knot of the Czech Republic and me. My original design had just one solution (as I intended). But Stan saw my design and thought the three pieces could form another symmetrical shape. With some adjustments to the shapes, this proved to be true. Little did we realise that there were two more possible solutions when I sent the puzzle to Ken Johnson of Canada and Rex Perez of Philippines for testing. Each of them came up with a new and different solution, resulting in a total of 4 possible solutions.

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