Australian Relief Puzzle Auction

Hey all! This is one of those 'other puzzle related ramblings' posts, but as I'm sure you'll agree after reading it that it is well worth mentioning.

As many of you will already know, Australia's Great Barrier Reef and the people who are living there have become the victims of both Cyclone Yasi and terrible flooding within the space of a single week.

In order to provide aid to the victims of this disaster many of the best puzzle designers, craftsmen and collectors have come together to donate some amazing pieces, some of which you are unlikely to see for sale again in the near future (if at all). This includes puzzles from the 'Stickman' series by Robert Yarger, Stephen Chin, Lee Krasnow and there are likely to be quite a few more added before the auction close date.


All of the money made from the sale of these items will go to helping out people in need in Australia. You will even find that sellers will likely cover the shipping cost as well!

These items are currently being listed on the puzzle auction site PUZZLE PARADISE. Auction items are still being added, and they will continue to be until the close of the auction on 12th of March 2011.

The auction will officially run from the 5th of March until the 12th of March. If you have any puzzles that you would be willing to donate to this cause, or if you want to find some more information on it, then head over to the Puzzle Paradise site. And even if you don't have any puzzles to donate then it would be great if you would consider generously bidding on the items that are there.

Remember that all of the money is going to a very worthy cause!

Thank you, and happy puzzling!

Oli

Wasserhahn (Roger)

As I mentioned in my previous post about Roger D's Propeller, I was lucky enough to get hold of another of his puzzles, and this is it:

This puzzle is called 'Wasserhahn', which unsurprisingly means 'water tap' in German. Just like the Propeller this puzzle is also machined from aluminium, and has a really nice quality finish to it! Wasserhahn is made up of a few more components compared with the Propeller, I'll just go through them quickly now:

The main body is made up of two solid blocks of aluminium which have been screwed together with Allan key bolts. Two 'taps' protrude from the top of the puzzle, and both of these can be screwed in and out. A bronze colour tube protrudes from the front of the puzzle which is bent at 90 degrees, and this turns freely against the main body. You can hear a rattling coming from inside the puzzle but you cannot see what is causing it.

The only things that you can visibly manipulate are the two 'taps' on the top of the puzzle and the tube at the front.

Like all of Roger D's puzzles, working out the objective is also part of the puzzle itself. The puzzle comes with no solution and no instructions.

I really like this puzzle! It probably took me around half a day of on-off playing around to solve it. And when I did eventually work out the solution there really was a very satisfying 'Ah-Ha!' moment.

Once again I would recommend that if you see this puzzle come up for sale then definitely go for it! But unfortunately as Roger's puzzles are quite hard to come by you will have to keep an eye out on some of the puzzle auction sites like Cubic Dissection and Puzzle Paradise.

Also have a look at plenty more examples of Roger's puzzles on Rob's Puzzle Page.

Deja Vu

Here is an affordable reproduction of a classic 'impossible' puzzle design, the 'dovetail box' sold by Puzzle Master under the name of Deja Vu. Thank you very much to Puzzle Master for making this review possible!

When I first show people this puzzle box they don't tend to notice what is so special about it straight away, but once I point out that the dovetail joints are on all four sides of the box then they get more interested. Unless you know how the mechanism works it really does look like an impossible object.

Deja Vu is made of two solid pieces of wood, one of which is stained to really help define the dovetail joints on all four of it's sides.

Obviously the quality is never going to be as good as the dovetail puzzles that are hand crafted by the Sandfield brothers, but at under $12 it is a great reproduction! The internal mechanism is much nicer than I anticipated it would be and it works really well. Plus the fit of the two halves is nice and snug so it doesn't rattle around while you're holding it.

I have been wanting a dovetail joint puzzle in my collection for a while, and I'm really glad that I have this one. It is a great example of a classic puzzle mechanism but for the price you won't mind handing it around for other puzzlers to try out.

Deja Vu is available to buy from Puzzle Master.

Cast Ring

Here's another puzzle that was kindly loaned to me by a friend and fellow puzzler. As you can tell it is another of Hanayama's Cast series, and this one is called the Cast Ring:

The Cast Ring is made up of four pieces; two gold bands and two silver bands. The Ring doesn't fully come apart into it's four separate pieces, the pieces still remain tangled together once they have been disassembled. 

I was actually quite surprised when I held the Ring for the first time because I wasn't expecting it to be as large and heavy as it is. For some reason I was expecting it to be slightly larger than a normal finger ring, but it is in fact quite a bit larger than that! But because it's large it makes it relatively easy to manipulate, and I imagine it wouldn't be quite as fun if it were too much smaller.

When I reviewed the Cast Amour I said that I wasn't a big fan of the gold and silver design, but in the case of the Cast Ring I actually think it works really well. Probably because I'm so used to seeing jewellery in gold and silver that it just looks right. 

This puzzle isn't particularly difficult but it is quite enjoyable. It sits well once it is in the solved position, which also makes it good as a display piece. I think it only took me about 5 or so minutes to solve it, which I don't think really matches up with Hanayama's difficulty rating of level 4 out of 6, but I can see how you could easily get yourself tangled up with it and end up going round in circles. But it is a really good puzzle and definitely worth the reasonable price.

You can buy the Cast Ring (along with all of the other Cast series) from Puzzle Master.

Raketti (The Rocket)

Here is a great little puzzle which only arrived today with several others from the lovely people at Oy Sloyd Ab in Finland, so thank you very much to them for making this review possible!

This curious little thing is called 'Raketti', or 'The Rocket'. But I'm going to call it 'Raketti' because I think it sounds cooler.

It is a very simple looking two piece puzzle made entirely from birch wood (like many of Sloyd's puzzles).The goal is simple; put the two pieces together and place them on a flat surface (as shown in the photo on the left), then all you have to do is remove the centre piece without touching the outer box at all.

As I had come across a variation of Raketti a little while ago I knew roughly what I had to do, but it still took me a good while to work out how to do it reliably.

Even if you are an avid puzzle solver and you know how to solve it I still recommend that you consider having one in your collection. It is one of those puzzles that is perfect to hand around to friends getting them to try it out while you sit there laughing silently at the ideas they come up with to try and solve it. I have seen people try some pretty bizarre things to try and remove the rocket.

Raketti can be found for a very affordable price directly from Oy Sloyd Ab here: Raketti (Sloyd) and is a very welcome addition to my collection.