Drill Baby Drill! – Rock-it Burr

Demonstrating remarkable prognostic foresight, a brass monkey produced a future ubiquitous symbol from his well-oiled cognitive facilities.  And once such a thought has been brought into the world, it can never be unbrought.   The magnitude of this shared vision could very well end up defining a nation.

Rock-it Burr was designed by Ali Morris and made by Two Brass Monkeys.   It was used as Ali’s exchange puzzle at the 41st International Puzzle Party (IPP).  When I pulled it out of the box, I just spent some time admiring it.  It’s a masterpiece of 3D printed and metal parts.  The Sucker Rod Pump (the bird like thingy that looks like it’s pecking the ground) is nicely made and feels very solid.  It is mounted to the 3D printed terrain with the sucker rod disappearing underground.  It also has IPP laser cut on one side and 41 on the other, which serve as the pivoting point for the rod.  The cactus is also a nice touch supporting the Texas theme.  When everyone else was running with the Rock-et theme, Ali trod the path less traveled.  Well done!

Examining the ground portion of the puzzle, it looks burrowish with potential pieces that could be prodded to get things moving.  But nothing seemed to move and I was beginning to wonder how I was supposed to solve this frack’n puzzle.  And that was all the clue that I needed to dig in.  I drilled down to the core of the disassembly process and was soon pumped to have all the pieces laying there in a pile.  What a great idea!  And I wasn’t worried about getting the puzzle back together since the pieces are reminiscent of a typical Kumiki puzzle with a twist.  I solved it rather quickly but to be honest, the whole thing was rigged.

It can’t pump jack but it makes a good puzzle!  And they are currently available on the Two Brass Monkeys website.