Some time ago I wrote about the Stickman puzzle box I’d won on a Puzzle Paradise auction. Since then the puzzle has been on a bit of a journey, and as a result I felt it was time to revisit this puzzle.
When I won the puzzle, I spent some time talking with its creator Robert Yarger, and he mentioned that it was a really solid puzzle, and he’d have no issues handing it round for people to try. Well with that in mind, I took it with me to the California Puzzle party. Unfortunately, when it was there, something went a bit wrong, and the puzzle jammed. I was able to shut the puzzle, but there was something very strange going on. Sadly, I had to put the puzzle back in my bag, and that meant no-one else was able to play with it that day.
I wrote to Robert and described what was happening. He instantly offered to take the puzzle back and see if he could figure out what had happened, even mentioning that if he couldn’t fix it, he’d find a way to make things right by me. (As a fellow puzzler has mentioned, nice bloke that Stick guy!) Interestingly, this was only the third Stickman puzzle that Robert has ever had to repair, and one of those was due to an accidental high dive from a shelf. Given the number of puzzles he’s made, and some of the incredibly intricate work he does, that’s a pretty good recommendation of his work.
So I packed the box up, and sent it off. A few days later Robert got in touch to tell me that he had found the problem and would be able to fix it. Before I knew what was happening, Robert had the box all back together and it was back in the mail to me.
While Robert had the box, he did a little restoration on the top. As you may remember, there was a scratch on the top of the box from the original creation. Robert mentioned that it was common on his early work. Seems like he wasn’t too happy about that scratch being there as he sanded the box down to remove it, then refinished the box, so now it’s even better than new.
It turns out that what had happened is that on one side of the puzzle, the internal stops had broken and was now free floating inside the puzzle. For a 10 year old puzzle, it wasn’t anything anyone using the puzzle had done, but just a case of old age. To fix things, the part which came free has now been replaced and a much deeper groove cut into the side to embed things firmly. No chance of that coming free again.
Here’s just a few pictures from Robert’s surgery. These don’t give anything away. I’ve kept the pictures of the internals for myself. Thanks have to go out to Robert though for sending me the pictures. He certainly didn’t need to show what goes on inside his puzzle!
Hey Neil – great video and good to see that Stickman back in action again! – allard
Hi Neil,
Another great video! That looks like a really lovely box. I tried to bid for a couple of Stickman boxes early on in my puzzling career (!) but was horrified to see the prices they eventually went for. It looks worth the money but unfortunately out of my price range (at least if the present Mrs has any say in the matter!!)
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This is so cool, I have now the idea 🙂 Thanks for this video Mr Neil!