Ballsy Name for a Boxy Puzzle – Spherelation

I have several puzzles requiring the packing of 4 sticks in a box like 4 In Frame, Wheel Lock, and Quadripole.  They’re fun and I always look forward to solving them.

Spherelation was originally designed by Tom Jolly and improved by Zack Zieper.  It was used as Tim Udall’s exchange puzzle at the 41st International Puzzle Party (IPP).  Removing Spherelation from it’s packaging, you are presented with a dark brown open-top 3D printed box with 4 beige 3D printed pieces nestled inside, flush with the top of the box.  But it’s cubic.  The box is cubic, the pieces look cubic - calling it Spherelation is a little ballsy.

Since it comes assembled, the first task is to take it apart.  Turning the puzzle upside-down allows the pieces to move out from the top so that you can grab and start to move them while getting a peak inside.  It doesn’t take long to discover that there’s a shooter hiding inside to give you some trouble.  In addition to the shooter, there appears to be several nubs on the inside of the box to keep everything from simply falling out.

Disassembly requires moving the pieces around the nubs and each other while dodging the shooter.  Eventually, the box will be emptied, providing you with 4 burr pieces and an over-sized shooter.  The box is reminiscent of Pox Box with a couple of extra cubies on the bottom.

Once emptied, you need to leave it disassembled for at least 3 months before putting it back together so that you can completely forget how it came apart.  To be honest, this only takes me a couple of minutes but I dutifully waited the 3 months.

3 months later … I found a box with 4 burr pieces and a shooter.  Must be a puzzle (good thing it was sitting right next to a box with the IPP41 logo on it).  I immediately deduced that the pieces and the shooter had to be put in the box through the open end.  Since 3 of the burr pieces have non-solid ends they need to be located at the bottom the box since it’s obvious that the pieces have to go in vertically.  Further investigation revealed that the locations and orientations of 2 pieces are forced by the box.  This is a huge boost for a puzzle like this.  Given the nature of the shooter, there aren’t too many position and orientation combinations for the other 2 pieces.  The main difficulty is determining the order that the pieces, including the shooter, are introduced to the box.  However, I was surprised at how quickly it came together.  I found that getting the first 2 pieces in the box was the major challenge.  The last 2 pieces were much easier and the time to add the shooter wasn’t difficult to determine.

So is it more difficult to disassemble or assemble?  For the disassembly, the process starts out as a semi-blind experimentation process since you can’t get a full view of the internal structure.  From the assembly perspective, you have a full view of everything, but you’re not given the piece locations and orientations.  I found both to be roughly of the same difficulty and that neither was very difficult.