Bag o’Tangles

A few weeks ago Gill got me an awesome anniversary gift – apparently 21 years is brass or nickel, so Gill reached out to the Nicholl that does brass and colluded to get me a personalised copy of the Bag o’Tangles that was almost ready for public consumption.

My copy arrived all in bits in a big old bag, with every(?) little brass rod engraved with “To infirmity and beyond” – which is kind of our thing. Steve had somehow forgotten to assemble any of the tangles or even separate them into separate bags so the first task turned out to be actually working out what I could assemble the bits into… (You won’t have that problem because the lads have helpfully put some nice pics up on their website showing you exactly what you’re targeting along with some helpful descriptions.)

Luckily, I managed to deduce the likely shapes from counting up the bits I had – and didn’t get too side-tracked by the few spares bits the boys had thrown in.

I started with the triangular tangle and found it to be a rather fiddly little fiend. (Other nouns are available!) It took me a couple of attempts before I got enough bits in there that it began to hold together well enough in order to complete the structure.

My arithmetic suggested I try tangling squares for the second structure, and not having been told that they hadn’t been intended to nest, I set about building the squartangle around the outside of the tri-tangle – ignorance makes for a great taskmaster! Once or twice I needed to backtrack a bit and reposition things, but the squartangle went together a bit easier than the tri-tangle, IMHO… and the first two were nested.

I started experimenting with assembling the pentagonal tangle on its own and found it to be pretty fiddly – and I quickly decided that putting the penta-tangle around my current nest was going to require way more hands (and co-ordination!) than I have available to me – so I reached out to Steve to enquire if there might be a jig available… a short while later one was finishing up on the 3D  printer and I was back in business.

Truth be told, assembling the penta-tangle around the other two was pretty straight-forward with the aid of the jig and my fully nested set was ready to show off… which rather amused Steve as he hadn’t expected the nesting to be possible… and actually in theory, it isn’t possible, however in practice, it works… figure that one out!

I’ve enjoyed playing with a couple of variations on these tangles over the years, including some excellent tongue depressor models! This set is definitely the best of the bunch – they go together nicely and the Monkeys have done a great job of balancing the grip and give between the various bit and pieces to make assembly an absolute pleasure. Wrapping the various pieces over and under one another is great exercise in visualising the various symmetries in the shapes. Heck! You could probably even call these things mathematical sculptures if you needed to diversify your puzzle-habit!

You don’t have to assemble them in a single nested configuration, but you know you’re going to want to try at least once! Get yours over here...

Thanks Gilly for colluding with the Nicholl and brass chaps for a super anniversary gift!

To infirmity and beyond…

Kings Day 2025

This year the Two Brass Monkeys invite me to travel over to Eindhoven and Venlo with them, so I head down to Ali’s place on Friday morning. My sat-nag takes me around a bit of a roundabout route, but it does keep me out of any rush-hour traffic, which is great. I get to Ali’s at pretty much the appointed time (albeit we’ve decided at the last minute to bring our departure forward an hour or so, and that turned out to be a good decision!) and it doesn’t take long to load up the trick and head down toward Folkestone.

Getting onto Le Shuttle is super-efficient, with trained seagulls checking our tickets. The trip under the channel is an opportunity to stretch our legs and have some snacks on the tailgate. Heading out into France, Steve and I keep reminding Ali to drive on the wrong side of the road and asking if we’re nearly there yet. We stop for a mid-afternoon lunch at a roadside Belgian Burger King and we chew up the miles pretty ruthlessly until we hit the outskirts of Antwerp where we find traffic that will end up delaying us for around an hour or more. My job of supplying snacks to the driver and up-front passenger becomes crucial at this stage.

After we clear Antwerp, the roads open up again, but by now we’re later than we’d hoped to be, and we’re rearranging the evening plans with Louis…we manage to get to Louis’ place in time to say hello and grab a quick drink before heading out to our Friday evening escape room in Oisterwiijk.

We all get dressed up like merry woodsmen and somehow resist the urge to launch into a rousing rendition of “I’m a lumberjack and I’m OK!”. It’s an interesting room where the first section made us toil for quite a while until we (OK, Louis!) spotted some tiny details… that helped us make significant progress before heading into the second area which felt more tractable (i.e. suited our “Let’s just try this”-style) – the mechanics for opening the third area surprised us all and we found we had a heck of a lot to do in the final area – so that ended up being quite a rush... with quite a few nudges we just managed to get though everything in time. We reckoned it was a pretty good room -with some really surprising mechanics along the way.

Back at Louis’ place plenty of puzzling ensued – I know – shocker! Somewhere around midnight we call it a day and head off to check into the hotel.

Next morning I meet the monkeys for breakfast before Louis and Mieke collect us to take us bargain-hunting at the King’s Day flea markets, resplendent in our obligatory orange polo shirts. We get a lot of steps in wandering around viewing the various treasures for sale. We fail to find any Stickmen, Lensch or Toulouzas treasures. Ali does manage to find a 3x3 Mastermorphix(?) and against our better judgment he buys it for a euro. (In fairness it provides way more than a euro’s entertainment over the rest of the weekend!) Steve manages to find an absolute treasure of a vintage Swine Dissection (SD) puzzle and duly sends in the A-Team to negotiate the purchase – Louis and Mieke secure the pièce de resistance and the team of travelling puzzlers celebrated!

We grab a bite to eat at a café before heading off to the next flea market, where sadly zero Tom Lensches or Swine Dissections are discovered... so we head back to Louis’ for some more puzzling.

I’d taken over a few of my latest Pelikan acquisitions which were duly passed around – Girish’s Heavy Lifter gets several nods of approval, Frederic’s Sym Duo puts smiles on everyone’s faces and I enjoy (finally) solving a couple of Mine’s latest assemblies.

I’d printed off a few copies of Steve’s Smells of Roses (where the heck do these names come from!?) so Louis made short work of assembling that, and in fact running through all of the Pelikans I’d taken over. Knowing I’ve been getting nowhere on my RaDio, he suggests I have a bash on his, and after some subtle questioning, he coaxes me into doing the right thing and the puzzle comes alive for me in a totally unexpected manner – it is magical.

Late afternoon we head off to our second escape room at Hotel Veloria (IYK,YK) – we grab a drink in the hotel bar before being ushered into the Reception area and then head into the room… which I’m not going to say much about, because the element of continual surprise is just incredible. The theming throughout is literally perfect and the mechanics are jaw-dropping! It’s easy to see why this one has consistently scored well in the TERPECA league tables ever since it opened in 2017(!). It’s worth going (well) out of your way to visit this one!

We head back to Louis’ place via Dominos to collect some pizzas. Louis refused to accept any contributions toward either the room or the pizzas, so we left a random sum of cash in the glovebox for someone to find.

We spent an hour or two trying to get into Pavel's "What is the name of this puzzle?" and failed miserably... Yet more puzzling, with some actual solving, ensues until we decide to call it a day at around midnight.

Breakfast with Steve and Ali is always fun and Louis collects us to take us through to Wil’s place where we find our genial host putting the final touches on his arrangements. We’re welcomed like long-lost friends and we take the opportunity to foist gifts on our host before the rest of the gaggle arrives.

The usual spread of fruit tarts is on display in the kitchen and Wil is quick to offer everyone something to drink… the crowds begin arriving and I put a pile of sundry 3D printed bits and pieces out in the hope that they’ll find new homes. (They do.) There are a few more copies of Smells of Roses (mental note: ask Steve about that damn name, it’s starting to bug me), a couple of spare Barcode Burrs and several copies of Bram’s Hinged Cube.

Chris throws himself at Smells of Roses and looks suitably proud when he finally slides the stubborn tetrahedron together. Rani did a pretty good job on assembling some not-so-orderly tangles and several puzzlers need to have their bubbles burst by pointing out that the proper solution for Bram’s Hinged Cube does not allow the two sticky-outy-bits to meet. I reckon that puzzle is still hands-down the best value for money puzzle out this year.

Wil's spread for lunch is phenomenal yet again, there is plenty of food to refuel hungry puzzlers and there seems to be a constant supply of cakes, tarts and snacks on the go throughout the day!

Oskar takes up his traditional spot with a table-full of his latest creations. There’s a constant stream of puzzlers chatting and fiddling and buying bits and pieces throughout the morning. It’s a gloriously sunny day and while we’re all enjoying the warmth, sadly some of Oskar’s 3D prints start wilting in the afternoon heat, so they’re gathered up and put in the shade to be repaired. Oskar moves into the shade and there’s a surreal conversation when Steve asks Oskar what his day job is at the moment – there are some highly intelligent people in this community of puzzlers. I have no idea how I managed to blag my way in!

Jules had brought along a bunch of really interesting looking puzzle locks and they had a constant stream of admirers, and a slightly less constant stream of solvers. I manage to solve a few of them, but several of them bested me! The centrepiece was a fascinating German(?) padlock with the front removed so that you could see all of the complications added to make opening it seriously non-trivial.

Wil dished out a number of his latest disentanglement finds from China – what appears to be a riff on Foshee’s Holey Bolt – always a fun challenge!

It was great to catch up with Rob & Rob & Daan & Michel & Rik & Jan Willem & a whole bunch of other Puzzling friends from around Europe!

The crowds had thinned out and we headed into town for another great meal on the river – puzzles all over the table, and a rather vocal toy train for some reason. I spent ages trying (and failing) to work out Wil’s mind-reading trick, interrupted only by Steve’s successful solving of the method… must try harder – I now have two sets of those cards and I’m still no closer to working out the method! The meal was great and we headed back to Wil’s where Esther continued the entertainment with a traditional campfire game that had most of us confused for quite a while. Everyone eventually worked it out and the crowds thinned out further as folks with further to travel headed home… we puzzled and chatted and got plied with coffee and chocolates until we finally gave up just before midnight, knowing we had an hour’s drive back to Eindhoven.

Louis got us all back safe and sound and we said our thank-yous and goodbyes. Breakfast was a fairly leisurely affair with Ali and Steve so that we missed the traffic out of Eindhoven – that bit was successful, although we still contrived to find some traffic around Antwerp in late morning – albeit significantly less this time!

We topped up on snacks at the border, getting into Folkestone literally just after we drove onboard the train in Calais, in spite of the now-traditional tailgate snacking on the way back. The drive back up the motorway to Steve’s place was thoroughly uneventful (all the best journeys are!) and soon I was back in my own car heading back to Brum, where the sat-nag once again did a good job of keeping me away from the traffic so I made good time getting home…

An absolutely brilliant weekend away with my mates – Thanks a stack to Ali for doing all the driving, Louis for looking after us the whole weekend and treating us to escape rooms and flea markets, and Wil for hosting another awesome King’s Day party, and dinner! Thank you all for giving me a brilliant weekend’s entertainment.

MPP LCVX

This was another slightly weird one for me: nobody staying for the weekend means I’m getting packed up at home on my own on a Saturday morning before heading down to open up the hall. Ali had let me know that they were going to be late as his car had developed an issue on the motorway, so they’d had to go back and swap cars and drivers…

Thankfully Chris was waiting in the car park when I got there so I had some help setting out the tables and chairs… to be fair, he probably ended up doing most of it while I wandered down to the shops to grab some milk and soft drinks… he's younger and stronger than me!

The gang didn’t take long to start arriving and by the time the lads from London pulled in, we had a goodly mob – there was bantering, a little puzzling and a bit of catching up with folks we hadn’t seen since last year. James had sent his best wishes to everyone, unable to attend as he’d done his back in, and Simon was keeping his carbon footprint low and just sent his best wishes.

Kevin had rather kindly brought me some puzzles that Tye had shipped over in a package to him – ta both - and Michael gave me a copy of his latest symmetry puzzle which I’ve only half-solved. Reminiscent of Bitten Biscuits, it consists of three partial circles with four round holes spread across the pieces. Your symmetry needs to include those holes and there are two distinct solutions… I’m usually absolutely rubbish at symmetry puzzles, but I did manage to find one of the solutions… more Think (c) required.

Dan and I had both had the same idea and printed off a large pile of Bram’s Hinged Cubes to give away. Pretty much everyone ended up taking at least one copy and spending a while playing with them. Not a single person just folded it together into a cube and pronounced it easy… most people managed to eventually fold a cube, usually via several visits to the not-a-solution, and everyone ended up wondering why it was so darned difficult. An experiment that continued back at the house later on, with some more serious attempts at analysis – Bram’s Hinged Cube provided without a doubt the largest amount of puzzling at MPP LCVX! (Thanks Bram for making it available on Printables!)

Amy had brought along her copy of Andrew Crowell’s QuantumTIC and she was in two minds about the elegance of some of the moves and she sought further opinions from folks who hadn’t already solved it… she duly got several folks views and the consensus was that she was the only dissenting voice and that it was indeed a brilliant puzzle! (It's probably the first time she's ever been wrong though.)

The Monkeys had brought along a copy of their latest not-quite-ready-for-distribution design and a few folks had a bit of a play with them – although nobody was stupid brave enough to try taking any of them apart. There was a bit of a chat about the feasibility of nesting them, but that’s probably worth a separate blog post.

Andrew Coles sidled up to me at one point and offered me a copy of his latest Puzzle Lock – which I think I’ve previously seen as a bit of a prototype – cash changed hands and a neat white box was dropped into my crate to take home… no doubt that will feature in a separate blog post shortly too…

I’d taken the Karakuri Christmas presents along for folks to fiddle around with and they all managed to raise a smile as several folks worked their way through all of them in turn – yet again they really are pitched at a lovely level of difficulty: none of them are trivial, most are really fun to solve and they all look smashing! And if they weren’t already all sold out(!), I’d encourage you to sign up for them as they’re also great value for money!

I enjoyed playing with a prototype that Phil’s been fiddling with recently – I suspect I followed his intended solution path as I found myself doing some things I thought should be useful only to find myself slammed up against a brick wall, and when I glanced over at him, he was grinning broadly. That one’s going to be another lovely little puzzle when it’s ready…

Steve Ali had brought along a pile of oddly milled sticks that he reckoned could be “assembled” – so Rich and Chris took up the challenge and settled down at a quiet table and began trying to hold multiple sticks in various orientations dictated by the brief instructions that he'd rather thoughtfully provided. The first couple of attempts ended in a bit of a racket as the sticks fell on the table, but it didn’t take them long to complete the resulting Hybrid Burr. After that, Steve and I played a short game of chicken playing anti-Jenga with it, but we both decided discretion was the better part of something-or-other and left this majestic piece assembled.

I spent a while playing with a dexterity puzzle that Andrew had made for a friend – you’ll notice I didn’t say “solving” in there! At first glance it looked like a fairly exacting pure dexterity puzzle – only the more you played with it, the less you seemed to be able to do what you actually wanted to – and the more strange forces seemed to be trying to stop you… at this point Andrew took pity on me and talked me through some of what I was experiencing and how I could get around those hurdles – but I still couldn’t actually execute the steps required. A couple of minutes in his hands and the puzzle was indeed securely solved… confirming that I am rubbish at dexterity puzzles, particularly really trick(s)y ones! (Damn clever design from Andrew!)

One of the other puzzles that got quite a bit of playtime was Bicolor 1365 – a box-packing puzzle from Koichi Miura. I just loved the fact that there are 1365 solutions with the lid the wrong way around (i.e. colours not matching) and only a single solution to put the lid on the box with the colours matching… several people spent a while trying and mostly managed to find one of the many wrong assemblies – and one or two managed to deduce the unique proper solution – well done!

The pig rolls / kebabs were as good as they always are (although some managed to just miss out!), and the fish supper back at my plaice went down well. Yet more puzzling, including quite a bit do analysing just why Bram’s Hinged Cube seems so hard: no matter what your approach is, you seem doomed to fail.

Thanks to everyone who made MPP LCVX another one to remember!

 

Cast Jam

<Apologies for the hiatus: been feeling rubbish and not doing a huge amount of puzzling – and the little grey cells were definitely not up to writing anything vaguely coherent or passably amusing! I trust both of my readers enjoyed the break.>

Cast Jam is the latest little Hanayama gem designed by Yuu Asaka, the designer of several most excellent acrylic packing puzzles.

Cast Jam presents you with a silver medallion with a curved path engraved into each side and a pair of golden handles that clearly engage in the paths… there’s a single exit on each side of the medallion, and your goal is quite clearly to remove the handles and then return the puzzle to its starting position with the two handles locked in place back-to-back at the top of the medallion. (The handles each have a flat side that needs to be together…)

While the start position appears to be right at one of the exits, Sod’s Law dictates that the other handle is in the way, and there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to get it out of the way… which is interesting.

Start fiddling around with the handles and you’ll find that you can pretty much position them just about anywhere along the paths, but taking them to the other end just presents you with a similar conundrum: sure there’s an exit path, but the wrong handle is in front… 

Great! Time to Think (c).

Somewhere around this time I spotted something interesting in the paths, and I thought I was onto something – so I did a thing and found myself in a really interesting position, where all of a sudden the precise geometry of the non-flat side of the handle was very clearly deliberate, and stopping me from doing what I wanted… so I could get around some of the hurdles I came across, but there was always one stubborn hurdle that refused to yield.

I spent a while exploring this new space – and there’s a lot to explore! You can really do some pretty darned whacky things, and some of them felt really promising, but ultimately I kept coming back to the same spot… and it wasn’t an exit path. 

One thing I noticed was that the design of those two paths is sufficiently similar to keep lulling you into a sense of security that you’re looking at the right maze, when in fact you aren’t! (Is it just me, or has our designer been really sneaky?)

Yet more Think (c) was duly engaged – reserves are severely depleted at this stage.

Surely there must be a way to think about this as some sort of shunting problem… but the key feature you need for that to work, clearly doesn’t… which is interesting, he says again.

And he’s right, it is, and it turns out to be the key to the puzzle. Think it all through and examine things really carefully and a new possibility opens up – pleasingly still requiring all of the unusual discoveries from my side trip up the blind alley.

I really like Cast Jam because it’s an honest, open puzzle. Nothing’s hidden away in the innards – it’s all on display from the get-go… but I’ll wager you a (modest) puzzle that you won’t spot it for quite a while and when you do, you’ll smile at the guile of Asaka-san.  

[Thanks to Steve for yet-again grabbing me a copy of the very latest Hanayama puzzle to keep my collection topped up!]