Next up in the Demonticon series is Stella. Stella follows the same form factor as the other Demonticons. She is heavy, purple, anodized and isn’t entirely happy, though not as confused as Ziggy. The goal is to get inside her head.
This one has a tremendous ah-ha moment. I had a big ole stupid grin on my face when I finally figured out what is going on and was delighted to see the internal mechanism behind the scenes.
All of the Demonticons that I’ve worked on start with an obvious move (or two) which is great. It’s nice to at least make a little progress before hitting the dead end roadblock. Stella follows suit. The first move is obvious, the second one is as well, but then things start to get a little tricky. I eventually found another move, but after that I hit a big roadblock.
At this point, I had some pieces to work with, but no matter what I tried, nothing happened. So, of course, I tried these same things over and over again as nothing continued to happen. I know better, I know that when nothing is happening, that the only way forward is to try something different. Problem is, there really wasn’t anything else to try.
The unsolved puzzle sat on my desk and every once in a while I’d pick it up and try the same pointless moves hoping that it would magically work. But it didn’t. I forced myself to re-evaluate the situation. What was I missing? I examined all the pieces in great detail. I even pulled out my glasses and a bright light. Still nothing. Again, the puzzle sat on the desk.
But then..
As I was manipulating the puzzle, I noticed that the two pieces felt looser somehow. There was a little more play in there. This got me excited about the puzzle again and I continued to investigate this newly found clue. I pushed further trying to determine what made this happen and then I had an idea of what was going on inside.
This is where that magically moment occurred. I was making progress and knew I was on the right path and sure enough, after doing a little more of the thing that I was already doing, the puzzle opened. Wow! I had formed a sort of mental image of what was going on inside, and in some ways it matched, but once it was open I just had to stare and revel in the genius of the mechanism. It’s simple and elegant and really made me smile. This is a new mechanism for me – I’ve never seen another puzzle use it. And its pretty darn cool.
I solved it again this time with a bit of personal pride that I had figured it out.
Yet another excellent puzzle, and one of my favorites of the bunch. This series is great. The puzzles are attractive and approachable, but each seems to have that roadblock where nothing seems to work. (I’m currently working on Shelly and have hit that point – I’m fulling embracing the roadblock though because I know it will be worth it.