Lunsford’s Lovelies

Alan Lunsford has been selling little 3D printed sequential discovery puzzles through his Etsy shop for a while now… but I’ve struggled to purchase any of them given they’re so darned popular. A little while back Louis gave me a set of Alan’s Cop Out puzzles and I thought they were quite fun, so I’ve been keeping an eye on his shop for new stock and finally managed to order myself a copy of Mighty Pin and Bolt Action a few weeks ago… and I rather like them both!

They’re both 2 inches cubed, quite light and they rattle a lot! Definitely a sign of a whole lot of puzzling stuff going on inside there… each comes with a little instruction card setting out the goal and some handling suggestions like “Don’t use external tools” and “Store below 40 degrees Celsius” – this being England, I can probably safely ignore at least one of those instructions! :-) Alan’s puzzles are all beautifully printed with neatly embossed names – these guys look good and invite you to play with them…

So let’s dive in – starting with Bolt Action which has a protruding bolt just above the name, along with a number of intriguing looking holes scattered around the sides of the cube. One large hole has a coin peeking out of it which is either a 3D printed AL token if you’re ordering from outside the US, or a US quarter if you’re inside the USA (thanks to the joys(not!) of shipping anything internationally with currency inside it).

Given that bolt is just begging for some action – heck, it’s even in the title – you might as well have at it… and remove the little guy – and that starts a wonderful little journey that sees you finding a bunch of tools and some very interesting ways to use them… every now and then you’ll find yourself wondering how the heck to progress but a careful inspection of the tools and the various combinations of holes and other little interesting features will have you heading in the right direction without chasing your tail too much. (I’m here all day…)

Releasing the coin is a fun action and you might well be tempted to think you’re all done, but a reminder from the little instruction card will have you searching for something to make you smile… and you’ll realise that you’re actually a little way from finishing this puzzle… the final step is a lovely little surprise that really should make you smile… and then pop it all back together again for the next puzzlist.

Mighty Pin also has a bolt sticking out of the side of it, a number of oddly shaped holes around the various sides of the cube, and it too has a square window with a token/coin peeking through it. Interestingly this one seems to be made up of two halves which wiggle a bit relative to one another, but definitely won’t come apart…

Once again, you might as well start with that rather prominent protruding bolt and see where that takes you…

This time things really start to move and if you’re careful, you might even find the puzzle’s little namesake. The discoveries and wonderfully engineered uses for the various tools you find along the way will definitely test your puzzling chops, and probably your test your boldness too…

By the end of the journey you really do have to smile at Alan’s ingenuity and just how precisely every little aspect of this is thought out - you have to follow the path he’s laid out for you, and each step along the way is a positive one – you’re never asked to just wing it on a prayer – trust me on that one and you won’t find yourself down an alley you might struggle to back out of!

Another delightful little journey all crammed into eight cubic inches of 3D printed goodness.

…all of which really makes me want to get my hands on a copy of Unsafe Deposit somehow…