Ribbon Keyvos Puzzle (Improved)

I’ve been bidding unsuccessfully on a few copies of this puzzle over the years and earlier this year I finally managed to find a copy that nobody else wanted even more than I did. 

This cute little cube hides quite a lot of puzzling in its six little pieces!

Resembling a cube neatly wrapped with a couple of ribbons running corner to corner, this little guy invites you to play… it won’t take you long to find the only sliding axis – and then depending on how careful you’ve been, you either have a single pile of pieces, or a pair of spikey subsets trying to fall apart on you… so you might as well let them do their worst, and scramble the pieces for good measure.

While you have a pile of them, you might as well admire Mike T’s handiwork – it is wonderfully neat and tidy – even the insides are pristine – including Mike’s trademark signature, serial number and puzzle name neatly inscribed on one of the pieces. Take the time to appreciate how he’s knocked back the really pointy corners that would have made this guy a lot less pleasant to play with too. 

Reassembly, as they say, is another challenge altogether – this guy puts ALL of the puzzling into the assembly stage.

Knowing that it comes apart into two pieces on a single sliding axis really doesn’t help you at this point while you pick your way through stacks and stacks of ways of building a pair of subsets that simply won’t engage because an errant bit is blocking the way… of course there are lots of ways to get it not to assemble, but just one way to get it back into a solid cube. 

A lovely little piece of craftsmanship that looks every bit as gorgeous today as it did back in 2003 when Mike made it.