Dipole dilemma

Designed by Chris Morgan and made by Walter Hoppe, this puzzle consists of some magnetic balls and a tray where you have to place all these balls. This is a 11 year-old puzzle, but it's still in perfect condition and works as expected!

First impressions: I like a lot the design. The fact that the balls are put in a circle let me know "what a nice puzzle" and also you're provided with a plastic case. So you can bring this puzzle safely with you, it also allows you to keep the puzzle in the solved state if you want to.

The "dipole" word is easy to understand: some balls will be attracted by others, some will not. Then why a "dilemma"? Because you have to fit all these balls inside the square, completely flat!

Perhaps you have an idea how it should fit, and if so that's a very good first step! But then you will have to implement your idea, which is far from being easy...

I cannot put the puzzle in the solved state, because it would show you already how the puzzle should look like once solved. I can tell you that it's a challenging puzzle. And it's not buy putting all the magnets together and then "crush" them to make the shape flat, that you will be able to put them completely flat in the tray. It's not about brute fore ;-)
I heard about 2 solutions, but there is only one official, so if anybody is willing to share the second solution that would be great :-)

This puzzle will provide you with a lot of fun, who doesn't like to play with magnets?? But again take care, these are powerful magnets, they can pinch!...

Not a lof of magnet puzzles are released and I feel it's a pitty because they are always fun to play with. I have already reviewed another Chris Morgan's and my latest review was about the enigma orbs, which are both magnet puzzles. I hope Chris will come up with new ideas, but I also hope that some designers would release these kind of puzzles!

Crazy magnets

Magnet mania (the real name of this puzzle) was designed by Chris Morgan and is composed of a tray with 9 holes in which you have to put the 9 balls, of course!

Easy you think? Not at all, this is much trickier than what you may have thought !!
Because when you try to put a ball, which is actually a very powerful magnet (take care of your fingers!) in a hole and then put another ball, they fastly stick with each other...which may pinch your fingers but also mix the different kind of balls. They are not all the same even if they look like the same...

You will become crazy that each attemps fail or if you succeed to put some balls, then the next attempt ruins what you have done before...

Actually there is a trick that I did not discover not use to solve this puzzle. But if you discover it, then it will make your solving process easier (does not mean "easy" remember^^). You need patience and a little bit of dexterity: do not shake nor make any moves when trying to put a ball, otherwise the other balls could not like that :-)

The good thing when you solve this puzzle is that the box prevent you (once closed) the balls from leaving their holes. Thus you can keep the puzzle is the solved position, which is very nice I feel.

To conclude: a nicely thought puzzle which will puzzle and frustrate you for hours!