Now for something completely different! It has been about two months since I’ve brought you a project post (that being the 2015 Halloween pumpkin post (link here). With some extra time on my hands I felt it was time to get some items taken off of my to-do list. Some recent, some old, some very old. There are actually multiple projects summed up in this post. As an incentive, I’ve had them placed so they are the first thing that I see when I walk into my den. You would think that would provide enough incentive to get them out of the way … but it didn’t thanks to having too many things on my plate (one of which is Project Auuuurrrnooollddd which completed another phase right before Christmas).
Adhering to a LIFO queue process, the first item on the project list was a recent Christmas gift received from Linda. This was a set of 2 wind up puzzles called Scorpion Rising.
Essentially this consisted of a 3D model that you built on top of a standard wind up coil. Once assembled you could turn the crank and watch your creation walk. I figured I could whip these two out in about 15 minutes … until I opened the package and saw what I was dealing with. There was a trifold hard foam based card that had a series of laser cut outs barely distinguishable by the naked eye. First action was to go find my reading glasses – the instructions were hard enough to read with their tiny font, but seeing where the cutouts were on the card was basically impossible without them. The worst thing is there were tiny interior cutouts on the pieces that required me to find a tiny screwdriver set to proper punch them out.
It was pretty easy to see the main concept based on the motor mechanics. Once wound, there were two pins offset and on different sides from each other which clearly indicated they drove the feet. Knowing that element helped visualize how the additional pieces should go on. Getting them actually put together was the hard part. This puzzle was probably intended for smaller fingers. It was also apparent no one who manufactured this puzzle ever reviewed the directions due to a major flaw – an ISO view doesn’t help you much if you are putting black pieces on black pieces. Imagine your high school aptitude tests that show a silhouette of two objects and asked to align two objects to make that basic shape – damn hard. Here is a quick shot of the directions and the provided puzzle pieces.
The other annoying thing is they continued the steps on the back of the sheet but did not replicate the cutout alignment on the card. This forced me to keep turning the paper over and over again while contemplating what the hell they wanted me to do next. It didn’t help they opted to position the various steps based on maximizing the paper – translated – the instructions were not in order on the page, well at least not in your standard US left, down, right layout approach. It was a struggle but the scorpion finally came together (see the first image). With a pat on the back, the little crank was wound and the Scorpion unleashed on the world… for exactly 4 seconds. That was the duration of the coil. The little dude walked for a total of 4 seconds. Granted it looked cool for that 4 seconds but this dude just took 1.5 hours of my project day. Based on those results the other scorpion was put away for another rainy day.
Next up was a gift the Makuta’s got me – pretty sure last Xmas or possibly my birthday – can’t remember but as far as a perfect gift for a project loving birder like me .. this was it!
Hit the jump to see how this project turns out as well as a third project!
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