Clive box

The clive box, aka one piece packing puzzle, was designed an crafted by Simon Nightingale for IPP 19 in London, pretty long time ago.

Easy to understand the name of "one piece packing puzzle" as the goal is to pack the cube inside the box. Given that you have only one piece to pack, you should not have to much difficulties to do so....but who knows...If you have already played with some Nightingale's, his puzzles always look pretty straight forward, until you play with them and notice some nice features :)

The difficulty is not high and it's changing: I mean you can solve it under 5 minutes with a bit of luck or spend many more minutes. This is a really nicely made little puzzle and it hides well its mechanism.

I wish I had the diagram of the internals because, it would be fun to see that.

On the way to be solved :-)

I love this puzzle, despite its not really high difficulty, I do think the mechanism is cool and pretty new.

This is definitely a must-have in your collection and it's highly collectible, don't miss the opportunity if you can grab one. In my opinion, this is the coolest packing puzzle that will entertain you without the usual frustration that comes with packing puzzles!

Time for some new foldings

Here are my latest foldings, hope you will like them, don't hesitate to leave a comment :)

As usual, I can consider selling them

Very nice look, and pretty difficult to assemble...

 So many steps to make this one....

 One piece of paper only. Clever locking system.

A very complex folding! This is like a spring. For sure, the more you play the fastest it will be damaged. After all, it's only paper, not metal spring :-)

Dot box

3D printed puzzles are being more and more common and available to puzzle collectors. Actually you can do things with 3D printers that would be either impossible or too difficult with normal techniques.

So here is a new kind of puzzle designed by James Dalgety and exchanged in London in 2014.
By new, I mean that he invented a new principle. And yes, I am sure you have no other puzzles in your collection that you can open in the same way.

Despite being made out by 3D printers, the quality is pretty fine and you should not have issues regarding fit for example, but remember that it's not metal and thus you have to manipulate the puzzle with care!

The goal of this puzzle is to open the small box on the right picture above.

You can open the puzzle with several method, but one (the official one) work always or more often than the other ones.
Once open you will see how simple the mechanism is but you will face another puzzle: how does it really work. Even the designer does not really have the explanation!
I think that if the puzzle was made out of plexi (or any other transparent material) and then the solving process recorded with high speed camera, you would have more hints to understand it.

Solved!

To reassemble the puzzle I used an external tool, because you cannot apply the same method as you should do when you solve the puzzle. And you will understand why you cannot when you hold the puzzle. So 2 possibilities: use external tools or some patience and dexterity (that I am sure it's not the expected reassembling process!)....It's up to you, needless to say which method I used :-)

To conclude, an intriguing puzzle that will keep you puzzling for some time. Good, isn't it?

CFF Jubilee Edition puzzle: disc & crown

With some special edition (like 50 or 100), the CFF booklet comes with some puzzle(s). You need to be member of NKC which entitles you to receive some booklets with puzzle news and analysis inside.

Several puzzles competed and a choice was made regarding the price of the puzzle, its shape (to be mailed easily), the design (which ideally would incorporate the words "CFF", "100", "2016").

The puzzle chosen was designed by Michel van Ipenburg and crafted by Robrech Louage out of trespa and is a n-ary puzzle, meaning that you have a sequence of repetitive moves to progress on your puzzle journey. Not being a professional of n-ary puzzles, I have not yet recognized the precise pattern. But don't worry, this is not a difficult puzzle and does not requires thousands of moves. So it's perfectly suitable for all puzzlers!
The goal is disassemble the 2 disks and then reassemble them so that you can see the 3 words written through the 3 holes.

I must admit than being new to this kind of puzzle I was also naive and it appeared that it was super easy to disassemble the puzzle because the maze looked like the same, so in very few moves it would be ok. But actually it is not the case! So when it seems that you can move a bit but not completely a pin, don't use force at all, it's normal and you will have to make some more moves to progress.

I must add something: this is a limited edition of 500 and no other will ever be made, so take care of it even if it won't be the most expensive puzzle in your collection :-)

As you can see, the 2 disks are attached with a small scotch tape which allows not to be spoiled, and it does not (actually for mine) leave any sticky marks.

There was another small surprise: another puzzle, very easy, but still nice designed by Roland Koch:

The goal is to let the puzzle how "CFF" and "100" on both sides by rotating the 3 disks. First you need to open the black button and rearrange the disks as mention in the instruction and next solve it.

I whish to have received all the puzzles that were compete with each other to be shipped with this special edition of the CFF booklet, but well, I also did not expect to receive any puzzles, so I was very pleased to received 2 puzzles!

Ring box

The title of this post is not really specific to this metal puzzle designed and crafted by Gary Foshee some time ago, because many puzzles are called "ring box" (like one small puzzle made out of corian designed and crafted by Frank Chambers, that I reviewed before).

Regarding the design: very nice and very well made like most (if not all) Gary's puzzles. The puzzle is like a small metal cylinder with a button that you can push on the top (and that does not make anything special?....) and something ratling inside, maybe the ring?

Oh yes, and the puzzle also comes with a small piece of paper attached to the black pouch with a paperclip, where it's written "solution" !!!

This is not the first time that I see a puzzle coming with the solution (?) and it reminds me some old Strijbos'. You have several possibilities: either the designer wanted to make fun of you by trying to mean that what you see is what's needed to solve the puzzle whereas it's not. Or the designer did provide you with all the tools needed. It's up to you to investigate and try things :)

If you consider that what you see is all the tools useful to solve the puzzle, then you have a piece of paper, a pouch and a paperclip, but what to do? And when? Because when looking at the puzzle it seems that you do not need all these things....No you cannot put the paperclip in the small hole on the bottom of the puzzle (I am sure you will try), no you cannot put the puzzle in the black pouch, shake it and like with a bit of magic the puzzle solved itself (I am sure you will not try that haha).

This puzzle has a simple mechanism, but a very very efficient one and for me solving this puzzle was pleasant because Gary implemented a new kind of mechanism/solving process. So it's not only a nice and collectible puzzle to have but also a one-of-a-kind mechanism.
But take care: you have to reassemble the puzzle in the way you solved it. I mean: don't try "stupid things" (like what I did...but I managed to sort it out and reassemble the puzzle!) because you could jammed the puzzle for good. The collectors who have this puzzle will understand how this puzzle can be jammed....(don't try that!).

I am sure now you wonder if it was a ring which was ratling inside the puzzle, here is the end of the suspense :)

Maybe the ring is involved in the solution process??