Bits and Pieces Puzzle Boxes

I was looking around on the web for some affordable puzzle boxes, and read about some boxes from Bits and Pieces on Jeff Chiou's blog, MagicPuzzles. I browsed on over to Bits and Pieces to take a look at the boxes he described.

I had seen their site before, but it was hard to pick anything specific out without a recommendation since they have so many items. Jeff said Snap Latch Box was good, as was Matchbox, so I decided to purchase those. I had spoken to David from Eureka about Brass Treasure Chest, and he mentioned that he thought it was the best of the Bits and Pieces brass series, so I decided to purchase that one as well. Finally, I thought I would get Magic Money Box, since it is an often seen design that I've never played around with.

A few days later, I had my new puzzles and was ready for some wild and crazy puzzlin' fun. I started with Magic Money Box. Much to my disappointment, once I removed the plastic wrapping, a chip fell off! As I rotated the puzzle around to figure out what was up, the secret drawer slid right out! Damn! So much for an "A ha!" moment. What a shame! If the puzzle functioned correctly, I could see how it would be a pretty tricky puzzle, though it really depends on a good fit.

I was heading up to Maine to go sailing with my parents for the weekend and ran out of time on the others, so I decided to take them up to the boat with me. Sailing and puzzles, what a way to spend the weekend!

Once we got on board the boat, I set myself to solving Snap Latch Box. The finish and wood are quite nice, overall a well made puzzle. I played around with it for about 15 minutes, shaking it and trying to figure out how it could open, when I finally figured out what to do. This has a very clever mechanism that is quite satisfying once you figure it out. I couldn't help but chuckle when the box finally opened. I agree with Jeff that this is a great box for the money.

I worked on both Matchbox and Brass Box for several days, but so I don't confuse you I'll just talk about Brass Box first. I played around with this one for quite some time. Unfortunately, in wiggling the various parts, one of the legs fell off! I initially thought that this was part of the puzzle, but it turns out that it is not. Fortunately, this did not effect the operation of the puzzle at all.

I worked on this one for 3 or 4 hours when I finally figured it out. The solution is quite tricky and I'm pretty thrilled that I was even able to figure it out. It was very satisfying when the lid finally opened, but it takes quite a bit of patience.

I should mention that it is a reproduction of a puzzle designed by Rocky Chiaro, a retired machinist who makes some very cool looking puzzles out of brass. Unfortunately, his stuff is a bit expensive for me at the moment, so this reproduction fit the bill nicely. A little J.B. Weld and the leg would be as good as new!

Finally, the Matchbox: I must have spent something like 10 hours shaking and rattling this puzzle every which way. I could hear something going on inside and thought that I had figured out some moves that were making progress, but I had no luck getting the darn thing to open. I had all sorts of crazy theories about how it could open, but nothing worked. This was particularly maddening, because I was out on a boat in the middle of the ocean in Maine, so there was no help available!

When I finally got home, I asked my girlfriend to take a look at the solution and let me know if I was on the right track. She read it over and said that I had the right idea, so I kept working on it for another hour or so. Eventually, however, we determined that there was a piece missing! This really ticked me off because I had spent so long on this damn puzzle. Sure enough, when I improvised the missing piece, I solved the puzzle in no time at all. You can imagine this was quite frustrating since not only did I not have the enjoyment of successfully solving the puzzle, I also spent a ton of time on an unsolvable puzzle!

Still, the puzzle in its complete form is quite clever: I would recommend it. The one caveat is that you may want to get a third party to inspect the puzzle to make sure that it works properly before you spend 10 hours trying to solve it.

Allow me to summarize: I ordered four puzzles. One was broken, one broke after a minute or two, and one was shipped in an unsolvable state. No wonder Bits and Pieces has a crappy reputation! I wrote them an email suggesting that they replace the three puzzles and give me a $20 store credit, which I thought was pretty reasonable. They replied saying that they would ship the three puzzles to me along with a $10 store credit, and that I could keep the broken puzzles. This was fine with me, since they were all really easy to fix, so now I have two copies of each!

Overall, it was a bit of a disappointment, but I would still order from Bits and Pieces again. Their prices are so low, I can get past the low quality. Plus, they handled my dissatisfaction quite well, which is admirable. They must be accustomed to it! I will just have my girlfriend solve the puzzles using the instructions next time to make sure a broken puzzle doesn't spoil the experience for me.