Daedalus by Gregory Benedetti

Daedalus is one of these rare puzzles that you just know will be an instant classic hit. Described simply, it's a TIC with teeth! And yet that fails to accurately describe it since it's not similar to other Turning Interlocking Cube in the feel of solving this puzzle.

When first given this puzzle, the goal is to take it apart and then to put it back together as a cube. But this is no simple task. There are internal grooves and pins traveling these grooves to form a strange maze that you can at times see and at time wander blindly. It's not blind at all, but one has to put together scattered glimpses together into a map of the maze and then deduce how to travel through this 3d maze until escaping. And while a solver could escape with a little luck, it forces the solver to truly master the puzzle to be able to reset it properly. In fact, it's possible to reset this puzzle with one piece put back in the wrong orientation which becomes obvious to others with a good eye for wood grains. It's not a coincidence that all of the cubes of the puzzle follows the grain of the wood. It's a helpful guide for how to restore this puzzle!

I love this puzzle and I honestly don't want to sell it, but the truth is that I have a copy of this puzzle in a gorgeous marble-like resin and feel as if it's a bit much to keep duplicates when funds for puzzling are somewhat limited. This is a CD copy of Daedalus which was made with amazing tolerances. It's from their second run of Daedalus, and speaking as someone who has tried copies from both of their runs, their second run has a tighter tolerance and less looseness in the pieces. This is made from Chechen which is a fairly dense and hefty wood. So this puzzle has a pleasing feel of weight to it. Furthermore, people have noticed that an internal pin often scratches up and dents some of the insides of wooden Daedaluses, but I was already fairly experienced at playing with Daedalus before getting this copy and I could be careful enough to not force any movements. So this is a nearly pristine copy that I have preserved.

CubicDissection page for Daedalus: https://cubicdissection.com/products/daedalus-second-release-interlocking-puzzle

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