Get into the Spirit

I’m sure the other exchangers in this year’s Edward Hordern Puzzle Exchange won’t be too offended if I describe this as the stand-out exchange puzzle this year… an absolute thing of beauty inspired by the man behind Boxes and Booze and superbly crafted by that bloke at Pacific Puzzles - Steve Canfield and Lee Krasnow set the bar(!) incredibly high on this one…

Inside the green velvet pouch nestles a shiny aluminium cocktail shaker - the only potential giveaway that this might not be just an actual cocktail shaker is the wooden trim around the waist- that and the lack of a cap on the top… this one absolutely looks the part!

Your goal is to free the commemorative coin that you can catch a glimpse of fairly early on in the solve - however it remains annoyingly out of reach until the very end!

The first move is probably best described as a bit of a “gimme!” - you’re going to find it and then you’re going to have a bit of an intake of breath when you start seeing some of the bits lying in wait for you… it looks impressive!

I spent quite a while getting nowhere at this point. I’d fiddle with this and with that, and not find anything useful… but the whole time I found myself absolutely enchanted by this object’s gorgeousness, so spending time in one spot isn’t really much of a chore!

It took me quite a while to find the next step, and of course immediately realised I was overcomplicating things as usual… it’s an elegantly simple mechanism…

Right about now things began to get really interesting, and while progress started to come thick and fast, some pretty weird stuff was happening… at one point I didn’t think things through and ended up cursing that man Canfield… and I’m sure I wasn’t the first, and won’t be the last! (Feel free to have a laugh at my expense, mate - well-played!!)

Freeing the coin provides a nice reward and a little hit of dopamine…I spent a while enjoying that hit (they don’t come that frequently, so I need to make the most of them!) and then duly found myself getting tripped up all over the show when I set about resetting the puzzle - it probably took me three or four goes to get everything back in the right place - and each time I cursed that man Canfield… if you know, you know… :-)

This is an awesome puzzle - plenty of discovering is required and a good deal of Think-(c)-ing needed too… this is going to be the Big Ben of 2024. Chapeau gentlemen!