Lange Wapper 51, The Devil's Pet 3

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Pio2001
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Lange Wapper 51, The Devil's Pet 3

Post by Pio2001 » February 27th, 2014, 9:19 pm

Hello,

I am lucky to have two of the next puzzles that Maurice Vigouroux is going to produce : the Lange Wapper 51 and the Devil's Pet 3. They are both designed by Alfons Eyckmans.

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The Lange Wapper 51 is a traditional 18 piece burr. 51 means that at least 51 moves are necessary to remove the first piece. But unlike most of the 18 piece burrs, the Lange Wapper designs of Alfons use long pieces, which gives to the assembled puzzle a more elegant shape. Alfons has designed an incredible number of 18 piece burrs. All the ones using long pieces are called Lange Wapper, after the name of a traditional flemmish character, who is a giant. The level 51 is the next to last one - the highest level being Lange Wapper 54 - and it is the last one having only notchable pieces.

Maurice made it in ash (light wood), niove (orange wood) and something that looks like kotibe (brown wood). If this is not kotibe, then it is utile. These two woods are sometimes difficult to distinguish. Anyway, it is from the family of the teck. I am not used to ash in puzzles, but the puzzles that I've got in niove and kotibe proved to be quite stable over time. Of course, these woods, like all woods, are sensitive to moisture, and the puzzles can become more or less tight according to the weather, but I have never seen any significant warping with these woods, unlike with sucupira and merbau, or even difou, bubinga and bloodwood. Thisis a good thing given the length of the pieces.
In the puzzles made in the early 2000's, like the Jupiter, Maurice used a plain orange niove, but the boards used now feature beautiful dark stripes on orange background.

The three colours are necessary to enforce a unique solution, but it was not necessary to add extra bevels on the outer edges.

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Maurice has made many miniature puzzles recently. The Lange Wapper is a come back to the standard size, with 20x20 mm pieces, which makes the puzzle 10x10x10 cm overall.

The fit of the puzzle is perfect. The woods used feel soft and all moves can be performed smoothly, while not making the puzzle look loose.

I got the puzzle assembled, and immediately tried to disassemble it. In the beginning, it looks difficult. Three pieces can move and allow one or two more pieces to move, but no more. I spent some time trying to find a starting point in order to really advance. There is an important move that is well hidden. After that, the rest of the sequence looks nice. It doesn't look too confusing because only few pieces are involved, and some combinations must be used twice.
In short, it is difficult to start, but easy to backtrack.

It doesn't seem easy to reassemble, though. Many pieces look similar. I doubt that I'll be able to remember how to rebuild it without help, unlike Condor's Peeper, Tiros, Supernova or Lange Wapper 14.

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The Devil's Pet 3 is one of the 18-piece burrs that have an extra piece completely hidden inside. This one has the shape of a dog. The puzzle was made exactly like Save the Gorilla, and Free the Monkeys 2 : in ebony, tulipwood and kingwood, and half the usual size : each piece is 10x10 mm only, and the puzzle 4x4x4 cm overall. Without coming close to the smallest one, that has 3x3 mm pieces, it is nonetheless very very small.
This time, the dog is in wood (I don't know which one) instead of aluminium.

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The woods in this puzzle are much harder than ash or niove. Especially ebony, so the moves in this puzzle don't have the same smooth feeling as with Lange Wapper 51. On the other hand, the puzzle is made a bit looser, so that it can still be solved without meeting any problem related with the possibility to perform the right moves. I live in a very dry flat, I must admit.

I also spent a handful of hours opening this one. I find it difficult, but enjoyable. The disassembling sequence features two intermediate steps where the puzzle returns to a nearly solved state, save one piece, that has performed an important move meanwhile. That is why I prefer this one over Free the Monkeys 1 or 2, Save the Gorilla, and also over several other unusual 18-piece ones, like Phelan, Cannich or 18-in-Block.

I didn't try to reassemble it yet. It only has two possible assemblies (and one solution), which means that, thanks to the presence of the dog, it might be possible and interesting to rebuild it without help... or not. This kind of things can't be predicted without trying actually.


And last, I don't have a picture of it, Maurice also started the production of a third 18-piece burr of Alfons, that is Muff. It is made in standard size, 20x20 mm pieces, for an 8x8x8 cm puzzle. I already wrote about it here : http://www.puzzle-place.com/forum/viewt ... f=15&t=147

Lange Wapper 51 and The Devil's Pet 3 are two high level burrs that I would qualify as quite difficult, and very interesting. Muff clearly plays in a higher category : extremely difficult, and moderately interesting, I would say.
It has two interesting features : it may be the most difficult 18-piece burr to disassemble ever, its challenger being the Supernova (Muff has less moves, but they are more difficult to find), and Muff also remains very difficult to disassemble after many pieces have been removed (another ones in this category are Lange Wapper 14 and Lange Wapper 39).

Oh, by the way, I've also got a Lange Wapper 54, made in niove, ash and difou. It is very similar to the Lange Wapper 51. In fact, I have disassembled both, and I didn't find where the difference was ! It is more difficult to make than the 51 because some pieces have internal angles.

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I took a picture of all my Lange Wapper puzzles together :

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From left to right and top to bottom : Lange Wapper 14, 54, 51 and 44. Only the 51 and 54 are similar designs. The other ones are altogether different.
The number of moves seem to vary a lot, but it is only true for the first piece. If we take into account the total number of moves, then it is 80, 81, 78 and 81 respectively !

Lange Wapper 51
Designer : Alfons Eyckmans
Maker : Maurice Vigouroux
Type : High level burr
Estimated solving time (disassembling) :
Beginner : 10 hours
Casual puzzlist : 5 hours
Expert puzzlist : 2 hours
Assembling is maybe inhuman.
The + : Long pieces. Ideal woods for high level burrs. Sequence structured with a nice repetition.
The - : Reassembling must be assisted with Burrtools software.

The Devil's Pet 3
Designer : Alfons Eyckmans
Maker : Maurice Vigouroux
Type : High level burr with a hidden piece
Estimated solving time (disassembling) :
Beginner : 10 hours
Casual puzzlist : 5 hours
Expert puzzlist : 2 hours
Assembling difficulty is unknown.
The + : Most beautiful woods. Sequence structured in three parts.
The - : Reassembling may have to be assisted with Burrtools software.

Muff
Designer : Alfons Eyckmans
Maker : Maurice Vigouroux
Type : High level burr
Estimated solving time (disassembling) :
Beginner : too difficult
Casual puzzlist : 10 hours ?
Expert puzzlist : 5 hours
The + : One of the most difficult 18-piece burrs to disassemble. The challenge goes on and feels different after many pieces are already gone. Might be possible to learn the solution entierely.
The - : The disassembling sequence, though not completely chaotic, looks hard to understand.

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Pio2001
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Re: Lange Wapper 51, The Devil's Pet 3

Post by Pio2001 » March 10th, 2014, 12:11 pm

Pio2001 wrote:Muff
[...]Might be possible to learn the solution entierely.
Yes !
I kept the Muff disassembled for one week, scrambled the pieces, and then I could reassemble it all by myself !...

(I recall that I have studied its solution a lot before this. At the beginning, I was unable to disassemble it at all, and I had to look at the solution several times.)

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Splinter
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Re: Lange Wapper 51, The Devil's Pet 3

Post by Splinter » March 11th, 2014, 10:43 am

Pio2001 wrote: Yes !
I kept the Muff disassembled for one week, scrambled the pieces, and then I could reassemble it all by myself !...
GREAT ACHIEVEMENT!


Mmm... at this forum a smiley with thumbs up is missing... ;)

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bluesign2k
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Re: Lange Wapper 51, The Devil's Pet 3

Post by bluesign2k » March 11th, 2014, 3:05 pm

Indeed, I'm very impressed. I'm getting better at assembling burrs from a pile of sticks, but I'm certain I wouldn't manage assembling that with any amount of time.
Splinter wrote:
Pio2001 wrote:Mmm... at this forum a smiley with thumbs up is missing... ;)
Not any more it isn't :thumbup:

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