Puzz L - Strugg L

I always enjoy playing with puzzles designed by Junichi Yananose and I was especially attracted to Strugg L with it’s spikey pieces comprising a prickly packing puzzle.  As a bonus, it also had a cool name.

The Strugg L pieces are made from Fijian Mahogany with bamboo pins and the frame is made from American Rock Maple.  The pieces, as well as the frame, have grooves for the pins to traverse, thus restricting their movement.

Although the description on the Pluredro site indicated that the puzzle was sold disassembled, shortly after the release, messages started popping up on the Mechanical Puzzle Discord server saying that they were being received assembled.  Sure enough, when I received mine, it was assembled as well.  Too bad!  I think that disassembled would have been the way to go for this one.

Using my super power of instantly forgetting puzzle solutions and piece movements, I quickly took it apart and was pleased to discover that it had now arrived disassembled (surely a Memento moment).
 
The objective, of course, is to make a 3x3x2 assembly with the 6 spikey pieces.  Some of the pins will need to face inward to interact with the other pieces and some will need to face outward to interact with the box.  Although you may think that rotations with the pins would be required to solve the puzzle, the description indicates that the goal is to use only rectilinear moves and that any rotations would only be short-cutting the solution.  It warns that this occurs about 20 moves into removing the first piece and indeed, at that point it is obvious that pieces can be rotated out.  However, it is definitely worthwhile to stick with the rectilinear movements to enjoy the full experience.  If you’re not taking the rotational shortcuts, it also adds a little more effort to remove or insert the remaining pieces.

Although cool, the name isn’t really indicative of the difficulty level.  Strugg L may look intimidating with all those spikes, but I found it to be very manageable in one sitting.  However, I must admit to retaining some residual memory concerning the single hole in the frame, which may have (or may not have) contributed to my quick success.  

Although I was hoping to strugg l a bit more on this puzzle, I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to similar (and slightly more difficult) puzzles of this type.

Happy Anniversary! – Still Yet Another Year of ZenPuzzler

Four years of ZenPuzzler now!  Readership has dramatically increased by another 20% to 6 steady readers as my grandson has reached reading age.  Thankfully he has yet to discern between good quality and mediocre ramblings in media.

To wrap up the year, I have created a list of the posts and the puzzles that are mentioned in each.  This year included puzzles made from exotic woods and colorful plastics (printed and cut) as usual, but also saw the addition of a very nicely made metal puzzle.  The name of each post is linked to the entry so that you can easily jump to it by clicking on the name.  

5 APR 23 – Don’t Be A Square – Bent Packing

•     Bent Packing by Arne Koehn

29 MAR 23 – Entwining Pieces – Collator

•     Collator by Alexander Magyarics

 22 MAR 23 – Uniquely Sneaky Snakey Packer – Snake Pack

•     Snake Pack by Haym Hirsh

 15 MAR 23 – Well Played – The aMAZEing Puzzle Box

•     aMAZEing by QUIZBRIX

 8 MAR 23 – An Attractive Puzzle – MagneTeam

•     MagneTeam by Alexander Magyarics

 1 MAR 23 – Charming Snakes Into A Box – Snake Pack 2

•     Snake Pack 2 by Haym Hirsh

 22 FEB 23 – ? – W.D.I.G.M.I

•     W.D.I.G.M.I by Tanner Reyes & Tye Stahly

 15 FEB 23 – Petits Puzzles – Mini Lock

•     Mini Lock by Christoph Lohe

 

8 FEB 23 – No Scoop 4U – 4 PAC

•     4 PAC by Hajime Katsumoto

 1 FEB 23 – Catch The Wave – Wavelinks

•     Wavelinks by Rod Bogart

 31 AUG 23 – A Tray Too Big – Jigsaw 16

•     Jigsaw 16 by Yuu Asaka

 6 JUL APR 22 – Not So – Safe

•     Safe by Jürgen Reiche

 

28 JUN 22 – Arranging Your Balls – Pyradox

•     Pyrodox by George Bell

 22 JUN 22 – Some Puzzles Give You the Shutters – W-Windows

•     W-Windos by Osanori Yamamoto

 8 JUN 22 – Puzzle Philosophy – Yin Yang

•     Yin by Volker Latussek

 11 MAY 22 – Petite Passel of Puzzles – 2D Packers

•     Doheny by Haym Hirsh
•     C-It by Haym Hirsh
•     Eloquint by Haym Hirsh
•     Skinny & Fat Lightning