CUBIGAMI 7

Cubigami 7 is a stacking plastic puzzle which goals are to make specific shapes, mostly cubic shapes.

You just need to fold the plates (without using any kind of force!) in a precise order. Easy?!

Well, yes and no. First the plates are connected on some edges, making an edge foldable while making another unfoldable.

 

Secondly, and it happened to me many times, you will go in circle, trying to make a shape and going back to the starting point. 

Note that the plates can be folded "inwards" and "outwards", doubling the possibilities of how you can arrange the plates.

 

I really like puzzles that have many challenges and that you can have your friends play with it without any fear (this one is pretty cheap and is not fragile) and that keep you busy for some time.... by the way I need to complete all the challenges... !!

I heard there is a more advanced puzzle of this kind, but so far I have not found a webshop to buy it.

So in the meantime, if you want to enjoy these challenges, you can buy it at Puzzle Master webshop

37 hours left to back up this project !!!

You have less than 2 days to back up this awesome puzzle project in Ulule !!

The money is raised by Doug aka Inside Cube. Goals are to re-release an old puzzle and a new one. And with some added bonus along the way.

Doug would like to raise 15 000 euros to reach a new goal !

So hurry up and help them to raise the money :)

 

This is the link of the project !

 

The smart eggs serie

So far I have not really seen blogs speaking about these nice puzzles called the smart eggs. There all in plastic consisting of an egg with an internal maze and a stick. The goal is to put the stick in the hole on the top of the egg and free it from the bottom hole of the egg...no pun or dirty meanings intended! :-)

There are several eggs in the series with an increasing difficulty. I advise to start with the easiest so that you can see how you have to play with it and how the moves are done. Basically you put the stick on one hole and usually you have to slide the stick to reach another hole and so on until you solve completely the puzzle.

Of course for the easiest eggs the internal maze is easy but when you reach a certain level of difficulty you will realize that the internal maze is more complicated and there are more holes as well. For some eggs there are not a lot of hole but it is because you will have to move the stick several time inside the egg to finally reach a hole.

Process of solving below

I don't have the specific material to make a video so I will just put some youtube links I found. It shows the solving process for some easiest eggs, so spoilers included! It allows you to better understand (if my explanation was not clear lol) how to play with them.

HERE and HERE



To be honest I did not have difficulties to solve these eggs. It just took me a bit more time for the most advanced eggs and also for one egg that the internal maze was not cut super super "clean". I mean I needed to use a sligh amount of force. Still all the maze are very nicely made. I did not have any issues when playing with them and I did not break any sticks nor any eggs!!

So far I have spoken about the "static" eggs. But there are also 3 bigger eggs, which are also the most difficult in the whole series, that involve a movable core. This makes the eggs even more difficult to solve because you have to take into consideration more parameters to solve them.
The thing that I like is that for these 3 eggs, the stick is in metal, it's clever because maybe with plastic stick they could break if you move the core a bit too hard....

I still need to solve these 3 beast!


In my mind, the series of smarteggs are in the same spirit of the hanayama puzzles: they are collectible and fun.
I like them a lof and I let friends play with them and they had great time. So very suitable for puzzlers and non-puzzlers! I like the way they look and I keep them in their original packing to display them. I don't really see the goal of the base provided with each puzzle because you're not going to play with the base (they are not magnetic) and I am not sure you will display the eggs on their base and you would prefer displaying them in their packaging.



You can find these eggs HERE

Slide a SLIDA

This is a new puzzle in the market called Slida, designed by Gianni Lavermicocca, an Australian guy.
The puzzle is made out of plastic and the goal is, you can imagine, taking it apart and then reassemble it.

Taking it apart is easy and straight-forward because you just follow the order the pieces need to be moved. Reassemble the puzzle is much more difficult. If you have the Slida with different color panels, then you should take pictures when you solve the puzzle, to remember how to put the pieces together.
You can buy a Slida with a single color: this is less beautiful in my opinion, but much more difficult.

Note that the first piece is, in a way, locked in place (small hole on the right of the below picture) so you need to apply a little bit of force, so take care when it slides out, it could fly like a rocket :-)

The puzzle is well made and the outside view of it is pretty handsome, well it has an unusual look, no?

The company which produced the Slida puzzle participate in charity: for each Slida they sell to you, one is given to children in developing countries.

To conclude, 2 advantages to buy a Slida puzzle: you can solve a new kind of puzzles and you make a good deed. And there are not too expensive, so why not one for you, one for your friend and one for your cat? :-)

HERE you can buy them, enjoy !

Crazy chain

Here is another Lonpos puzzle, again with a small size, so very practical to play with everywhere.
This brainteaser is composed of 7 plastic and colorful pieces.
A booklet is provided (again with no solutions...) with the game and has 2 parts (2 ways of playing).

The first way of playing it to use all the pieces to arrange them into the game plate.
The red obstacle cannot be removed. You need first to choose a level, let's say 1. This level indicates that there are 75 ways of arranging the pieces. The 44th level says that there is ony one solution!
Then you put the pieces. I began with the 1st level and that's not easy at all even if there are many arranging ways of putting the pieces. I struggled quite a lot...!!

1st way of playing

The second way of playing (2nd part of the booklet) is the following: you have to put one piece on the game plate (as shown in the booklet), and then arrange the remaining pieces. And at least, you need to find out the level of the challenge and put the L piece (the level piece) on the  game plate. Again, this is difficult, even for the easiest challenges.

Ok I found that it corresponds to level 2 (which has a total of 64 solutions)

What I like is that, even if the goal remains the same (arranging the pieces), the rules are different as well as the shape of the pieces. There are a lot of challenges.
Again, I personnaly think that, even if it is for everybody, this is pretty difficult. If you like difficulty, go buy one!! :-)

If by chance, any of you guys has enough programming skills to be able to write a program that shows all the combinations for all the level, I think it could be very interesting.

You can buy this puzzle HERE

Temple trap

In this brainteaser from SmartGames, you're Indiana Jones (the green pawn, a little imagination come on^^) and you have to find the exit while avoiding the crocodiles in the blue squares.

To do that you can taking up the stairs or going down, but to be on the green pieces, you have to take the stairs before. You can slide the pieces, but remember a rule: if you are on a piece you cannot move this one, so you have to leave this piece to be able to slide it.

As you can see (or perhaps not, because the picture is not very big), there are some marks (round, cross, etc.) on the pieces, so that you recognize them better and that helps to put in the correct way the pieces to start a challenge. So everything is well thought and the quality is good.

There are not a lot of challenges and I find them rather difficult. Sometimes you can win the challenge by making more moves than required, so sticking to the required moves are sometimes not so easy...Luckily the solutions are provided in the small booklet.

Honestly, this is a good game, but I prefer City Maze (I've already reviewed it).
However, I am sure you will have fun with it, especially if you like the brainteasers from SmartGames and if you like sliding puzzles.

Roll, roll, roll......

This time I will review a very different game from Lonpos company: rolling games!!!


The goal is to make a small plastic piece roll from the starting point to the finish point without rolling on the 2 obstacles.
There are 48 challenges (not a lot in my opinion...) but as the difficulty increases a lot, don't worry you will have enough to do with those challenges.
So you put the card challenges below the acrylic (notice that you can also put your 2 pieces in the hole under the acrylic) and you take the appropriate plastic piece and then you can start playing!

There are some challenges with the red piece and other with the blue piece. With the red you cannot roll on the obstacles, but you can with the blue piece!
For the most difficult challenges it can take up to 20 moves, which is very huge!! The number of moves required are written. Sometimes you can solve one challenge using 9 moves, but it requires 8 moves, so you have to think more...When I had some difficulties, I started from the finish point and went to the starting point. It can help if you're blocked, but not always :-)

Again no solutions are provided but there is a sheet of paper in which you can write the directions to follow for each challenge. But to remember all the 20 moves in the right order is more than tough...
I really enjoyed this game because it's easy to understand and fun to play. And also I don't see a lot of those kind of games. So here it's an opportunity to try rolling games :-)

The challenge below is the easiest: it requires 2 moves. So as you understand the directions are: one right and one up.

  

The second puzzle looks almost the one above except that it has more plastic pieces (4 vs 2) and so more challenges (around 230). The rules are the same. In the small booklets are written the number of moves required for each piece.

In my opinion, I prefer having the playing card as with the 1st game rather than this paper booklet that you put below the acrylic. But I assume that, as there are more challenges, it would have been too thick.

So which one to choose? Well I recommend the second one because there are more challenges. But if you have already the first one, no doubt that you will also like the second one.

You can buy your rolling puzzle(s) from Lonpos HERE

Cosmic creatures

Don't be afraid no cosmic creatures will invade our planet, that's just the name of a puzzle by the Lonpos company :-)

Lonpos highlights a lot the fact that brainteasers are for everyone because they increase your memory, your attention and patience. So whether you're a child or an adult, you can have fun with them.
I recommend, however, to make some breaks because your nerves can be broken by some very difficult levels. Sometimes, the solution becomes clearer after a small break :-)

Due to its size, this game is perfect for your travel, but of course you can have fun at home too.

The goal is to put all the pieces on the tray. Some pieces are irregular and when turned another side they are different and thus it increases the possibility to put them of the tray. Those pieces are marked with a triangle.
Each piece has a letter, which helps putting them of the tray.
Just note that sometimes the letter shown in the booklet is not exactly the way they are put in the tray, it's not a problem at all, but I would have liked a "perfect match". Look below the C piece (llok at the booklet and the piece):

With all the 111 challenges, I assure you that you will perfectly know these cosmic creatures :)

The starting levels are very easy, but it becomes much more difficult at the end!!
Also sometimes there are many ways to complete a level, so there is not a unique solution for each level. Look below with the A and I pieces (the 2 on the bottom right hand corner):

I really like the design of this puzzle, the colorful pieces and the size of the puzzle: it will not take a lot of space at home and you can bring it easily with you.

What I don't like a lot is the fact that the color of the pieces is not  precisely the same with the colors of the booklet, but well it is the same with some other brainteasers...
I don't like that they did not put a solution booklet (it is the same with all their puzzles!), again I like having the solutions because it can help adding a piece if you hide half of the solution, for example.
Instead of that they put some hints about the puzzle. But first you need to go on the internet to see the hints (after searching the right puzzle you're playing with), then the hint is just only one piece shown, which may not be enough to help you sometimes...And finally there are some errors about some hints (some pieces are wrongly orientated...)

To conclude: a fun puzzle with a funny design for many hours of playing. The hints and booklets can be seen on their internet page in many languages. Good point!

To buy your Cosmic creature brainteaser, go HERE