Variations on a theme

Last time I saw Wil Strijbos, I bought a couple of intriguing Kamei boxes from him … he’d let me know he had a few Japanese boxes that he thought I’d be interested in, and he was right.

The first one was a souvenir produced for the 2012 Karakuri Puzzle Festival in Hakone. Expansion I was the first in an increasing set (I know!) of variations on a theme – I’d seen one or two of the latter variants so I knew more or less what to expect. Shaped a bit like a burr, it doesn’t look like a typical Japanese puzzle box, and in fact, if you treat it like one, you’ll never get it open… however, with the name as a clue it opens in a single, simple movement. 

Thankfully I didn’t open it until I was safely at home at my desk because opening it leaves you with a pile of pieces that all look pretty similar. After making sure that I’d found all there was to find inside (I wasn’t going to overlook a spare compartment in my haste to put it back together again!) I set about putting it back together again… and there starteth the real puzzle!

 Putting this thing back together again is a real sod … while some of the later variants have a simple and elegant mechanism to open and close again, this one opens and promptly self-destructs, leaving you to try and reassemble the bits … and even if you manage to keep some of the bits together, introducing the last one or two pieces is still a mission…

Wil had asked me what I thought of it subsequently and I described it as pretty simple to take apart but a bit of a sod to put back together again … Wil then sought confirmation from Japanese puzzle box guru Jan Willem, who in turn confirmed that it was a sod to put together again… so don’t just take my word for it!

Expansion VI is a totally different beast! I’d seen a copy of this one at James Dalgety’s place and we’d talked about the fact that the movements weren’t quite as smooth as the usual Karakuri boxes – although in fairness, this one has a rather complex set of pins and tracks that give it a pretty decent 83 moves to open the box.

You do need to make sure that the panels are properly aligned before you try and move the next one, but there’s a lovely simple set of moves that gets progressively longer and longer to open each successive panel, before finally being able to remove one of the panels entirely … although you then need to backtrack a bit in order to get the box itself opened.

It is a bit fussy and it would probably frustrate a muggle as you wouldn’t know whether the panel should be moving or not so you might not realise that you were trying to do the right thing, it’s just that one of the panels isn’t quite lined up properly.

In spite of the fussiness, I still like it ... Chinese Rings, in a box – smashing!

Karakuri binge

[This blog post comes to you from somewhere off the Swedish coast in the Baltic Sea ... if this works...]

...recently I’ve been on a bit of a Karakuri box binge...  it started out reasonably cheaply when I picked up a New Secret Box III (among a number of other nice little puzzles from Japan) for a smashing price.

On the outside it’s a reasonably handsome looking box with three stripes on it (for III – the other versions have one and two stripes respectively). It’s a fairly simple box conceptually – each panel needs to be moved, in the right order, all around the box ... and you need to work your way around the box three times (hence III, again) – there are no particular tricks to it as each panel successively unlocks the next, and so on, until the final move releases the lid which then slides open.

Inside the box is a little thing of beauty! Wonderfully made and a terrific introduction to Japanese puzzle boxes for anyone who hasn’t seen one yet – the complexity of the pieces and their accuracy is a lovely thing to behold...

I also picked up a Kamei Dice Box from Satomi – the price was simply too good to resist adding one to the collection. I know there’s a clue in the name but this one looks like a giant dice (die? Any pedants out there?) except that the numbers haven’t quite been lined up properly – you know – opposite sides don’t add to 7 ... how sad am I that that’s the first thing I spot about this box?!

Turns out that’s vaguely useful ... he said, dropping in a little clue ... I like the way this box opens –totally unique opening mechanism.

Next up is a few boxes resulting from a recent Karakuri Club email announcing some new puzzles... I opted for two of the new ones and a copy of an older design that I hadn’t added to my collection yet.

Byway Secret 2 by Hiroshi Iwahara is not a new puzzle by any measure but it is a classic! I’d had the pleasure of playing with a couple of them in the past, but I thought I needed to have one in my own collection, so given that I was going to be getting a couple of things from the Karakuri folks, I added a copy to my order...

It starts out like a really simple puzzle box with the top sliding open in a couple of moves ... except it’s a lot shallower than you’re expecting it to be and there’s a raised plate on the bottom with some Japanese writing on it... not sure if there’s a clue to the next move in that writing or not, but some closer examination leads to the interesting twist that makes Byway Secret a rather interesting little puzzle box ... and another 10 moves sees the main compartment come open.

 

Ring Box by Hideaki Kawashima is a little gem – one of the new boxes on offer, it’s made of ancient keyaki wood with a lovely green colour to it and it literally looks exactly like a classic little ring box. There’s a little card in the box that helpfully tells you that your goal is to remove the ring ... and that actually is important as you might be tempted into thinking that you’ve finished before you actually have... I was!

While this one looks like a ring box and all the visual clues tell your brain that it should open like a normal ring box – it won’t. (Yip, first thing I tried!) Hunting around you’ll find that in a couple of moves you can open the top and see a ring nestling inside. (Yip, it looks like a traditional ring box in there!) I was tempted to think that I’d finished – until Neil pointed out that the ring was held firmly in place and it wasn’t budging!

Cool ... I like that – little bit of a teaser ... set back to work again and a few more moves and the ring is now released...

I really like this little box – especially the fact that it teases you in the middle like that ... gives you a sniff of victory and then makes you try harder...

The other new puzzle is a fresh design from Akio Kamei called Three Sticks. The web-site’s description explains that the craftsman’s intention was to create a puzzle that looks just like three sticks... and he’s succeeded (!).

These matching sticks in walnut, oak and magnolia have markings branded on one face and they do literally look like three nicely finished sticks ... in fact if it weren’t for the fact that some of them feel a little lighter than you might expect, you’d be tempted to actually believe that they were just a set of sticks.

Going to work on them you soon realise that one is a fairly traditional puzzle box mechanism except for the fact that the seams are wonderfully well disguised ... another is a pretty unusual mechanism – not that tricky but a little surprising and again, you’d be hard-pressed to spot any tell-tale signs of what’s going to happen – even when you’re looking in the right spot! ... and the third one achieves exactly what the craftsman has set out to do – perfectly!

...the third chapter in my latest Karakuri binge is all Wil’s fault! I picked up a Kamei Money Box and a couple of String Boxes by Fumio Tsuburai as I didn’t yet have any of them in my collection and Wil had some spares available for sale.

 

The Money Box is another little gem of a box ... it looks like a rosewood money box with a slot in the top and some experimentation will lead you to believe that the bottom might just be a sliding panel... but nothing you do at this point will get that box open! You will need to make use of it, properly, and completely – and at that point the base will magically slide open – I love the fact that the only way into the box is to use it ... and it will open when it’s good and ready – but not until then.

The Christmas 2011 String Box has a single piece of string with a pair of wooden beads on its ends running through the base of the box – some sort of a locking mechanism steadfastly stops the top from being released until you work out the combination of tugs and moves required to release the latch ...locking it up again is a simple matter of replacing the lid. Neat!

The Christmas 2012 String Box has a pair of brightly coloured cords coming out of the four sides of the base – tugging them in various combinations and orders sometimes gives a different feel ... and learning how to string (sorry!) a series of useful moves together in a combination is the secret to opening this box ... and it’s a lot trickier than the previous year’s String Box ... in fact I happen to know that it kept some real puzzlers at bay for several weeks... so it can’t be that easy! Oh, and locking it back up again requires most of the same moves, in reverse...

OK ... that’s probably enough to confess to at this point, so I won’t mention the latest round of offers from the Karakuri Club ... :-)

Midlands Puzzle Party #9

Saturday saw a bunch of the usual suspects meeting up in Warwick for MPP9. A couple of old friends showed up as well as a bunch of new faces... in spite of the foul weather that the Met office managed to conjure up for us!

I rocked up a few minutes late having had to stop on the motorway to remove a precariously dangling wing mirror, only to come across a chap who’d parked his 1-series in the central barrier at speed (he was fine) and managed to get two lanes of said motorway closed... so by the time I’d arrived, several folks were already there and unpacking, the tea, coffee and nibbles were already laid out and there was nothing left for me to help with... so I unpacked some puzzles, made a cup of coffee and piled into the banter, puzzling, and ritual winding up of Kevin, Oli and whoever happened to be nearest at the time.

I’d taken a bunch of Stickmen along under strict instructions from newcomer Jamie (“Bring your most precious Stickmen and the puzzles you took to Peter Hajek’s place!” was the direct quote I believe – how could I refuse?)   - and several folks had a go at them over the course of the day. I got a huge kick seeing the smile on Vadim’s face (he of TP-forum-fame) when he solved the Stickman Sliding Tile Box from scratch, finding both compartments without any prompting.

A few of the guys had a go on the Checkmate Box – I’d suggested they don’t bother trying without the solution in front of them and Oli managed to navigate his way through solving one half of the box ... but I suspect he was the only one who managed it on the day.

Joe had brought along a great selection of John Devost’s packing puzzles and I spent a while working on one of the Coffin designs, and got absolutely nowhere. (Nope, I’m not surprised either!) He’d also made up a bunch of braided dollar bills that he was dishing out to anyone who showed the slightest interest in them or in the impossible folded cards he had on display.

Bruce had brought along a fearsome collection of hedgehog puzzles, ranging from Wil’s Prague Special, through a series of wooden and aluminium traditional hedgehogs, up to a set of highly colourful and extremely funky Japanese creatures in cages.

Kevin had brought some of the bounty he’s been buying from Bernhard (and there were some beautiful wooden pieces among them!) along with some of the unusual twisty puzzles he’s been playing with and blogging about recently ... and watching some of the less timid (or more twisty?) puzzlers playing with some of the shape-shifting designs I was reminded of just how rubbish a puzzler I am – shape-shifting twisty puzzles scare the daylights out of me!

Nigel’s table looked like a veritable Wil Strijbos exhibition – nicely themed with professional-looking labels for each puzzle – with just about every recent (and not so recent!) Strijbos cola bottle, aluminium puzzle and dovetail out for the world to play with. 

Chris had brought a selection of the more unusual puzzle boxes in his collection to show Satomi, one of our guests for the day, some of the more interesting Japanese puzzle boxes out there. Satomi has recently begun selling Japanese puzzle boxes locally and a few of the guys were recommending her great service and pretty competitive prices. 

Ali had brought along a set of memory drawers that we all had a play around with (how the heck does it remember?!) and a few of the guys brought their Super-Cubi’s along for a group photo with the King... how often do you see that? 

Satomi’s table generally had a bunch of people clustered around it having a rake through the puzzle boxes she had for sale and judging from some of the pics of loot that various folks have already posted, I suspect she did OK out of it. 

Ali brought the entire collection of Rocky bolts, Popplocks and a bunch of other very fine puzzles. 

Several KCubes made an appearance although nobody had a serious go at Steve’s 3000-odd move one. Several folks had brought along various Revomazes in Neil’s stunning clear sleeves and there were plenty of admiring noises from those that hadn’t received theirs yet ... it was fun watching Joe solve my Gold without the benefit of the combination code... :-) 

Steve Nicholls has clearly been exercising his 3D printer and had a crate-full of printed puzzles for sale, including a couple of the very latest super-high level burrs that have literally only just been published! A couple of those found their way to a good home ... and I couldn’t resist a psychedelic peanut and a rather patriotic-looking CubeBurr before I had a root around in Steve’s crates of spare puzzles – anything for a fiver! – and helping myself to a bunch of heavy metal entanglement puzzles (that I’m rubbish at!). 

Steve’s copy of Ned Kelly got a thorough dismembering courtesy of Adin – who did significantly better than Chris and I had managed at James’ place a little while back when we could only get as far as ripping his chest open...

Things only really started to wind down at about 6pm – after we’d been going for 9 hours solid! I reckon that says a lot about what happens when a bunch of puzzlers get together and someone throws in some random puzzles. 

As Gromit might say “That were another grand day out.”