Moonage M5

Continuing my tradition of being massively late to most parties, I picked up a copy of Stephan’s Top 10 Vote Getter from Houston at the Tokyo Puzzle Party… it looked great, he had a copy available, and it was my birthday – SOLD! [In fairness any one of those would probably have been sufficient!]

I didn’t get much time to play with this in the Design Competition in Houston so I was pretty much approaching it from scratch when I start puzzling. It is a beautiful object and is going to look absolutely fab among the rest of the hoard. Stephan’s wood crafting skills really are fantastic.

The puzzle challenges you to retrieve the moon lander, flag, and spaceman from the rocket… sounds sensible for a rocket-shaped puzzle. There are three fins that support the chubby little rocket and keep the nozzle handily above the desk while you admire it. There are a few bits that seem to rotate more or less independently and there’s a little button to push… although doing each of these things produces virtually no reaction whatsoever.

Start puzzling and soon enough you’re finding what appear to be fuel cells – again those should be handy for a rocket ship…

Somewhere in the middle of the solve there’s a whole array of bits and pieces, some of which may be tools and some of which may be treasure. Stephan’s been really imaginative in the way he uses the various bits and bobs and it really takes you through the solve in a delightful manner – when we talked about it he described it as more of a story-telling experience than a hard solve and I think that’s a great description: if you keep track of the things you find it really does tell the story of this little rocket ship taking a brave explorer to the moon…

…and when you’re finished you literally have a display to remind you of the story.

Cleverly designed, well-engineered and beautifully made, Moonage M5 gives you a lovely story and a really fun solve. It shouldn’t take seasoned puzzlers long to work through the solution, but it definitely will make you grin.

MPP LCVIIII

Just less than a week after returning from DCD we’re all meeting up in the Barnt Green church hall for MPP LCVIIII – thanks to some bad foresight on my part and a slightly later than usual DCD.

Once again I don’t have anyone staying over so I have a relatively leisurely start to the morning, loading up virtually all of the puzzles I’ve brought back from HoustonTokyo (Thanks Steve!) and DCD for everyone to play with. A quick stop at Tesco to pick up the sodas and milk before opening up the hall and starting to set everything out. Phil, Mike and the Monkeys arrive pretty soon after that and they all muck in to put out the tables… 

I almost manage to stop Steve from creating a culturally inappropriate symbol in the centre of the hall using tables, and the puzzles are soon brought out to play…

Between us I reckon we end up with three or four sets of exchange puzzles so there’s plenty for everyone who wasn’t at IPP to have a go on. Steve and I ended up having a long philosophical discussion before putting the world properly to rights before we also dived into the puzzling delights on offer.

I’ve taken along my set of bits for an orderly tangle of pentagons from DCD in the hopes of getting someone to assemble it for me – I AM a lazy soul! I get my hopes up when Chris bites and assembles a perfectly interlocked chain of pentagons and declares it topographically equivalent to the orderly tangle… I’m not convinced and then Steve gets in on the act to experiment with making any shape but a pentagon… the pile of sticks is still a pile of sticks on my desk as I write this a week later… I missed Louis!

Several folks had a go at the Pelikan Safe – and I suspect most were successful although the final hurdle slowed everyone down a bit, as you’d expect!

I tried to get a few folks to have a go at Stefan’s exchange but the first stage proved a bit too challenging for puzzlers in search of a quicker puzzling fix – there was simply too much other shiny stuff around… speaking of shiny stuff, the Monkey’s had all their latest toys for sale, as did Phil so several folks ended up Sliding Away home and Making Love Easier – you’re welcome.

As usual Kevin had brought along copies of all the latest goodies from Pelikan and they had a jolly good playing with. The Raichos proved to be a big hit with all the box-lovers in the group – albeit some of them took an embarrassingly long time to open the simpler of the two.

By the time we got to the High Street for pig buns, we found they’d sold out an hour and a half earlier – it seems the locals have taken to eating them for breakfast now, meaning our chances of finding any at lunch time are getting significantly smaller… pity!

Kyle ended up making a lot more progress on Jammed Coin that I’d managed to, and ended up completing the solve later that evening at my place… which is a pity because that sort of ruins my excuse (“clearly it’s broken”)!

Robin had brought along a few constructions that amused Steve for ages while he assembled them, and then for a split-second while he spun them gently apart with those around cheering loudly. Robin was also the only person who took some of Ali’s giant (Monument!) Hanayamas apart – he shrugged it off, but we all recognised the mad skillz!

Anthony generously gave pretty much all who didn’t already have, a copy of his Robert Reid-designed space-filling tilings and I managed to get rid of a couple more exchange puzzles and several copies of my IPP42 gift Morph… which was also making a king-sized appearance courtesy of designer Mike, along with what appeared to be a close cousin, although, knowing Mike, no doubt the solutions will be nothing alike!

Several of us had a play with Steve’s clear prototype of Kawashima’s Duet Box – in spite of all of the side panels being clear acrylic, there still appeared to be something magical happening between some of the panels that was totally invisible…

With sunset coming earlier and earlier we packed up the hall and head for The Badgers where the puzzling continued on the dining room table until the fish suppers arrived.

As usual the cutest of the Karakuri boxes got a good playing with until the Gentleman Crocodile stopped all in their tracks… and not just because one of the legs was unceremoniously ripped off… the three-legged croc stubbornly refused all attempts at opening it and I was pretty sure I knew what needed doing… it remained firmly locked up until the next day when I confirmed my recollection of the solution was indeed spot on but it still wouldn’t budge. Remembering that I’d previously had a similar experience with an eager puzzle ripping off a leg I explored the theory that an earlier repair might be to blame for the current lock-up… and indeed that was the case – I’d helpfully glued the secret compartment shut… it’s fixed now for anyone who wants to try it again… but please don’t pull off his legs!

Everyone decided to leave at a pretty sensible hour which probably means we’re all getting old or possibly have kids to get back home to… it was great to see a couple of faces we haven’t seen for ages like Joe - it really feels like I’ve had heaps of puzzling with my mates recently – I am a rather lucky chap. Thanks to all who came along and made this another fine MPP!

 

DCD ’25

About two weeks ago I drove down to London to meet up with Ali and Lily and Steve (who’d landed back in the UK from his post-IPP trip late the night before). We transferred a chunk of brass from my boot and Ali’s garage into the back of the truck and then headed south for Le Shuttle and a relatively painless drive up the coast to The Hague. 

We’d been dreading the inevitable traffic around Antwerp but the sat-nav had better ideas this time around.

While we were checking in Wil bounded over and officially welcomed us to his neck of the woods. We ditched our bags and met Wil in the restaurant for some dinner and a little gentle introductory puzzling: Kondo-san’s exchange and a pyramid assembly from Osanori… the puzzles remained victorious in that session.

We had a few drinks after dinner, did a bit more puzzling and then headed off to bed at a reaonsably sensible hour having been travelling all day, although Ali who’d done pretty much all of the driving was flagging a lot less than the rest of us… and Nicholls had a really good excuse having travelled from NZ – JPN – UK – NETH in about five days.

Next morning we grabbed the hotel breakfast with Frank who’d arrived after I’d given up on things the previous night, before finding Louis and heading off to Pray in Katwijk – which if you don’t recognise the name, is one of the best escape rooms in the Netherlands and was in fact the 13^th best Escape Room in the world last year on Terpeca…

We head into the room at the appropriate time and things get pretty dark almost immediately – and we proceed from the literal to the figurative darkness as we’re drawn into some wonderful theatre and story-telling – all set among an absolutely cracking escape room. I really appreciated the fact that there wasn’t a single clock or countdown timer in the whole experience, and there was only one single numeric padlock… we completed the room in 78 minutes which was apparently quite handy, having not had a single hint along the way… we then sit down in the town square and chat to our gamemaster over a nice cup of coffee and get the background on the development of the game and the tech behind it all… he’s clearly very proud of what they’ve done and ends up showing us around a little behind-the-scenes and it’s incredible just how much those guys have managed to cram into that site… if you’re going to be in the neighbourhood, book ahead if you want to try this room – it’s booked up many months in advance and there’s a good reason why!

We grab lunch at a great little eatery just up the road from St Maartens and of course the puzzles come out and it doesn't take Louis long to deduce something interesting and then solve Kondo-san's exchange - I'm well and truly gob-smacked, again. 

We swing by the school to offload all the brass in the back of the truck and say a few hellos to others also offloading. From there we head off to Rob’s place for the traditional pre-DCD PP… there’s already a whole bunch of puzzlers there so we settle into a comfy spot and pull up a puzzle or two…

I’ve taken my copy of Leisure Luke’s Spyglass and Louis makes pretty good progress through the many stages of the solve but can’t quite get the final opening to work… I try and help and manage even less, although I’m sure that exactly what we’re trying now has worked before and opened the puzzle… a little closer examination shows that something internally has come adrift so I may need to reach out to Luke for some advice…

I end up spending many hours playing with Louis’ copy of Castle Emberlock – there is SO MUCH to be discovered, manipulated and explored and even with some pretty direct hints at some points I must still have spent several hours taking it all apart – only to realise there was yet more to be discovered. It is an epic puzzle from Benno and I’m glad I’ve had the opportunity to play around with a copy. Thanks Louis!

There’s another traditional feasting on pizza before heading back to the hotel for a drink or three at the bar… and of course some more puzzling. We actually end up doing something vaguely useful and christen the Monkeys latest creation (Making Love Easier) and then QCing the batch available for sale at DCD. 

After all that, in the lift on the way up to the rooms, Frank decides to get revenge on the Monkeys who’d pressed all the buttons leading up to his floor the evening before and goes full-on rabid teenager pressing every single floor beyond his own in order to doom the rest of us to a long slow ride upstairs… Steve tries manfully to fend him off, but fails, largely… until Frank with a look of absolute horror on his face spots a civilian in the corner of the lift just looking at him with the sort of expression that says “What the heck, old bean?” – or something similar. At this point Frank becomes instantly super apologetic as he gets out at his floor… and we all apologise for our friend that we’re now referring to as little Richard… Steve duly turns off all of the in-between floors and we aren’t delayed by much in the end… but the look on Frank’s face will go down in DCD road-trip legends.

We meet at breakfast the next morning before heading across to the school for DCD-proper where our entry fee gets us a name tag and a copy of Oskar’s Heptagon Temple.

I track down Jan Willem to offload a few boxes of chocolate (so I’ll have space for puzzles!) and dump my bag behind Wil’s extensive row of crates of treasure and then start wending my way around the various tables saying hello to old friends and chatting to new ones. 

I can’t resist the urge to pick up a couple of new Coffin tray packers from Jack (Thanks Jack!) and Michel shoves a couple of laser-cut Grabarchucks in my hand. Jan Willem insists on gifting me a lovely cherry toothpick safe from one of his Hakone Puzzle Parties (Thank you Jan Willem!). The Monkeys give me a special mini-BM2 and Phil insists I take a copy of his new Slide Away fresh off the machines just in time for DCD. I realise I already have a wonderful haul and I’ve hardly spent any money yet!

I have a long chat with Arie about his escapades now that he’s properly retired and he shows me a bunch of pics of his own designs and displays – I’m drawn to his various wooden balls and decide that I should relieve him of a 12-way Pentagon tangle in walnut for the princely sum of EUR 30 – he’s doing what he loves and giving some lovely reclaimed wood a new purpose in life… everyone wins!

The lunch is the usual spread-of-plenty and after lunch there are lectures on Complexity, an update from the World Puzzle Centre and a canter through some of the exchange puzzles courtesy of Rob (with Steve standing in for Diniar who couldn’t make it this year). (Once again Rob’s done a great job of pulling together a presentation between us leaving the night before and getting himself to the school for DCD! I must offer to let him have some pics next year to save him at least some of that effort!)

Things wind up slowly after the lectures and we spend a while chatting and moving tables and chairs into their more normal canteen setup while some folks hold a bored meeting next door. When that’s all done, we head off to the local Chinese for a buffet dinner… there are quite a few more of us than we’ve anticipated (and booked for) but the staff do a grand job of getting us all sitting within shouting distance of one another so nobody feels left out.

After dinner we all head off our separate ways, with the hotel gang meeting up (again!) in the bar, (well I had to spend my free drink tokens didn’t I!?).

Next morning Ali takes the four of us down to Calais where we grab Le Shuttle for our underwater time-travelling adventure (we forget to place bets on an imminent sporting event, sadly) before grabbing a burger back in Blighty more or less around lunch time. The traffic up to London is pretty darned reasonable, as is the drive back to Barnt Green from London – which is a lovely way to top off a fantastic weekend away with the Monkeys and a whole bunch of our European puzzling mates.

Thanks a million to Ali for driving us over and back and to Steve for the entertainment en route. Hopefully Lily wasn’t too scarred by the experience. 

 

IPP42 (Part 4)

Next morning we met Anne and Nick in the breakfast line and then Brian and Sue led the entire breakfast room in a round of Happy Birthday - really not embarrassing at all… after breakfast I headed to the puzzle party and joined the very orderly queue to be allowed to enter at 9 o’clock while watching all those with dealer tables wandering in and setting up… or trying to snag an early bargain before the rabble were allowed in.

I made a bee-line for Mine’s table hoping to find something new and didn’t at first, although on some of my subsequent visits I did manage to find a few little goodies that I didn’t already have.

Tetsuro tracked me down and presented me with a carrier bag of some of his older exchange puzzles that he’d recently found while cleaning out a room… and then Osho handed me another bag full of Hiroshi Yamamoto’s designs in recognition of his recent passing - both wonderfully generous gentlemen! Thank you!

A couple of the guys who missed the exchange the day before now have their exchange puzzles and we all get the chance to exchange with Namba-San and Hendrik.

During the course of the day I get to spend some time chatting with Scott Elliott - something that’s always enlightening and entertaining all at once. The Hanayama guys have some giant cast puzzles for sale and I spend a while wondering how I can justify spending a fair chunk of change on 5 big old chunks of heavy metal (10kg in total) before Ali puts me out of my misery and buys a couple of sets of them - Two Brass Monkey heavy metal puzzle research in action.

I decided to spoil myself with a copy of Stephan’s Moonage M5 because I still haven’t had a chance to play with one and I decide to nominate that as my birthday present this year.

On one of my many visits to the 2BM table Steve sneaks up behind me and launches into yet another rousing round of happy birthday with most of the room joining in yet again. Like I said, not at all embarrassing!

I spend a little while chatting with Yavuz and pick up a copy of his (subsequently award-winning) Design competition entry Rhombox… and he throws in another puzzle for no good reason at all! Jules convinces me I need a copy of his dad’s new disentanglement with a number 42 in it… I don’t need much convincing it turns out!

I grab a couple of interesting little goodies from George Bell’s table, pick up another number puzzle book and spend a little while raking through Osanori Yamamoto’s table and grab a copy of his Square Lock. I’m somewhat taken aback when he recognizes my name badge and remarks about my blog - it still takes me by surprise when I find out that the designers whose puzzles I really enjoy even know about my blog.

With the puzzle party winding down I find Gill and we head off for a milkshake and burger at Shake Tree - there’s a little concern when I order the slider and a shake and Gill orders a burger and a shake… yes, I’m not very hungry and she is (I’ve polished off a couple of sacks of 7Eleven snacks for my lunch already by this time…) - both the burgers and the shakes are excellent, albeit not particularly Japanese-y.

The afternoon lectures include memories of Hiroshi Yamamoto who’d recently passed away, Marc did a presentation on cataloguing puzzles with a call for volunteers to help. Miura-San gives a delightful talk on puzzle design, being between obvious and impossible and then George gave an update on the World Puzzle Centre.

Having learnt our lesson from the night before we asked Nick if he had place at his table for us and then joined the throng waiting to be allowed inside the hall at the appointed time. This time there was plenty of space in the hall for everyone, and subsequently plenty of food for everyone too. (All’s well that ends…)

Shoko and Esa run a game for us which allows us all to put random messages on the screen, and it doesn’t take long for some random hamster references to appear… followed shortly thereafter by more happy birthday messages and a subsequent round of singing too… yeah, maybe a wee bit embarrassing now! :-)

Wooden Tie Club

 

Nick launches into the presentation of the Design comp awards and there’s plenty cheering when Koichi Miura wins two Jury Honourable Mentions and a Top 10 Votes Award - definitely a popular local hero! :-) There’s even more cheering when another local lad, Yasuhiro Hashimoto, takes the top prize for Diagonal Twins, one of the few puzzles I’ve solved and really enjoyed!

After the awards there’s the customary thanking of the hosts who are each presented with a giant Cast Baroq (of which these are the only two in the world) before the committee and volunteers each receive a special Hanayama puzzle as a thank you.

With the festivities over we allow the hotel staff to turn around the room and we chat in the foyer for a while, saying some goodbyes and just chatting with those who aren’t leaving yet. We end up getting to bed at a reasonable time and take advantage of not having to get up at a specific time to not set an alarm for the first time in a while…

As it is we end up sleeping until 9:30 and missing breakfast (see earlier comments about room snacks!) - Gill takes charge of sorting out the packing and we get most of our stuff squared away (including most of the puzzles and the recent fabric purchases before we head down to meet Nick, Anne, Brian and Sue for lunch… we wander across the river and find a little noodle bar down a back alley for a great lunch costing about £22 - for the six of us!

We do some touristing and selfie-taking before heading to another nearby ice cream shop we haven’t tried yet… we get affogatos and iced coffees and I can’t resist their last piece of tiramisu - it’s all great!!

On the slow walk back to the hotel we bump into Benny and the Monkeys who’ve just surfaced and are planning to head into town for some breakfast at 3pm - they’ve had a long night… we all agree to meet up at breakfast the next morning, except for Brian and Sue who head out this evening on their next leg… we fail.

From there on we’re more or less solo, out for dinner at Shake Tree so I can have a real burger and then an early night (I’m getting too old for these IPP late nights!) - however being a Monday evening Shake Tree is closed so we head back to our favourite Chinese joint for more spicy noodles and dumplings - I am very much a creature of habit it turns out! This time the chef has seriously cranked up the spice levels and I end up wearing some of my dinner, to the point that the shirt will get abandoned back at the hotel as the stains ain’t going to be coming out any time soon… on the way back to the hotel we find several groups of puzzlers who manage to crack a smile at my clumsiness.

We finish off the packing after breakfast the next morning and say goodbye to Benny and the Monkeys and Nick-San before grabbing a cab back to Haneda for the flight to Blighty.

Another wonderfully memorable Japanese IPP thanks to a great organising committee. 

IPP42 (Part 3)

 On Friday morning Jan suggests we head off to a pop-up embroidery workshop hosted by a local artist whose work she and Gill both admire - Dave navigates us there and the girls manage to get copies of her new books and some accoutrements before getting their books signed and getting some proper-fan-girl pics taken with Tomomi Mimura.

Gill and I hightail it back to the Sky Tree to find Marc and the Monkeys, arriving just in time. We head up a couple of high-speed lifts and we’re admiring the views and taking pics when Ali realises he’s left his phone somewhere… Ali and his brother duly head downstairs and Gill heads off to search where Ali thinks he may have put it down… Gill gets the details of the lost property office and by the time Ali gets to it, his phone is there safe and sound waiting for him.

We finish up and head into the mall for a quick spot of lunch before Gill heads off for some more shopping (serious stamina!) and the boys head downtown for our sumo experience - a presentation on the sport and some demonstrations by a couple of wrestlers with a great sense of humour hamming it up for the crowds - it’s brilliantly entertaining and we end up spending an hour and a half well-entertained at the antics. 

 

I load up on some snacks for the exchange day and source the obligatory uniform for the exchange from Steve’s room where Ali gives me a mini BM2 - their latest experiment.

On exchange morning I leave Gill sleeping in the room and grab breakfast with Frank who’s also flying solo - not because Jo’s sleeping in as well, but because she’s off doing a park run in Ueno - they’re playing Park Run Bingo and a U-Park Run is a great find! After brekkie I give Louis his shirt so we can do the usual feigned embarrassment that someone else is wearing the same outfit when we meet downstairs… although Frank’s got an even better story since Brian’s dressed him as a Japanese postman (complete with cap and white gloves!) in keeping with the theme of his exchange puzzle.

Louis and I set up our stall and offload about 85 exchange puzzles onto our table and then have a bit of a wander around having a gander at the goodies we’re about to be gifted…

In the end a couple of the guys have to pull out of the exchange at the last minute so we’re down to about 75 exchangers - and after the traditional welcome we’re off and running.

My exchange this year is Sly Burr 2 - Frank’s reprise of Sly Burr, in a box, with a bit of a twist added by the Two Brass Monkeys. I get into the groove of telling folks to take it apart, and then keep puzzling until the puzzle tells them to stop… most look a little quizzical but they’re prepared to go with it…

William Waite exchanges what he happily describes as a simple entry-level tray-packer with pattern matching constraints, Rich Williams has a Baker’s Dozen Burr - supposedly a standard 6-piece burr requiring 13 moves… which is interesting if you know anything about burr-analysis... from there we hit up Andreas for a four-piece cube dissection that looks diabolical and then we begin heading further and further afield…

There’s a few surreal exchanges where I’m giving Ali a copy of my puzzle that he and his daughters have assembled for me… and then something similar with Steve who’s been instrumental in the design and tweakage - including adding a layer that I’m not even aware of… makes mental note to solve one of his own puzzles when he gets home.

Steve Canfield has another exceptional puzzle in the form of a Japanese train carriage with pieces for the stuffing thereof… albeit along the way there will be some sequential discovery jiggery pokery - Louis establishes there ought to be a couple of spare copies for sale the next morning…

We make pretty good time and by about lunch time Louis’ efficiency means I only need another three exchanges, so we break for lunch, me for my 7Eleven snacks and Louis for his packed lunch, before we resume a suitable amount of time later. The final couple of exchangers duly appear and I can fill a couple of plastic crates with puzzles and zip up the case that doubled as puzzle luggage for the day.

We’ve finished fairly early so I take the time to chill and chat with a few of my fellow exchangers - it’s always interesting to hear the different strategies - I like the idea of a one-on-one exchange and the chance to catch up and see how people are keeping while others prefer a more efficient approach handling several exchanges all at the same time…

I dump the puzzles on the bed for the obligatory haul shot before hitting up Tye for a bunch of puzzles he’s brought over to Tokyo for me (and a few other UK puzzlers).

From there I head to Prof Sugimoto’s lecture workshop on ambiguous objects and learn about the development of his ideas from the early gravity-defying roof, to the objects that don’t behave well in the mirror (the always right arrow?), through things that appear to be totally different objects in their reflection and finally origami ambiguous objects, before we have a go at making a few of them ourselves with some brave souls heading up front to test out their illusions in the mirror… Nick, Frank and I manage passable attempts, albeit my lion needs a bit of a re-fold as Nick points out I’ve missed a key step.

After the workshop there’s a chance to get a bit refreshed before heading down for the banquet. We’re a bit surprised when we get funnelled off to a fairly small room where there are already long queues for the food even though we’ve arrived 10 minutes before the official start time expecting to find a long queue outside the banquet room. We find out from Steve that we’re in the overflow room and we’ll be moved into the main room for the entertainment… we try and make hay, joining the food queue only for most of the food to run out a few people ahead of us. We totally miss out on dessert as well although some folks didn’t quite manage to finish all the desserts they’d loaded up on… ah well, good thing we had snacks in the room.

At one point Nick poked his head in and asked us what we were doing in there… then disappeared and returned with a plate of sushi and hot food from the other buffet, where the food was still most definitely available… we were ushered back across to the main room where we joined Nick and Anne at their half-empty table and settled in for the entertainment which consisted of a delightful young lady performing some tricks she’d recently purchased and a juggler with a brilliantly entertaining streak - he really played up the language barrier and had us all in-stitches while performing some quite pretty decent juggling.

After the show we were duly ejected and made our way down to the Design Competition Room where we puzzled and chatted until closing time…