Some new cool puzzles & toy

Some new stuff arrived at home from Art of Play webshop company: some wooden puzzles and some toys.

So let's start with some wooden puzzles!

2 puzzles designed by Iwahiro: rectangular jam and pentangular jam.

Both consist of 4 pieces and among them 1 (the thinner one, which is also the one with a different color) that has to be freed from the small hole on a side of the puzzle.

Obviously you have to keep all the pieces flat on the tray. It looks impossible, doesn't it?
Well you will realize that several rotations are needed to solve the puzzle and to make them possible the size of each piece must be super precise. Else the rotations are impossible to make, and so the puzzle impossible to solve.

I must say that both puzzle check the box "perfect precision" :)

Start with rectangular jam puzzle, it's easier... not easy :)
I really like these "unconventional" puzzles, not the ones you're used to playing with.
They took my some time to solve and the solution is very nice!


Next is the famous packing puzzle designed by Iwahiro as well called "4 M" puzzle, consisting of a box with a protubing part under the lid and 4 pieces (with "M" shapes, hence de name of the puzzle).

This is a very clever packing and not super difficult (yet satisfaying to solve). I asked a friend of mine to solve it (he never plays with puzzles !!) and he managed to solve it. You will see that putting the pieces on a "normal" way does not give you the expected result. I mean, you have to think a bit outside the box to solve it. Mathematically interesting and fun to solve, this one is, in my opinion, one of the best examples of what a good puzzle is: challenging, but not too much, great design and clever solution!


The other packing puzzle from the same designer is Dango Box.
So far I have not solved it, but it seems super hard with, I am sure, a not so super difficult solution, but still a clever one!

The other puzzle is Bird in cage. It's what we know as "hedgehog puzzle", consisting of a shape (here a bird) trapped in a cage and the goal is to manipulate the bird so that it can go through the cage.
Usually, for these kind of puzzles, some space between some cage rods are larger, but it's hard to tell with the eyes. And for this one, the other thing to take into account are the wings of the bird: they can move. And that has an impact on the solution of course :)

I like these puzzles, and again they are suitable for any people, as long as they are gentle while manipulating the puzzles! You need to be gentle with birds :)


I told you about puzzle and toy, right? So final item is a toy! A shashibo cube!!
It can even been considered as a fidget toy. The goal is to create many geometric shapes by flipping and moving the magnetic parts. I managed to make some chapes (see below) but it took me a while to make the initial shape (the cube) again. So this was my puzzling part of the toy :)
Highly recommended!!

You an find other puzzles on Art of Play website as well as other toys as well.

Aroma

Aroma is a puzzle designed and exchanged by Iwahiro for IPP 30 in Japan. It consist of a black plastic cage and 3 pieces that need to be put inside.
Note that the shape of the pieces is pretty unusual.

So only 3 pieces, easy? Well yes and no. Yes because you will soon realize how to do, but no because you cannot see if you're doing the proper alignment of the pieces.

As many Iwahiro's puzzle, co-motion will be used!

My technique was to assemble the pieces outside the cage and see how they can be put (but "expanding" them) inside. The fit is perfect, you need precision to solve it!
You just need to understand who the pieces interact. Needless to say that it's very easy to free the pieces outside of the cage. The real challenge is to put them inside again.

In my opinion this is a nice puzzle because it's not big and can be carried out easily. It's for anybody and due to its material it can be played by even a non puzzler as he won't damage it :-)

And regarding the difficulty I would say medium because I am sure that you won't automatically manage to solve it and each time it will take you a bit of time to do it again.

Alcyl

Alcyl, also known as Aluminium cylinder or Blue cylinder is a metal puzzle designed by Iwahiro.

The goal is obviously to open the cylinder!

Nice anodized blue

I heard many people who had issues with this puzzle or who has jammed it. Actually it can happen with this puzzle (it did not happen to me, luckily) if you use force and/or if you do not understand what you're doing! Remember what Strijbos usually says "there is no hurry, take your time" :-)

That's definitely not a puzzle that will keep you puzzling for hours, unless you blocked it...then your next challenge is to unblock it.
I solved it very quickly and was a bit disapointed by the "mechanism" which can easily be damaged, which leads to a jammed puzzle...

I wished the puzzle was a bit more challenging, but still if you collect Iwahiro's puzzles and/or metal puzzles, then this is a nice addition to your collection (for a not too expensive price).
For the guys who are looking for challenging puzzles, then it's not the puzzle you need!

It seems flat, but it's really a cylinder :-)

What's your favourite cylinder puzzle?

3M puzzle

Time to review a packing puzzle by the famous Iwahiro. This puzzle is easy to understand: you need to put all the 3 pieces (with an M shape, hence the name of the puzzle) inside the box. The box and the pieces are made from MDF.

Ok then simple goal, simple solution? Not at all!

If you've already played with any Iwahiro's puzzles like the Jam puzzles or the ODD puzzle, you know that all his puzzles look simple, but actually their solution include either rotations or unusual positions.

As you can see below, the pieces cannot be packed in an usual way, the goal is to pack them so that you can close the box of course!

I play some time with it trying to put them in different ways, and you will notice soon that these pieces interact with each other: just putting one on a vertical plan, the other flat (for example) does not work.

You need to think "outside the box" to put everything inside the box, paradoxical, isn't it? :-)

Once you have figured out the solution, a little dexterity (a very little I would even say) is required.

This puzzle has a satisfaying solution and it will puzzle you for some time I am sure. Iwahiro also designed the 4M puzzle, same goal, but perhaps not the same solution (actually I do not know as I have not yet tried the 4M puzzle, but I would expect a different solution, or at least a slight difference).

If you want an unusual packing puzzle, this is definitely one you should try to get!

Is there anything inside?.... ;-)

Rightangular Jam

In a previous review I talked about rectangular Jam from Iwahiro, time to speak quikly about another one: rightangular Jam.
The original material used is MDF

The principle is still the same: free the colorful piece out of the tray. This time with rightangular triangles.

The puzzles includes a lot of rotations and is very tricky and hard to solve. Much harder than rectangular Jam.
As far as I know there are no other challenges (contrary to rectangular Jam). If I am wrong, just let me know.But perhaps it's possible to invent some?

Again, the precision if perfect, the design is handsome. I really wonder how the designer came to this idea. How is it posible to imagine so many movements?...

So the fit is so precise that sometimes it seems impossible to move or rotate a piece. Just make small and slow moves and it will work!

As you may assume, I put the pieces as they appear at the beginning of the solving process :-)

To conclude a beautiful and interesting puzzle to play with!

Still looking for the some other Jam's...

Rectangular Jam

An unusual puzzle design by the well known Iwahiro, which consists of sliding pieces flat to free the green piece.

The movements used are not only linear movements and can include rotations, which makes the puzzle pretty difficult.

Even if you do not need a lot of steps to solve the puzzle, as the pieces are precisely cut, you may think that it's impossible. But when you go slow and do not use any force, you notice that you can make some moves which appeared as impossible at the beginning.

As you understand, you're not allowed to lift some pieces and everything has to remain flat!

There were additional challenges, but if you solve this one and understand the principle, then the other challenges are easy.

I like a lot the design of this puzzle. Which ones from the Jam series do you prefer?