The first puzzle of 2015.

It's hard to choose a first puzzle of the year.  I have so many that I have picked up over the past year, and so many more that I have not played with.

This past weekend has found me cleaning out all of bugs childhood toys and games, and playing many many more with her.  We've taken on a new set of games.  Big kid games.  But I still can't get the kid to puzzle with me.  She's just not like her mom in that respect.

I've spent the last 3 hours catching up on blog posts that I haven't read over the past 4 or 5 months.  My god you boys do write!  And I adore you all for it.  Thank you for keeping a girl from death by boredom tonight.

So my puzzle?  Hinged cube.  I was given this as a gift from a very dear man, and have subsequently decided to make some for my friends.  I have this boys and toys coming up and I want to bring along a little something for my friends.  The object of it is to form a cube our of the 8 pieces.  I'm sure the boys will make short work of it.  They are much better at solving puzzles than I am.

Many moons ago Mr. Fok had produced a bunch of small cubes that he handed out like candy to us puzzlers.  Most used them to make soma cubes, or easy burrs. Me?  I tossed them in a bag and didn't look at them again until I was given the hinge cube.  I decided that these would work perfectly with a bit of electricians tape and an exacto knife.  5 hours later and I have puzzles to hand out to the boys.  Simple, not well made, but a token.

Why?  Well, I've a trip to GZ for work (what else) and my puzzle friend from Germany is coming over for the fair.  We decided to have a boys and toys in his honor and what the heck, the guys often give me gifts-it's my turn.  (Ok, so I bring them toys every now and again when I travel and they get puzzles when I come back from IPP but....)

So I set up an assembly line as can be seen above. 8 cubes, a bunch of electricians tape and 10 minutes later we have a puzzle.  5 hours later, we have 30 puzzles.

 Now I know this puzzle design was patented in 2013, but I used electricians tape, not hinges, and I've no intention of selling it, and I don't expect any of these puzzles to make it past the night I give them out, and while the patent shows some hinged puzzles, there are many more it doesn't show so while I'm no patent expert, I wonder about the validity.... Anyway, as I said I'm not selling them and they are truly disposable puzzles.  After about 10 twists, they will fall to bits in the boys hands.  But hey, it's the thought that counts, and who knows....maybe they will come up with a better design, or better yet, a new puzzle!