Yearly Archives: 2015

Mini Maria

Not all puzzles are pretty, and not all puzzles can be considered art, however one name stands out in the puzzle/art category. Miguel Berrocal. Born in 1933 in Malaga, Spain, died in 2006. He studied mathematics and architecture at the University of Madrid and then art in Paris and Rome before settling in Negrar, a suburb of Verona. Over his life he produced many sculptures, and works of art, many of which appeal to puzzlers due to the complex interlocking nature of the pieces which make up each sculpture.

Mini Maria by Berrocal

Mini Maria by Berrocal

I will agree, that these puzzles are not going to appeal to everyone out there. Most are rather strange and abstract looking and the price tag alone is enough to put most people off. Some of the larger sculptures out there, you may think twice about taking apart just due to the huge number of pieces and complexity of assembly. These are like burr puzzles on steroids.

Mini Maria was made in a run of 10,000 starting in 1969, and 6 of the copies were made in gold. As is common in Berrocal’s work, there is a ring embedded in the design. You can see the stone setting of the ring in the image above. The puzzle is fairly small, measuting 3.25″ x 1.25″ x 1.5″ (3″ on the base). That in itself makes some of the work more impressive as there’s not a lot of free space in there, and all the parts fir together very nicely.

Mini Maria by Berrocal - Corner View

Mini Maria by Berrocal – Corner View

Mini Maria by Berrocal - Back View

Mini Maria by Berrocal – Back View

It’s hard to see what the sculpture is until you look at the elevated end view. If you squint, perhaps you can see a woman, lying on her back with her legs crossed and one arm across her stomach? Regardless, you’ll either like or hate it, there’s not much of a middle ground.

Mini Maria by Berrocal - End View

Mini Maria by Berrocal – End View

Each of Berrocal’s pieces are signed and numbered as can be seen in the closeup below.

Mini Maria by Berrocal

Mini Maria by Berrocal

The puzzle itself consists of 22 pieces, and is an interlocking assembly puzzle. The disassembly process starts by pushing in a small button on the end of one of the legs which allows the first piece to pivot up and then be removed. From there on, it is a process of finding the next section which can be removed, until the entire sculpture is nothing more than an array of complicated pieces on the table in front of you.

While I generally avoid showing solutions to puzzles, I have included the full sequence to take Mini Maria apart by clicking the image below. Given that this is the type of puzzle that many people won’t see a copy of, I think it’s a valid reason to show everything. If you don’t want to see all the steps, don’t click below. Don’t worry, if you don’t want to see the steps, none of the other images above will show the steps if you click on them.

Mini Maria by Berrocal

Mini Maria by Berrocal

Mini Maria does have another interesting surprise hidden within her. If you click through the solution (from the image above) you’ll see what I mean. There’s a set of male genitalia, complete with “balls” stuffed inside Maria. Not exactly what you’d expect from a puzzle, but I think it fits with the style of the piece.

I know that Berrocal puzzles are not for everyone, but I do recommend that if you have the chance to play with one, take it. They’re very interesting puzzles, and provide quite the challenge.

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria - Yes that's a bit rude

Mini Maria – Yes that’s a bit rude

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Mini Maria

Transparent Lock

I’ve been slowly adding to my collection of trick locks over the last few years, and first saw the Transparent Lock by Gary Foshee a couple of years back, but sadly missed out back then as they sold incredibly quickly. I was lucky enough to be able to borrow one, and solve it, and at that point I kicked myself for not being quicker off the mark in trying to get one.

When I heard from Gary himself that Wil Strijbos had some with him at IPP 35 for sale, I was pretty quick in finding Wil and asking if I could please lighten his luggage and take one off his hands.

Transparent Lock by Gary Foshee

Transparent Lock by Gary Foshee

Transparent Lock boxed with Gary's Signature

Transparent Lock boxed with Gary’s Signature

The puzzle looks exactly as you’d expect for a transparent lock (or as it’s also known, the Open Lock). It looks pretty simple, with a square frame, a shackle, and a few bits and pieces attached to the frame. You also get a handy hex wrench with a handle, which given that it comes with the puzzle, we can safely assume is not considered an external tool.

The puzzle comes in a fairly plain gold box, and as you can see, mine is the 2015 version of the puzzle. It’s the same as the older version, so no need to try to hunt one of these down if you have the first release version. In the bottom corner is Gary’s little cartoon signature, which looks uncannily like the man himself.

Made almost entirely from aluminium the puzzle has a fairly rough look to the body and the hex handle, showing lots of tool marks, while the rest of the puzzle has a polished and clean finish. It’s a little disappointing, given the quality of some of the aluminium puzzles out there, and some of Gary’s other work I’ve seen. With a little polish I’m sure the frame could be cleaned up, so it’s really a small nit, but given the price of the lock, you do expect a certain level of finish.

Measuring in at 2.5″ x 4.5″ x 0.8″ it’s about a standard size for a lock, and it has a good solid feel to it. I doubt that you’d damage much other than your toes if you dropped it. Given how solid it is, it’s easily a puzzle that you can pass round and let people play with, and there’s really not much they can do wrong.

These are fairly limited in production because Gary has to make the shackles himself, and having talked to him about them, they’re a real pain to make. Apparently they’re cold forged and the process is pretty difficult to get the results he needs. Let’s just say that he’s not the biggest fan of making these!

Could this be useful?

Could this be useful?

Looking over the puzzle, there’s a couple of fairly obvious things to try, like the screw thread at the bottom of the lock. You will also notice the hex head inside the shackle, and you’ll probably make the obvious leap that it’s useful, and that you should probably do something with it. Unfortunately, it’s not going to be quite that easy to open the shackle, and if we’re honest you wouldn’t want it to be that easy.

Gary helpfully rounded the ends

Gary helpfully rounded the ends

At this point, you’re probably yelling at the screen “Use the hex tool”, and you’d think that would be useful. Unfortunately, Gary has very helpfully rounded over the ends of the hex tool, making it entirely useless. Of course there are things that you’ll find useful, and the puzzle has much more hidden around it than you’d think at first. There’s a reasonable sequence of steps to discover various tools and useful bits that will get the puzzle open.

Once you remove the shackle from the frame, you can entirely disassemble the puzzle and leave yourself with an array of parts on the table. I think this is one of the reasons I like the puzzle as much as I do, since it really lives up to its name. Once open it really is transparent.

Finally open

Finally open

While it’s not a difficult puzzle, and took only a few minutes for me to open the first time I played with one, it is well made, and it’s a fun puzzle. If you’re looking for a challenge on the order of a Popplock, then you’ll want to look elsewhere as I feel you will probably be disappointed.

Having been trying to get one of these for a while, and missing them at auction I’m happy to have picked one of these up. It’s a great addition to my collection, and one of Gary’s puzzles I’m very happy to have. Allard was able to get his hands on one of the original run, so head over here to read Allard’s thoughts.

Open for Business

I have been an admirer of Peter Wiltshire’s work for some time, and whenever he releases a new puzzle I try to pick up a copy. I’ve not always been successful, as his work is highly sought after, however this time I was lucky enough to be offered a copy of his latest puzzle, “Open for Business”. It’s a beautifully crafted wooden puzzle box, designed to store business cards.

Open for Business by Peter Wiltshire

Open for Business by Peter Wiltshire

The box itself is made from Walnut, measures 4.75″ x 3.25″ x 1.25″ and has enough space inside for around 30 business cards (Ed: or about 10 if you have the really thick cards I have). That’s more than enough for the typical business meeting, and depending on your preference, or the type of meeting; more time may be spent trying to open the box by your clients than talking about whatever dull subject the meeting was intended to cover. If nothing else, they’ll go away with a good memory of the meeting (or possibly frustration, but no way to contact you about it!)

Open for Business corner details

Open for Business corner details

The box is beautifully finished, with the grooved details on the top of the box, something of a signature in many of Peter’s boxes, and bamboo pins in the end of the box to give it strength along the joints, as well as add a golf ball like detail which really makes the corners stand out.

I spent several hours poking and prodding this box, trying to see what might move. Peter has hidden things incredibly well in this two moves to open box, and from what I hear it’s kept a good few puzzlers locked out for longer than we might like to admit. When I did finally figure out the first move, there was a huge grin on my face as it’s a real ‘aha’ moment, and entirely unexpected. After that it’s fairly plain sailing, however that first move is just beautiful.

Open for Business by Peter Wiltshire

Open for Business by Peter Wiltshire

Once open you’re treated to one of Peter’s new business cards and you can then load up your own cards to have handy. I’ve left Peter’s card at the bottom of by box, so that the curious colleagues in my office can see who made such a fun box.

Sadly if you’re hoping to add one of these to your collection you may be out of luck. Peter had sold all of the boxes before the Puzzle Party at IPP35, which to my mind is just a testament to his work. Thanks again Peter, it’s a great box, and I’m very happy to own one.

Revomaze Copper

This entry is part 11 of 11 in the series Revomaze

It’s been quite a while since I’ve sat down and written anything on my blog, and I’m sure many of my readers had given up on me. I am still here, I’m still puzzling, and still making more new puzzles, so nothing has really changed. Life sometimes just gets busy, and the time to sit down and write something worthy of reading is the thing that slips through the cracks first. That said, today I’m looking at the newest puzzle to come from Revomaze, which they kindly sent me a copy to review for you. This is the Copper V1 puzzle.

The Revomaze R1 Copper

The Revomaze R1 Copper

The newer puzzles coming from Revo HQ are showing up in these nice new boxes, which give the puzzle a little extra padding during transit, and leave you with a good looking box to keep the puzzle in when you’re not solving it or displaying it somewhere else. There’s still a little work needs to be done on the box to prevent the core from taking a knock during transit but this is a good step forward from the old fish net and plastic bag wrapping we had seen. Much more fitting of a puzzle in this price range, and quality.

New Boxes

New Boxes

As with all the Revo puzzles I’ve had in the past, the initial look and feel is great. These are still high quality puzzles, made with an attention to detail. The Copper, like it’s predecessors weighs in around the 600g mark and certainly put a strain on my hands again.

It had been over a year since I’d worked on a Revo R1, and the familiar sore hands and fingers were back. It’s recommended to work on the puzzle in short sessions, and I can’t agree more. If you’ve not played with one for a while, your hands are going to thank you for taking a break. Fortunately there are convenient spots in the puzzle where you can put it down and not lose progress.

The Copper is a move back to the original static maze style, such as the Blue and Green puzzles, which I and many other puzzlers really enjoyed. There’s no moving sliders, or free floating ball bearings in this puzzle to confuse and confound you. Just a traditional maze, with Chris’ own devilish traps and pitfalls to navigate. That said it’s not all old and familiar stuff in here. There’s been a couple of modifications to the pin that are going to catch the unwary puzzler, so be warned, this isn’t simple by any measure.

As a regular reader you’ll know I own (almost) all the available Revomaze puzzles, and have successfully opened all of them with varying solve times from a few months to a few days. They’re all challenging puzzles, and all for different reasons. I enjoy the puzzles that either make me think or are just enjoyable to solve. Bronze still ranks as my favourite in the series, with Blue being a close second. The reason for those choices comes down to two things. Bronze was a significant challenge to understand the dynamic features, but wasn’t so difficult to be frustrating. Blue is just a really fun puzzle. While initially difficult to understand what was going on, once you understood the principles of the puzzle, it was both repeatable, and enjoyable to solve. Now add to that the Revo Mini which is a tiny scaled version of the blue maze, and there’s a lot of positives from those two designs.

The Copper claims to “Triple the fun”, and I’ll agree to some extent with that statement. The internals are unlike any of the static mazes to have come before, and there’s certainly more in there. As far as the fun, the initial part of the puzzle contains one of my least favourite features in a hidden maze puzzle. The dreaded bridge.

Much like the Green, the bridge frustrated me more than provided fun, and Copper has that same frustration level for me. Don’t take that as a negative on the puzzle as a whole, just that it’s not one of my favourite challenges. The dexterity sections can be overly difficult and if you fail near the end, restarting can be quite off-putting. That said, the satisfaction when you complete it is certainly well earned.

Personalised Serial 'Number'

Personalised Serial ‘Number’

Given that Chris now has many of the machines in house, personalised engraving is possible as you can see from the serial number on my puzzle. I certainly didn’t request this, and it was great to have this reveal as I started working on the puzzle.

One thing of note, at least for me is the strength of the spring in the copy I have. I’m not sure if this is across the board or not, but I feel that the movement of the puzzle is quite “stiff”. The power of the spring along with the modifications to the pin made the navigation more challenging than I remember. There’s a lot packed into this puzzle, and with sore fingers I found it quite the task to keep making progress in a single session. Taking regular breaks is the only way to get through this one. I don’t think we’ll see anyone doing speed runs to get the fasted solve time in the near future. I think most will be happy to solve the puzzle, and see the work that went into the core when they’re done.

If you’re on the fence about getting a Copper, and want a serious challenge, without the worry of ball bearings running awry, or dynamic devices to confound, then go ahead and pick one up. There’s a lot to like about this puzzle.