Apr 22, 2015

Fauler Hund

(Click to Enlarge)
If you're "fauler" you'll have a hard time solving this puzzle by Jean Claude Constantin. Fauler Hund (German for "lazy dog") is the perfect puzzle for all you canine lovers out there, but I'm sure it will also delight any packing puzzle aficionado.

Made with two contrasting wood tones, the pieces and the frame were laser-cut with plywood, a low quality type of wood, but necessary to achieve the precision seen in its design, since it's a softer material to work with laser-cutting machines.

Design-wise, the puzzle looks great. The shape of a dachshund is seen at the top edge of the frame, and the pieces, at first looking identical, are actually distinct from each other, having slightly different shapes. When solved, all the four bone-shaped pieces lie tightly in the frame without much wiggle room, even though there's a lot of empty space left.

I found the solution is very similar to the classic The Four T puzzle. The shape of the pieces in the two puzzles, despite appearing very different, are actually pretty similar when you analyse both puzzles. With this in mind, I didn't have much difficulty finding the right solution. On The Four T puzzle all the pieces are identical and therefore only one solution is possible. However, since the Fauler Hund puzzle has different pieces, it's possible to pack the pieces in a different order or orientation, but always in the same kind of arrangement, just rearranging and swapping some pieces. Only one side of the pieces shall be used, since the backside has the cut lines less pronounced.



Closing Comments:

Being a packing puzzle fan, it's always a pleasure to solve any of these puzzles, even more by being a design made by Constantin. It's a shame about the resemblance to The Four T puzzle, since I didn't find it as challenging as I would've liked.

Availability: Fauler Hund is available at PuzzleMaster for about $19 CAD. There's also many other interesting puzzle by Constantin there.

Links:




No comments:

Post a Comment