ANTIQ

I love a bit of machined brass… especially the puzzling variety – so when I spotted a couple of pics from Radek on Facebook of a new chunky little brass caged hedgehog, I reached out to ask him if there might be any available for sale. His post mentioned he’d only made about 10 copies and two of them were already somewhat spoken-for – with one to them being rather permanently attached to a custom Harley Davidson – I didn’t rate my chances of snagging a copy particularly highly, but reckoned it was worth a shout and thanks to the marvels of an international courier, a couple of days later I had a copy in my grubby paws.

This puzzle comes in a neat plastic sleeve that holds some additional meta-puzzling and a leather bag that keeps the cage and hedgehog snug inside. Open it all up and you have a handsome hunk of brass machined into a chunky cage with a nice spikey hedgehog nestling inside.

As usual you need to release the hedgehog – and this one’s a classic design – nothing super-funky like some of Radek’s other takes on the genre – some of which might look like a standard hedgehog in a cage, but they are anything but!

A little sleuthing and a little fiddling about will soon enough release the little spikey fella, and normally at this point you’d be done, except Radek has added an extra little mystery or two in the form of a challenge card and map… which asks you to find the new home of the puzzle’s real secret.

This bit of the challenge will test your observations skills and your puzzling nous but when you bring everything together it’s all right there in front of your eyes, as clear as day… and of course that leads you to some wonderful extra material that I particularly enjoyed. (I really loved the little nod to the other mythology around this puzzle.)

Even if it’s “just a standard hedgehog puzzle” – I rather like this copy – the cage is machined from a single lump of brass and the back-story in the extra challenge is lovely bonus.

Nice one, Radek!