Fellow blogger Brian Pletcher was kind enough to loan me some of his Karakuri Club 2011 Christmas presents.

BB - Kyoko Hoshino

I assume “BB” stands for “Button Box.”  Hoshino, a relatively new member of the Karakuri Club, integrates her skills with cloth and woodworking, which makes for interesting boxes.  While not particularly difficult, this was a fun box to solve.

Dragon Wing - Shiro Tajima

This puzzle looked more like a kumiki than a puzzle box.  Its unique construction resulted in a novel solution. 

Pump - Tatsuo Miyamoto

This puzzle confounded me for quite a while.  It didn’t seem like you could do much with it given its simple construction.  I finally was able to open the box, but didn’t know how I did it.  I closed it back up and was able to re-open it using the same general class of movements.  Again, I wasn’t sure how I did it.  After looking at the solution, I don’t think I would have reasoned it out.  The solution falls into a class that I’m not particularly fond of because of the random (unless you have the instructions right in front of you) and difficult nature of the solution.

Twin - Hideaki Kawashima

When I first saw this, I thought Brian had re-sent me “Snake Cube,” Kawashima’s 2010 Christmas present.  While the puzzles look similar, the mechanism is much harder in “Twin”.  I was not able to solve this box, even after looking at the solution.  Pletcher had to give me some more details for me to open the box.

Thanks Brian!

Secret Base 2 - Hiroshi Iwahara

This is one of the two Karakuri Club Christmas Presents that I got last December.  I was really pleased to get this, because I don’t have a copy of the original Secret Base that Iwahara had as a 2007 Christmas present.  It has a fantastic mechanism.  This one has a similar mechanism, but with an additional twist at the beginning.  While I was still able to solve it quickly because I have seen the original, I think this one would take someone who has seen neither box a longer time to solve.

This variation on a theme reminds me of Hiroshi Iwahara’s “Box with a Tree” and “House with Trees“, his 2005 and 2010 Christmas presents.

Wow, it’s been three and a half months since I’ve posted.  I’ve been really busy (primarily from work) so I’ve just now had a chance to return to this.

T6 is the latest in the series of locks from German puzzle lock master Rainer Popp.  It’s the smallest, cheapest and simplest in the series, so I thought I would actually have a chance at solving it.  By the time I got around to buying it, it was already gone from Puzzle Master and Grand Illusions.  Fortunately, William Strijbos was able to get a copy for me.

Fellow puzzle blogger Neil noted that it took him about 2 hours to solve it.  Unfortunately, I’m not Neil.  I immediately noticed something unique about its construction, but ultimately this had nothing to do with the solution at all.  I spent quite a bit of time on it, but I kept following the red herring of its idosyncratic construction.  I was even in the hospital one day after Thanksgiving last year for an infection on my arm, and I brought the lock with me.  I wound up having to refer to the solution, just as I had with T2, T3 and T4.  I haven’t had a chance to try out T5 yet.

Neil also noted the sturdiness of the key, writing that there is “no chance of it breaking”.  I loaned T6 to a fellow puzzler, and the key actually broke off inside the lock!  Fortunately he was able to get it fixed by Popp.

4 Steps Visible Lock - Robrecht Louage

 The object of this puzzle is to remove the 1 Euro coin by moving the acrylic middle piece relative to the base.  It won the first prize in the 2011 International Puzzle Party design contest.  The puzzle concept (to remove a coin my manipulating a middle piece) is similar to Centrale by Jean Claude Constantin and Remove the Yolk by Louage himself.  The difference is that, as the puzzle name suggests, the mechanism is visible.  There are 4 balls, 3 pins and various channels that make up the mechanism, which is more complex than either Centrale or Remove the Yolk.  However, the puzzle is much easier to solve because of the visibility.

I was able to solve this in about 5 minutes.  In redoing it, I noticed that the first of the 4 steps was already unlocked when I started to solve it.  I gave it to my father-in-law to try, and he also got it fairly quickly.  Some other relatives, however, were not able to get it.  The difference is probably that my father-in-law has had a crack at most of my puzzles, whereas the other relatives were inexperienced.  Despite its relative ease, the mechanism was very satisfying, with a few twists and turns that earned it its grand prize in the IPP design contest.

This puzzle, along with the Havana Box #1, restored my enthusiasm with puzzles after a recent string of failures to solve some puzzles.

I got this puzzle from William Strijbos.  His access to most European puzzles, as well as the excellent puzzles he designs himself, make he and the Karakuri Creation Group my favorite 2 puzzle sources.  Thanks for an excellent puzzle, Robrecht and William!

Eureka Bottle 5 - William Strijbos

I was very happy recently to be able to complete my collection of Eureka! bottle puzzles.  This most recent one is invented by designer and collector William Strijbos and manufactured by Eureka, and is not to be confused by the bottle puzzles he makes and sells himself.  The object is to remove the red ball from the puzzle.  Eureka rates it 1 out of 4 for difficulty.

Just looking at it, it seems hard but not impossible.  I fiddled around with it with a few motions and no success.  My wife took a crack at it out of my sight, and after a few minutes, showed me the ball stuck in the tube.  It was too tight to make it all the way out.  Spurred on by here success, I tried a different motion.  After trying the same movement over and over a few minutes, I also got it stuck in the tube.  I was able to whip the puzzle so that the ball made it out.

So was this just a simple dexterity puzzle?  It hardly seemed likely that something so simple would come of a mind like Strijbos.  Fortunately, I was able to contact Strijbos directly and ask him if there was a more elegant solution.  He said there was.  I considered a bunch of possibilities, but had to break down and get the solution off the website.  Solutions are available for puzzle purchasers using the barcode number off the puzzle packaging.

After reading the official solution, I found that it is not unique, as both my wife and I were able to get it out using 2 different non-official solutions, though we both had to try out methods many times to get it to work.  The official solution itself would not work without modification on my particular puzzle given the way it was made.  I’m not partial to this type of solution, but I can’t say more about it without disclosing too much.

On the plus side, the solution is definitely an exercise in lateral thinking.  The puzzle is inexpensive and readily available.

Havana's Box #1 - Eric Fuller

This puzzle box is designed and made by Eric Fuller of Cubic Dissection.  It’s the first in a series of cigar boxes named after his local cigar shop, Havana Deluxe.  This particular box is dubbed “The Chris”, after the doorman.

The top and bottom panels reminded me of the rollup portion of a rollup desk.  The first move was pretty obvious, but I couldn’t progress from there for a while.  The puzzle also made a mysterious sound when I rocked it back and forth.  I was able to solve it while remembering a trick Fuller had used in one of his previous boxes.

At $119, this is one of Fuller’s simpler and cheaper boxes, and perfect for my budget.

Jacob's Revenge #1 - Elverson Puzzles

I saw this very elegant puzzle on my coworker’s desk the other day and asked to borrow it.  The object is to get the ball to the cork, obviously without removing the cork or damaging the bottle.  The problem is that the rod keeps getting in the way.

I worked on it for a while and didn’t get it.  I talked to my coworker about it and he thought for a second that I had figured out, and then he gave me a clue.  Both the hint and his initial thought that I had solved it made me realize the solution.

It’s a very simple but elegant puzzle that requires an “Aha!” moment.  I like these type of puzzles a lot more than interlocking, sliding, twisty and other puzzles that rely on complexity for difficulty.  The design makes it a classic, like the Old Shackles or Vesa Timonen’s Cast Loop.  Apparently, Jerry Slocum agrees, calling it “the best dexterity puzzle in decades”.  Slocum is the legendary puzzle collector who founded the International Puzzle Party.

Like Old Shackles or Cast Loop, Jacob’s Revenge is pretty cheap: $13 ($10 right now on sale) + shipping from Elverson Puzzles.  Based on Elverson Puzzles’ information, it appears that the puzzle was invented in 1994 or 1995 by one or both of the company’s founders, James and George TerBush.  It was the company’s first product.

I was so impressed with the puzzle that I decided not only to buy one for myself, but also get a copy for my relatives this Christmas.  Fortunately, the only relative of mine who might read this blog is my wife.  I looked around online but Elverson seemed to be out of stock, and I could only find it for $19 from Fisher Scientific.  I contacted Elverson, and James TerBush emailed me back the same day saying they were available.  He was able to update the website immediately.  I ordered 5 copies and they threw in a 6th for free, maybe because they are packaged in boxes of 6.  Thanks Elverson Puzzles!

Jacob's Revenge - Elverson Puzzles

The picture above shows the puzzle I just got from Elverson, as well as a puzzle in its original packaging.  The rod has changed a little.

I first saw this puzzle on the John Rausch’s “Puzzle World” site when I first started collecing.  I was very pleased to be able to get it later from Strijbos a while later.  I’m not sure if this is Whiskey Bottle #2 or #1.  It’s #1 in the Puzzle World site, and #2 in Nick Baxter’s auctions.  I assumed it’s #2 because Strijbos pasted images from the latter in his newsletter from July 27 of this year.

The needle and thread start in the bottle, but are very easily removed, which is what I did for the picture to help clarify the puzzle.  Despite its open appearance, I was not able to solve it for at least a year.  I put it on the shelf and every now and then come back and fiddle with it.  It only struck me recently how to tackle the problem, in one of those satisfying “Aha!” moments that has us all hooked on puzzles.

I partially disassembled the puzzle to prove to myself that it could be done, but didn’t dare fully disassemble it.  I think Strijbos must have a bunch of tools like those used by people who build ships in bottles in order to assemble his puzzles.  I don’t think he spends a half hour of frustration to build each one of them.  Even partially disassembled, I had to use some tools to fully restore the puzzle to its initial state – though it may not be what you think if you haven’t worked out the solution.

Snake Cube - Hideaki Kawashima

I had the good fortune of being able to borrow this puzzle from fellow blogger Brian Pletcher.  It was Kawashima‘s 2010 Karakuri Club “Christmas present”.  It has a fairly straightforward design.  I had to open and close it a few times to figure out the pattern.