You never know what you'll find in HK shops-perpetual puzzles

I've done a couple of YouTube videos on these puzzles and my shock at finding them. But by now I shouldn't be surprised to find puzzles when I go out. What should surprise me is the type and number of puzzles I can find. I'm a twisty gal at heart, but I don't discriminate, and this posting will attest to that.

So here's two shops finds for you....

And what have we got here? Three Moku moku puzzles from Artbox in Japan, and three puzzles from Lagoon games (Uk originally)

I'll start with the Japanese Puzzles. I found these in a street stall when waiting for Uwe the other day. He is notoriously late-we always plan for 6, but he forgets the traffic that time of day, and Rox of course always remembers and gets there for the appointed dinner time only to wait as usual. So what do I do? Why take a walk around and see if I can spot anything new. These are wooden Jigsaws. Easily done right? Yes. I was hoping they would be along the difficulty lines of the bantam eggs, but sadly, they are just slide jigsaws that really aren't that well cut when I look at them. I put together the coffee cup, and the base is one of those 4 piece puzzles that need to be twisted just the right way to stay in place. Sadly, it's just not tight enough to do that, so it sits on my shelf with sticky tape on the bottom. The globe and the ice cream can wait. But on the plus side, they have a wonderful smell!

On to Lagoon games. I was waiting for Mr. B. so we could have our Saturday night Corona's in the square and dang it all if I wasn't way too early again...so as usual, I started to wander around the area. This time I was in East TST and my meanderings led me to a shopping mall called K11. I noticed there was a Dymocks in there, and that book store usually carries puzzles so in I went.

Up the first escalator wasn't so bad, and the second was ok. By the third I was shaking and needed to find a lift to get up one more floor. I'm not afraid of heights really, but I'm afraid of wide open spaces at heights, and that looking down 4 floors from the side of the elevator was enough to have me quaking. But lucky for me, I found a little shop that was full of gizmos so in I went to get past that bit of nerves I had just encountered.

Ok, so inside they had about 4 different wooden puzzles from Lagoon games, 3 versions of the perpetual puzzles, some illusion jigsaws and a couple of animal stacking jigsaws for kids. Well, since those jigsaws packed a hefty price tag-right around US$50 and they were nothing more than animals sitting on other animals, I passed. The illusion jigsaws while interesting were nothing more than a jigsaw.

Perpetual puzzles, there were three versions available-a cat, a dog, and the parrots that I picked up. Not cheap that is for sure, but not overly expensive and the bug enjoyed the most difficult challenge of no beaks and no tails and no bodies of the same color. It kept her quiet for a couple of hours last night. (and anything that can do that is worth its weight in gold!)

Alcatraz was designed by Ronald Kint-Bruynseels. He of the IPP design competition trophy fame (seriously! he's famous!) Ok, so Alcatraz. I can't tell you anything about it other than it looks to have 7 pieces, 6 of which form a burr and the 7th is the 'prisoner' that needs to escape. I haven't had the time to play with it yet, but it looks like it will be a bit of fun when I do get that time....

Now the Caged knot I have played with. I've seen photos of this one on various webpages and have always wanted one. When I saw it in that shop I didn't think twice and added it to my bag. It's nice. The puzzle was designed by Tom Jolly. For a mass produced puzzle, it's still nice. There are a few sharp edges, and I can see the glue overflow, not all the bits are lined up properly, but it's still a nice challenge. And a challenge it is. It took me a while to solve it (about 3 minutes), and an even longer while to unsolve it. Thanks Tom for letting them do a nice cheap version of this one. Well, cheap as in US$20 more or less.

Videos of Caged knot and Alcatraz can be seen on my YouTube channel. (Including one of me breaking a puzzle!)

As I was trying to solve the puzzle, I ran into a bit of a problem. The pieces came out with no problem. Getting it back together is the real puzzle. This is usually the case isn't it. Big problem though. Earlier I mentioned that the bits weren't exactly lined up. So when I attempted to put the puzzle back together-the burr back into the cage, those tight misaligned pieces had a bit of an accident and one piece snapped. Well, now I have the puzzle of finding wood glue. Does anyone know how to say that in Chinese?????

Too many puzzles, too little time....

I hate that I have a job and have to work for a living. I jest. I love what I do, it just doesn't leave me with much time to play with my toys. I wish I had more. Time that is....well no, toys. Oh heck. Both!

Today I had a great day. It was one of those days off when I did nothing but lay around in bed doing more of nothing. That lasted for all of about 10 minutes. I simply can't stand to lay around and do nothing. So I got up, cruised around Rob's page for a bit. Checked out the blog updates-thank you Oli, Neil, and Allard. Slapped a few fingers over on TP, teased David Litwin for a bit, read for a while on renegade...and then grabbed a few puzzles and made some videos.

Boredom struck again around 2 so I found a book to read and attempted (but did not manage) to take a nap. So I went to pick up the bug...a nice run down the hill and a half hour wait for her bus.

And all the while I was thinking about having too many puzzles I want to play with and not enough time to play with them. So here we go. I'm going to give you a photo or two of what I mean.

Oh that is a nasty photo isn't it? What about this one? A bit better?
Yes, I know there are copies in there that aren't Hanayama, yes I know there are duplicates, yes I know I am missing one or two....

First, Hanayama. And nails. And wire. So which to choose.

Easy. Alcatraz! It's a dog puzzle. Have you ever played with this one? And what does she mean by a dog puzzle? Well here's an insane story for you-but true.

When I still lived in Texas (good lord that's almost 20 years ago now) I had a beautiful husky. Now this dog was a typical husky in that he hated to be left alone. Leave him outside? I don't think so. The neighbors wouldn't stop calling. I couldn't leave him at home because when I did I would come back to torn up furniture. Same goes for the truck (yes, I had the prerequisite jacked up truck when I lived there) I left him inside the truck one day when I went to grab a coffee and came back to having no back seat. So in the end, the beautiful but insane dog had to be given to a lovely family who had a farm and a lot of land for him to attack.

Oh my, the puzzle. Right. So it's an easy one. But in the beginning I couldn't solve the silly thing. It sat on my table for ages then one day THE DOG came loping in the house, knocked it off the table and solved the puzzle-since that time, any puzzle that has one of those head slapping (is this called face palming?) solutions is a dog puzzle. (I have quite a few)

And there it is, all solved by myself without the help of a dog...

I had the opportunity to visit the Hanayama factories a couple of years back and it was a thrill a minute for me. George Miller was with us, but sadly Oskar got sick in Tokyo and couldn't make the trip. (Can you all hear me saying next year...) Well that didn't stop us, and you can see photos of the trip here. When we were there, I picked up a copy of cast quartet. Literally. I picked it up out of a box of bits that was about to go in the tumbler. Now Kyoo was very nice and let me keep all 5 pieces of the puzzle. 5 you say? yep. And don't ask me why. He never did tell me why I needed 5, and since it has since been released, I'm pretty sure he was taking the piss. Nice guy though. Anyway, a while after we got back to HK, I went over to the office to pick up a few more that I didn't have, and he gave me another unfinished version of the cast loop puzzle. This one is 2 toned, but not polished up yet. Yet another nifty puzzle.

The quartet has two different solutions, and the loop has one that I know of. And why you ask are these puzzles being presented together? Why they are all 3 of them dog puzzles. I hear Homer Simpson shout DOH! every time I take them out. The quartet I took home that same summer and my brother managed to solve it within about 2 minutes, then my dad did it as well! Ok, DOG puzzle. I mean they never play with puzzles. The cast loop? I had it at a filming thing I did and the camera man, again, a non-puzzler solved it within seconds, as did a 9 year old kid. Puzzle master calls the quartet a 10 and the loop a 7 in their difficulty scale. I'm not so sure about that.

Which brings me to the next puzzle. Cast marble. I like this one. It is so tiny you just can't help but think it is going to be a doddle. Now this one is great because it naturally has a turn to it when you first lift it up. And yep, that's what everyone tries to do with it. Turn that bit. Gotcha! NOT! I love it. And yes, I was taken in by that little twist too. But when you see the solution...when it finally dawns on you....it's amazing. Really. It's a great puzzle and I'll say no more.

As for the wire puzzles? Well, there are just so many of them that I really don't know what I have anymore. I have soda cans (puzzle cans that is) filled to the brim with them. The batch seen here are all in a box with my Hanayamas. When I send puzzles home to the nephews, or on to a few young lads I've been chatting with for a couple of years now, there are always copies of these in there. Wire puzzles here I'm afraid are a dime a dozen...ok, not a dime, but around US$3 for 4 of those big ones. Cheap enough for me to pass around to the kids. They like them and hey, they have even started to ask for a few puzzles. My job is done!

So what did I do the rest of the day? Why ordered more puzzles. What else would I do?

SmaZ!

Oh I can tell already this is going to read like an advertisement and it's honestly not intended to be that way.

I started off these twisty posts (not because that's what I like best...or was it?) with a tribute if you will indulge me to my friend Frank. Well, as long as I'm thinking of friends, I may as well write about one of my 'oldest' puzzle friends. So there you have it folks, I'm not writing about SmaZ because I like his puzzles or he's a great builder, I'm writing about him because he's OLD!

I'm sure I've written somewhere before about how long I've known Michael Li aka SmaZ. I'll bore you with a reminder anyway. I guess we met around 1998-1999 when he had a little shop in a shopping mall way out in the middle of nowhere. As with puzzling and puzzlers and such over the years we lost touch and got reacquainted later. That was great news for both of us I think....or at least I hope. We've become good friends since then and have more than just puzzles in common (we both like beer and to 'let our hair down' in Guangzhou with the boys) ok. I'll be serious.

I'm not sure when I first asked Michael to make me a puzzle. NO, that's not true. I do remember. He was in TinHau and I wanted a card suit Sudoku type puzzle he made. He wouldn't sell it to me because he couldn't solve it. Well after a lot of pestering I finally got my puzzle and a few more. He sold me more than one 'rare' puzzle he picked up lord knows where. So at first I was just buying premade mass produced puzzles from him.

Then one day I saw him cutting away at something. A rather large 3x3x3 if I remember. And that started it all!

I asked for a axis cube, and for a Fisher's cube, and we got onto a discussion about jelly cubes and then we went on and on and on. I'm pretty pleased to say that I (think) own all but 2 of Smaz's puzzles. I don't have his square 1 pyramid, or the Luxor cube. The rest...THEY ARE ALL MINE! (ok, bragging done)

Today when I was in my office I decided to take some photos of SmaZ's puzzles (I found myself with nothing to do and none of my co-workers would play with me). They all rest comfortably amongst my books over at the office. Puzzles, not co-workers. Co-workers just steal the books. The puzzles aren't the greatest security guards.

What we have here are just a number of 3x3 variations. (SmaZ's puzzles are all over my office, on my shelves, in my cabinets, under the bed...) three worth noting are the 3x3x5 that he made for me last year. I ordered this one almost a year before that, and SmaZ did make them...just not for me. I've come to expect a lot from custom puzzles over the years and he never disappoints me. The puzzles that I have from him in my collection have gotten better and better as time goes by. When he first started making them, they had holes on the inside cuts, then they were capped, but not smoothed...and now we have butter! Ok, so that 3x3x5 sorry got sidetracked. It's fully functional, and the entire thing is done by hand. The puzzle is unlubricated and turns just beautifully. But as you can see, it is unsolved. With this one, I was doing great just to get it back into its original shape. I don't have OCD so I really don't care that it is mucked up.

There's a madness cube in there that was a birthday present from 2 or 3 years back that sits perfectly solved. I mucked it up once and it simply took ages to get back to normal. That one is cool because as you can see from the photo (the green top) the puzzle doesn't have one center. It has an offset center along one section.

The diamond was made because I wanted one and my husband wouldn't give it to me....Others are puzzles I saw and wanted for my collection. Michael was starting to build and I was willing to pay him to give it a go. This has worked out beautifully for us over the years. As I said, I have all but 2 of his creations. The Castle cube is a piece of art. A puzzle and a building. Great stickers to boot. The CityU cube was a gift after I attempted to help him get a deal with the University-and I still don't know what happened with that...

Those are square 1 variations. It's a real shame that the blue star-like one in the center was never made, or the 2-layer square one over on the right. These are all hand-made for me like Michael's other puzzles shown here. Unlike the rest of them, Michael was going to mass produce these. He has a few copies of them somewhere in that mess he calls a workbench, but like many puzzles of late, the KO companies got to them before he could put it on the market. Oh well, that didn't keep a good man down, and he made those dino's I talked about a few days earlier. Dino barrels were before that, and if you pay attention to Mf8 forum or Twisty Puzzles, you probably know his time machine is in the works....(I'll write about those one day if you'd like)

Ok, last set for this evening (although I reserve the right to revisit SmaZ at a later date) here we have a variety of 2x2x2's. The card suit is the one that started it all. It's just an East Sheen with a sticker variation on it. And yes, it's not that easy. Michael was right. The one that has the "PRO" logo on it...well that is VINTAGE Michael. He started out with that logo not SmaZ. That particular cube is an East Sheen 2x2x2 but with springs inside. Yes folks, I'm telling you Michael was the first to do it. Not some fat kid from HK, not Witeden, not Lan Lan or any other company. SmaZ, Michael. End of story. I got this one many years ago from him. The PRO logo? He was using that before (I hope I've got the company right) PuzzlePro became a puzzle shop. But when they came out with that name....well SmaZ became a brand.

The last puzzle in here is an odd one. It is very easy to make from 2 pyrmorphinx puzzle, but wouldn't you know, I had a burst of madness and sold off a bunch of my Meffert's originals and with it went my pyrmorphinx...I was feeling bad about that one day and asked Michael if he could make me one. Sure enough, he went back to his East Sheen preference and cut and capped that star for me. And par for the course, it was mass produced by Uwe a few years later. But you know, I don't care. I have a fantastic puzzle by a fantastic builder (with a lifetime guarantee on quality and for repairs-although I'm pretty sure that is part of the special "Rox package")

With all the shapeways puzzles coming out in recent years, it is getting easier and easier to make puzzles. While I have great respect for the builders of those types of puzzles, for me there is nothing like the puzzles that have the Lurve (Thanks Dr. Panda-you got me writing it now) in them. If I can't have a cast puzzle, I want a cut and cap. As a last resort, I'll take Shapeways. If you are fortunate enough to own a SmaZ puzzle, I don't need to tell you about his craftsmanship. If not.....well what are you waiting for?