Box of the Celts
Matt M., Numbskull Puzzles, 5″ x 5″, PLA
Matt M. (FroodLoops on Discord & Reddit) teased an sd puzzle box on discord about a year ago – I’d been fortunate enough to see it right away (ok, “obsessive enough” might be more accurate) and politely began harassing him with the occasional friendly poke to make sure I was still on the list (yes, I may have forgotten whether I’d asked – in my defense, I believe that the design changed significantly at some point along the way and pretty much became an entirely new puzzle).
Anyhoo, a few weeks ago I got word that the puzzles would soon start rolling out; a couple weeks later and there it was: bigger and heavier than expected at about 18 oz. (Matt had forewarned of some significant puzzling being inbound, and I was nonetheless pleasantly surprised and more than a little impressed). Big and green, Box of the Celts is a cylindrical printed sd puzzle box that integrates a number of different puzzling types in ways that are, I believe, wholly unique. It managed to expand some of my puzzling horizons while posing a significant challenge, not to mention a helluva lot of fun and puzzling value.
This is the type of puzzle that just begs to be finished – it took me several hours over the course of a few days to make it through (with perhaps a nudge or three along the way). It has a great rhythm: several puzzling phases, each with distinct and varied puzzle mechanics that link and overlap through the transitions, all posing multiple challenges with legit aha’s to be discovered in order to progress.
As I mentioned, this is a plastic print of a puzzle and I want to be clear that it is a quality plastic print of a puzzle. The print does not skimp in any way, with high density and layer height. I am sure this means a lot of time in the build process but it pays off (the biggest piece alone apparently takes about 36 hrs to print!).
Not only is there a lot going on in there, but there are some elements that were downright impressive in Matt’s ability to safely produce the needed parts in plastic: strong enough to comfortably withstand what needs to be done, sometimes to my surprise as the nature of some aspects would seem to pose a significant challenge to the maker – at no point did I actually need to worry as the print is dense and feels more than solid, and even the parts that seemed like they might be flimsy due to their comparatively slight appearance turned out to be quite strong.
At many points along the way I was also impressed by some of the nuanced design elements that were included – honestly, there are some small but signifcant choices that I found to be pretty sophisticated, especially considering this is his first design (afaik). I know some came as a result of play-testing, but still…. some small additions ensured that even the most challenging parts kept from ever feeling unfair or annoying (assuming you’re paying attention – I definitely spent some time hitting walls before realizing I’d missed a clue).
The first phase could easily be a standalone puzzle in itself and helped me to appreciate a type of puzzling I don’t have much experience with; I got lost on this early part for quite some time, thinking I’d be making progress only to end up in the same place (or backwards). It took a bit of thought and planning to make it out and was super satisfying along the way – lots of little ahas just in this first section of the puzzle.
Having made it through this section, I futzed around through a transition to the next: each phase has its own challenge(s), with at least one or two really great steps in each that lead to quality ahas. It feels like he started with a few broad ideas and kept falling onto more comparatively smaller ideas and found ways to integrate them organically. It packs in a lot of puzzling without ever feeling like there are any extraneous steps that are there just to stick something in (which I think is something that even a lot of really good puzzles may sometimes have).
The next phase proved to give me a LOT of trouble, to some extent physically but mostly because it is just really tricky. Eventually, I found a few things that helped as I struggled to find my way through this challenging section, oftentimes progressing and exposing more information, only to realize I would need to regroup and backtrack in order to go forward. Some is due to the mechanism itself and some due to the way information is provided bit by bit, cycling through trial & error and observable data.
Finally, I got through this section and could just feel that the puzzle was almost over: while the most difficult parts were behind me, the last section still proved tricky, the puzzle playing with some assumptions that required more thought and observation to recognize and overcome, with the puzzle once again including some subtle design elements that give you just enough info to avoid blindly flailing about. Finally, I discovered something that clearly told me I had reached the end of the twisted, puzzling journey and I basked in the glory of my brilliance 😉
After some moments of satisfied appreciation, I began the process of rebuilding and resetting the puzzle. By now, I had accrued quite a lot of plastic bits and bobs and the puzzle was more than a little lighter than when I had first begun. However, it was clear what went where, despite several days having passed since I had started working on it. This is not to say that it was always easy to go back – some parts were basically just as challenging in reverse, although having made it through once I was able to make comparatively short work of it (key word: comparatively). To me, this just speaks to the substantial puzzling value afforded by this novel creation, as the reset proved almost as satisfying as the solve.
Overall, the puzzle has phases that can be done while watching tv with an npso, fidgeting and wandering about, but then some parts must be done with full focus and close observation, the puzzle goggles having made several appearances to keep progressing.
So, yeah, Box of the Celts: get ’em while (when) you can. I am not sure how many there will be, so if you like what you read, I’d suggest reaching out sooner rather than later – as a great(?) puzzle parody songwriter once wrote: “the list is long, I want on, cyber-stalking you, now it’s on.”
For now I think a discord or Reddit DM is the primary way to find him: FroodLoops, you can also now email him: numbskullpuzzles at gmail.
Grade: Five Sinatras
(click here for more information on the Sinatra Scaling System, (c) John Maynard Keynes, 1944)
Puzzle Ramblings 
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