T TIME!

Designer: Frederic Boucher

This puzzle measures: 115 mm x 115 mm x 15 mm

Material: Acacia, Bubinga, Wenge, Maple, Zebrano, Movingui

Frederic Boucher wrote about it:
“Your goal is simply to pack these five identical T-shaped pieces into the tray, but you will encounter some obstacles on your way… There’s a restricted entrance for the pieces, and also Smiley is already taking room inside, which complicates things! Even if you find the right configuration, you’ll have to make a little extra effort to get everything in place : )”

Kevin Sadler wrote about it:
“This wonderfully clever packing puzzle by Frederic had me fooled for most of the week. It looks like a simple tray packing puzzle, but there is MUCH more to it. There is a 5×5 space inside the tray and 5 T-shaped pieces to be fitted inside alongside a 2×2 smiley disc. That doesn’t look too difficult until you realise that the tray is covered by an acrylic cover with a T-shaped hole in it, in one corner. This explains the nicely curved corners on the pieces – they need to be inserted and manipulated using the holes in the bottom of the tray, plus some use of gravity, until they are in position. There will obviously need to be some rotational moves as they cannot possibly be arranged in the same orientation as the hole in the lid. It doesn’t take long to find at least one (if not a few) possible arrangements of the pieces in that 5×5 space, but then the fiddly task of actually getting them into place begins, and, OMG, it’s difficult! I spent several days trying everything I could to pack them all in. Nothing would work, and I had to stop for a bit and think© again. 
 
Finally, after several days of work, I had a special thought (unusual for me!) and realised that there was something very unusual about the design. My jaw dropped when I finally succeeded – Frederic is a genius!”