The NeoCube

I stumbled upon a promotional video for The Neocube a while ago, and thought that it looked like a pretty cool thing to play around with. It is a creativity toy/puzzle that consists of 216 small magnetic spheres. You can use these spheres to make all sorts of shapes, including a 6x6x6 cube.

I think that the Neocube could be classified as a puzzle, because it is fairly challenging to figure out how to make it into a cube and other objects if you don't read how to do it. Unfortunately, I had seen a video on how to do it when I was eagerly anticipating its arrival, so I don't know how challenging it actually would be.

There are a number of base shapes that you can make, such as triangles, pentagons, and hexagons. These shapes can be combined to create interesting 3D shapes.  While triangles and hexagons lay flat, if you make a pentagon it ends up being concave, which is kind of neat when you combine them. Check out their website for more pictures of things you can make.

The best way to get a sense of how cool this is is just to watch this video:



Pretty awesome, eh? It seems a bit steep at $25, considering it is just a bunch of magnets, but I guess that is what magnets cost. I looked at websites that just sold spherical magnets, and the price ends up about the same.

I had a lot of fun playing around with these things. I would sit for hours on end just making different things. My girlfriend also had a good time with them, though she enjoys just mushing them around more. I definitely recommend them if you're into fiddly little creativity toys such as this. You might just surprise yourself, pretty much anybody I've handed these to has had a good time with them. Just keep them away from hard drives and credit cards!

Tomorrow I'll write about my first experience using a laser cutting machine to make a puzzle box.

Small Boxes from Japan

When I didn't have a mechanical puzzle to work on, I was online reading about mechanical puzzles and finding plenty of great websites. One that I am sure many of you are familiar with is the Karakuri Creation Group, a group of amazing puzzle box artists in Japan. Most of their boxes are pretty expensive (at least to me, since I was accustomed to spending $12 for a Hanayama), so there wasn't much that fit within my budget.

They do have a series of small boxes that are quite affordable, however, called the Karakuri Small Box Series. These were on sale on their website for the modest price of $40, including S&H. This sounded like a great deal and I had some birthday money from my grandparents to spend, but as you've probably gathered by now, I don't like spending money without a recommendation.

I had been talking to Matt Dawson, an avid collector and designer of puzzle boxes, for a few months and asked his opinion of the series. He said that they were all good, but 1, 2, 3, and 7 were his favorites. That was all I needed to hear! I liked the idea of going through the series in sequence, so I ordered the first three.

The shipping was remarkably fast, I think it only took a few days for the package to arrive, which was good because I couldn't wait to try them. I thought it would be at least a week or two.

Since the website described #3 as easier than #1 and #2, I decided to start with #3. It came neatly wrapped in clear plastic with a slip of paper labeling it. This slip also contains the solution, so I was careful not to look at it.

They have produced multiple versions of each box, with the same mechanism but different exteriors. The one I got was KK-3-4, whose outside is made out of oak wood. The fit was amazing with a nice smooth finish on the outside. On the corner of the lid of each box is a perfect inlay with the Karakuri Creation Group logo.

As described, this box was fairly easy, but the solution is very cute. I couldn't help but chuckle a bit to myself when I discovered it. Unfortunately, I can't go into much detail without spoiling it. These puzzles are great to show to non-puzzlers, since they aren't too difficult and are a lot of fun. This is usually the first box I show them, since it is easier than the others, and usually they can get it in 3 to 5 minutes. The nice thing about this one is that you feel some sense of progress in the beginning, since two panels slide fairly easily. The final move is the coup-de-gras and trickier to find.

Next, I decided to try #2, which is crafted from cherry tree wood on the outside (KK-2-4). This one is somewhat more challenging than #3, but I was still able to solve it in a minute or two. The solution is quite playful and surprising when you discover it, which I really like. You definitely get the "Aha!" moment.

Unlike #3, this puzzle gives you no easy moves in the beginning. Once you have found the first move, you have basically solved the puzzle. However, this first move is tricky to find. The non-puzzlers that try this one tend to get a bit frustrated, since they don't have any sense of progress, but when they finally discover the solution they are all the more delighted. I think this one is my favorite of the three that I purchased.

Finally, I attempted #1, which, as you can see from the picture, has slightly different proportions. It is made from walnut (KK-1-2) and has a rich brown tone. Similar to #3, this has a few easy moves at the beginning, but the final move is the tricky one. It took me about a minute or two to solve this one, but it was a cute solution that also put a smile on my face.

In my opinion, all three boxes were thoroughly enjoyable, and I definitely plan on purchasing the rest of the series at some point. Very cool little boxes for a good price, and they are superbly made.

Tomorrow, I'll write about a cool magnetic puzzle that I purchased.

Cast O'Gear and Cast Violin

I was down at Eureka and decided to pick up a few more Hanayama puzzles. As I mentioned way back in my fourth post, I first learned about Eureka from a fellow on the subway who saw me playing with Cast Vortex. He was familiar with the Hanayama series and said that one of his favorites was Cast O'Gear, since it had such an interesting movement, so I finally decided to purchase it. I also followed another one of David's recommendations and decided to pick up Cast Violon. He said it wasn't too hard, but was a well designed puzzle.

When I got home, I started off with Cast O'Gear. This is an interesting two-piece puzzle by Oskar van Deventer that won an Honorable Mention in the 2001 Puzzle Design Competition at the International Puzzle Party. The object is to release the gear from the cube to which it is attached. The shape of the gear allows it to rotate from one face of the cube to the next, crossing the edges. Certain edges cannot be crossed however, though this is not visually obvious. I think this is my only complaint with this puzzle, it was hard to tell whether the reason it wasn't able to cross an edge was because you didn't line it up right, or because it just wasn't supposed to travel that direction.

As you can kind of see in the picture, each face of the cube has a hole in it, into which the teeth of the gear fit. These holes are cross-shaped, with the inner corners of the cross rounded in certain places. This allows you to turn the gear and change directions, but this turning is limited by the rounding on the holes.

This is a maze-type puzzle, similar to Cast Duet, but with a completely different mechanism. After examining it for a moment, I determined how the gear had to exit the maze: the challenge was just to navigate it to the correct orientation to release it! I played around with it for about 20 or 30 minutes and was able to figure it out. It did take a bit of logic: I ran into a situation where I needed to figure out a way to change which tooth of the gear was in the cube, keeping the face the same. George Bell wrote an interesting article for the November 2008 edition of Cubism For Fun #77 about mapping this type of puzzle that can be downloaded from George's website. Robert Stegman also analyzes route finding puzzles on his excellent website.

I would agree with the fellow on the subway that this is a great puzzle. The mechanism is quite cool: it seems like it would be impossible for the gear to walk along the outside of the cube without coming off easily, but that's exactly how it works. The finish is a nice brown color that somehow feels appropriate for this puzzle. I also like how there are grooves cut in the side of the cube that allow you to rest the gear in place for display, otherwise it would just flop around. Another great puzzle by Oskar and Hanayama!

The second puzzle I tried, Cast Violon, was designed back in 1965 by Joseph L. Litle, though this version has been altered substantially by Nobuyuki Yoshigahara. It is a three piece puzzle where the objective is to disassemble the three pieces. It is fairly easy, but could challenge a less experienced puzzler: my girlfriend had some trouble with it. I think I figured it out in a few minutes.

The finish on this one is a nice shiny copper tone, which I liked. I think my only complaint about this one is the last move: perhaps it is just my specific puzzle, but the first piece to be removed does not slide out smoothly. This is not a huge problem when you are taking it out because you can wiggle it, but it is a bit of a pain when you have to put it back in, because the pieces need to be held in a specific position for there to be enough clearance to fit it at all. I brought this one to a party and folks were able to get it apart but then I had to keep putting it back together, which was a bit annoying.

Tomorrow, I'll write about some great puzzle boxes I got straight from Japan!

The YOT

For my birthday this year my family got together for brunch at a restaurant near where my folks live, up in Beverly, MA. Brunch was quite tasty, and I got a new puzzle: the YOT by Hi-Q Products. I couldn't resist giving it a try, since we were done eating.

It is a bit tricky to tell from the picture, but the purpose is to remove the lid from the disk, which will allow you to remove the coin. It twists but will not pull off unless you can figure out the trick.

As a somewhat experienced puzzler at this point, there are a few things that one tries with hidden mechanism puzzles, so I tried the thing that first came to mind. Sure enough, it worked, much to my surprise and the surprise of my parents who expected to see a bit more of a challenge from this $35 puzzle. Oh well! It is quite well made and has a nice weight to it.

The fun began when the rest of my family tried to attempt my feat: I had done the move quickly, just in case it worked, so nobody had seen what I did. It got passed around for a while; my cousin tried it, my grandfather, my mother, my aunt, all with no luck! Some of them had the right idea but weren't quite able to open it. Eventually they convinced my girlfriend to try it, who thought she had seen what I did, and she was able to open it, much to everybody's amazement.

That is part of the cool thing about this puzzle: you can open it right in front of somebody without them seeing what you have done (if you are sufficiently sneaky). In fact, it was originally designed as a magic trick. Here's a funny slideshow on YOT.com of a fellow supposedly using this puzzle/magic trick to pick up a woman at a bar.

Overall, I would say that this is a fun puzzle to frustrate novices with, but is too easy for a moderately serious solver of hidden mechanism puzzles. You are paying for the quality and precision of the puzzle here.

I haven't tried the YOT II yet, but am somewhat tempted. It is quite a bit more expensive at $60, so that is a bit off-putting. Leave a comment if you've tried it, I'd love to hear what you think.

Tomorrow, I'll write about another great Oskar van Deventer puzzle in the Hanayama series.

Tangoes Tangrams

I was down at Eureka shopping for a new mechanical puzzle with my girlfriend when we noticed a set of tangrams that was branded Tangoes. I had been thinking about getting a set of tangrams, since they are such a classic, but had never gotten around to it. These came in a nice plastic carrying case, and it has not one but two sets of pieces! We thought that was pretty cool great, because it would be a puzzle that we could enjoy together. Also, it was only $15, so we decided to get the blue and red version.

In case you've been living under a puzzle rock, the tangram is a puzzle that consists of seven flat shapes. The objective is to use the pieces to match a shape that is given only by its silhouette. It was originally from China, though the exact origins are shrouded in mystery. Pretty exciting, eh? Here's a picture of the pieces and a link to a site that tells you how to make a set for yourself. For more info, check out Jerry Slocum's excellent book, The Tangram Book.

When we got home we unpackaged our Tangoes to give them a try. The case is quite nicely designed with bright colors and TANGOES written on the front in rubberized letters. We dumped out the pieces that were neatly packed in four layers on one end of the case. The other end of the case had the 27 cards with 54 problems on them, one on each side with the solution on the opposite side. If you slide the lid on from the other direction, you can use the case to dispense the cards and use the slot in the top of the lid to hold the card, which is pretty handy.

We played best of 10 and had a good time: despite the fact that I'd been puzzling over all sorts of mechanical puzzles for the past 6 months, she put up a solid fight, though in the end I was the victor by a narrow margin. She is much better at assembly puzzles than disassembly puzzles.

So overall, I would say that this set is great, particularly if you are interested in some head-to-head tangram action. There were only a few things that I thought could have been improved. First, I dislike double-sided cards, though I do appreciate that it saves space, it makes it difficult to work your way through all the challenges, since it is easy to put a card upside-down at the bottom of the stack or something.

Second, the card dispensing worked ok but not great. It was somewhat difficult to put the card back on the bottom of the pack when it was in the dispenser, though I guess you could just set it aside. Finally, the cards can slip between the compartment that has the tangrams and the compartment that has the cards when you tilt the case to withdraw the next card. Still, I would highly recommend this set since it is nice and compact and looks great.

In closing, here's a picture of Allan Boardman's take on the tangram: the seven tiny pieces fit into a cute little pearwood box (source). He is known for his impossibly small puzzle creations. Very cool!

Tomorrow, I'll write about a mechanical puzzle I got for my birthday that is not a UFO.

Cast Loop and Cast Amour

I was down at Eureka Puzzles and Games and picked up a few more Hanayama puzzles: Cast Loop and Cast Amour. Cast Loop came highly recommended by David, the owner of Eureka. He said it wasn't too difficult but was an interesting little puzzle. It is designed by Vesa Timonen and is based on the design of a puzzle ring for his girlfriend. It won the Puzzler's Award and Jury First Prize at the 2007 Puzzle Design Competition at the International Puzzle Party.

As I left the store, I unpackaged Cast Loop and decided to see if I could solve it on the walk home since it was a nice day. It was a difficulty level 1 of 6, I thought doing it while avoiding walking into a lamp post would be more challenging. I solved it after about five minutes, but it definitely was a cool little puzzle.

This is another one I didn't really understand when I first looked it. I couldn't understand why it didn't come as a closed loop: instead it is packaged as shown in the picture on the left. As I later learned, this is because it is trivial to take apart: the challenge is to close the loop correctly. I don't think I am giving anything away here, since it is immediately obvious when you play with it for a moment: the two pieces twist together, but when you twist them together in the obvious way, you end up with the unsolved position that it starts in. The trick is figuring out how to do it correctly.

Two magnets hold the loop closed when you solve the puzzle, though I prefer to keep it in an unsolved state in case somebody picks it up without me around. It comes with a leather strap that you could use to wear it as a necklace, but I don't think my girlfriend would appreciate that. Check out Oli's review of Cast Loop here.

I tried Cast Amour, by Akio Yamamoto, when I returned home. It consists of a flat heart shaped plate with four holes in it. There are gold male and female symbols going through the two holes. The goal is to remove the two gold pieces from the silver plate.

I found this puzzle to be fairly easy, it took me about 5 minutes, about as long as Cast Loop, though I didn't like it quite as much for a few reasons. The silver plate is thin by necessity, but it has a flimsy feel/sound as you manipulate it. It also doesn't sit very well on a table or something due to its shape, which loses points for me.

Tomorrow, I'll write about a classic puzzle from "China" that is fun for one or more players!

Cast Devil and Cast L'oeuf

Next I decided to pick up a few more Hanayamas at Eureka. Since I had pretty much all of the difficulty level five and six puzzles at this point, except for Cast Ring II, I decided to buy some level four. Cast Devil appealed to me because it was one of those puzzles that looked like it would be fairly straightforward, so I was curious how it could be difficult or interesting.  I also picked up Cast L'oeuf, which I didn't really understand how it worked based on looking at it, but figured it was worth a try.

As I left the store, I started to unpackage Cast Devil thinking I could give it a try on the way on the T. I got it out of the package and literally the first thing that I tried worked, I think it took me all of five seconds, which was pretty disappointing. I just wrote it off to my general brilliance and the fact that I was getting better at solving these things. I thought it wasn't a complete loss since it would be a fun one to give to people who might not have the patience for the harder puzzles.

I did end up bringing it to a party and it was really interesting watching people try to solve it. Some people got it quite quickly like I did, but other people were completely baffled. I could do it right in front of them and they couldn't replicate the solution. I think this must exploit a mental blind spot that some people have, like a lot of good puzzles do. In fact, I loaned it to a friend of mine who had done a lot of the hard ones like Cast Enigma and Cast Vortex, but he was unable to solve it.

So despite my initial disappointment, this is a puzzle I like to bring with me quite frequently when I decide to bring along a few puzzles to a party or something. It is quite solid and well made, with a nice shiny finish. It is based on a design from 1905 that was re-designed by Nobuyuki Yoshigahara.

The second puzzle, Cast L'oeuf was pretty interesting. As you could probably guess, it is a design by Oskar van Deventer, who has all sorts of interesting puzzles in the Hanayama series that have a maze-type theme. I couldn't tell how this one worked from the pictures, so allow me to explain:

There are two egg-shaped plates of metal, one silver and one gold, that have different shaped mazes cut into them. Each plate has a nub that sticks out into the other plate and is too wide at the tip to be pulled through. In the picture you can see the nub from the silver side sticking through the maze on the gold side. On the other side, there is a gold nub sticking through the silver side. In order to navigate both nubs to the hole that is wide enough to release them, you must rotate and slide the plates so that the two nubs move through the maze.

It was fairly challenging, but definitely doable if you fiddle with it long enough. It is kind of a two-steps-forward-one-step-back kind of feeling, since you have to frequently move one nub backwards to advance the other.

The puzzle is well designed, but I would have preferred a somewhat more sturdy construction. There are points where you can force it a bit, and it is unclear whether or not this is intended. If it was made somewhat thicker, then I think this could have been avoided. Also, I don't know what the two holes on the left and right are for, they do not seem to surve a purpose. Overall, I would recommend Cast L'oeuf if you like interesting maze-type puzzles.

Tomorrow I'll write about a few more Hanayamas that I got: one of which is an award winning puzzle that is also good for novices.

Diagra and Cubicula

I was down at Eureka talking to the owner, David, one day, and he was telling me about a puzzle called Diagra from Vinco. It was in the glass cabinet, so I assumed it was pretty expensive, but I never quite understood what it was just based on looking at it. David told me that it was an assembly puzzle where you use the 9 different pieces to create different shapes. This sounded great to me, because it was multiple puzzles in one, so I decided to pick it up since it only ended up being $30.

It is a nice looking puzzle that is quite precisely made, as is typically the case with Vinco products. The finish is natural with a number of different colored woods used, which makes for a nice looking puzzle. Each of the nine pieces has a hollow area and a square nub sticking out of the side. This nub sticks into the hollow area of another piece, but it only fits in a certain way due to the angle

The tricky thing about making the various shapes is doing it in such a way so that the final piece you put in will fit with both the piece in front of it and the piece behind it. Because of this design, you end up forming a directed path that leads you through all of the cubes of each shape. I took advantage of this idea when solving it, because with all shapes there is only one path that you can take through all of the cubes once that returns to the starting point. Here is a picture of the different shapes you can make.

I had a lot of fun solving this puzzle. I think it took me about a week to solve all the different shapes. Some of them have more than one solution, but I don't really get much joy from finding multiple solutions unless there is something really unique about the different solutions.

As I mentioned in my entry about Schalenquader yesterday, my algorithm to solve this type of puzzle is quite systematic. Usually I will try things randomly for 5-10 minutes and if that approach doesn't work, I will apply a more systematic approach. Here's what I did for Diagra:

• Organize the pieces in some manner so that you can put them in order, this helps me keep track of which ones I have tried and which ones I haven't.
• Pick an initial piece to start with and choose a location for it within the shape that would work.
• Pick the first piece in the order and add it to the starting piece, if this doesn't work, move on to the second piece in the order, etc.
• If no piece works remove the last piece and try the next piece in the order.
• If you don't find a solution with the initial piece in the starting position you selected, move the initial piece to another starting position.

Hope that makes sense! I'm curious as to how other people approach this type of puzzle. Do you do something like this or do you have a different way of doing it?

Anyways, I had a good time with this puzzle, it kept me busy for a good long time and was quite well made. The only downside is that I can't figure out how to pronounce the name in a way that doesn't make people think 'Viagra' immediately.

I enjoyed this puzzle so much that I looked on Vinco's site and found out that they had a whole series of puzzles like this. Click on the picture on the right for a full list of these puzzles and the shapes they can make. I was particularly attracted to the one named Cubicula, because it was rated as a 5+ on Vinco's difficulty scale of 1 through 5 in the instruction booklet! Also, I liked the way the puzzle looked: when two pieces are joined it looks like four layers that are joined to create a cube. Luckly, this puzzle was in stock at Eureka, so I went by and purchased it.

This one was also quite cool, the pieces fit together in a completely different way than with Diagra, so it was interesting learning how they interacted. Interestingly, unlike Diagra, some of the pieces in Cubicula are much more versatile than others, meaning they can be used in a number of situations while others had much more specific uses. My algorithm worked for this as well, though there were a lot more options so it took me quite a bit longer (depending on how lucky I got with my starting position).

Overall, I would highly recommend both of these puzzles if you enjoy assembly puzzles. They are a bit challenging though, but I'm sure you're up for it! Great value for the money and a lot of fun.

Tomorrow, I'll write about a few more Hanayamas, another by Oskar van Deventer and a simple one that can be deceptively challenging.

The Games People Play

There was another puzzle shop up in the Boston area named The Games People Play that I had been meaning to visit, so one weekend I decided to head over with my girlfriend. They are located right near Harvard square, which is convenient if you are taking the T (the snazzy name for public transit in Boston).

The shop has a good amount of space and sold a variety of games and jigsaw puzzles, but I was interested in their mechanical puzzles so I headed right to that section. They had a number of ThinkFun puzzles, some Rubik's puzzles (including Rubik's 360, I've been meaning to try that), and some Hanayama puzzles. They had a few puzzles that I hadn't seen before, including a mass-produces version of Oskar's Matchboxes, which I considered getting, but it was $30.

There was a glass cabinet with what appeared to be some limited edition stuff, but the items weren't really on display very effectively. Many of the items were in opaque cardboard boxes, so you couldn't really tell what they were unless you recognized the name.

There was one person working that day, he was sitting behind the register watching TV, so I didn't really want to bother him to open up the case and tell me what he had, since it was probably more than I wanted to spend anyways.

They had a kid-sized table where some of the graduated ThinkFun puzzles were on display, which I thought was a nice touch. My girlfriend sat down and played around with a logic puzzle called Chocolate Fix. In this puzzle you look at a 'problem' card to determine where to put the differently colored and shaped chocolates according to a set of rules. This kept her busy for a bit while I was browsing.

I headed over to the production puzzles and noticed that they had Cyclone from The Lagoon Group for sale. I had seen these being discussed on the PuzzleWorld.org forums. It was a cool looking puzzle, though I wasn't sure how interesting it would be. I figured it was worth a shot since it was only $10 or so.

I browsed around a bit more and found a cool looking wooden puzzle that was a two-layer packing puzzle named Mosaic by Family Games. Basically, it looks like tangrams or something, but each piece is glued to another piece underneath that has a different shape.The challenge is to pack all the pieces into the square frame.

The box had a magnetic closure, so I was poking around the box to see if there were instructions on different patterns to try to make. The fellow behind the register came out and asked me to stop, since the puzzle was very hard to put back together and he was afraid I was going to drop it or something. Oh well, guess I'm not spending $30 on that one!

I looked around a bit more, though I was somewhat miffed, so I didn't want to spend too much. I ended out picking out a plastic puzzle called Schalenquader (Cuboid in Cuboid), which is essentially a plastic 3d jigsaw puzzle where you cover a cuboid with another cuboid. It looked kind of cool and was cheap, so I bought that as well.

When I got home, I decided to try Schalenquader (Cuboid in Cuboid) first, since Cyclone looked like it could take a while. It was pretty much as you would expect, mostly just trial and error. the interesting thing about this one is that there were corner pieces that wrap around the corners of the inner cuboid, as you can see in the picture, which makes it a bit different than a puzzle like Snafooze, where each panel is flat.

I worked on it for about 15 minutes before I figured it out. My strategy on puzzles like this is just to start with a piece in a certain position, then try all the possible pieces that could fit in the next position, and so forth. If I hit a dead end, I backtrack and try a different piece. As you may imagine, this is somewhat tedious, which is why I probably don't enjoy these puzzles as much as some other types. Is this the way most people solve them? It seems like a systematic approach is the best way to avoid spinning your wheels unnecessarily.

I liked this puzzle for what it was, the plastic was of good quality and the pieces fit together well. My only complaint is that the pieces don't fit quite snugly enough for the puzzle to stay together on its own, they tend to fall off if you move it. Also, it is a bit of a challenge to put all the pieces back in the plastic box in which they came: perhaps this is intentional, a packing puzzle!

I tried Cyclone next: it made me a bit nervous taking all those pieces apart, but I thought I had a pretty good idea of how it went back together by studying it beforehand. So I went ahead and took it apart, then tried to put it back together.

It was fairly easy to put together since I saw the pattern before I took it apart. I think it would have been much more challenging if I just had the picture to go by. Too bad they can't really sell these disassembled, because they wouldn't look nearly as cool in their clear plastic packaging.

On the package, the instructions said that the challenge was to disassemble it and reassemble it with the marble inside, but I had no marble! Either way, I don't think it would have been any more challenging or interesting with a marble than without.

Overall, this was a pretty good puzzle, it is neat how it looks like the pieces are woven together. The pieces are made out of a thin plastic by necessity, because you need to be able to flex them to assemble them. It looks good sitting on your shelf, but not something I'll be trying again any time soon, since it is a bit fiddly getting the pieces into place.

I found this site, IQlight.com, that describes using similarly shaped plastic pieces to make lamps, which is kind of a cool idea. There are all sorts of different sized and shaped lamps you can make with these shapes. Pretty neat, eh? I'll bet they're planning to sell these as DIY kits or something, but it doesn't look like they are selling anything at this point. You can make them yourself, as is described in this forum post, if you'd like. Just don't set the house on fire!

Well, that's all for today, tomorrow I'm not sure what I'm going to post yet, but I'm sure it will be enthralling!

Puzzle Raffle

I had been watching the forum over at CubicDissection.com when I read a post that announced that there was a puzzle and pen raffle over at EaglesWoodworking.com. The raffle was to benefit Eagle's family: William Edward "Eagle" Prisavage was a woodworker who passed away back in 2008.

I took a look at the thread (aw, it looks like the images have been removed) and saw a number of prizes that folks had donated that were pretty cool, so I figured why not try my luck? Of course, I am never one to leave things to chance, particularly with my limited puzzle budget. I decided that the best strategy would be to count the number of prizes that I would be interested in winning and estimate the number of tickets that had been sold: then I could see how many tickets I needed to buy to have a reasonable chance of winning something I wanted.

It turns out that since there were so many awesome prizes, the odds were fairly good, so I bought my tickets and crossed my figures. Of course, I really had my eye on the Stickman #5 Box, as I'm sure everybody else did, but there were a bunch of other great things as well. It was really cool seeing everybody's generosity in donating prizes and purchasing tickets: I'm sure Eagle was a hell of a guy if he had so many friends.

As luck would have it, I did win a prize! In fact, my prize was four prizes: Volley-ball, UFO, and Hedgehog from Vinco and Finnish Cross No.1. This was pretty exciting, because I would have four new puzzles to try! A week or so later the puzzles came in the mail.

UFO is a cool looking wood puzzle, as you can see in the picture above and from a different angle on the left. If you flip it over, the dark and light pattern is the inverse of the top, which is pretty neat. It is very precisely made, as is the case for all of Vinco's products. I'm not an expert, but I think the finish is natural, perhaps some oil or something. Definitely not a shiny finish like you'll see on some puzzles. This is probably how Vinco keeps its costs down.

I disassembled this one very carefully, because I don't have much experience with assembly puzzles and was a bit concerned that I wouldn't be able to get it back together. I guess I could have been less cautious with this one since it came with instructions, though. It comes apart into two halves of three pieces each, and then the three pieces come apart individually.

The way the two halves go together is nice, but not particularly challenging either to take apart or put together, but assembling three of the pieces to form a half is fairly challenging. Even after doing it a few times, I had to stop and think and it took a bit of trial and error. It was quite satisfying when all the pieces slide together just right.

I tried Volley-ball next, which had four identical pieces. This one came apart fairly easily and was also pretty easy to reassemble. Not much of a challenge but a nice little puzzle. There is a fairly large square space in the center where you could store something, I suppose.

Next I took a crack at Hedgehog, which also looked pretty cool. This is another 6-piece puzzle, and was probably the most challenging of the three Vincos to disassemble. The fit was fairly tight, so it took a little wiggling to get the first piece out. Once that was done, it was fairly easy to disassemble the rest. This one has a total of six pieces that must be assembled by joining two pieces and combining that with another two pieces, and then adding the last two pieces.

Again, I was pretty careful with this one since I didn't know if I could get it back together. Once I studied it a bit though I got more confident and jumbled up the pieces before trying to put it back together. It wasn't too bad since there aren't a whole lot of options to try. Overall, a well made and interesting puzzle.

Finally, I tried Finnish Cross #1, which was an exchange gift from Dirk Webber in the 22nd International Puzzle Party in Antwerp/Belgium. It was designed by Juha A. Levonen and built by Josef Pelikan. it is a pretty cool puzzle, because it looks like a burr but it is actually just a burr shape formed by polyominos!

I spent several days trying to figure this one out but wasn't having much luck. Rather than continue to struggle, I decided to peek at the hint sheet, which showed where the different pieces were located. I just looked at enough to show me which two pieces were at the bottom, which was the nudge that I needed to figure the rest of it out. I think my favorite part of such puzzles is when you know where a piece needs to go but have to figure out how to get it there: I don't enjoy it quite as much when I just have to try pieces in random spots until I figure it out.

It is quite a tricky puzzle! Even when it is assembled, it is non-trivial to disassemble it, which I like. The end requires a rotational move to separate the final two pieces, which is a nice touch. Unfortunately, the fit is quite loose and there are pretty big gaps visible, unlike the picture shown here (I'm too lazy to take my own pictures unless I really can't find it elsewhere).

So those were the puzzles I won in the raffle! Pretty exciting, since these were actually my first interlocking wooden puzzles.

Tomorrow, I head to another puzzle shop in the Boston area and pick up some new puzzles.