| by Serhiy Grabarchuk, Jr. |
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When it comes to mechanical puzzles
it always comes to pieces. A mechanical puzzle can hardly be
imagined as an entity not consisting of pieces. What really differs
and matters is the objective. In some puzzles the pieces are put
together, in others – taken apart, in some – slid around, in others
– removed or interchanged, etc.
Often, though not necessarily in all cases, the more the pieces, the
harder the puzzle can be. In some puzzles the number of pieces can
reach hundreds or even thousands (that is not counting some jigsaw
puzzles alone). Not discussing how fun such puzzles can be, they can
definitely baffle the solver. But more interesting is to take a look
at the opposite end of the set. Since a set consists of at least two
pieces (if not count such a particular case as a 1-piece folding
puzzle) a key question is if there are any 2-piece puzzles which can
really baffle? Fortunately, the answer is “Yes!”
Several preconditions had been considered while selecting the
puzzles for this review.
1. The 2-piece puzzles have not to be trivial.
2. The pieces for these puzzles can be compound pieces, not
one-block pieces. But if such a piece is broken into the smaller
blocks the idea of the puzzle is totally lost.
3. Very specific cases of the 2-piece puzzles, for example, such as
mazes (one piece can be the board and another one – the moving token)
haven’t been considered for this review. |
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It seems the
2-Piece Pyramid puzzle is still the most familiar and
recognizable among all 2-piece puzzles. To many of us it was
presented in our childhood. The impression lasts for a lifetime
and is strongly associated with both simplicity and ingenuity.
One of those brighter “easy looking-tricky solving” puzzles.
Moreover it is one of the rare 2-piece puzzles with both pieces
identical. Despite this fact even experienced adults can have
substantial difficulties while finding a solution. Guess, the
reason is the puzzle deals heavily with the 3D imagination. And
while many of us can imagine the shape of a pyramid (a regular
tetrahedron), the idea it
can be broken into two identical parts is not that easily
perceived at all.
The Puzzle & Craft Factory sells a handmade wooden version of
the
2 Piece Pyramid Puzzle.
Several years ago a leading puzzle company
ThinkFun has come
with a plastic version of the puzzle –
Aha! Pyramid Twins (buy at
Amazon ) as a part of their bigger set of eight world-famous
ingenious puzzles –
Aha! Brainteaser Classics (buy at
Amazon). |
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Quite a good number,
if not to say significant number, of the 2-piece puzzles can be
found among wire puzzles. Not all of them can be considered very
intriguing and many of them can happen to be different
variations of the same principle, but there are definitely some
of them worth to pay closer attention to. Dick Hess has made a
wonderful job publishing Compendium of Over 10500 Wire
Puzzles (7th Edition, December 2003) and many 2-piece wire
puzzles can be found directly in his book. Probably the most
interesting among the 2-piece wire puzzles remains a couple of
the so-called “hard wire puzzles” – the classic Nails and some
of their modifications; and Sao Paulo puzzle. They
both are example of puzzles consisting of two
identical pieces. In each of them the objective is to take apart the two pieces. An
inexpensive version
of the
Nails produced by
Parlor Puzzles can be bought at
Amazon. By the way
Parlor Puzzles produces a collection of
2-piece wire puzzles (buy at
Amazon).
ThinkFun has
been also producing a version of Sao Paulo puzzle as a cast
replica –
Twin Tangle (buy at
Amazon). Another cast
metal version of
this puzzle –
Cast DEVIL – is produced by
Hanayama and can be
bought at
Torito online store. |
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| One more very
interesting classic
2-piece design is the Hedgehog in a
Cage puzzle. It consists of two different pieces – one is a
cylindrical cage and another is usually a ball with several rods
protruding from it (the “hedgehog”). The ball is placed inside
the cage and the objective is to get the ball out of it. There
are a number of puzzle’s versions produced in plastic, wood or
metal. A handmade wooden version of the puzzle can be bought
from
Wooden Toys Shop. A metal modification of the Hedgehog in a
Cage from Czech Professor Bakalar is manufactured by
Hanayama as
Cast CAGE (a part of the
Cast Puzzle series – please see below) and can be bought
at
Torito online store. |
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Moby Maze: probably the first maze built on a
Moebius Strip. |
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Image from
Source |
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Coming to
contemporary 2-piece puzzles it is worth to mention a number of
designs from a prolific Dutch puzzle designer Oskar van Deventer.
Mostly these are Oskar’s maze-based brand concepts - Basketball, Bronco, Moby Maze, Rotten Apple, Sunflower, Tube Maze, etc..
These and some other his designs can be bought from George
Miller’s Puzzle Palace (simply find them in the
inventory list based on the
title or the author's name). |
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| Several more amazing 2-piece designs came recently from a
leading Japanese puzzle designer
Iwahiro. First of all this is
his clever
Caged Pyramid puzzle –
remove pyramid from the cage. Can be bought at
Puzzlein (Japanese website). No less
tricky is his
Dinghy puzzle - remove the chain from the wire part and then
return it to the starting position again. And then there is
Twinquint
- a puzzle where the goal is to create a pyramid with just two pieces each of which consists of
five balls jointed together. It can be bought at
Torito (the
page with the puzzle is in Japanese). |
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| On top of all described above there
exists a real “treasure chest” of 2-piece puzzles that one can ever
think of. Hanayama, a Japanese toy company, produces a special
Cast Puzzle series containing precious gems by puzzle designers from
different parts of the world. The geography is really widespread –
Japanese Nob Yoshigahara and Akio Yamamoto, Dutch Oskar van Deventer,
Ukrainian Serhiy Grabarchuk, Finnish Vesa Timonen and others.
Amazingly, but among current 40+ beautifully cast metal
puzzles in the series 2/3 are the 2-piece puzzles! The entire series
can be viewed here, while the puzzles can be bought at
Torito
website. |
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View the entire Cast Puzzle series
here: |
Buy the puzzles of the series from
Torito. |
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| This year’s gem of the Cast Puzzle
series is undoubtedly
Cast LOOP from Finnish designer Vesa
Timonen. The puzzle, “born in plastic to become a metal classic” (read
the history of puzzle at George Miller’s
site – simply click the
“Cast Loop” on the
inventory page) has been presented at the 27th
International Puzzle Party, August 2007, Australia. The two
identical pieces (differ only in the poles of two tiny magnets)
which have to be fitted together to create a complete ring had
become an instant hit and won the top Puzzlers' Award at
Nob Yoshigahara
Puzzle Design Competition 2007.
Hanayama indicates the puzzle’s
difficulty level as “Easy” (one point from six possible), but it
seems the puzzle is in fact a little bit harder and the story
reminds the one with the 2-Piece Pyramid. Don’t be upset if it takes
you not a minute, but maybe five, ten, half an hour or even an
hour to solve the puzzle. Whatever it takes, be sure getting the
complete ring on your palm will be a valuable reward for all your
attempts. The puzzle is wonderfully designed and manufactured and it
brings a lot of joy. It is strongly recommended as an addition to
any puzzle collection, and it constitutes an excellent gift or
souvenir to enrich your pastime and parties. |
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Cast LOOP by Vesa Timonen - based on an original puzzle
ring he created for his girlfriend. Fit two pieces together to
create a complete ring. The puzzle can be bought from
Torito website. |
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Images from
Source |
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| Once again, the puzzles reviewed
here are not the ultimate list of the 2-piece concepts. If you know of
more non-trivial 2-piece puzzles which really can baffle and are worth to pay
attention to,
please, drop us a
line. |
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