Monthly Archives: October 2011

Way

This entry is part 1 of 6 in the series IPP 31

Way by Dr. Volker Latussek is an interesting wooden puzzle which was entered in IPP 31 Design competition in Berlin. Not long after IPP, I was talking with Volker regarding my thoughts on the puzzle, and he offered to send me a copy to play with. Shortly after our discussion a fairly large package arrived in the mail, and there was the copy of Way that he promised me.

Way boxed

Way boxed

The goal of the puzzle is to create free standing circuits which form a single complete loop from start to finish, using the pieces noted on the challenge card. The circuit does not need to be flat on the table, and can be a three dimensional circuit. If fact, thinking upwards is needed to solve many of the challenges presented. One of the unique points of the puzzle is that there are no pegs or magnets which hold the pieces together, and each of the solutions is stable when the correct solution is found.

The first thing that struck me about this puzzle is the size. This is much larger than I was expecting from the photographs I’d seen. You’ll get a feel for just how big the pieces are from the video (just excuse my gammy thumb). The pieces are all beautifully made, and perfectly smooth. Each of the oiled beech pieces has a good weight to it, and are all fairly large, even in my hands. The whole puzzle with all eighteen blocks measures 8″ x 8″ and each piece has a diameter of around 1.33″. The puzzle comes in a heavy card box with the puzzle name on a sticker on the outside of the box. One of the challenges is even to fit all 18 pieces into the box in a continuous circuit (as opposed to just thrown in there as they normally are after playing with the puzzle).

The Sticker on the box has the subtext “a puzzle construction set”, and it does live up to that claim. It certainly reminds me of the building blocks I used to play with as a child when I was at my grandfathers house, although these are significantly less beat up than those blocks were!

The puzzle comes with a challenge card with 8 different challenges on it, the first four of which are really showing you how to use the blocks, so contain a picture of the solution on the card. My biggest issue therefor is that there’s only really 4 challenges provided with the puzzle to start off. For most people it’s not going to take that long to work through the challenges. Visiting the website, there are now a total of 29 challenges which should keep you puzzling for quite some time, and it seems that more challenges are being added on a fairly regular basis. The most recent challenge was added on the 27th October (at the time of writing). The challenges are not all just ‘build a circuit’ challenges either. Some really need you to think about what you’re doing by adding restrictions on the type of circuit. For example, the circuit must fit inside a 3×3 cube.

Note: New puzzle challenges are added every Thursday. Thanks to the designer for the update

Some simple solutions

Some simple solutions

As you can see from the image above, showing a few of the simpler challenges, it’s possible to construct several of the solutions at the same time, and all of them are stable once complete. One of the issues I had was that the order in which you construct the solution is very important to the stability during creation. While it’s true that all the solutions I have found so far are stable once complete, they’re not always easy to build due to the nature of the pieces to roll. As you’ll see in the video, removing one piece from the completed structure, and the whole assembly in many cases will fall down with a satisfying clunk as the pieces hit the table. While I love the fact that the solutions are all stable when built, I can’t quite get past the feeling that having either the tiniest flat spot on the edges would help the puzzle greatly as the building would be less frustrating. That said, Dr. Volker is very proud of the design, and that the pieces are stable with no other aids, and I think he’s right to be proud of it. Bottom line is that the way the puzzle is, there’s an added dexterity element to the puzzle, which certainly adds to the challenge.

Way shows gravity who's boss

Way shows gravity who's boss

Some of the more challenging puzzles really start to look like they’re defying gravity with pieces hanging outside the main mass of the puzzle creating some interesting overhangs!

Overall this is a really good puzzle, and if the challenges keep coming, then there’s going to be a good reason to keep going back to it for some time to come. You can get one directly from Dr. Volker via the Way Website.

When puzzles start to take over

My puzzle collection has been increasing steadily over the last few years, and as with most collections, they have managed to spread themselves around the house quite impressively. Well over the weekend, my better half decided that she’d had enough and wanted her house back. So what happens… well even with a gammy thumb, we don’t get to sit and relax on our days off so we set to work.

I have had a couple of glass display cabinets which have a few of my statue’s in it but have sadly been hidden at the back of the dining room for too long and needed to be brought out where they can be appreciated. We decided it was time to stop the puzzle collection from spreading all over the house, so a new glass cabinet was purchased, and it was time to re-organise.

Note: All images in this post are very large. Clicking the image will show the full size version so you can see the maximum detail possible.

Puzzle Storage

Puzzle Storage

After around 6 hours on Sunday moving furniture around the dining room, which involved relocating a chunk of my DVD collection, and the Lego collection, and …. ok, you get the idea; the cabinets were freed from their corners and moved into the living room as you can see above. After some Ikea cabinetry, the new glass cabinet was put together and some of the collection relocated to its new home.

The cabinets in the photo are only a small part of the collection, but it does mean that some of the puzzles have at least been brought together and are visible, rather than piled up on top of one another on whatever spare space I could find at the time they arrived.

The figures on the left are mine, and the faeries on the right are my fiancĂ©e’s. Sitting on top of the cabinet is one of my other projects. It’s a robot that I’ve been writing code for. There’s a few video’s of it walking here if you’re interested. So far I’ve not connected up the gyro’s so it’s all mechanical balance, and he does pretty well given that.

You might notice a certain Stickman in the bottom of the right hand cabinet. That’s a ‘kit’ that Robert sent me to get working. There was a wee mistake when the threads were being cut so it doesn’t work as intended. I’m currently in the process of reworking it and documenting what’s needed to get it working. I’ll be posting about that in due time, so watch this space.

Puzzle Shelves

Puzzle Shelves

More Puzzle Shelves

More Puzzle Shelves

As I mentioned, the gathering of the puzzles is only a small part of the collection. There’s a few other shelves and spaces on the bookcases that have varying puzzles lying around. Not to mention other boxes with puzzles scattered around the house.

That pesky Elephant ...

That pesky Elephant ...

I’m still not quite sure how that Elephant got up there, but I’m slightly concerned that he’s plotting something with the Rabbit in the Magic Hat. I suppose I was warned by its maker that I shouldn’t feed it after midnight, and that they have been known to be a little rowdy …

So with the space freed up elsewhere, there’s room now for some of the Lego models I own to get a bit more space, rather than those being crammed into a corner. I have a pretty good number of kits dating back to the 1970’s since I’ve played with and collected Lego since I was a small boy. Given that I’ve had a couple of people ask about some of the models, here’s a quick look at a few that are out and about. There’s probably around 300 kits in boxes in my garage, and varying other models dotted around, but these are probably the bigger pieces that are out and gathering dust.

Lego Models (L->R) – Space Shuttle 8480, Lego Model Team Truck 5580, Backhoe Grader 8862, Blue Fury 5541, Batmobile 7784″ src=”http://thejuggler.net/blog/lego1.jpg” title=”Lego Models (L->R) – Space Shuttle 8480, Lego Model Team Truck 5580, Backhoe Grader 8862, Blue Fury 5541, Batmobile 7784″ width=”525px” /></a>
<div style=Air Tech Claw Rig 8868

Air Tech Claw Rig 8868

Motorbike 8051

Motorbike 8051

Well hope you liked the sneak peek into some of my collection. I’ll be back to the regular reviews soon as my thumb is healing nicely. Going to be a while before things are entirely back to normal, but that’s what happens when thumb meets saw.