MINIMA MAGNETIK

Designer: Frederic Boucher

This puzzle measures: 46 mm x 36 mm x 36 mm

Material: Acacia, Merbau, Magnets

Frederic Boucher wrote about it: 
“MINIMA MAGNETIK is an unusual packing puzzle that uses magnetic force. Your goal is to pack the 6 pieces into the box, respecting the 3 simple rules below:
 
1. First, place the box on a flat surface (the side with the 6 holes facing up). The box must remain stationary at all times.
2. Once a piece is placed inside the box, you cannot touch or move the pieces with your fingers.
3. All magnets must be hidden when solved.
 
This is a very enjoyable little puzzle to solve, requiring only logic.”

Kevin Sadler wrote about it:
“My goodness! Is there no end to Frederic’s design skills and ideas?? Here we have yet another wonderful puzzle in the now enormous Minima series. I have written extensive reviews of Minima puzzles over the last couple of years and have to admit that this series is one of the single most compelling series I have ever played with. I had thought that Frederic might run out of ideas but there seems to be no sign of it so far. The Pelikan team have made this version using Jatoba and Acacia woods with a bunch of magnets. This amazing design looks so simple until you casually have a play. The usual 2x2x3 box has two entry holes to it and what looks like some finger-holes as well. Anyone looking at these shapes (1x1x2 sticks) with a hole in one end and another at the front will be able to think of quite a few ways to get the pieces inside and think this is simplicity itself. I sort of thought so too until I received the instructions.
  
Ah! Now we have an entirely new challenge! It is a simple packing but made challenging by the constraints. The magnets are obviously the key to manipulating the pieces. To add to the challenge the embedded magnets have their polarity arranged such that 4 of the pieces have one orientation, another the opposite way around and one piece has no magnet. First challenge is to decide which way around the box needs to be placed and then it will be necessary to use both repulsion and attraction to move the pieces around. If the pieces are placed through one hole and another piece placed through the other, then it is quite possible for a diagonal repulsion to occur and another piece placed to prevent this. There is a whole lot of challenge to this one.
 
I worked out an approach after about half an hour of fiddling out of the box and attempted to do it inside. This taught me that I needed to be very careful with the exact order that pieces need to be placed. I thought I had my solution and took a photo between I played with an alternative 3D printed copy with weaker magnets, to my horror, the solution I had found would not work! The repulsion of the magnets was not quite strong enough to achieve one of the crucial moves. This could only mean that my initial solution was not the intended one. It also means that you have two solutions to find if you buy the Pelikan version of this puzzle. I went back to the drawing board and have to shamefully admit that it took me another 2 days to find a solution that would work with both versions. The actual sequence of moves is really quite involved requiring multiple steps. 
 
This is a must have puzzle!”