Hextrios

Way back in 2010, Matt Dawson exchanged a puzzled called Ambidextrous Hexduos that he and Robert Yarger had developed. A duo of wooden hexahedrons, or a pair of cubes if you prefer, would interact with one another interesting ways when they were near one another – the trick was to control the interaction in such a way as to open both the little boxes… and it was a fun puzzle!

Fast forward a few years and Matt and Eric have had a go at making things a bit more “interesting” – read “challenging”. This time you’re offered a trio of hexahedrons… sometimes there’s a familiar feel to them when you bring them near one another – and sometimes there isn’t. 

You mission this time is to open all three boxes and reveal the (incredibly valuable!) gems hidden inside. The boxes are beautiful, as you’d expect from Eric – with Yellowheart, Goncalo Alves and Purpleheart sleeves. The Purpleheart box has a couple of holes in one end, but apart from that, there aren’t any visual clues to what the heck is going on inside there. 

Exploring the boxes also yields virtually no clues as to how they would even come apart… the boy has skillz!

Trying a few of the old tricks will help you make some progress, and you might even find yourself opening a couple of the boxes, but one of them is a thoroughly evil sod! That last one will require not only all of your powers of observation, but several layers of deduction as you work through the frankly fiendish little locking system the lads have put in there. 

Eric has produced a stunning little set of boxes here with locks that will earn the respect of any puzzler – they’re not only fiendish but they’ve been very cleverly executed in there. A worthy successor to a classic little Stickman.