Cryptex Cylinder Puzzle Box

For the 3rd review of a puzzle designed and produced by CreativeWorkshopCA, I am going to review the Cryptex Cylinder Puzzle box, also known as the Newton puzzle.

And this is clearly way more challenging than Horus and Tiger !! You're warned!

The puzzle is bigger and has 3 moving parts and again some ball bearings. Some writings surround the puzzle.

Just to be clear: it's not really a cryptex puzzle: you don't have to solve any riddles or anything like that. The name of the puzzle (Newton) can give you a hint (that I was only aware after reading the official solution....meaning: it's not so that useful to solve the puzzle).

 

 

By moving the different part of the puzzle you will see that there are some holes on the core of the puzzle and probably you will have to make the lin between these holes and the ball bearings...

Again, I had an idea on how to solve the puzzle, but it was more challenging to implement the idea than expected.

Be prepared to see some ball bearings disappear and then appear again somewhere else for a reason that you might not fully understand :)

The main difficulty with this puzzle is that you cannot see what you're doing (that would be ok with a small puzzle though) and there are many things involved. At some point a lid can be blocked, but you might not understand why.

I advise also to pull the lid and probabl you have solved the puzzle without noticing it.

At some point, I manage to pull the lid and I was like "finally solved!" but the lid did not fully come apart and so I did not have solve the puzzle :-(

It's after some time that I completely solve the puzzle!

Obviously I did not follow the steps as in the official solution, I guess the correct solving process is not super easy.

I like the puzzle, but maybe a bit too challenging (or frustrating) for me.

But again, I advise it!

About the screws: they are not part of the puzzle. Unscrewing them allow you to reset the puzzle easier. But of course, if you admit defeat then you can unscrew them and check the mechanism.

The puzzle is available: HERE

Eye of Horus - Cryptex Cylinder Puzzle Box

Eyes of Horus is the second puzzle box, along with Tiger, produced by CreativeWorkshopCA, with the same difficulty.

I don't know which of the 2 is more challenging...maybe this one (basically I don't set a timer to see if I am good at a puzzle or not, so....)

Both Tiger and Horus share some characteristics: very well made with 3D printers and things ratling inside.

I roughly had an idea how I could solve the puzzle and it turned out to be the right idea.

Horus has a second lid on the top of a first lid, it moves, but is it useful?....you will have to figure out!

When I played with the puzzle, sometimes the lid was stucked, sometimes it moved freely. Blocking the lid can help you doing some things, but (and this is not a spoiler!) if the lid cannot move then you cannot open the puzzle.

Contrary to Tiger, for horus you have a small hole on the oustide of the puzzle, from where you will see a ball bearing appearing and then disappearing. It is helpful !

For that reason, I think I prefer Horus than Tiger, despite both of them being super cool ! 

 

And again, for the quality, solving process and price, I can only recommend to buy them :)

You can buy Horus on Puzzle Master webshop !

The Tiger - Cryptex Cylinder Puzzle Box

I will review all the puzzles from this etsy shop, starting with the easiest one (or one of the easiest): the tiger.

The name of the puzzle comes from the nice tiger pattern on the top of the lid.

Tiger is designed and produced by CreativeWorkshopCA.

All their puzzles are 3D-printed with a high quality level. 

At a first glance, it looks very nice and when you hold it and shake it a bit, you can hear some ball bearings rattlings....maybe you can try to guess the mechanism already?

Basically the mechanism used is not something completely new to me as I already have a puzzle that shares the same mechanism more or less. I won't tell you which though :)

The main challenge with Tiger is that you cannot see what you're doing, you can only rely on the noise of the puzzle. It did not take me too much time to solve but it was quite a challenge. And it's satisfying to solve. Not difficult to reassemble!

It's the perfect puzzle to torture a beginner and to challenge a seasoned puzzler. And for the cheap price you know that you cannot go wrong with it :)

You can buy the puzzle on Puzzle Master website:)

 

Sachiko

Sachiko is a nice puzzle designed by a Frédéric Boucher, know for his packing puzzles that have a little something special, and this one is not an exception to the rule !

This is indeed a packing puzzles with several nice little things: the shape of the pieces and the shape of the tray with its several holes. Usually when there are holes in the tray it's to manipulate the pieces more easily....only that?

My usual technique when you have obstructions with the tray: you try solving the puzzles outside the tray first. I thought that would be pretty easy to assembling directly the pieces inside the tray, and soon I realized I should proceed as usually: outside of the tray !

It did not take me that long and I must admit the the solution is satisfaying. I liked to repeat again and again the last step. And you must understand why if you've solved the puzzle already :)

For sure, this is a must-have if you like packing puzzles that are not packing puzzles and if you like Fred Boucher's designs.

You can buy the puzzle on Puzzle Master webshop!