Filling V

Designer: Dr. Volker Latussek

This puzzle measures: 70 mm x 70 mm x 70 mm

Material: Acacia/Cherry

Dr. Volker Latussek wrote about it:

“While working on the FLOP series, I had some fun working with completely filled boxes. I’d already done some preliminary work using L-shaped tetracubes, so it made sense to me to work on Lazlo Molnar and Alexander Magyarics’ six Ls puzzles and to combine them with the V-shaped tricube to make one of the 65 possible cubes and then put them in a box with only one opening. Of course, I started with my usual CASINO box, only to learn that this recipe doesn’t produce a sufficiently challenging puzzle, and neither does a FLOP box. Actually, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. Given the filling of a cube-shaped box, the actual design task was to find the correct, single, continuous opening. Despite the numerous specifications, FILLING V is a challenging puzzle whose solution still surprises me. But there will never be a FILLING I.”

Kevin Sadler wrote about it:

“Dr Latussek returns to challenge us with another of his wonderful packing puzzles that look much easier than they actually are. This one made of ????? comprises 6 L tetrominoes plus an L Triomino giving us the required 27 voxels to make up a solid cube. I could instantly see that there were several ways to make the cube and each of these could be attempted in several orientations with respect to the box. This box has a nice large slotted entry hole which looks like it shouldn’t be much of a hindrance to inserting the pieces. Having found several possible cubes, I quickly noticed that many could be discarded because of the requirement to place an L shape (or even more than one) in at the end as a last piece. This cut down the options considerably and then left me with the need to place 5 pieces in the box. Here lies the challenge for this puzzle. There seems to be plenty of space to place 5 pieces but with lots of wiggle room and all you can do is wiggle and I needed quite a bit more space than that. At this point it’s a request to think© and notice what the box does allow you to do. There is a really lovely Aha! moment here and suddenly the wiggle room becomes room to really do something. Burrtools told me that there are 65 possible ways to assemble the pieces into a 3x3x3 cube but I found something pleasing quite early on. I placed my last piece in the box with a huge grin on my face! This is, on the face of it, a much simpler puzzle than the Flop series but I think is better for it. The best description is “elegant” – it’s almost as elegant as the classic Casino which won so many accolades. It’s an essential purchase!”