Santa

Designer: Dr. Volker Latussek

This puzzle measures: 75 mm x 75 mm x 77 mm

Material: Purpleheart and Acacia

Dr. Volker Latussek wrote about it:

“Some years ago I experimented with notched logs in a 5x5x5 box and discovered a wonderful property in the interaction of the different parts. I settled on six copies of each of two shapes. HARUN (aka GUILLOTINE) with its two very simple shapes should be a beginner’s box-packing puzzle. But it didn’t quite turn out that way. This year I searched for more simple pairs of shapes whose arrangement is also very interesting. I have found two pairs – one of them, SANTA, is my first Christmas puzzle that I would like to present this year. Whoever enjoyed the solution of HARUN, will be amazed by SANTA. HO HO HO.”

Kevin Sadler wrote about it:

“Dr Latussek must have a mind like a steel vice! I have no idea how he keeps coming up with these amazing packing puzzles! This new design consists of a 5x5x5 box beautifully made from purpleheart with 12 Acacia pieces to be fitted inside flush with the top surface. There are 2 different types of pieces and each of which consists of 10 voxels which means that there will be some holes inside but not very many. I am terrible at this sort of puzzle because I just don’t know the right way to think – I tend to make lots of random attempts which as you will appreciate seldom gets a puzzler very far. The random positioning did reveal a few interesting ideas – I realised that the best approach to this puzzle is to work out how best to distribute the holes and then find a way that would enable this. Even knowing that crucial fact does not actually help a whole lot. After a little thinking© I noticed something and tried something new. OMG YES! That was really clever. This is a very approachable puzzle and well worth adding to your collection.”