Packing puzzles from a new Japanese designer

 

From the Japanese designers, we all know MINE and Yuu Asaka, both know for the top quality packing puzzles.

I came accross a new designer who is designing and making plexi packing puzzle. What about the quality? What about the solve? Let's see that in details!

Acazu, the name of the designer, has made several packing puzzles and I was intrigued as nobody has ever reviewed it so far.

 

Opera

His easiest packing puzzle consisting of 5 pieces to pack. Don't be fooled by the mentioned difficulty, it's more difficult than you can expect. To be honest I randomly put pieces and....solved. Took me a bit of time but I managed to beat the puzzle! A good warm-up for his more difficult puzzles. Difficulty mentioned: 1/5. In my opinion it's: 2/5

 

Solahai

5 pieces to pack with one circle being divided into halves. Will they remain together at the end? Sorry, no spoilers!

I am a bit disappointed by the puzzle because I found a solution and a friend of mine who played with it found another solution, his being more elegant. So I guess mine was just being made possible by a slighly tolerance issue. It took me way too long to find even one solution. So honetly the mentioned difficulty of 2/5 is not really accurate. I would give a 3.5/5

 

Shallows

This puzzles has been submitted to the international puzzle party design competition but did not get any prize. I like the shape of the puzzles and obviously you will understand that the little small piece will challenge you. It took me also a bit of time to figure it out, but I guess this is somehow pretty satisfying. Difficulty mentioned: 2.5/5. Again I would give a 3.5/5

Quartet

I would have expected music shaped pieces due to the name but the pieces look like more trees / candle, but anyway this gives a nice look. By putting the pieces inside the frame you will understand normally if 2 pieces could fit together and normally also at some point will be use a different approach because no matter you put the pieces in an "usual" way, they won't fit. 

I agree with the difficulty of 3/5. It's easier than solahai in my opinion.

 

About the quality of each puzzle, nothing bad to say. They are well made. I am still a bit "puzzled" about the fit as it's pretty tight and one may want to push a bit the pieces inside the frame...Also as I said before I should not have been able to find a second solution for solahai if the puzzles was perfectly made.

 

Now, what about the solutions? (no spoilers!)

To be honest, I am disappointed by the solution. They are not very beautiful if compared to Asaka's puzzles. For Asaka's puzzle, you usually have a nice looking solution, sometime with a symetry. Here not at all, just pieces put inside a tray. Yes, that is the goal of a packing puzzle, but well...

Also the pieces are cut in weird way just to confuse you, especially for quarted and solahai. You will clearly see that you cannot fit 2 pieces without gaps. And that also gives the feeling that the design of the pieces are somewhat "random" without any intention neither to have a nice looking solution, nor to have clear "relationships" between the pieces...

 

Of course, if you're into (challenging) packing puzzles, they will suit your taste. From my side, he is not my favourite Japanese puzzle designer.

 

Chess castle by Archimaze Puzzle

Marc, the founder of Archimaze Puzzle, is a new puzzle designer who did an amazing job for this first design, with the ambition of becoming part of the world's top designers.

Let me explain more in detail.

Here we are with a big puzzle box containing written riddles and hidden mechanisms. The puzzle itself is very big, way bigger than what I expected. But honestly it would not do justice to a king living in a small castle, right?

In addition to its generous size, this 3D-printed puzzle is very carefully designed and you will notice a lot of effort put into the details. All the aspects of a real castle are there.

As just mentioned, you will have some riddles. They are part of the experience and they are not that easy. I am not very good at riddles, but I am not against them as well especially when they play a role in the whole story like here. Yes, there is a story all along your puzzle journey! You will have to read a little bit (I promise) and from the start to the end, the story will make sense to you.

The story is focused on the game of chess: you're the player in the chess world and you need to reach your goal (I won't tell you what it is!). You don't need to know how to play chess to enjoy the puzzle, and that's the good point with it. Personally I like chess and I know how to play chess. Also, I have never seen a mechanical puzzle based on chess. So I can only have a good first feeling about the puzzle :)

What about the mechanical side?

The Chess Castle is a mechanical puzzle meaning that you will have to use some tools (so yes, it's a SD puzzle as well!) in some creative ways! Trust me, Marc has a devilish mind !! Usually a new designer starts slowly, but here it's not the case. For your greatest pleasure of course :)

No force, gravity or banging are needed, only gentle moves. (By the way, be gentle with any puzzle!)

I loved many moves and their consequences. I don't want to spoil it, but everything is spot on. When these things happen, you will enjoy them without a doubt.

 

What about the riddles?

They are fully integrated to the puzzling experience. I would say it's 50% riddles and 50% hidden mechanisms. But the riddles help to make progress on the mechanical parts. When I say "riddles", it means here that the chess pieces that you will encounter will speak to you, giving you clues and encrypted messages that will help you move forward during your journey.

You have to analyze their words very carefully. The hidden meanings will be useful too.

You could be tempted to bypass some elements like forcing the cryptex on the top which is taunting you from the beginning. Don't do that! You could be cast into the oblivion in the very depths of the castle dungeon! Plus you will miss some interesting stuff. So I would advise to keep on trying and also to take notes: you will discover a lot of elements and pieces and you may need to track what you've found so far. If you don't do that, you will be forced to do it anyway, so better to start at the beginning of your journey.

Some riddles were a bit too hard for me I must confess. But again, I am not used to that. So maybe it will be easier for you? No need for any specific knowledge by the way.

I would say that the riddles are somewhat around a difficulty of 8 to 9 over 10 and the mechanical aspect around 7 and 8 over 10. But at the end I would give a total difficulty of 8.5/10 I guess. 

The price can be considered as high, so now the key question: 

Is it worth the price?

Yes, Yes and Yes!

Why? First there are a lot of things to discover, many tools and other interesting stuff. Marc put a lot of effort on the story and the game design, and they make your puzzle journey full of surprises. On the detail and look of the puzzle, nothing is missing, nothing was neglected. Regarding the size: you will have a big beautiful puzzle to display in your puzzle cabinet.

Remember that you pay not only for a finished product but also for the joy and thinking behind it (no, I have not been paid to say that!). And I guess it's the same for all puzzles: there are a lot of hours and nights spent on designing a puzzle and avoiding flows. 

If you're into chess, mechanical puzzles, SD puzzles and riddles, no doubt: go for it. If you're a bit less into riddles or chess, honestly, you should give it a try. I am sure you will enjoy it a lot.

It's a limited edition puzzle: 100 puzzles crafted and no one will ever be made again in the future. Marc will move into other puzzle projects. So don't wait too much or you will regret it. Just saying....

 

The box you will receive containing the puzzle is not super heavy but it's big! Take that into consideration if you need to go to the post office to pick the package up!

How to buy it? Just click on this link!

 

Credit for the pictures goes for Marc's photographer: Bruno Marsone. He took very professional pictures and mine would not have been that good!

Creep 2 by Yuu Asaka

Yuu Aska is still expending his [name]&[number] puzzle design and after his Pond 12, now comes Creep 2, consisting as the name suggests of only 2 pieces.

It's also his first puzzle to have a restricted access to the pieces with your hands but you still have enough acces to be able to manipulate the 2 pieces.

It's one of the easiest Asaka's but in my opinion also one of the most enjoyable (maybe also because I managed to solve it on my own?...)

First of, the pieces: they are very colorful and look original. They remind me of a crab shape with 2 eyees and will meet at a certain point inside the frame.

As you can assume just looking at the puzzle, it will be a little "try and try again" until you find the trick. Initially I imagine what the trick could have been, but I was wrong and the second trick that could be employed here came to my mind and bingo! Then, the 2 pieces dance around each other to finally meet and the puzzle is solved.

I really hope that Yuu can come up with a 1 piece packing puzzle. Plenty of ideas can be implemented and I am sure that it will be brilliant when the time comes.

If you're a fan of packing puzzle and/or Yuu Asaka's packing puzzle, you definitely need this one!

You can buy it at Puzzle Master webshop

You can also buy a bundle for a reduced price

CUBIGAMI 7

Cubigami 7 is a stacking plastic puzzle which goals are to make specific shapes, mostly cubic shapes.

You just need to fold the plates (without using any kind of force!) in a precise order. Easy?!

Well, yes and no. First the plates are connected on some edges, making an edge foldable while making another unfoldable.

 

Secondly, and it happened to me many times, you will go in circle, trying to make a shape and going back to the starting point. 

Note that the plates can be folded "inwards" and "outwards", doubling the possibilities of how you can arrange the plates.

 

I really like puzzles that have many challenges and that you can have your friends play with it without any fear (this one is pretty cheap and is not fragile) and that keep you busy for some time.... by the way I need to complete all the challenges... !!

I heard there is a more advanced puzzle of this kind, but so far I have not found a webshop to buy it.

So in the meantime, if you want to enjoy these challenges, you can buy it at Puzzle Master webshop

Pocket change BLUE

If you've never played with any pocket change puzzles by Piker, let me tell you something: you missed a lot!

Piker designed an printed with 3D printers some very nice puzzles amond them 2 are sequencial discovery puzzles and 5 are what he called "Pocket change" puzzles.

"Pocket" because they are small, can be carried out everywhere and contain a lot inside. Not sure about the real meaning of "change" here? Or maye you get a lot for your money (which is true actually).

This Pocket Change BLUE one is very addictive like a fidget toy. Honestly I managed to solve it many times but I still cannot figure out a reliable method to solve it every time I want. And this is a bit frustrating, especially because you cannot see the mechanism. Did I mention that the quality is still super great?

It a nice addition to the series and one of my favourite one!

You can buy it on Puzzle Master webshop!

If you want the other ones: RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, PURPLE

Dancing shoes

Dancing Shoes is a puzzle designed by Goh Pit Khiam, who is famous for very clever packing puzzles that usually have a nice twist.

This one is no exception to that rule :)

May Goh puzzles have been made in wood by Tom Lensch, but not sure is this puzzle has ever been made by Tom, so I guess this 3D printed version that Puzzle Master is selling is the only copy of Dancing Shoes.

The goal is to put all the pieces flat in the tray without overlaping the pieces. Having saying that (and that no force is required!), it's up to you how to arrange the pieces! But you will soon realize that you need to think outside the box. Goh designed some time ago more or less a similar puzzle and even if Dancing Shoes does not have the same appearance , I thought that the solving process should be more or less the same....and guess what: I was right !! That does not mean I solved in within a minute. It still did not take me hours.

The solving process is smooth and very enjoyable. I am sure that it may take long long time for a non experienced puzzler as it requires a trick that may be natural for a seasoned puzzler!

Whether you like Goh's puzzles and/or packing puzzles and/or puzzles with a twist, you won't be disappointed at all.

You can buy this puzzle on Puzzle Master Webshop!

Keebox packing

Keebox have created so far 3 sequencial discovery puzzle. They are all great if you wonder, but today we'll talk about their packing puzzle: keebox pack.

The material used is 3D printed parts like their previous puzzles and the goal is to pack all the pieces inside the tray.

For some reasons, it reminds me a bit of Yuu Asaka packing puzzles in the sense of that it's not like a regular packing and that there must be a trick somewhere. And also the shapes of the pieces are not super common.

 

I feel that the quality is superb and no force at all is needed for assembling the pieces to each other.

It took me a bit of time, but as surprisingly less than what I thought, I guess I was just lucky because usually it results with a fail from me with these kind of puzzles!!

For nice quality, the enjoyable challenge and the sweet price, I can only advise you to buy it!

You can find on Puzzle Master webshop!

Marble game

 You cannot go wrong with Eureka games! Usually they are logic  and challenging game with around 60 or so challenges from easy to mind-bogging.

Let's dive into this one that I found very curious and original. It's called "marble circuit"

First you put the pieces as shown in the card challenges. They you put the bar on the top and the marbles in their holes.

The goal is to arrange the pieces so that you have a certain amount of ball bearing going to specific places. And it's far from being easy-peasy!

The pieces have different paths and you have to plan how the balls will run through the paths (or the visible maze. Personally I found to be like a maze). It's funny to slide the ball going down....and not in the way you initially planned to would go...!

I find this game challenging and entertaining, more difficult than I expected and for me it's a total novelty among the games. It changes from the same (and boring) packing puzzles :)

You can buy the game from Puzzle Master webshop

I tried to upload a video I've made to show the marbles going down, but for some reasons it does not work. So just have a look at the video on the link just above.

The Legend of Zelda -Triforce Puzzle

We're not talking about this video games (even if I am found of all Zelda games!), but again about a puzzle, with obviously a Zelda theme. Let me show you a new Hanayama puzzle: Triforce Puzzle.

Hanayama is famous for its metal puzzle series ranking from 1/6 to 6/6 in terms of difficulty (1 being the easiest) and from time to time they make their puzzle with a new "theme". I remember they made some puzzle with a Disney theme for some of their old creations. And sometimes they even make like special edition with black or gold coated paint on them.

This time they have decided to go through one of the most (if not the most!) famous video game license to make 3 gorgeous puzzles. I will only show one of them: the triforce puzzle.

 

You will immediately notice the size of the packaging: it's the double size of the usual hanayama puzzle. It honestly gives justice to the brand and quality of both Zelda and Hanayama. Hanayama did a really good job here. You can find all the stuff related to the video game: the famous triforce shape that appears on each side of the package (except the bottom -but who cares?) and the level of difficulty is not given in terme of stars of digits but in terms of gems (the gems are the currency in zelda). All of that makes sense!

Nothing bad to say about the quality, same as the other hanayama puzzle, you cannot go wrong with it!

I want to highlight something about the price. It's more expensive than the usual hanayama and many people (you know those who are ready to pay thousands for a puzzle...) were not happy with that. Let me explain some things: first the package is bigger and needed more effort to design and probably to make. Then, and for me it's pretty obvious: Hanayama must have paid some fees to Nintendo and Hanayama still needs to make to money. So again, disregard the small increase and go for it!

 

Now what about the puzzling part? Honestly I liked it a lot. It's a nice puzzle to fiddle with. I managed to make it move a bit and thn I could see the internals and I immediately knew what was going on there. Still I could not find a proper way to solve it until with a bit of.... and of ****

Spoilers avoided !!

Then I managed to find the solution online and there is a very clever way to solve that puzzle, which make it even a better puzzle. Way more clever than my fiddling solution...!

Now I will play with the other 2 in the series to make a ranking of my favourite. 

Despite its not huge difficulty, I am sure you will enjoy triforce, maybe even more when getting the proper solution!

You can buy this puzzle at Puzzle Master webshop!

The other puzzles are the Sword and the Emblem.

If you want to buy all the 3, you get a discount!

Kickstarter campaign for Oskar's metal puzzle is launched !

Puzzle Master has officially launched a new kickstarter campaign to raise funds so to mass-produce a metal puzzle from Oskar's mind.

 

This Honeycomb puzzle is composed of a black base and of 7 threaded gold pieces that you literally have to unscrew / screw from/in the base to solve and reassemble the puzzle.

Quality speaking this puzzle is very nice and the fit was perfect and precise. I can only speak for my copy but I guess some (I still hope not!) won't be as perfect as mine. Here comes a potential weakness: if the threads are not precisely made, then it may be either hard or impossible to solve the puzzle. But I guess Puzzle Master will follow up any issue. 

The puzzle feels solid and heaby in the hands and clearly this is usually a good sign! No red flags here :)

I still advise supervision of adults if children are playing with the puzzle. Threads can be sharp and you may cut a bit your fingers if you apply too much pressure on them while screwing. It does not happen to me but this is the usual warning when playing with metal threaded parts: take your time, no pressure, no force, be gentle !!

Now let's speak about the solving process. Obviously you will have to unscrew all the pieces, no doubt about that. It's pretty easy and straight forward to solve the puzzle. Anyone can solve it !

Reassembling the puzzle is more challenging. You need to figure out which pieces go where and fidle a bit about how to put them back. Still, it's not super difficult to achieve, it's pleasant though.

If you're a metal puzzle sucker, definitely you should pledge on the kickstarter campaign. If you're only attracted by the difficulty level of a puzzle, just consider another puzzle, or buy it for your friends :)

 

The link for the kickstarter campaign is: HERE

Aquarium

Aquarium is an acrylic packing puzzle which goal is to fit all 3 octopuses into the "aquarium" (frame)
It was created by Russian designer Vladimir Krasnoukhov.

The puzzle fits perfectly the theme and the colors are well chosen. Still, note that the colors may vary and personally I prefer mine than the ones shown on Puzzle Master website (yours may be even nicer!).

 

I liked a lot the quality of the material used (like all the previous Vladimir's puzzles), the colors used. Especially the transparent color for the octopuses (yellow would have been weird) and it's very funny to try putting the tentacles all together.

As for the difficulty, it's not easy, but I would rank it as "moderate": you will be challenged without frustration and you can even let you friends.

I liked a bit less that there are no surprises, nor tricks involved. You 're expecting to do what you initially thought you would have to. So the solution could have popped in your mind before playing for hours. You can analyze, like what I did, the shapes and with just that you may come to a solution (there is only one by the way).
 

To conclude: a very nice looking puzzle, nice to share with friends. A bit on the easy side, but still far from being easy.
 

 

You can buy Aquarium puzzle directly on Puzzle Master webshop!

When you have several anti-slide problems with one puzzle...

 .... it can only be good ! And you get more fun !

A couple of anti-slides packing is a puzzles with 3 different challenges designed by Vladimir Krasnoukhov.

As the name of this puzzle implies, there are two anti-slide tasks to this puzzle and one bonus packing challenge.

Task 1: Pack the pieces of Set 1 into the tray so that no piece can move ('anti-slide')

Task 2: Pack the other four pieces in Set 2 into the tray so that no piece can move and that the pieces will form a symmetrical shape at the same time.

Task 3: Pack all the pieces into the tray

I find this little guy very interesting for the several challenges and the look of the solution (yes I solved all the 3 puzzles!).

I fiddled a lot for the challenges but the goal can help you a bit. Indeed for one challenge it's mentioned "symetrical shape" so you can try several symetry shapes and check if the result can fit inside the tray.

Actually I thought that the symetry stuff added more complexity, but not all all because the solution has to be symetrical and if it's not symetrical you cannot fit the pieces :)

The solutions are really rewarding and you can admire the genius mind which created these puzzles !!

I cannot remember if the puzzle arrived with Task 3 solved, but I bet so as it's easier to pack safely the pieces during shipping. 

So I would advise you to scramble the pieces behind your back or ask for a friend's help :)

In all honesty, I had great fun with the puzzle and I advise at 100% to buy it. If you love anti-sliding packing (as I do) you won't be disappointed and if you love plexi and/or Vladimir's puzzles, then it's also a must-have in your collection.

You can buy the puzzle at Puzzle Master webshop

Rotating wooden anti-sliding

Anti-Sliding (I will name it AS in the article) puzzle is a puzzle that is solved when no pieces move in any direction if you move the tray from left to right and from top to bottom.

Unfortunately there are not a lot of AS puzzles out there (maybe the demand is not there as well?) while I really think they deserve more recognition!

 

 

Stabile Seitenlage (translated "stable lateral position") is a classic anti-slide puzzle.  The objective is to put all 8 pieces onto the tray, so that no piece could move, if you tilt the tray to one side.

Now why this puzzle is special? Well because there is a rotating piece in the middle of the puzzle, making the solve interesting and even more difficult than the usual AS.

Second interesting point is that we have some wooden pegs. Well without them, the pieces would clearly fall out of the tray.

So here we have 2 difficulties: the pegs and the rotating piece! And obviously no piece should protude outside of the tray.

With that in mind, it's time to explore! It's a pretty challenging puzzle. But I (and maybe you should?) tried solving it by testing all the pieces on the different pegs. Just to check which piece can go where. I feel it's always nice to try the possibilities first and then deduce the place and orientation of the remaining pieces. But it's up to you. 

 

If you like these AS puzzles, I highly recommand it to you. And it's nice to display it, especially once solved. Displaying it is a proof of your accomplishment :)

You can buy it at Puzzle Master webshop

Pocket Change puzzles

Pocket Change puzzle is a series of 4 puzzles (5 puzzles if you include the heart, though its name does not include "pocket") made out of 3D printers by Piker.

The puzzles are all really nicely made and can be taken for puzzling on holidays as they are pretty small.

No need to say that all the puzzles are different from each other in terms of solution.

I will try to put a difficulty for each of them out of 5. It's subjective for sure. 1 being the easiest and 5 the most difficult.

Pocket Change Red

This is a very tricky puzzles, easy to repeat, that has stumped many puzzlers (including me!). Actually I had ideas but I was a bit reluctuant to perform them due ot the nature of these puzzles. The solution proved me that I was right.

It does not require a lot of steps but these are addictive and you will, I am sure at 100%, perform them many times...It's satisfying :)

Difficulty: 4/5

Pocket Change Yellow

This is a famous kind of puzzles that everyone knows put in a pocket size. Usually I am not that good at these puzzles, but I found Pocket Change Yellow to be fu and not that difficult. And you get some parts revealed, no blind navigation here :)

The coin is the only thing of this puzzle that come out of the box. No small pices. So you can take is safely with you on a train or plane.

Difficulty: 2/5

Pocket Change Orange

Let's start with a fact: it's my less favourite puzzle among the whole series as you don't see or uderstand precisely what you're doing. Bits come off not knowing why...then you get the "how" to get it back question to your mind coming up!....

I managed to solve it but with luck I guess. Still a nice puzzle....for seasoned puzzlers !!

Difficulty: 5/5

 

 

Pocket Change Purple

It's the latest pocket change puzzle and probably my favourite puzzle in terms of look among the whole series. Hidden tricks will puzzle you a bit and you should quickly understand how it works. At the beginning I had assumptions that could have been true but ended up being false. I guess many would have had the same assumptions....only the ones who tried the puzzle can understand :)

I like the rattling of the marbles :)

Definitely recommended !!

Difficulty: 2/5

Wedding Puzzle

It's not part of the pocket puzzle, but Piker sold it along with them so I guess I should add it as well.

I think the goal of the designer was to create a puzzle for a wedding, easy enough so that people with any puzzle experience can solve and enjoy the puzzle.

It's not a new kind of mechanism, but I still enjoy it though. And for sure you can bring to friends for them to try it. While being pretty easy, it's not trivial though. And it took me some time because either I did not fully applied the precise steps or I tried something completely different.

Difficulty: 1/5

 

 

 

You can buy them at Puzzle Master webshop!

RED

ORANGE

YELLOW

PURPLE

WEDDING

Your new metal puzzle designer is born !!

While more and more 3D-printed puzzles are popping up in the market, we were missing metal puzzle designers and my post will bring you an happy smile on your face!

With only 2 metal puzzles designed so far, I can you the level of skills behind the guy!

 

His name? Garrett Mathias

His website? CLICK HERE

Garrett designed 2 puzzles (OurGlass and Cogas) but I am sure he will come up with more ideas. From his first 2 puzzles, the future sounds very promising !!

 

Let's talk about the two puzzles now!

 

OurGlass

I hope you get the pun?

It can be considered as a fidget toy or a puzzle for the less experienced puzzlers!

It took me few seconds to solve and the mechanism is not new but the quality is so nice that, even if you're an experienced puzzler, you should buy it :) 

No need to mention that the shape is original and I have never seen a hourglass puzzle so far. Also you can use it as a display stand as well for a tiny puzzle (or a real hourglass?)

So I do advise you OurGlass puzzle (becoming MyGlass puzzle when you have it....ok sorry...lol) if you're looking for a nice small puzzle that will stand well in your puzzle cabinet.

Cogas

Now we can talk about "real" puzzle!

The look is nice and clean and may remind you of some famous Dutch puzzle designers. However there are many differences, the first one being the size.

So the goal here is to remove the lid, so far nothing special....but the lid does not move...and nothing seems to move. No external tools allowed, no saws!

What else can we say? There is like a small hole on the body of the cylinder. And unless I am blind there are no tools visible!

The puzzle can be classified as Sequential Discovery puzzle because you will get tools to use. This information can be spoilery but I am sure people like to know what puzzle they have in front of them :)

Cogas is perfectly made, it's amazing for a 1st puzzle from a new designer, really! And I have not talked about the mechanism and solution yet (don't worry, I won't spoil it)

The puzzle is a mix of already known mechanism and new ones, it's very very devilish and, trust me, this is a very challenging puzzle!

You may stare at his during long time.... I am pretty sure that you won't even understand the mechanism despite all being visible. This is definitively a super clever mechanism.

For me, among all the cylinder puzzles, this is the most interesting one and one of the cheapest.

Your ROI (Return On Investment) is very high with Cogas. As for puzzles, Return is measured in terms of how satisfactory the solution is, if it will bring you "ha-ah" moments, if you will want to solve it again, if you won't feel shame to show it to your friends, etc. The investment being only money, this one is cheap compared to other puzzles in the same category!

Cogas is on my favourite puzzle list for 2023, for sure!

You can buy them on Garrett website!

 

And if a good news does not come along, I have another good news: you can use my reduction code to get a discount on your total price to pay !!

Use PIW to get 5% off (puzzle for you: can you guess why "PIW"?)

 

 

Hardcore packing puzzles

The title of the post means everything....and sorry but I cannot draw a complete conclusion as I have not solved yet any of these 2 puzzles....

I like packing puzzles, especially the beautiful ones and the ones with an elegant solution. That does not mean I am good at solving them...!!

I wanted to introduce 2 packing puzzles designed an made by Abhishek Ruikar. The first one would perfectly suit the X-mas period as it's called "snowflakes" with the goal of putting the 6 flakes inside the tray. 

By looking at the shape of the flakes, you will immediately understand where the difficulty is... :)

And for the mathematical guys around here, you may even compute all the possible combinations, there are thousands!

I liked a lot to fiddle with this puzzle. Maybe I will manage to solve it one day....

Second puzzles I played with from the same designer is called Clouds with the goal of packing the 9 clouds in the sky tray. Same story: I failed at solving it....so far. Persistance is key when trying these kind of puzzles though!

Here you will have fewer constraints than with the flakes as you will have to consider the cloud shapes on their entirety while you needed to take into account the protuded parts of each flakes for snowflake puzzle. Don't get me wrong, it does not mean that it's easy.

I tend to think that cloud is the easier of these 2. Both are super challenging (and well made!) and you will have plenty of fun for the money. Great ROI !

Locked Cabin

I assume it can be considered as a puzzle box, right? Even if it does not have the usual puzzle box shape.

In fact, Locked Cabin looks a tiny house with window and even a chimney. For a laser-cut puzzle I can only say that it's nicely crafted with fine details.

To achieve your goal you will have to manipule certain pieces in certain order in certain ways. It's always hard to speak about a puzzle without spoiling (too much)...!

The puzzle solution is not that difficult to perform, so I would not advise for a seasoned puzzler, but more for a beginner or a puzzlebox collector. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice puzzle and will take you for sure some time (not long, though).

Nice surprise: the cavity is big enough to hide a small puzzle inside !

You can buy it at your usual webshop, you know it !

 

 

What about some cast puzzles by Hanayama?

 Quick reviews for nice Hanayama cast puzzles !!

 

Cast Coil

Only 2 pieces to remove, but never underestimate seemingly easy cast puzzle. You will have to "perform" many moves and pieces will be like dancing around each other. A very clever puzzle designed by Edi Nagata.

Did I tell you that I usually like when the puzzles is composed of different colors, it looks more stunning!

 

 

Cast Keyhole

This puzzle has been designed Vesa Timonen and it's like a maze pattern that you have to solve to separate the pieces. I don't know if it's Vesa or Oskar the guy with more Hanayama puzzle, but definitely Vesa designed a lot of them and I am sure he will still have more clever ideas for future cast puzzles :)

 

 

 

Cast Hexagon

It's a puzzle designed by Mineyuki Uyematsu consisting of 3 pieces to free. The shape of the "tray" and of the pieces makes this puzzle unique in my mind. Ithave tricky moves and challenging to solve. Precision is a key word for this puzzle in terms of crafting the puzzle and solving it, no force needed. Gentle moves and maybe rotations or dancing moves? You will have to figure out, but I am sure you will have fun with it. Definitely a must-have in your collection!

 

You can buy them on Puzzle Master webshop, but you definitely should go for bundles if you intend to buy a lot in one shot!