Can an Idiot Solve...?

 One of the things I wanted to do when I started this blog was to occasionally review bad puzzles. Most bloggers understandably, for very good reasons, concentrate on puzzles they enjoy and want other people to enjoy too. There are very few resources to warn people away from things that just suck. And there are plenty of puzzles out there that suck, I should know, I made some of them. Even accounting for personal taste, whatever objective criteria we use to define what makes a good puzzle, there are some that fall short and still, somehow, get released into world for an unsuspecting idiot to buy. There are some with poor build quality, some with unforeseen shortcuts, some that can be bricked through no fault of the solver. Worst of all, there are some that are just dull, unoriginal and feel like a slog to solve.  Which brings me to Kuchenstuck...  I LOVE THIS PUZZLE!  Ok, fine, I'll talk about a bad puzzle next time. Maybe.  If I feel like it.  You can't ma...

 Oh God. Oh God, there's people here. I don't solve puzzles around people, I solve puzzles on my own. But here they are, with their eyes and their mouths and their looking and their talking. They're expecting me to talk as well, they think I have a brain. Some of them are wearing corduroy. Some of them smell like Mr Kipling's Fondant Fancies.  There's Allard, the grand Poobah with his massive collection like a generous Smaug. 'Sure you can borrow the Arkenstone, just reset it and put it back where you found it.' There's Dan, with whom I spend a certain amount of time plotting things. There's Amy, who has a habit of quietly singing children's songs when she's concentrating.  There's Tamsin, who struggles with hedgehogs.  There's the monkeys Ali & Steve, who gift me a teeny tiny pile of brass and a pig roll.  There's usually Kyle, who trusted me with the prototype of his first puzzle and is also, therefore, an idiot. I don't...

 First post in almost three months, must do better. I don't buy many SDs, which is why this puzzle (designed & made by whatshisname) was such an excellent gift to receive from MPD's Secret Santa (which is brilliant, I'm in my fourth year of it now) . I really am very grateful, even if I now go into details of why I don't like it overly much. I'm very appreciative of the chance to discover why I don't like it, and it has helped clarify some of my issues with SDs which I shall attempt to put down here in no doubt a rambling and barely-coherent manner. I like puzzles to be a neat, elegant, self-contained challenge. I dislike puzzles that split into a hundred pieces and a thousand tools. My most disliked tool to find in a puzzle is a hex key or a screwdriver. If you find one of them, you pretty much know what else you're going to find soon after  I'm going to say perhaps the most controversial thing I've said here - I did not care for Angel Box. Yes,...

 End of an era.  I am very thankful that I never set out to post once a week here. I honestly don't know how those other guys keep churning out quality content. It's been a month since my last post.  The discord group have a rule (quite rightly) to refrain from any spoilers regarding the Karakuri Christmas presents until after Christmas itself. Some people like to wait and open them on Christmas day, I rip open the box like a maniac the first chance I get. So I had the idea back in early December to write a 'spoiler-free' review but just treat it as a joke. It would've been full of things like -  Kawashima's - ▇▇▇▇ it was so▇▇▇▇▇▇windy ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ saw a ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ chicken ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ lay the same ▇▇▇▇▇▇ egg twice ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇ But then the Epstein files thing happened and suddenly there were redacted jokes all over the internet, and then I got the flu and then it was Christmas and then it was 2nd Christmas and then it was hogmanay and then I was so. Very. Very. Ti...

 Last time I wrote about my first puzzle (not really but sort of) so I figured I would follow up with my most recent. These days, most of what I buy is either Hanayama or Karakuri, with the odd Pelikan or Wood Wonder (and hopefully soon Ars Aenigma) scattered in for variety. I almost miss the early days of buying anything and everything indiscriminately, but now I know what I like and I generally stick to it. I leave the high-end metal SD chasing to others, and the small-run, list-based releases of Stickman & the like will always be out of my reach, I think. I like the bits-of-paper-in-a-hat, equal-opportunity approach of the Karakuri lotteries. I'm not really one to chase unicorns either. The rarity and value of older pieces only leads to disappointment (that said, everyone that knows me knows I desperately want a Karakuri Rose, I solve Allard's copy every time I'm down there,ut there are many, many things I would desperately want if I allowed myself to, the Ferris Whe...

 Gateway drugs.  This is the one that started it all for me.  I had bought puzzles before, a traditional Japanese box back in two-thousand-and-something, a couple of Constantins from an ace wee toy shop in Glasgow, but none of them had led me into Narnia. It was stumbling across this and ordering it online that made the advertising algorithms kick into gear. Suddenly I was seeing videos by Mr. Puzzle and Chris Ramsey, which led me to blogs more established and far better than this one. I drooled over the gallery pages of Pelikan, Wood Wonders and Cubicdissection. Eventually, I found some spare cash behind the proverbial sofa-cushions (this was mid 2020, the early days of the pandemic, and my industry was completely shut down) and put in my first CD order (for Pin Block Case).  I'll never forget the email Eric Fuller sent along with my order confirmation. Ordinarily, I would never dream of replying to such an email, but there was something so personable, warm and invi...