I'm starting a new week, and I decided it was time for a mystery piece. For this installment, I'll be bringing in material I've been working on for a little while. As a new twist, I won't be doing one piece but several, all certainly of separate origin. For this and other reasons, I seriously considered just creating a new feature, which I may still do in the long run. But for today, I present the mystery of the immortal puzzles, with the real mystery being how long and why people have kept making them.
The best place to begin is with the first piece to come into my possession, the green cube. I got it at my birthday party in the late 1980s. I'm sure there was also a ball version that I think my brother got. As usual, I held onto it ever since, long after many of the gifts I got were broken or given away. I'm sure here was a long stretch when it ended up its separate pieces, but eventually I thought to gather them together and worked out how to assemble them. In the process, I discovered a configuration I have seen many times since, which I call the "H puzzle" for the shape of the two largest pieces. The lineup featured here includes two more examples, the wood barrel and the larger ball. The barrel was a gift from a friend of the family who had a much larger collection; it's stamped from Japan, and I believe it dates from the 1960s. The ball came as part of a larger lot I ordered online around 2011. While the barrel is literally the same, the ball has some significant differences that simplify the overall pattern, though the number of pieces is greater. Here's the two plastic puzzles disassembled.
I got the smaller ball from a vending machine in the early to mid 2010s. It has a different pattern than other puzzles I had become familiar with. In the course of research for this post, I realized that it is in fact identical to a puzzle first sold as a souvenir for the 1939 World's Fair, making this even more unkillable than the patchisaurs. Here's some more pics.
As an extra bit of fun, I figured out early on that I could put the "key stone" piece in backwards. It actually stays in position somewhat better that way. It also makes the ball look somewhat like a face, to me akin to a puffin. Here it is with eyes drawn in, something I've done before. Somehow, even Sharpie "permanent" markers wear off the plastic.
I know my drawing is terrible. I can do better next time.
Finally, here's an extra pic of the set the big ball came with, plus a couple more puzzle balls. It came with 4 different designs and at least 3 of each. I gave most of them away at self-advocacy conventions or as "white elephant" gifts. I have included one of the last still in the bag, and my favorite of the bunch; I am sure I have another in loose condition, so I held off on opening this one. (Not pictured is one I can't put back together.) To me, these puzzles have been an alternative to the symbol of a certain organization; by their design, every piece is an essential part. But that's just me.
With that, I will wrap this up. I have plenty more where these came from, but they can wait for another day. Certainly, more to come!
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