Surprise! – Birthday Cake

Normally, I don’t get a cake on my birthday but this year was different.  One of my daughters decided to ignore the normal advice to avoid trying to gift a puzzle that I don’t have and surprised me with a cake I didn’t already have.

Birthday Cake is a puzzle box made by iDventure and is one of several laser-cut wood puzzle boxes that they offer.  Surprisingly, this is the first iDventure Cluebox that I have received.

Opening the box (i.e., the box box that contains the box), I was greeted with an elaborate mechanism complete with several gears.  Happy Birthday is also nicely debossed between 2 of the gears.  There are also 2 spots on the top designed to hold a digit for shaming the recipient.  Adding each is a simple process.  You just have to rub it in.  In my case, I was given all the digits, 2 of each, to pick whichever would make me happy.  And if you’re over 99, you get to start you’re second childhood.  It’s a bit like Y2K.

Pulling the box from the box, you can see how the round cake is made by utilizing a pattern of a thousand little cuts to allow the wood to be bent into a cylinder.  Although I’ve seen this used with many puzzles, I still find it amazing.

Also in the box box was a single candle that fit on the top of the cake.  I know they look like candles but please don’t be tempted to light them when you present this Birthday Cake.  Rotating the candle makes one of the adjoining visible gears rotate.  Spinning the gear reveals several birthday party suggestions like DANCE, SING, SMILE, and LOVE that show up in the window as the gear rotates.  Attempting to turn the other gears with this candle proved futile.  This candle only fits 1 of the 3 candle holders on the top of the cake.  It turns out that this candle was the first tool that dripped out of the bottom of the box as it started to solve itself in transit.  Finding out where it came from and how to produce the other 2 candles was straightforward.

Armed with 3 candles, it is not too difficult to produce the party elements that are required to open the box.  With the top released, there is a rather large space that can be used to put in other things like more puzzles, gift cards, and large quantities of money.  Unfortunately, my daughter must not have been able to get the box open.

Birthday Cake is a challenge on the easy side, but is well thought-out and well made.  Extra attention went into designing the appearance of the box.  It could have been much simpler and still work the same but it is so much more attractive with the extra touches.  On close inspection, it also appears that nothing is glued and if you were really adventurous, you could disassemble the box into it’s individual components.

In the event that you are unable to open Birthday Cake, there is a card included with a link to where you can find opening instructions.  There is also a QR code if you don’t want to type the URL.

Happy Anniversary! – The Return of ZenPuzzler

It’s been 2 years since the last anniversary post.  After having taken a year off, ZenPuzzler was reenergized by attending the 41st International Puzzle Party (IPP) (Gratitude For Those Who Work Up Through The – Eleventh Hour).  In fact, many of the puzzle blogs were of IPP41 exchange puzzles.  There were also many puzzles from the collaboration with Nothing Yet Designs (NYD) to announce their puzzle releases during the first 3 months of this year.

To wrap up the year, I have created a list of the posts and the puzzles that are mentioned in each.  The name of each post is linked to the post entry so that you can easily jump to it by clicking on the name.  

7 May 25 –  To Everything, There Is A Season – Key Machine

• Key Machine by Alan Lunsford

30 Apr 25 – Puzzle DNA – Edge Beveled Cubes

• Edge Beveled Cubes by George Sicherman

23 Apr 25 – New Puzzle Comes Out – Smelling Of Roses

• Smelling Of Roses by Steve Nicholls

16 Apr 25 – Playing – Ketchup

• Ketchup by Haym Hirsh

9 Apr 25 – One Tɍough – Ditch

• Ditch by Alexander Magyrics

2 Apr 25 – It’s Simple Karma – Bram’s Hinged Cube

• Bram’s Hinged Cube by Bram Cohen

26 Mar 25 – Lacking QC – Messing a-round

• Messing a-round by Alexander Magyrics

19 Mar 25 – Nothing Yet Designs Release: 20 March 2025, 12:00 PM EDT

• Minima Dice by Frederic Boucher
• Drop Out (STC202) by Stewart Coffin
• The Rattle by Stewart Coffin
• Decoy by Stewart Coffin
• Pac Men? by Naoyuki Iwase (Osho)
• Pyramid In A Cage by Naoyuki Iwase (Osho)
• Blast-Hedron 8 by Nan Ma
• Best Friends by Frederic Boucher
• S&L Crisis by Haym Hirsh
• J11GSAW by Haym Hirsh
• Au Pays by Gilles Kutten
• Monster Eats Ducks by Gilles Kutten
• Sharpened by Gilles Kutten
• Windy by Alexander Magyrics

12 Mar 25 – Answers From The Void – Sixmetry

• Sixmetry by David Goodman

5 Mar 25 – A Physical Manifestation Of An Ethereal Concept – T Pack

• T Pack by Haym Hirsh

26 Feb 25 – Infesting In Puzzles – Parasitic Version

• Parasitic Version by László Molnár

19 Feb 25 – A Small Puzzle Can Be –  Epic

• Epic by Václav Obšivač

12 Feb 25 – Finding Elegance –  Four Pieces

• Four Pieces by Emrehan Halici

5 Feb 25 – NYD Release 7 February 2025, 1200 PM EST

• Marble Cake + by Frederic Boucher
• Square It by Frederic Boucher
• Animals Party + by Frederic Boucher
• Marble Cake + by Frederic Boucher
• Sliding Heart by Naoyuki Iwase (Osho)
• Flying Heart by Naoyuki Iwase (Osho)
• Blast-Hedron 12 by Nan Ma
• Ball Buster – Lee Krasnow
• Haeckel Sphere – Lee Krasnow
• Minima Bauhaus by Frederic Boucher

29 JAN 25 – Ballsy Name for a Boxy Puzzle – Spherelation

• Spherelation by Tom Jolly and Zach Zieper

22 JAN 25 – Drill Baby Drill! – Rock-it Burr

•  Rock-it Burr by Ali Morris

15 JAN 25 – A Very Attractive Puzzle – Tetracore

•  Tetracore by Jared McComb

11 JAN 25 – NYD Release 13 January 2025, 1200 PM EST

•  2025 Puzzle by George Sicherman
• Ace of Diamonds by László Molnár
• Artefacts by Frederic Boucher
• Blast-Hedron 4 by Nan Ma
• Blast-Hedron 6 by Nan Ma
• Minima XIII  by Frederic Boucher
• Muñiz Bundle by Alexandre Muñiz
• Slash Mob
• Little Pypsum
• Big Pypsum
• Symmetrominoes
• New Tiles by Frederic Boucher

7 JAN 25 – A Great Start To A New Year – Nothing Yet Designs Collaboration

1 JAN 25 – A Set of Blocks For Adults – Houston, We Have a Puzzle

•     Houston, We Have a Puzzle by Oleg Smolyakov

25 DEC 24 – Not a Little Challenge – Monster

• Monster Burr by Girish Sharma

18 DEC 24 –  Nary a Problem - RecTangle - A Ternary Teaser

• RecTangle Burr Goh Pit Khiam

11 DEC 24 – Puzzle Within A Puzzle – Lone Star Burr

• Lone Star Burr by Steve Nicholls

4 DEC 24 – What’s The Bu – Caching Zzzzzz

• Caching Zzzzzz by László Molnár

27 NOV 24 – Minima Meets Flop – Minima Flop

• Minima Flop by Dr. Volker Latussek

20 NOV 24 – Looks Easy, There’s Just One – Hitch

• Hitch by Émil Áskerli

13 NOV 24 – Panefull Puzzle – Window Packing

• Window Packing by Koichi Miura

6 NOV 24 – Octadecohedron by Another Name – Pinwheel Crystal

• Pinwheel Crystal by Stewart Coffin

30 OCT 24 – Screwing Around With Flowers – Tulip Twist

• Tulip Twist by GlennovitS 3D

23 OCT 24 – Time to Smother – The Blue Bird of Happiness

• The Blue Bird of Happiness by George Sicherman

16 OCT 24 – C’est Ludique – Minima Ludique

• Minima Ludique by Frederic Bouchet

9 OCT 24 – Corner Table – End Table

• End Table by Goh Pit Khiam

2 OCT 24 – Easy As – Duck Soup

• Duck Soup by Guy Loel and David Goodman

25 SEP 24 – One Person – Three Body Problem

• Three Body Problem by Girish Sharma

18 SEP 24 – All Corners, No Corners – 4 Piece Jigsaw

• 4 Piece Jigsaw by Haym Hirsh

11 SEP 24 – Packing a Small Basement – Minima Nest

• Minima Nest by Lucie Pauwels

4 SEP 24 – Frustrating Puzzlers – Cattle Frustration

• Cattle Frustration by William Ja and Scarlet Park

28 AUG 24 – Does This Heist Make Cents – Penny Bank

• Penny Bank by Phil Wigfield

21 AUG 24 – 3Y + 1Z Conjecture – Collatz

• Collatz by Dr. Volker Latussek

14 AUG 24 – Puzzle Meta-Storage – Clip Box

• Clip Box by Yavuz Dimirhan

7 AUG 24 – Not Curly Burl – Curly Burr N8

• Curly Burr N8 by Frans de Vreugd

31 JUL 24 – SPLIT ASUNDER, RE – CONNECTING CUB3S

• CONNECTING CUB3S by Tanner Reyes

24 JUL 24 – Don’t Sleep On This One – InsomniAC1

• InsomniAC1 by Andrew Crowell

17 JUL 24 – Gratitude For Those Who Work Up Through The – Eleventh Hour

• Eleventh Hour by Goh Pit Khiam

12 JUN 24 – Ménage à Trois – Two Guys & a Gal (Free Me 9)

• Two Guys & a Gal (Free Me 9) by Joe Turner

22 MAY 24 – PPing in the Big Apple - NYPP 2024

19 JUL 23 – A Puzzle of Two Tales – Soma in Case

• Soma in Case by Hajime Katsumoto

7 JUN 23 – Apparently Aesthetically Pleasing – Belt Cube 3

• Belt Cube 3 by Osanori Yamamoto

31 MAY 23 – Puzz L – Strugg L

• Strugg L by Junichi Yananose

To Everything, There Is A Season – Key Machine

It’s spring once again, full of blooming flowers and the sound of the byrds to remind us of what’s really important.

Key Machine is a sequential discovery (SD) puzzle designed and made by Alan Lunsford from Kinetic Crafts.  It is 3D printed with a sparkly black material and includes several tools, magnets, ball bearings, and of course a coin to be released.  All of the non-removable internal components are added while the part is being printed to provide a seamless cube.  Puzzles delivered in the US include a US 25 cent quarter while puzzles exiting the US have a 3D printed coin.

Key Machine is the 5th entry in a series of cubic SD puzzles that includes Unsafe Deposit (Hiding Money in Puzzles - Unsafe Deposit), Bolt Action (Screwed! - Bolt Action), Mighty Pin (A Puzzle to Save the Day - Mighty Pin), and Cash Back.  The initial 4 entries in the series have all been excellent, setting very high expectations for Key Machine.

When Key Machine arrives, don’t get too excited and throw the box out after grabbing the puzzle before finding and removing the instruction card.  It is probably located along the side of the box instead of being with the puzzle to keep it flat.

As with the prior entries in the series, Key Machine includes a variety of windows that allow visual and physical access to the interior of the puzzle.  As usual, you can see the entrapped coin to be liberated through the largest window.  This time there is also a metal bar across the coin to make double sure it’s not coming out through that square window.  I can only assume that someone bragged about bypassing the official steps and sucking the coin out through the window.

Picking up the puzzle and examining it, you can immediately hear ball bearings rattling around inside.  In fact you can see 4 plastic ball bearings through the openings with 3 of them blocking the coin from escaping through the obvious exit.

Anyone who has done any of the first 4 puzzles will immediately know what the first move is.  For newbies, welcome to the family!  You can cut your teeth on Key Machine.

After taking the puzzle out of it’s shipping configuration, the first tools are released and ready to be used.   The purpose of the second tool is immediately obvious and starts you on your journey.  It’s amazing on so many levels and puts a different spin on prior mechanisms used.

To free the coin, you obviously (I use this term lightly here being fully cognizant of the fact that obviously frequently translates to wrongly think you) have to move those impeding ball bearings.  Do all 3 of the balls restricting the coin from slipping out disappear at once?  Of course not.  It’s a bit like a gumball machine where you have to get all the gumballs out one at a time.  Of course, they keep disappearing and reappearing in no particular order as you play around with it.  Think of it as whack a gumball.  And along the way, things will mysteriously get stuck and stop moving and other times they will move just fine.  Eventually all the gumballs drop away and the coin does indeed slip out.  

The reset appears to be the same level of difficulty as the release except for the fact that you have a lot more experience with how things work.  Still, there were several times that I thought I was on a clear path to completing the reset when I had to back up and do something else to be able to more forward again.  Of course there are clues for you to accomplish this that you may notice AFTER you’ve made the required moves.  You can use them for the next time.

I can release the coin and reset it, but I’m not entirely sure I know how it works.  And since I haven’t figured out what’s going on inside, my attack is highly inefficient as I fish around to obtain the next state in the process.  I have an idea about what’s going on, but I could be completely wrong.  There seems to be more magnetic (feel free to read this as net magic if you so desire) action going on inside than I can account for.  I have some suspicions about the mechanism that I’ve failed to prove that I suspect can be used to avoid a somewhat blind approach.

One thing that isn’t immediately recognizable until you put it next to the previous puzzles in the series, is that the orientation of the lettering is reversed.  This puts the large window displaying the coin on what I would call the top side.  The prior 4 puzzles have the display window on what I would call the bottom side.  I seem to recall Alan initiating a discussion on the window orientation on the Mechanical Puzzle Discord (MPD) sometime in the past.  I don’t consider either way significantly better than the other.  They’re just different.  I’m assuming that Alan made the change now to streamline future development of the next hundred or so designs whereupon the original 4 will become highly sought after collector anomalies.

This continues to be a great series and Key Machine if one of my favorites so far.  I’m always looking forward to the next one.

Puzzle DNA – Edge Beveled Cubes

I recently received a magnificent box of elemental puzzle material synthesized from a wide selection of exotic woods.  The set consists of 130 atoms in the form of 35 unique molecules with each molecule consisting of 1 to 4 atoms.  In fact, these 35 molecules are the full set of all possible molecules that can exist with up to 4 atoms.  These molecules can then be pack together to make higher level structures.  The trick to packing them together is determining which ones will bond tightly with each other.

The Edge Beveled Cubes set was designed by George Sicherman and made by Wood Wonders.  It arrives in a laser-cut Walnut box with nice detailing debossed on the top.  Inside are nestled 35 molecular pieces that are the substance for many a challenge.  Each atomic edge beveled cube is made from an exotic hardwood.  130 cubes with 12 bevels each to give you 1560 bevels to keep you on edge.  

The pieces are formed via bonds between the cubes across the beveled edges.  My version has the cubes with randomly selected woods to form the pieces.  However, Wood Wonders also provides a fancier version made from 35 different exotic woods, where each piece is made with cubes of the same wood.  Each piece is also branded with a number that’s keyed to a list that identifies the type of wood used for each piece.

So what can you do with this set of oddly shaped pieces?  It turns out, quite a bit.  As a starter, the pieces can be used to make Stewart Coffin’s Distorted Cube and Pyracube puzzles.  But since I’ve done those in the past, I was looking to do something new.

As tempted as I was to just jump in and create a double helix, I decided to start by making some square based pyramids.  My original thought was to create a list of unique pieces that could be used to make targeted shapes but I abandoned that idea for two reasons.  The first is that I was enjoying making targeted shapes by wisely selecting pieces to be added from the entire set and I was not too keen being restricted to a unique set of pieces.  This would work well for small shapes that required a few pieces but not for larger shapes where more than a dozen pieces would be required.  Who really wants to do an assembly challenge with 35 pieces and a unique solution?  The second, as it turned out, is that BurrTools wasn’t too keen on it either.  The first shape I put in was the 6x6 square pyramid and BurrTools never even got to the point where it would only take ages.  Apparently solving a puzzle with up to 35 pieces that can each occupy hundreds of possible positions doesn’t make for good math.

So I embarked on a square pyramid journey working my way from a 1x1 to 6x6, the largest solid square pyramid that can be made.  I jumped right in and grabbed the single beveled cube to proclaim victory of the 1x1 square pyramid.  What a confidence booster!  Adding a 4 cube piece quickly produced the 2x2 pyramid.  I was on a roll and kept going as they got progressively harder.  

After completing the 5x5 square pyramids, I decided to skip right over the 6x6 square pyramid and attempt a 6x7 rectangular pyramid.  This one was a bit more challenging and ended up using 30 of the 35 pieces.  My overall strategy was to build from the bottom up and attempt to use the more complex pieces as soon as possible.  My rudimentary definition of complexity utilized how many layers a piece required.  Some require only 1, others 2, and a couple 3 layers.  As with the 4x4 and 5x5 square pyramids, there was a lot of backtracking involved as the dwindling supply of pieces failed to support filling the space remaining.  Eventually, I successfully summited the pyramid for the win.

And then I went to put them back into the box.  And failed.  The box holds 136 cubes with the square packing leaving 6 unused positions when it is packed.  Since there is only one single cube piece, there aren’t too many gimmes that you can take as you start to fill it in.  My strategy was to fill the box from left to right while conserving what I though were easy to place pieces.  However, as I got to the right side, my choice of easy to place pieces didn’t work very well in the corners.  Lesson learned.  I took half of the pieces out and modified my strategy to fill the right side of the box.  

After I go back and finish that 6x6 square pyramid maybe I’ll attempt the 6x8 rectangular pyramid, which would use 127 of the 130 cubes.  Sounds like a real challenge with no guarantee that it is indeed possible.  Then I’ll try my hand at the triangular pyramids where the cubes use a different packing mechanism.  I might throw in some double or triple triangular pyramids as well.  So many forms to try, So little time.

Both versions of the Edge Beveled Cubes are currently available at Wood Wonders on the A Few More Copies, Last Chance page if you’d like to attempt any of the challenges mentioned here or create your own.  If you do create your own, be sure to share them with the puzzle community.

Triangular Pyramid

New Puzzle Comes Out – Smelling Of Roses

I’m lucky to have many friends like myself in the warped-mind community.  In an effort to appear as regular people, some have attempted to come close by becoming regular tetrahedron people.  This has resulted in several tetrahedron puzzle designs popping up of late and this is the story of one such great pyramid puzzle.

Smelling Of Roses was developed by that famous guy from Two Brass Monkeys, Steve Nicholls.  Not to be confused with that other famous guy from Two Brass Monkeys that designed Rock-It Burr that we gushed over in a previous post (Drill Baby Drill! – Rock-it Burr).  Smelling Of Roses is made using …  well that depends on what you use to make it.  Steve made the design available on Maker World for anyone to download and make their own copy.  My version is 3D printed using a single color of PLA.  Not for any aesthetic reason but simply because I was too lazy to change the filament for additional colors.

Smelling of Roses takes a typical 6 piece burr and transmogrifies it using tetrahedronagonyal geometry.  This is basically a process of weaponizing the pieces by providing many pointy bits.  It also has the advantage of making the pieces difficult to grip since they are no longer rectangular and squeezing them tighter just launches them from you fingers instead of securing them.

Thorny Problem!

You would think that having 4 obvious corners would make the piece placement a no-brainer. However, there were several times I was considering putting those obvious corners in some not so obvious places.  Although, I didn’t think it possible, the pieces support going together in many unhelpful ways.  It took me several tries to find the correct assembly and when I finally had it, it was an effort to figure out how to move the pieces to get them all in place without loosing track of the assembly.  All this while juggling the pieces and attempting not to launch them.

Steve did an excellent job in picking a 6-piece burr that requires multiple moves before any pieces can be removed.  No key piece requiring a single move here!  In fact the movements are nicely executed in the tetrahedral space that the pieces were developed in.  I have to give Steve a lot of credit for using the BurrTools tetrahedral-octahedral space grid.  I find it very unintuitive to use.

The copy of Smelling Of Roses that I printed is a bit tight (the description uses the friendlier term - snug).  When all the pieces are coming together, they have to be cajoled into position.  It also adds a level of difficulty during disassembly since the moves are not obvious and nothing moves with casual prodding.  You have to prod with intent.  And multi-piece movements require more intent than single piece movements.

This is an awesome take on the 6-piece burr puzzle and kudos to Steve for making it freely available to the community on Maker World!  So download Smelling Of Roses and give it a try.  But whatever you do, don’t leave this caltrop of a puzzle sitting on a chair!  Assuming that you can put it together of course.

Playing – Ketchup

Haym Hirsh has been a prolific designer of 2D packing puzzles of late.  I suspect that he has 57 varieties by now.  I missed out on one of his recent puzzle designs when it first came out but I managed to snag a copy from Puzzle Paradise.  Now I’m playing Ketchup.  I wasn’t sure how well it would go in my collection but people tell me it goes with everything.

Ketchup is a 2D packing puzzle designed by Haym Hirsh and made by Nothing Yet Designs (NYD).  It consists of a red bottle-shaped tray with black highlights and 4 sets of white pieces consisting of a 5 and a 7.  The tray has a dedicated space to store one pair of 5 and 7s when not in the solved configuration.  The goal it to pack all 4 sets of pieces in the square section of the tray.

I anticipated solving this one quickly, but it made me wait until I fully explored it.  You notice early on that the square packing area seems one unit shy of making things easy, forcing you to attempt different ways of packing those 5s and 7s.  Although the 5s seem harder to pack, it’s always a 7 that you’re looking to place at the end.  In fact, it’s not all that difficult to pack everything except for a single 7.

And then to my horror, I saw it!  No, not the solution.  The fact that this is just another S&L puzzle!  (Nothing Yet Designs Release: 20 March 2025, 12:00 PM EDT)  Aghhhh!!!  Haym is just sneaking that S in as a 5 and the L in as a 7.  Will this turn out to be another crisis?

Crisis?

No.  No crisis here.  'Cause these are the good old days.  Where all the doubters are wrong, all the solvers are hard-working, and all the puzzles are above average.

It may have taken me a little bit of time but I managed to slip that last 7 into the tray.  All 4 sets of pieces where now nestled in the square area.  It was worth the wait.

And speaking of ketchup, the April release from NYD was yesterday with a couple of new designs and few restocks.  As mentioned in the last release post (Nothing Yet Designs Release: 20 March 2025, 12:00 PM EDT), this release was significantly scaled back as day-job requirements reduced production capacity at NYD.  However, NYD has just acquired another laser-cutter to widen the production pipeline a bit for future releases.

One Tɍough – Ditch

Ditch was designed by Alexander Magyarics and entered in the Nob Yoshigahara puzzle design competition at the 41st International Puzzle Party (IPP).  Although it did not win a prize, it looked like an interesting concept worthy of spending time on.  And spend time on it I did!

Ditch consists of 12 bi-color pentomino pieces where each piece is comprised of a tetromino of one color and a monomino of a different color.  The goal is to make a 4x4 square outline with the 12 monominoes.  The problem is that all those tetromino bits get in the way of accomplishing this.

The first Aha comes early on to get you started followed by a long period of learning how the pieces can interact with each other.  Some off these relationships will help form the solution while others will lead you astray.  There were some relationships that I was unwilling to ditch that kept me from finding the solution for quite a while.  I found myself reluctant to divorce myself from these poisonous relationships and I found myself in rut with Ditch.

I eventually gained the willpower to break off some of those relationships, giving me the freedom to engage in some new, healthier relationships.  With something old and something new, I successfully managed to extract the solution from the Ditch.

There were many times where I had one piece leftover that would not fit in the available space. The natural reaction is to start moving pieces around to see if you can change the space to something more receptive.  I can certainly attest to that.  However, if you end up with the same troublesome pieces multiple times, it's worth taking some time to find them a good match and treat them as a couple.

Much nicer versions of Ditch in a selection of exotic woods are available at Wood Wonders if you would like to acquire your own copy.