Midas Touch Puzzlebox, aka Stickman #38

I was super chuffed when I got the first email from Robert Yarger announcing his 38^th numbered puzzlebox. Midas Touch came about as a result of the clamour of requests over the years for “something similar” to his iconic Gordian Knot puzzlebox, and given that Midas was Gordian’s son in Greek mythology, it seems fitting.

Visually, Midas Touch has a very strong resemblance to Gordian Knot – there’s a dizzying patchwork of bits and pieces wrapped around a cube, although Midas Touch is significantly larger than Gordian Knot… oh and there’s a huge trapped Stickman coin inviting you to remove it from the outer shell of Midas Touch.

My copy arrived a couple of days before MPP and in spite of having a couple of plays with it, I felt like I’d made almost no progress – there were some bits and pieces that could be successively manipulated in the outer shell and with some careful scrutiny, a bit of experimentation I managed to string a few useful things together until I hit a total brick wall…

A few folks had a bash at it at MPP and made similar amounts of progress until the already well-documented sabotage by a Welsh puzzler which brought play to a halt. A couple of days later I’d decided how best to repair it, broke out the glue and then spent a while holding things firmly in place for the glue to set.

Next day I was happy with my repair, but still not really able to make much progress beyond the series of steps I’d discovered the week before. I spent quite a while trying similar things and making no progress whatsoever… and it required some serious exploration before I managed to make that next bit of progress, but it was pretty darn mind-blowing. I’d decided how this box was going to be solved, and how it would probably end up opening, and I was totally wrong.

This is a classic Stickman gotcha! Rob makes you think you understand things and then you realise he’s parked you in a blind alley and you’ve been in there for hours on your own enjoying making absolutely no progress!

That first big “A-Ha!” was massive for me and seriously ramped up my expectation of this puzzlebox on the one hand, but on the other it gave me a whole new way to think about things… and that turned out to be quite important!

The attention definitely shifts gear and these new aspects are fun to explore. You’re in proper classic puzzlebox territory although a lot of the time it’s really hard to figure out what could be impeding your progress, and how the heck you get around whatever that is – the interplay between the outer shell and the hidden innards is really clever and kept me guessing for ages.

There’s a wonderful sense of triumph when you finally open a drawer and get into the box, although the elation doesn’t last when you remember that Rob’s told you there are two internal drawers to discover and open…

The last act is another neat little challenge providing just enough motivation without making you feel like you’ve had to head right back to school again.

Getting everything fully opened is a great reward for the not inconsiderable effort required to solve it – and if you’re anything like me, that challenge is a long way from over because reassembly is another significant challenge – unless you’ve taken lots to notes you’re definitely going to find yourself going backwards and forwards a few times as you come to realise you’ve backed yourself into a corner you can’t get out of.

Midas Touch is definitely a worthy extension to this royal family of challenges.

Another wonderfully bonkers puzzlebox from the Stickmeister himself.