Ladybird

Here is one of the most beautiful puzzles (or the most beautiful I think) from Robrecht Louage, a Belgium puzzle designer. The name of the puzzle fits perfectly with the design, no doubt about that. The puzzle is very nice and some part of the body of the insect (here, the antennas) are useful to solve the puzzle. Robrecht has also designed a same kind of puzzle called Larva which is, in a way, the little brother of this puzzle :)

Like usually with Robrecht's puzzles, the goal is to free the euro coin. And Robrecht's puzzles are the only ones with which you earn money when you solve them! (ok, I know, you will say that you have to spend some money before to get it...^^ but still)

To do that, you need to pull and push the antennas while rotating the 2 disks that are under the acrylic.
When you look at the puzzle, you may think that you are very close to the solution because the euro coin is very close to the hole. Don't be fooled by that. You will have to make a long way before having solved the puzzle!
I find this puzzle very good to play with. It is very well thought.
However, I would have expected to be a little bit more difficult (even if there is a twist at some point of your road) because it's pretty straight forward. But don't worry, that does not provide you from having fun with this ladybird :)

Look the picture below, this is the "real" starting point: the line with the word "START" has to be aligned with the small line on the red part (close to the screw) of the puzzle.

Look carefully

I did not pay attention to that at the beginning and I thought that the starting point was when the metal dots were on the very left of the maze. But this is not correct! And when you align both lines (like above), the metal dots are not on the extreme left of the maze, this is normal.
I wonder how a solution of this puzzle could be written...It may be too difficult, and this may be why there is no solution with this puzzle. But you won't need it, anyway ;-)

To conclude, if you like the other Robrecht's puzzles, you won't be disapointed by the quality and the puzzling aspect. I really like it and I am sure you will like it too.
You can buy it by contacting Robrecht. If you want his email, don't hesitate to drop me an email.

Solution: HERE !!!

Gopher Holes

Time to review a wooden puzzle, so here we are with the Gopher Holes, made in Thailand.

It is a packing puzzle and as usually with packing puzzles, the goal is to put all the pieces inside the tray, so that it's flat.
You are provided with 6 pieces and a grid which has to be on the top and remain flat. Each piece has holes or wooden marbles and their 2 sides are not the same.

I think this is a pretty difficult puzzle because there are many possibilities in which way you can put the pieces. But it's very enjoyable and the quality is very good!!
Moreover, if you're lost or give up (I believe you won't), they provide the solutions in their website.

They sell many other puzzles, but mainly in wood.

HERE you can find the puzzle I have reviewed and there are other interesting things to buy for reasonable prices!!

Zobrist cube(s)

Al Zobrist launched his project on kickstarter, the famous crowdfunding website.
And that was a success!

He managed to get the funds to start the production of this game which you will likely be addicted!!

 

The puzzle is shipped in a nice box that closes with some magnets. After opening the box, you see:

..... 5 colorful cubes and a booklet.

The booklet is a code booklet in which thousands of codes are written: the plastic pieces needed are mentioned to create a 3*3 or a 4*4 cube. All the pieces are designed by a letter written on each. So it's easy to find (however a bit long, due to the large amount of pieces) the pieces you need to use.

There is also a small piece of paper included that says for each color the pieces that are from such or such color.

The level of difficulty is written, so you immediately know that you are to try a difficult cube or an easy one: the more possibilities you have for a challenge, the easier it will be.

And believe me, even for the easiest cubes, it's not so obvious because you can start in a wrong way...

Ok now, you can wonder: I already have a Soma cube and some cubes, so why should I buy this puzzle?

Well, first, it's not expensive and the quality is good! Then you will spend hours and hours, trying all the codes !!! So I like this game. That's not a "one-shot" game that you will store after having played for few minutes and gave up.

You can even try to write some solutions (they are not included, otherwise it would be a really really heavy booklet....) and also play with a friend: you chose a challenge for him and he chooses a challenge for you, and see who's the first to complete one's cube ;-)

You can also pick up some pieces and try to see if there are any solutions. Perhaps you will come to an impossible cube, who knows?...

Finally the pieces are sturdy and colorful, that's not a "cheap-looking" puzzle for sure!!

I wonder if there is a cube that has only one solution...

HERE you can buy yours. Enjoy :-)

Slide a SLIDA

This is a new puzzle in the market called Slida, designed by Gianni Lavermicocca, an Australian guy.
The puzzle is made out of plastic and the goal is, you can imagine, taking it apart and then reassemble it.

Taking it apart is easy and straight-forward because you just follow the order the pieces need to be moved. Reassemble the puzzle is much more difficult. If you have the Slida with different color panels, then you should take pictures when you solve the puzzle, to remember how to put the pieces together.
You can buy a Slida with a single color: this is less beautiful in my opinion, but much more difficult.

Note that the first piece is, in a way, locked in place (small hole on the right of the below picture) so you need to apply a little bit of force, so take care when it slides out, it could fly like a rocket :-)

The puzzle is well made and the outside view of it is pretty handsome, well it has an unusual look, no?

The company which produced the Slida puzzle participate in charity: for each Slida they sell to you, one is given to children in developing countries.

To conclude, 2 advantages to buy a Slida puzzle: you can solve a new kind of puzzles and you make a good deed. And there are not too expensive, so why not one for you, one for your friend and one for your cat? :-)

HERE you can buy them, enjoy !

Cast spiral

This puzzle belongs to the cast series of Hanayama's puzzles and is ranked as 5/6.

This puzzle isquite original because there are many pieces, not 2, not 3 but 5! And the pieces look all identical...

 

The goal is the separate the different pieces, but when you try to take off one piece, it is blocked. When you try with another piece, it is blocked again by the other pieces. And this is the same thing for all pieces! The puzzle is pleasant to handle due to its shape and is very strong. You cannot damage it easily, luckily.

I can say the same thing as for cast news about the difficulty: here we are supposed to have a difficult puzzle, this is the case. But again, when you know how to solve it, it takes less than 10 seconds. So that's true that the solution is not easy to find. But once you know it, the puzzle is easy to be repeatedly solved.

So many pieces...

 

Cast spiral is quite tricky and I don't think any of the other Hanayama's cast puzzles have the same mechanism.

To conclude, this puzzle is a must-have in your puzzle collection.

Don't cheat, don't look at the solution!

Chopsticks to be used

This is a stickman puzzle hand-made with wonderful woods. The goal is to get the 2 chopsticks out of the wooden box without any force and without hitting the puzzle.

The first impression you have when looking at the puzzle is the quality: this is very well made and everything is well hiden, so good job Rob !!

The chopsticks cannot go to the washing machine but can be used to eat rice since tung oil was appplied to them, to make them usable. However, I wouldn't use them to eat for fear of damaging them.

The box is smooth to touch and not sharp at all. Thus, you can imagine that it took time to craft.

This puzzle (even if not considered as a "real" puzzle by the designer) is rather simple, even for people that are not familiar with puzzles, because there are not a lot of steps to solve it. As for me, I consider it as a puzzle because you have to do things to get the chopsticks.

Now, let's eat sushis! I am jocking, I won't try that!!

What really count here is the mechanism. It is very cool, easy to understand, but it is funny the way the chopsticks go out of their box. At a meal, for example, it can amaze your family and friends.

Understand what R2D2 has to say

The name of this puzzle may remind you something...Any idea? Well, it reminds me the robot in Star Wars that accompanies the Jedis. Perhaps the designer, the famous and at the same time unknown German designer Roger D, named this puzzle in homage to these movies?
Or perhaps the name comes from the initials of the designer?...Any other ideas?

Anyway this puzzle is made with a special metal (I don't know if it is aluminium or other kind of metals), 2 big balls, a smaller one and acrylic. As with all the Roger's puzzle, this puzzle does not come with any instruction nor with solution. But it's clear that the goal is to make the small ball going through its way.
So where is the difficulty?

Well, just have a look at the picture: when you move the puzzle, the big balls move also in their receptacles and block the small ball. And as they are bigger, then they are heavier and thus move faster and are more sensitive to (even small) moves.

You will be either blocked by one of the 2 big balls no matter how you move the puzzle.
No dexterity is required contrary to what many people think!! As I said before the big balls will always block you, that's physics.

There is a method that work each time, but this is a pretty unusual method. You will be surprised how to solve this puzzle.
You need to be in good health to solve it... :-)

To conclude: a good puzzle with a strange solution, but it works!

Cast box

It's long time that I have not reviewed an Hanayama puzzle, so here we are: the cast box!

This is a pretty easy puzzle (does not mean not good!) which goal is to free the metal ring.
To do that you have to go through the different faces of the cube, rotating at the same time the ring.

If you already have some puzzles from Hanayama, this shape and, above all, the solving process (go through each face) should remind you more difficult puzzles from the same company: cast cuby or cast o'gear which are ranked 3/6 in terms of difficulty (2/6 for the cast box). If you have these 3 puzzles, which one is your favourite? And why?

Even if the difficulty is simple, this is still an enjoyable puzzle and I am sure that if you collect Hanayama's, you may have (and like) it. That is useless to repeat again, but that is pretty rare: even if this is a mass-production, the quality is very good, and any company should try to have the same standards of quality.

I tend to say that solving it is easier than reassembling it, what do you think?

If you have troubles, you can still cheat and look at the solution!

Pirate's padlock

If you have (or have already seen) the Pirate's puzzlebox from Stickman, you will recognize this lock, and solving it is part of the Pirate's puzzlebox.

This is a nice wooden trick lock, well designed and well crafted. You can see the signature of the designer on the back of the lock.

I think this is an original trick lock because usually trick locks are made from metal and I have almost never seen any good wooden trick lock that is handmade. So here it is an exception :-)

As it's not as sturdy as metal, then you have to be gentle and not use force (it's not required though!) not to break the lock.

About the solving process, well it's not too difficult and pretty straight-forward but I am sure that you did the usual things at the beginning like me and it did not work :-)
But then you quickly find what you have to do by analyzing the whole lock. The good thing with this lock is that you will be able to see the inside of it: the mechanism is pretty simple but so well thought and designed that it required several steps to solve it.

I think that all these locks have been sold out already, but if you find one, I strongly advise you to buy it. But don't use it with your bike...just put it in your collection after having solved it (of course!!)

Crazy chain

Here is another Lonpos puzzle, again with a small size, so very practical to play with everywhere.
This brainteaser is composed of 7 plastic and colorful pieces.
A booklet is provided (again with no solutions...) with the game and has 2 parts (2 ways of playing).

The first way of playing it to use all the pieces to arrange them into the game plate.
The red obstacle cannot be removed. You need first to choose a level, let's say 1. This level indicates that there are 75 ways of arranging the pieces. The 44th level says that there is ony one solution!
Then you put the pieces. I began with the 1st level and that's not easy at all even if there are many arranging ways of putting the pieces. I struggled quite a lot...!!

1st way of playing

The second way of playing (2nd part of the booklet) is the following: you have to put one piece on the game plate (as shown in the booklet), and then arrange the remaining pieces. And at least, you need to find out the level of the challenge and put the L piece (the level piece) on the  game plate. Again, this is difficult, even for the easiest challenges.

Ok I found that it corresponds to level 2 (which has a total of 64 solutions)

What I like is that, even if the goal remains the same (arranging the pieces), the rules are different as well as the shape of the pieces. There are a lot of challenges.
Again, I personnaly think that, even if it is for everybody, this is pretty difficult. If you like difficulty, go buy one!! :-)

If by chance, any of you guys has enough programming skills to be able to write a program that shows all the combinations for all the level, I think it could be very interesting.

You can buy this puzzle HERE

Bottle coke #1

Here we are with another Strijbos' puzzle. It is composed of a red stick (the first bottle coke#1 has not a red stick but a white one), a marble (that you have to get out of the bottle) and of course an empty bottle of coke. At the bottom of the red stick there is a screw maintained to the red stick by a nut.

The goal is obvious and what you have to do is obvious too. You have to unscrew the screw so that the red stick can be taken completely out of the bottle, which would free the marble. Easier said than done...!

This puzzle does not require a lot of steps to be solved but it's tricky, and you know that before you try this puzzle, just because it's a Strijbos' :-)
The first step is clever. The next step you will be tempted to act like as you did with the 1st step and you will notice that it does not work. It's normal, you just don't do the correct thing. Have a careful look at the red stick, perhaps that may help you. Anyway, you don't need any external tools.

Be gentle with the bottle, it's in glass and glass can break...

Solved finally!! With a lot of perseverance

Once you've solved the bottle and understood it, then you need to reassemble the bottle. It may require a bit of dexterity, but I managed to use a good method and thus it did not take me long time.


If you like bottle puzzles or if you intend to complete your collection of bottle puzzles, I advise you to buy it when Wil Strijbos has some to sell (they are pretty scarce because it seems that Wil does not make a lot of them). I keep hoping that Wil will make again some of the other bottle puzzles, my collection of them is not completed yet :-(

Temple trap

In this brainteaser from SmartGames, you're Indiana Jones (the green pawn, a little imagination come on^^) and you have to find the exit while avoiding the crocodiles in the blue squares.

To do that you can taking up the stairs or going down, but to be on the green pieces, you have to take the stairs before. You can slide the pieces, but remember a rule: if you are on a piece you cannot move this one, so you have to leave this piece to be able to slide it.

As you can see (or perhaps not, because the picture is not very big), there are some marks (round, cross, etc.) on the pieces, so that you recognize them better and that helps to put in the correct way the pieces to start a challenge. So everything is well thought and the quality is good.

There are not a lot of challenges and I find them rather difficult. Sometimes you can win the challenge by making more moves than required, so sticking to the required moves are sometimes not so easy...Luckily the solutions are provided in the small booklet.

Honestly, this is a good game, but I prefer City Maze (I've already reviewed it).
However, I am sure you will have fun with it, especially if you like the brainteasers from SmartGames and if you like sliding puzzles.

Confetto box

You may wonder why I put the box and not the picture of the puzzle as a first picture...Well it's because the box is beautiful: I like the contrast of the colors and when you look at the box, you know that there will be a great puzzle inside. And you're right to think so!

This confetto box was designed by Iwahara (a famous craftman who belongs to the Karakuri Group) and produced as a X-mas present in 2008 for the members of the Karakuri Group.
Becoming a member of the Karakuri group allows you to get a book with all the pictures of the puzzles made by the craftmen (only when you're a new member), to get reductions in prices for the puzzles that are on sales and finally to get one X-mas present. If you want more X-mas presents, you have to pay more. The first year it is more expensive, especially because you receive the book (you receive it about 1-2 weeks after you've paid for the membership). The next years are less expensive.
The shipping is free for the presents, but perhaps you may have to pay custom fees if they don't declare the puzzles as gifts (they don't like to do that...). Because of that, it happens that I get caught by the customs...and for sure the price of puzzles increased a lot... :-(
What you have to know about the X-mas presents is also the fact that you don't know what you will get. It's the surprise!! So you may very happy or perhaps a bit disapointed...And you pay almost one year before getting your puzzles. You will have to be patient...but you're used to that because you're a puzzler :-)

If you don't know which craftman to choose, Iwahara is always a good value, and his puzzles are usually very good. This one is no exception: the quality is superb, the finish is very good, the panels move smoothly, the wood has an handsome red color. Nothing bad to say about that.

There are 2 secret "chambers" to discover.
I put below 2 pictures of the inside the puzzle, but it does not give any hint on how to open the puzzle, so don't worry it's not a spoiler at all. It is just for you to see the quality of the internals. That's a great job!!

The symbols (star and moon) are useful to remember which panel goes to which compartment.
The first compartment is easy to find, the second one is much more difficult because you need to learn some new moves. Note that only 2 panels can be removed, the other 4 cannot.

I love this puzzle and if you find one, don't hesitate and buy it, you won't regret it. In my opinion, it's one of the best Iwahara's (even if I have not tried all his puzzles). Moreover, the difficulty is good: not too easy as (too) many Karakuri's puzzles and not too difficult, so that you enjoy solving it not only once, but many times.
Iwahara also designed a confetto box 2 that I will make a review of it later on. I think that it's better to have played before with confetto box 1 to better understand confetto box 2.

This puzzle is very sought (like many old Iwahara's), so the price may be pretty high, and at least much more expensive than the price of one X-mas present. So when you buy X-mas presents, you make good investments (even if you don't intend to sell them)!

Push box

This little puzzle was designed by Simon Nightingale and was his exchange puzzle in 2014.

The puzzle is made from a kind of resin (if you know the material used, please say it in the comment section) which looks like stone.

When you move the puzzle, you can hear some things ratling inside but once solved you will not see what's inside because the drawer cannot completely get out of the box.

The name of the puzzle is a hint about how to solve the puzzle, and I am sure you can guess easily where to push :)

Nice color

The puzzle is not very difficult and it did not take me long time to understand how to solve it. It can be solved repeatedly (it can still take you some seconds).

Nothing inside...Humm

I wish it had been a bit more difficult but I like it though. Again, I feel a bit frustrated not to be able to see the internals nor to have a picture of them (if you have it, please send it to me)

Have you ever tried to put something inside the drawer?
A nice puzzle in any collection!

Heavy bolts: they may hide a secret...

If you like metal puzzles, if you like trick bolts and if you like Strijbos's puzzles, these 2 puzzles are for you!

Let's begin by their shape: well they look like big bolts, but pretty heavy bolts.
You know that you won't be able (unintentionally!) to damage them.
The goal is to remove the washer but the nut does not move, and here begins the puzzling part :-)

Hard to distinguish which bolt it is...

You can distinguish the Nipple bolt by the small ball at the bottom of the puzzle. Moreover, the Low number bolt has smaller protuberances on the nut.

These 2 puzzles have a different solution and they don't require external tools (however, for Low number bolt external tools help, but are not needed for solving the bolt!)

Both puzzles have a simple mechanism, but you know with Wil Strijbos, simple mechanism often means hard puzzles :)

For the price and the quality, I would advise you to buy them when Wil has some to offer.
You just need to wait for his new newsletter. By the way, it's been long time since we've not had any newsletter... :-) Big surprises may come sooner

The wooden snowball

This wonderful puzzle box made with holy is the Puzzlebox n°9 crafted by the famous and experienced Robert Yarger (aka Stickman).

Rob considered it to be close to the most perfect box he has ever made because of its simplicity: only 6 panels that are blocked by one another. At the beginning there was a small rope on one side of the puzzle to hold it as X-Mas tree ornament. But honestly if it had a small loop rope, I would not try to hold it because if it falls, it may break...

This holy wood has something special as you can see: it has many knots that make the puzzle very special and unique. The knots can also help to recognize each panel to remember the correct sequence to open the puzzle.

Even if this wood is supposed to be enough strong, the joints of the puzzle are quite thin, and thus I would recommend not using force...

Once the lid of the puzzle is opened, the puzzle can come apart into 6 pieces. As you can see from the picture below, each puzzle is signed with the Stickman's signature in the inside.

A really nice puzzle to have in your collection!

Roll, roll, roll......

This time I will review a very different game from Lonpos company: rolling games!!!


The goal is to make a small plastic piece roll from the starting point to the finish point without rolling on the 2 obstacles.
There are 48 challenges (not a lot in my opinion...) but as the difficulty increases a lot, don't worry you will have enough to do with those challenges.
So you put the card challenges below the acrylic (notice that you can also put your 2 pieces in the hole under the acrylic) and you take the appropriate plastic piece and then you can start playing!

There are some challenges with the red piece and other with the blue piece. With the red you cannot roll on the obstacles, but you can with the blue piece!
For the most difficult challenges it can take up to 20 moves, which is very huge!! The number of moves required are written. Sometimes you can solve one challenge using 9 moves, but it requires 8 moves, so you have to think more...When I had some difficulties, I started from the finish point and went to the starting point. It can help if you're blocked, but not always :-)

Again no solutions are provided but there is a sheet of paper in which you can write the directions to follow for each challenge. But to remember all the 20 moves in the right order is more than tough...
I really enjoyed this game because it's easy to understand and fun to play. And also I don't see a lot of those kind of games. So here it's an opportunity to try rolling games :-)

The challenge below is the easiest: it requires 2 moves. So as you understand the directions are: one right and one up.

  

The second puzzle looks almost the one above except that it has more plastic pieces (4 vs 2) and so more challenges (around 230). The rules are the same. In the small booklets are written the number of moves required for each piece.

In my opinion, I prefer having the playing card as with the 1st game rather than this paper booklet that you put below the acrylic. But I assume that, as there are more challenges, it would have been too thick.

So which one to choose? Well I recommend the second one because there are more challenges. But if you have already the first one, no doubt that you will also like the second one.

You can buy your rolling puzzle(s) from Lonpos HERE