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!

8 star puzzle: the comparision between the prototype and the finished product

This nice-looking puzzle is a design from the Belgium designer Robrecht Louage. I have already reviewed some of his previous puzzles, checked it out!

You may remember the 4 steps puzzle, this is in the same concept but with 4 more steps.

The goal: you put the ball in the "in" hole and you need to free the ball, going through many traps.
Actually there are 8 steps, some of them are clearly visible and some of them are hidden either by black marks or hidden ways.

The first step is easy to go through: just a little bit of dexterity. Same thing for 2nd step but this time it's hidden. If you look well, 2 steps are identical and can be found in Roger D puzzles.

None of the steps can be considered as new principles, thus you will not have any novelty with this puzzle. However, the steps are implemented all the way on your "puzzle journey" and so there is not like "breaks" between them, they are a continuation of each other.

The difficult thing is the maze because even if there are some holes on the back of the puzzles, well you cannot see what you're really doing. You can only try to guess and believe me you should not make big moves, because the different ways are close to each other, with dead-ends and so on: so here it's dexterity in the dark.
Of course, you can unscrew the puzzle and see the maze if you gave up, and then try to navigate again in the maze.

Like usually with puzzles, there is first the prototype and after the finished product. I put below on the left the picture of the prototype and on the right the picture of the finished product, so that you can see the changes.

The front of the puzzle (ok I know the 2 puzzles are not orientated in the same way....my mistake)
For the prototype the plastic is absolutely transparent and a little bit opaque for the finished puzzle, but both have black marks.
I would have prefered that the finished product have a transparent plastic with opaque (and not black) marks, but opaque enough to hide the traps.
The black marks are positioned on the same traps.

The entry of the maze
Nothing different

The back of the puzzle
Again, sorry for the orientation of the puzzle, but I know my readers are clever guys, so you will notice no change, except the name of the puzzle with 2 stars, to make the product totally finished

The inside of the maze
Hummm, no spoiler. But the maze is globally the same but with some small changes, which make the maze of the finished product a bit more difficult, in my opinion.


Solvable and not solvable?
The prototype cannot totally be solved whereas the finished can be, that's normal right ;-)
But this is one of the last steps, so your puzzling experience will not be altered by this small faults. And a prototype is always a high collectible puzzle, isn't it?

To conclude: a very nice puzzle, not difficult but still very enjoyable. Perhaps next puzzle will be the "12 steps puzzle", who knows...

 

So don't wait too much and buy the puzzle!

If you're lost in the puzzle, look at the solution!!

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 !!!

4-steps visible lock

As the name indicates, you will need to complete 4 steps to be able to solve this puzzle from Robrecht Louage, a famous Belgian puzzle designer, known for his "euro-puzzles".
This puzzle is composed of trespa (a very sturdy material), acrylic and steel balls. It won the Jury Grand Prize during IPP31 (August 2011) and when you play with it you understand the reasons why it obtained this prize.
The goal of this puzzle is to remove the euro coin. So again, you pay this puzzle €49 instead of €50 if you replace the euro coin by a plastic one. But I doubt you will do that because the puzzle looks better with a euro coin :-)

I won't describe the 4 steps because, as the puzzle is already not very difficult, it would spoil too much, and I think everybody will easily distinguish these steps.

To solve the puzzle you need to understand the steps, even if I must admit that I managed to do the 1st and the 4th steps without understanding them. I understood them after, very quickly. I solved the first one with luck.

This puzzle involves a little bit of dexterity, but don't worry I am not very good at dexterity (I think) and I did not have any difficulty to do that!

I like a lot this puzzle but in my opinion it is too easy and pretty straight forward. I would have liked many more steps and a bit more difficult puzzle. I let a friend of mine play with it and he did not have difficulties to solve it...I hope Robrecht will release some other puzzles like this one but with more steps.

To conclude a good puzzle with a good design (and a quality puzzle of course!!) and if you like Robrecht's, this is a must have in your collection.
You can buy it directly from the designer. If you want his email or have any questions, drop me an email, I am very fast to reply :-)

PS: be careful to prevent dust from entering under the acrylic because it's not easy to clean up the inside of the puzzle, and unscrew the puzzle may not be very easy...

Solution can be found: HERE

Try to escape from Alcatraz

This puzzle made of trespa, a solid material, is one of the puzzles made by Robrecht Louage, a Belgium puzzle designer.
It measures 9cm x 7.5cm x 1.3cm, so not a big puzzle that you can easily put in your coat.
I cannot say more of the other materials used for this puzzle because it may give you clues about how to solve this one...I put this puzzle in the label "trick opening boxes" which was Robrecht's designation, but as you can see it has nothing to do with, for example, the Karakuri's trick opening boxes!
If you are familiar with Robrecht's puzzles, this one is no exception to the rule and have an euro coin to be released. So in reality, you pay a little bit less your puzzle if you take the euro coin and replace it by a plastic coin :-)

The beginning

The design of the box is very good because the name fits perfectly with the design of the puzzle. And don't worry, this is easier to solve this puzzle rather than escaping the real Alcatraz jail!!
I find rather ironical to replace the German euro coin that was at the beginning by a euro coin that has a royal face, here it's a Belgium coin (but a Spanish coin would have also worked), to make a real prisonner. I think it was Robrecht's first idea, but perhaps he lacks of those coins.

The goal of this puzzle is to open the box and it requires several steps, the first one being the trickiest one in my opinion.
When you move the puzzle you can hear things inside but you will never be able to see the real mechanism even when it is solved, unless you completely break the puzzle, which will be unusuable thus...

I am on the good way...

As I knew all the material used for this puzzle, I did not have a lot of difficulties to open it, but I must admit that I did not understand totally how I solved this one, because I just turned the puzzle upside down, pull and push the slider...And it opened!!
So I asked Robrecht if he could send me the internals of the pictures and it became clearer.
Yes I like having the internals (as well as the solutions!) because I feel a little bit frustrated if I cannot see the whole mechanism...I want to admire the mechanism!

Solved !!! I am out of jail now!

To conclude, if you like Robrecht's puzzles and you want to buy an affordable puzzle, don't hesitate.
You can find this puzzle on Puzzle Master Webshop.

Of course, the solution exists !!