Finding Your Way Through the Labyrinth - Daedalus

Aaargh!  There’s a mushroom growing in my box of puzzles.  Wait a minute - It’s a cubic mushroom.  Aaargh!  One of the puzzles got all moldy.  Ewww!

Luckily, this doesn’t happen often.  However, when it does, it’s no big deal.  Although it looks like mold, it’s from the wax used and the bloom can simply be wiped off.  With a name like Daedalus, I expected that there might be wax issues.  When I received the puzzle, sensitive to Daedalus’ plight, I put it where the sun don’t shine.  That’s right, it’s been in the maze of my basement all this time.  I should mention that once the pieces were wiped down, they were easier to move.  It would have made discovering the required moves simpler without the waxy buildup.

Daedalus was designed by Gregory Benedetti and has a difficulty level of 23.9.8.3.3.1.2.  My copy was made in Padauk by Maurice Vigouroux.  It looks like a 3x3x3 cubic dissection, but that is misleading.  The internal labyrinth, supported by a complex array of pins, slots, and moving pieces (yes, the labyrinth is changing as you are solving the puzzle), really make this a 9x9x9 cubic dissection.  It also requires rotations, so BurrTools is not going to help you.

Cubes, pins, slots, rotations - what’s not to like?  The puzzle consists of 8 pieces with one large frame/cage piece and 7 other smaller pieces.  All the pieces have an assortment of pins and/or slots.  I’m assuming that the 2 little pieces are the Minotaur and Theseus.

Daedalus is definitely a disassembly puzzle.  Starting with the puzzle assembled, you have no indication of the labyrinth’s complexity, which needs to be discovered as you progress through the journey.  During this process, I had the Minotaur and Theseus chasing their tails in rotational hell for quite a while.  Once you have figured out what to do with those 2, the rest is straightforward.  However, figuring out what to do with those 2 pieces is a challenge.

Not Quite Right!

Being able to see the internal structure of all the pieces, I found assembling the puzzle to be easier than the disassembly.  Knowing that none of the pins and slots is visible on the outside of the cube is useful in identifying the location and orientation of the pieces.   Oh, and if the puzzle is made with the wood grain aligned like mine, you can also make use of that information as well.  I failed to note that the first time I reassembled the puzzle and although I successfully constructed a cube, one of the pieces was misaligned.  That gave me the opportunity to enjoy the entire process again.

Daedalus is a fantastic puzzle and Cubicdissection is planning on releasing a batch in the near future.  I highly recommend this one and suggest that you purchase one quickly when they become available before they disappear.