Orange Roughie Box

After playing with a whole heap of Doog’s boxes when we visited him, I promised myself I’d start adding some of them to the hoard, so when he got hold of me recently to let me know a copy of his new Orange Roughie Box had become available, I sent him some PayPal and he posted it across to Barnt Green.

This one’s part of his fish box series and they share a definite family resemblance – in fact if you put them next to one another, you’d see they all had pretty much the same external features… their solutions on the other hand, could not be more different.

The instructions confirm the lid will slide off and Doog exhorts the solver to only use a tool if the fit is perfect and never use any force…

I started playing and pretty soon found a few interesting things and amassed an embarrassment of tools… despite said embarrassment, I found myself up against a brick wall at this point… the tools I had weren’t perfect for what I wanted to try.

So I spent quite a while trying different things and then gradually letting my standards slip and trying things more and more enthusiastically – we all do that, right?

At some point I found something that hadn’t worked earlier and managed to make a chunk of progress and opened up the box – success! 

Flushed with pride I dropped Doog a note and told him how much I’d enjoyed it and mentioned something about not having used one particular tool… at which point Doog told me I probably hadn’t solved it properly and asked me how I’d done a couple of key steps… and I could sense the disappointment in him when he asked me if I thought I’d followed the instructions properly… and of course I hadn’t.

Back to the drawing board and lock it all up again… this time not allowing exuberance to overcome and being strict on the tool-fit clause… and I discovered there were indeed a couple of layers I’d just totally ignored (by basically butchering things!) – the proper solution is craftily hidden, wonderfully precise and the tools provided are simply perfect (when used in the right places!).

Having solved it properly now, I apologised and told him he definitely had a winner… at which point he asked me if I’d claimed my ORB… and of course I hadn’t… third time’s a charm!

I throw myself back into the box – I’m getting better at solving it now….and head for what I think the treasure is but I still don’t know if I’ve found my ORB… until I do. Doog’s wordplay is well-hidden and deserves to be sought out and earned…

It took me three goes, but I got there in the end – do yourself a favour and follow Doog’s instructions and I’m sure you’ll get there a lot quick than I did by taking my “shortcuts”!

Chuffed to have ORB as my first Doog original – I’ll definitely be foisting this one on unsuspecting puzzlers I come across in the future – it deserves to be played with.

Box 1

Phil Wigfield’s been hand-crafting stunning brass puzzles for ages and he’s had a bit of an itch that he’s been wanting to scratch for a while now: he’s wanted to make a puzzle box… he’s been talking about it on and off and the stars have eventually aligned…

Enter Box 1, a handsome little brass box with a definite Rocky Chiaro vibe about it – which shouldn’t be surprising given just how much the master of brass has inspired our Phil! 

Phil was originally going to call it “Simple Box” as he reckoned that would describe it best… which is interesting because I found the solve anything but…

Back at DCD he’d told us he was planning to tee up some boxes shortly, and then four weeks later he rocked up to MPP with enough copies for anyone who wanted to buy one – which, given the amount of work that goes into each of these little guys, is phenomenal!

I handed over some cash and popped the little black velvet bag into one of my crates to play with the next day (ironically, I always get more puzzling time the day after an MPP for some reason).

It’s a handsome little lump of brass with a prominent hinge and a neatly decorated lid that literally won’t budge – if you put this on a shelf next to your Rocky puzzles, nobody would bat an eyelid – it looks the part.

I spent far too long solving this one! …and when I eventually did and examined the locking mechanism, I was astonished at just how elegant it is – elegant and delightfully exacting – as long as you do exactly the right thing, it will open perfectly, but if you do anything else in between, you will be doomed to fiddle aimlessly for ages… kind of like I did… I definitely got value for money on this solve.

Open the box and you’ll find Phil’s signature and your serial number - #2 for me – Oh and a word to the wise: solve over a table… you’ll thank me!

An excellent first box from Phil – I suspect a lot of us would love there to be a whole series, but judging by the amount of work that Phil’s realised go into these little masterpieces, I’m not totally convinced there’ll be a lot more of them…

Nice 1, Phil!!

The Lost Vault of Jesse James

I held back when this puzzle was first announced as it seemed pretty steep for a 3D printed puzzle box… sure it was designed by Jesse, and I’ve always loved his puzzles, but this one was going to be 3D printed…

And then I started seeing pictures of it in the wild, and it looked phenomenal – especially the metal-infused version – the weathering on the outside looked absolutely stunning…  so I kept an eye on the auction sites and bided my time, letting a few of them go as the prices went beyond what I wanted to pay, and then this one came along and while I paid a bit more than retail, I was happy with the price… and delighted when it arrived in the original well-padded shipping box that Jesse sent them out in.

I’ve already mentioned in another blog post that I had a bit of an issue with one of the locks which Louis managed to finagle open and then fix for me, so I’m not going to talk any more about that, and just talk through the puzzle as it ought to be (and is now!).

Any talk of this puzzle has to start with its looks – it is gorgeous! 3D-printed it may be, but there’s been a shed-load of post processing on those bits to add weight inside the panels and to weather and add rust to the outsides – it looks like an old rusty safe that could well have belonged to the James brothers. There’s an obvious combination lock on the front and an old brass lever to open the door – yup, it’s locked up good. There are a few decorative panels on the sides, with some brass bars across the top of them giving you a tantalising view inside the safe… and on the back there’s some sort of decryption device that maps letters to numbers…

Jesse (B) tells us that our goal is to open the safe and retrieve the ill-gotten loot (and memorabilia) of the infamous 'James Boys' band of outlaws.

He describes this puzzle as not too challenging, but it’s anything but trivial!

Finding a way into the puzzle in the first place took me ages – some of the “features” are so well disguised that you could stare at them for ages and not spot a tell. The first stage in the solution shows you just how well made and hidden the puzzle elements are going to be.

From there, there’s some old-school puzzling and translation before heading on to the main event – now smooth as butter!

Once inside there’s plenty to explore – and to read – with that old bit of newspaper (painstakingly weathered by Jesse’s sister) that teased you from behind the bars (don’t be tempted to try and drag it out between the bars – that’s just being silly, and greedy!) now available. There’s an obvious next goal, only you can’t quite get to it… time to Think (c).

There’s plenty more to be done in there, more little relics to find and then ultimately the final treasure itself – you’ll definitely know when you’ve reached the end on this puzzle – your final treasure is beautifully presented and expertly detailed.

Solving this puzzle feels like a romp through the old wild west – the puzzle elements are brilliantly integrated into the theme and despite my initial apprehension – this thing is stunningly well made and it will be proudly displayed next to my other boxes from Jesse.

An excellent collaboration between Jesse, Christina, and Benjamin.

[...and yes, I've learnt my lesson, trust the designer and don't be a snob!] 

Noodling Box

Eric fuller was a giant among men. Not only as a tall, imposing guy, but often as the bloke with the serious mohawk at our annual puzzle parties. Softly-spoken and an absolute gentleman, he had a rapier-sharp sense of humour and puzzle-chops like nobody’s business. He was a great solver of puzzles, but he had an absolute gift for both designing puzzlers’ puzzles and for selecting interesting designs from others… most people will know him best for the amazing craftmanship in the puzzles he’s been making and selling through Cubic Dissections for years.

The puzzling community lost one of the good guys when he passed away last year – I’m going to miss his larger-than-life personality at IPPs, and I know that there will be thousands of folks who have an Eric-shaped hole in their lives now. My heart goes out to his friends and family who must be missing him so much more than me – hugs to you all.

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Noodling Box was one of the last projects that Eric worked on – he’d spoken about it now and then and it sounded one of those projects that he’d dip back into every now and then, noodle around a bit, and then work on something else… until he thought it was ready to unleash.

The name, apparently comes from the act of catching catfish with one’s bare hands (not one’s bear hands, that’s another sport entirely!) by enticing them out of their underwater caves and then presumably grabbing them. I’m no expert, but I wonder if there’s potentially a more effective way of doing all that… either way, I’m sure that it’s at least partially relevant to the puzzle – or just another of Eric’s jokes on an unsuspecting puzzler.

My copy has an African Teak case with a Quilted Sycamore drawer – at least I assume it’s a drawer as it wiggles a bit, but resolutely won’t open. There are a few noticeable holes around the sides, some of which seem to have something lurking just below the surface (a catfish, of sorts?). The front of the drawer has a round knob with a little bit of a wiggle to it… but again, nothing that seems useful at all…

I end up spending quite a while making absolutely ZERO progress until I notice something worth exploring. One thing leads to another and I find myself in command of a small, but perfectly formed, tool.

At this stage I’m pretty chuffed and I reckon it’ll probably be plain sailing from here on in having finally cracked my way in… disappointment awaits… and I end up contemplating increasing dangerous things that I could do with my little tool, as I try things in turn, none of which seem to be of any use whatsoever…

There’s an obvious place for me to want to get to at this stage, only my tool won’t allow… I spend several days Think- (c)-ing to almost no avail.

Progress finally comes from trying something I hadn’t thought of yet – which is obvious really, until you think of it… only you don’t, and you won’t, because it’s Eric, and he knows exactly how puzzlers think… and then uses that against you, totally.

From there on I manage a bit more sustained progress and actually get the puzzle to where someone who hasn’t come across Eric yet might consider the puzzle to be solved… only you haven’t seen his hanko and there are some as-yet-unexplained noises going on inside the box, and there’s altogether too much space left…

Onwards, and sometimes upwards, until some further discoveries, including at least one that will literally blow your mind and then you’ll have not only the hanko, but also your prize – totally befitting a Noodling Box.

The puzzling journey is beautifully designed with definite stages of discovery along the way – there were two or three times that my head was blown on aspects of the solution. Everything is that precisely made it’s virtually impossible to guess what’s going to be happening until it actually happens

The gang at Cubic have really done Eric proud on this one – well done folks!

 

Keep Locked

I counted myself exceptionally lucky to be able to purchase a copy of Robert Yarger’s thirty sixth numbered puzzlebox – The Keep Locked. Truth be told it arrived several months ago, but I haven’t been able to blog about it until just now…

It arrived a couple of days before Gill and headed off to Boston for a couple of weeks so I managed only a little bit of playtime on a few of the evenings before we flew out. In that time managed to make a little progress but I could see that I was nowhere near completing this E.P.I.C. solve, so I reset it all back to the start position and went off on holiday… and then a few jet-lag-riddled days after we got home, I was heading up to the Northern Puzzle Party, so I made sure that I took the little fortress along with me for others to play with.

Shane ended up supervising several solvers as they wended their way through the solve and I managed to avoid spotting too many spoilers as I really wanted to have a good go at it myself, safe in the knowledge that I was going to really enjoy it.

I deliberately left it alone for a while on my desk and then ended up taking it to an MPP where a few more folks managed to solve it… and then it sat on my desk, sort of in pride of place while I furiously avoided playing with it until I knew I had enough time to really enjoy it… and that time came this afternoon – I had literally an afternoon free, and I wanted to be puzzled – kismet.

This isn’t a small puzzle – it’s more of a statement puzzle – it defies you to have a go – a bit like the 1998 hit from The Mekons. The Keep has four turrets – each colour-coded to the padlocks hanging down from them – I’m guessing that’s not a coincidence. On the front there’s a handsome lion above the heavy doors and portcullis. Around the back there’s a round Stickman logo dancing in the dawn…

I’d seen Rob’s wooden padlocks in the past but these raise the game even further – four locks in different woods – all looking a little different – waiting to be challenged. A few months ago my experience had been limited to fiddling with the locks, so I dived in there again…

Each lock literally has a personality of it’s own, some are polite and formal and others shout and kick… and once they’ve all been dealt with, there are lots of bits and pieces to keep track of.

From there on it was all new territory, and I can definitely say that things get a bit extreme from there on in… there are some seriously funky things that happen along the way, there are times when you’re up a creek without a paddle and you need to pay close attention to find the paddle that Rob’s carefully stashed for you behind some rocks.

As always, there’s a generous sprinkling of tools around and if you’re paying (very!) close attention, it’ll be clear what you need to do – a few times I found myself wondering where to head to next and only when I took stock, did I realise that the answer was right there in front of me all along…

This solve is an EPIC journey – another classic Stickman.