Lapsus 2

Kevin Sadler reviews Lapsus2:

“No release from Pelikan is really complete without an amazing design by Alfons. He is incredibly prolific and designs burrs with something special about them. Of course, he can (and does) design straightforward 18 piece (and other size) simple burrs but he also spends a lot of time working on designs with different shapes, numbers of pieces and even hidden pieces. Lapsus 2 is unusual in being a 12 piece burr with the burr sticks being formed as board allowing a very different conformation to the standard type of burr. Despite this, it functions as a typical burr but allows a wider range of moves to standard sticks. Pelikan has created this with beautifully contrasting woods and arranged into a 3D checkerboard shape. It is a really very attractive puzzle. Initial exploration revealed that there are several possible starting moves but only one really goes any further and once the second and third moves have been tried then there are suddenly a whole lot of possibilities. It requires a bit of concentration to keep track of what you have been trying, especially as I always try to keep going to and fro so as not to get lost and unable to return to the beginning. Some of the moves are quite large and give hope that the piece involved is very near to release but don’t get your hopes up to quickly. This puzzle has a nice level of moves and it requires a fair bit of back and forth with the moving pieces to find the critical position that will allow the removal of the first piece. This is a lovely burr with an unusual conformation and moves which has just the right difficulty level for most puzzlers.”

Difficulty: 37 moves (22.4.1.2.1.1.1.2) The brackets indicate the breakdown of moves to free each piece sequentially.
Material: Maple/Mahogany
Designed by: Alfons Eyckmans
Measures 8.8 cm x 8.8 cm x 8.8 cm / 3.5 in x 3.5 in x 3.5 in