Remember that Snowflake puzzle of Robert Yarger’s (a.k.a “Stickman”) that I blogged about last October? Well, it turns out it has two solutions, a two move solution and a seven move solution. I messed up the design for my version and mine doesn’t allow the seven move solution, only the two move solution.
A few weeks ago a customer told me about this (that Stickman’s version had a seven move solution and that mine only had a two move solution) and so I did some research to figure out how this had happened. It turns out that back when I first bought the pieces to the puzzle and solved it, I had found the two move solution. And I looked no further, having no reason to.
So naturally the question is why doesn’t my version permit both solutions just as the original did. The reason is that I made a design change to stop one of the panels from moving too much – and in doing so I unwittingly disabled the seven move solution. It turns out of course that the extra movement in that panel is only possible when the puzzle has been assembled for the two move solution, not for the seven move solution.
Anyhow, I have now fixed the design so that the original seven move solution works as intended and, even better, so that the two move solution does not. I’ve sent out emails about this to all my Snowflake customers so I can send them replacement panels. Well, almost all my Snowflake customers. Someone bought one from my i.materialise store back in February and unfortunately they don’t provide me with a customer’s name or email address. If you’re that customer, email me at eye-en-eff-oh at pyrigan.com so I can take care of it.
EDIT: Good news! “That customer” has contacted me so now I don’t have to worry about someone being stuck with a flawed puzzle.