Unlike the IPPs with hundreds in attendance and a planned 3-day agenda and side tours, our little SPP was just a small gathering over dinner with just 8 of us, including Oskar! David Ang of Cubewerkz came with his gang of twisty enthusiasts and speed-cubers (all students by the way – Bin Jie,, Seung Ha, Ryan Peh and Daryl Tan) plus the two of us from the non-twisty domain, Goh Pit Khiam and myself. As you might imagine, given such a small group, the number of puzzles that went around were rather few. I showed off to Oskar some of my recent designs and prototypes such as my Handkerzzle, L(8)tice-2, Micro-Hex and a 2014 design but recently reproduced-Ball In Cylinder #2.  David brought a number of twisties he was currently selling on his new site and Pit Khiam took out a couple of his own designs and also displayed his Android platform digital puzzles. Oskar had a number of goodies in his bag, mainly his 3D printed and incredible looking gear mechanisms and twistie-style puzzles. All in all, it was a pleasant evening of catching up with Oskar and the rest of the gang  and a chance to handle some of Oskar’s newest toys!

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I first saw the Mobius at the Singapore Puzzle Party in 2015, where Oskar was on a business trip to Singapore.  A bunch of us puzzle enthusiasts met him for a nice puzzle evening over dinner. There, he showcased an array of twisty puzzles (a number of them new prototypes) and also brought along a Cast Mobius (prototype?). I didn’t get a chance to try the Mobius that night. Finally at IPP37 in Paris this past August, I snapped up one during the Puzzle Party.

The Mobius is based on the Mobius Strip. The object of the puzzle is to remove the round disk from the curving “strip” which has protruding bumps and forms a maze along both surfaces. Without “entering” the maze, the disk can actually travel along the curves of the strip and the orientation of the disk as it travels the entire length changes. The strip is made of zinc alloy and the disk aluminium. Talking about the Mobius strip, Japanese designer Hirokazu Iwasawa also designed the Zipper using the same concept.

The Mobius measures about 6.5cm x 6cm. Quality of construction is up to the usual Hanayama standards. The puzzle itself is not hard but will still provide a fair challenge for novices. It is rated 3 stars by Hanayama and that level of difficulty I think is about right. Perhaps maybe even 2.5 stars. Still a bit tricky somewhat and not as straight forward as one would expect. It took me a couple of minutes and I had the disk out in no time. Putting the disk back was just the reverse. One of those puzzles where persistence would eventually get you to the solved state.

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