Otis' thoughts on IPP XLIII

Sadly, I'm still busy finishing up IPP.  So...Otis has given me his permission to post his thoughts here.  Enjoy!  I know I did.  And thank you Otis!

The World Puzzle Center is located in a small town called Panicale in central Italy. It is a really small town with only about 35 year round residents. Believe it or not, the building is actually a 15th-century castle with over 500 years of history! To make things easier, I'll just call it WPC from now on.

On the day we visited, because there were tons of IPP members coming over, the organizers set up a Puzzle Pop-up Store right at the castle entrance. 

The Jar Room: Right after we walk in, we see the entrance hall, which is also called "The Great Wall of China". There are loads of different bottles and cups on display, which belong to the Puzzle Vessels category. You can find cool stuff like Pythagorean cups ("fair cups") and bottom-filling teapots! On the side, they also keep some vintage puzzle collections, like wooden dexterity puzzle boards and different rolling-bean puzzles.

The Lock Room: Just like the name says, this room is all about locks! Three out of the four walls are covered from floor to ceiling with tons of different puzzle locks. From what I saw, the locks here aren't the super pricey ones (because I saw the really expensive ones in other rooms later). But guess what? Here's the funniest part: this room was actually converted from a toilet, and the toilet is STILL working!

The Metal Room: This room displays all kinds of metal puzzles. There are common commercial ones, rare editions, and of course, super valuable collectibles! For example, the Roger D aluminum puzzle series in the bottom-left photo is a legendary set.

The Wood Room: A room full of wooden puzzles, mostly Interlocking puzzles. Some cool examples are Mjölnir made by Stephan Baumegger, and a camera-shaped Sequential Discovery puzzle made by Pelikan. And of course, you can't miss the famous wooden puzzles from Czech Vinco!

The Twistypuzzles Room: This was definitely one of the most mind-blowing rooms of the whole trip! All four walls are literally covered in Rubik's cubes—you are completely surrounded!  (NB: I think this was his favorite room. But he didn't photograph the bathroom.)

I picked some of the rarer and cooler ones to take photos of, like the Gundam Head series, the Massage Ball (which was never mass-produced), and some awesome masterpieces by Smaz.

The Plastic Room: This room is for all the plastic puzzles that aren't Rubik's cubes. The amount of stuff here is crazy too! There are all kinds of Instant Insanity puzzles, 3D puzzles, rolling ball mazes, and sliding block puzzles.

The Single Player Puzzle Room: Generally speaking, children under age of 18 are not allowed to enter the WPC unless they are invited. The Italians, however, always bring their children along. This is a cozy little lounge where guests can take a short break and play various single-player games. Next to it is a Hanayama room, which houses a whole collection of various cast puzzles. 

The Lego Room: Who doesn't like Lego? This room consists of many different toys made of Lego and nanoblocks all built by Rox.  Some of the children in town are allowed to enter the lego room and build, but only in this room. 

The Crystal Room: This room is all about the Crystal Puzzle. There’re every crystal puzzle made by Hanayama, Jeruel, Beverly and a few other chinese companies. All are made of transparent plastic blocks that you put together to make 3D cartoon characters. From what I know there’s only 2 missing from Russia, and also a few prototypes. Look at how many cabinets they need to display everything! To make the transparent puzzles look extra shiny and cool, they made the lighting in this room a bit dimmer. The vibe was awesome! (NB: this room is lit with black lights 24/7 as many of the puzzles glow!)

The IPP Room: Since our hosts, Rox and George, are both IPP members, they obviously collect tons of IPP puzzles! This room shows off the exchange puzzles from past IPP events over the years. They even have a souvenir puzzle from the very 1st IPP! So historic!

The Oskar Room: Oskar van Deventer is like a superstar in the puzzle design world, so of course he deserves his own dedicated room! This room has all kinds of puzzles from him—mass-produced ones, his own 3D-printed creations, and even some test prototypes. Honestly, I only realized I forgot to take a wide shot of the whole room when I started writing this... I guess I took way too many photos that day and my brain just froze!

While exploring different parts of the castle, we kept finding super rare and amazing puzzles hidden in different corners!

• For example, the Craig Thibodeau Golf Chest (top-left photo) is a custom puzzle piece of furniture made just for Rox. This big wooden chest has lots of drawers that open with different secret mechanical triggers. So fun!

• The little house in the top-right photo is called the Puzzle Palace. It's a super detailed Sequential Discovery puzzle made to look exactly like Rox and George's old house! Apparently, when they first had the idea for the World Puzzle Center, they turned their home into the original "Puzzle Palace". Later on, they moved to Italy, but that's a story for another time!

• The middle-right photo is the Apothecary Chest. It's an ultra-detailed puzzle made by several puzzle designers working together, and there are only 15 sets in the whole world!

• The metal sculptures in the bottom-right photo are the famous Berrocal puzzle series, which puzzle collectors go crazy over.

  Finally, the middle photo is a jigsaw-style puzzle of Notre-Dame de Paris made by Jan Zoon. It is made of 7,438 individual pieces! It actually won an award back then, so it's one of the top treasures in WPC. 

  
  

  

  WPC isn't just about puzzle displays; they even have a Library! It's filled with books about puzzles and math. We were happy to spot a Chinese book called Qu Wan (趣玩), written by our friends Zhang Wei and Peter!

  
  

  

  The castle itself has so many cool little details. Almost every corridor lamp has a different design—some look medieval, some look like disentanglement puzzles, and some are geometric math models! Walking through the courtyard, you might see a mini gym; around the corner, you might find artwork made from a twisted rug; walking downstairs, you might end up in a "dragon's lair". In one of the living rooms, we even saw a castle-shaped wooden craft that Yuan gave to George years ago.

  
  

  

  Since George Miller is a professional puzzle prototyper, he obviously has his own workshop. We saw a bunch of 3D printers (mostly Bambu Lab), paper cutting and bookbinding tools, xTool laser engravers and cutters and more. He literally has every tool you could ever imagine!

  
  

  

  Even though WPC is huge, there were SO many people visiting that day—we had almost 300 people! Plus, there were so many fun things to play with in every room, so the whole tour took quite a while. Besides chatting and taking tons of photos, some people joined to assemble a 3D interlocking puzzle designed by George Hart, while others tried to solve the Puzzle Palace.

  
  

  

  We stayed there for 8 whole hours, and even then, we only barely managed to walk through every room once! After visiting, I honestly think the name "World Puzzle Center" is not an exaggeration at all—it 100% deserves the title! I really don't think there is anywhere else on Earth with such a massive and amazing puzzle collection, let alone a place that lets people actually touch and play with them! This trip to the WPC  is definitely the most unforgettable memory of our whole Italy trip!

  
  

  (NB: ChatGPT Translation: Dear Rox & Xixi,

  It has been a wonderful experience to see your city transformed into such an amazing puzzle event. From the very first moment we arrived and saw your collection of more than 40 puzzle exhibits, we could already feel the happiness and passion that puzzles have brought into your lives.

  Although our time here was short—only about 31 hours and 8 hours of sleep—it was enough to make us truly appreciate your care and dedication. We enjoyed listening to the stories behind each of the 40+ puzzles and learning about the city's puzzle culture.

  Thank you for your thoughtful preparations for this IPP and for arranging such a warm and memorable gathering.

  We wish your city continued prosperity and hope it becomes a place of honor for the puzzle community.

  From: Your friends

  (Drawing of Italy)

  WORLD PUZZLE CENTER

  SPECTACULAR!
  MAGNIFICENT! ❤️)

  
  

  Thank you Otis for such a wonderful writeup. 

  
  

  
  

Puzzle day in HK

It seems I've been so busy of late that I haven't had much time to blog.  When I do make the time, it's been after a puzzle meet-up and today's post is no different.

My dear friend Otis returned to HK to visit the rather large rubber duckie we have currently stationed in our harbour.  While he was in town, he gave a shout out and asked if Michael and I would like to join him for a puzzle exhibition/talk.  Of course I jumped at the chance to see my old friends and we agreed to meet in the shopping center across from my uni.

I felt very pleased this time around,  it was the first time I was able to lead others to a puzzle location!  Usually I just tag along in a daze wondering when we'll get there and trying hard to not ask.

The day started out with breakfast at McDonald's/food court.  As is typical, we brought along puzzles to play while we ate.  I had the butter churn loaner f  rom Jerry and a few that I'd recently gotten in from various places, and Otis brought along his usual 3x3x3 and an orbik!  Mine is buried so it was nice to see one again.  After we filled our tummies we headed over across the road to the Heung To middle school.  Apparently this is the third year the school has been running this exhibition.

When we arrived, the show had already started.  There was some kind of registration that SmaZ told me to sign.  Seems that since I'm an educator, I got a certificate of some sort for showing up. Ok.  More for the end-of-year-self-criticism.  Although I think it is just another of these EDB training initiatives....

Otis told me in advance there was a Hanayama designer and inventor giving some sort of talk on puzzles.  All he knew was the guys name was Wong.  He was betting on someone being brought in from Japan, I was guessing it was Kyoo.  One point for Rox!  He gave a nice talk on the history of IPP and some of the things that happen inside the mysterious rooms.  Then he went on to discuss a few puzzles he invented that could be used in educational environments.  Overall, it was quite interesting to listen to.

Once the talk was over, we went and looked at a few of the puzzles that were on display.  There were more than a few that I don't have, and really enjoyed playing with them.  It was nice because I had a chance to play with a few and that helped me decide which ones not to purchase. We wandered around for around an hour looking at these, and listening to the owners tell us where they purchased the puzzles and at what cost-talk about making a girl feel jealous!  It seems I'm not the only puzzle hunter in HK.

recent purchases

Otis mentioned something about a sale on Hanayama puzzles and went running over to the sales table and made a few purchases of puzzles needed and puzzles to give away.  In the mean time Katherine came over and hugged Otis, Michael, and Kyoo.  Which was a good thing, because once that happened, was handed a few Hanayama's that I don't have, and was allowed to solve for a while.  As always, no photos and no hints on what is up and coming, but I think you'll enjoy the next two or three to hit the market.

Kyoo very nicely gave Katherine two puzzle kits that we will attempt to put together when I get over this sickness that she's brought home.  Just looking at them, I think when they are done they will be a packing puzzle.  But the real puzzle is to work out how to make them.  You see, there are no instructions inside.

The day started for us around 10:30, and by lunch we took a walk over to the University to grab a go box.  Lunch was in one of the classrooms and Katherine got a real eye opener on the difference between her overpriced international school and the local version of the same grade.

After lunch we went back into the hall to play with puzzles!  There were around 10 or so tables with puzzles on them to play.  Silly me didn't count!  I was tickled because I saw a few more people I know from years gone.   One teacher showed me how to solve cast rattle-which Otis was able to solve, but yet again I couldn't. I also met an older puzzler from whom I ordered a puzzling necklace which I hope to get in time for IPP.

We spent the next 4 hours or so just moving from one table to another playing with puzzle after puzzle.  It was a real treat for me because there were so many students there puzzling!  And better still, as one group left, another came in.  There were kids from primary school all the way through form 4.  (7-16 years old)  I enjoy watching children puzzle away.  Even my own self-proclaimed puzzle hater got in on the action and played for a while.  Sadly she was ill so I had to take her to the train and send her home early.

As always when this happens, I was thrilled when I was handed a couple of puzzle gifts.  The first was a disentanglement designed by one of the students from the school.  The second was a new take on an old puzzle:  Tangrams!

When day was done, SmaZ, Otis and I all went out for a nice sushi dinner.  Otis solved a puzzle I was given (again, not showing them yet!)  And then solved another!  All in all, even though it was an incredibly long day (12 hours!) it was great fun.  I look forward to next years puzzle display.