MINIMA-ZE

Designer: Frederic Boucher

This puzzle measures: 52 mm x 37 mm x 37 mm

Material: Leopard/Acacia

Frederic Boucher wrote about it:
“Find the trick to get the white ball out. Note that the blue marble is an obstacle and cannot get out of the box.”

Kevin Sadler wrote about it:
“Number one in the series has been made using Leopardwood for the box and Acacia for the pieces. A blue marble is visible in the hole in the top. There is another smaller white marble just visible to the right of it. The aim is to manipulate the pieces to allow the removal of the white ball bearing via the exit hole at the front. Should be easy? Hmm! maybe for you it might be but I struggled. There are two square holes to facilitate movement of the wooden blocks (none of which can be removed) and there is a slot in base which serves no there purpose other than too allow the puzzler to examine the shape of the pieces that are being slid around. After a few minutes of fiddling a couple of oddities can be discerned. It is obviously going to be key to work out what those “oddities” are there for. 
 
Being a bear of very little brains who was hurting all over, my thought capacity was at a rather low ebb. I am embarrassed to say that it took me well over an hour to realise what was required and actually carry out the required moves. A ball fell out much to the alarming interest of a cat. I retrieved it as quickly as I could before someone swallowed it.
 
Returning it to the start was another challenge. I was able to place the balls back inside but the once I thought I had them back inside, I either couldn’t slide the wooden blocks back inside or the balls were in the wrong order. Another 10 minutes required to get the dexterity to do what was needed. Lovely clever challenge and a nice warm-up for the others in the series.”