Unlawful Assembly

Designer: Pit Khiam Goh

This puzzle measures: 125 mm x 125 mm x 16 mm

Material: Garapa, Bubinga, Oak

Kevin Sadler wrote about it: 

“I started with this delightful puzzle by the master of sliding-move puzzles. I already own this one made from acrylic but the wooden one looks so much more lovely. Pelikan have constructed this one from Garapa, Bubinga and Oak with wonderfully contrasting colours and a stunningly finished tray to pack the pieces into. There are 4 identical stepped pieces and a cross to fit inside the tray with the challenge being made by the fact that there is a considerable lip covering the tray making insertion of more than 3 pieces quite challenging. It is fairly easy to work out several possible square(ish) assemblies that might fit when playing outside the tray but getting them into the tray quickly gets quite confusing. The temptation is to try and squeeze one of the pieces diagonally under the lip of the tray but don’t bother – that requires force and is the wrong way to do it.

The first time I worked on it, the solution took me a good hour or so to solve and that was only because I was familiar with the type of challenge. I gave this to a couple of my assistants/ODPs at work and watched them spend a couple of hours failing to solve it. Eventually I came back to the pieces all packed inside and I happily told them they had cheated! The pieces were in the conformation that can only be done by force. At this point they couldn’t remove the pieces and a joint broke forcing it out. This is a great puzzle for beginners but don’t let them attempt it unsupervised. This puzzle should be in everyone’s collection!”