The Bicone 2 is the second of ten different Bicone versions, designed and built by Vinco (Václav Obšivač). You can read a bit about him at the end of the post. It was entered at the 30th IPP Design Competition.

Perfectly crafted, the Bicone 2 is a beautifully shaped four-piece Interlocking puzzle (or Take-Apart and Put-Together), made with cherry and maple wood. Although it's built with two different wood types, you can clearly see tree different colors, which makes for a wonderful contrast on the checkerboard pattern. As a nice finishing touch, the puzzle is polished and waxed for a nice clean and smoothing surface, making it a visually stunning piece of craftsmanship.

For an interlocking puzzle, the Bicone is quite difficult to take apart. It's rated as difficulty 5 out of 5 and classified as a coordinated motions puzzle, meaning that you can't use a sequence of movements to open (or close) the puzzle. You need to carefully manipulate its pieces simultaneously in a certain way, so that you can separate all the parts at the same time. There's no need to use excessive force, also because you can break the inner pieces that make the "key" of the puzzle. These key pieces are four triangular prisms that are glued into the inside structure on each of the main pieces and together, they interlock to close and maintain the puzzle in a locked state.

When you're trying to solve the puzzle, you can think about those triangular prisms to figure out how they keep the puzzle from opening. Since they're triangular, there's only one way to separate them: by sliding the four pieces together, each in an opposite direction. Once you have accomplished this "simple" task, you face another big challenge, which is to put the puzzle back together. Now that you know how the puzzle works, this should be easier, right? - Well, not quite, because as I said above, you need simultaneous movement on all four pieces and it also requires a lot of visualization and dexterity to manipulate every part of the puzzle, and slide the pieces back together.

As mentioned before, there's six different versions for the Bicone, each with its own design. The solution is the same for every one of them, though. One cool thing about the Bicone is that a particular version may have different wood types used, giving them a slightly distinctive look. For example, the Bicone 4 has at least four of these looks, each with a different wood combination. This is great for a puzzle collector: even though the puzzle is the same, the appearance is different and therefore, highly collectible. The design you own may become rare, because they're produced in small quantities and after they become out of stock, it could be a long time before they're available again. If you really like a particular design, grab it while you can...

When it comes to wooden puzzles, you can't get any better than this. Vinco's attention to detail and presentation is incredible and his craftsmanship is one of the most outstanding you'll find in the  puzzle market. For €50, you'll get a very high quality handcrafted puzzle, polished and waxed, that will look great in any collection. Vinco's puzzle offer changes quite often, so if you want more puzzles to choose from, check his site regularly, because when he has new puzzles available, they sell like hotcakes...