Juno’s Diamond Case

Let me start this write-up with the most appropriate tagline I can think of: “Juno got me good…!”

I’d been keeping an eye on Juno’s web-site and spotted the arrival of his Diamond Case secret puzzle box a little while back. It looked interesting I made a mental note to pick up a copy at some stage … actually the mental note was more along the lines of “Pick a few things to make the postage worth the while… and while you’re in there, add in the Diamond Case”.  

As it turned out, I hadn’t gotten around to doing that when I found myself in The Hague at DCD, where Wil mentioned that he had a spare copy if I’d like it… I did… and I added it to the little pile of puzzles I was taking home from DCD.

Back at home over the course of the next few weeks I tried on and off to open the darn thing… and failed miserably. 

I’d surmised one or two things from the form factor and the visual clues in the pics I’d seen, and was able to confirm pretty quickly that there was indeed a slidy thingy and that one of the diamonds would turn, sometimes, interfering with the slidy thingy… you’ll find all of that within seconds of picking it up, and I did indeed find all of that within seconds of picking it up… only for me to spin my figurative wheels on it for many weeks to come, making literally no forward motion whatsoever!

I was pretty stumped. So when my puzzling solving machine of a friend spent the weekend recently, I left it out for him to solve… no problem. While I slept, he solved, and then duly returned it to the locked position. Thanks!

I tried on and off again, but had to ask him for a hint or two before I finally managed to open it, and it instantly soared in my judgement of it… it’s such a wonderfully simple mechanism that will have puzzlers entertained for hours, and the eventual opening is an unexpected little joyful thing to see.

Reset is virtually instant and it’s wonderful to see just how complicated you’ve managed to make it all seem, when in truth, it needn’t be…

Juno, you got me, good and proper! And I love it.

...and they're still available from Pluredro, Juno's shop.