Brian’s Big Baffling Bolt (aka BBBB)

A celebration of 30 years of making puzzles.
Sequential Discovery puzzle designed and made by Brian Young

Total number of puzzles to sell : 340
Sold so far : 150

Awarded a Jury 1st Prize at IPP41 held in Houston, August 2024

This puzzle project was started back in 2022 and it’s not yet finished! Brian has been steadily working on making the puzzles but hasn’t got to the end of the wait-list as yet; there are still a lot more puzzles to make.

Lifestyle changes are complicating progress too. We decided to work part-time in 2023 then retire 21st December 2023. Our Blog and Archive pages will remain but we will stop selling puzzles on the website 21st December 2023. Even though we had expected to have BBBB puzzles available for sale on the website we seem to have taken to part-time work with relish and it doesn’t look like Brian will have enough finished puzzles for that to happen.

But Brian is determined to finish them all, even if it’s into 2024. We’ll continue to sell them directly to customers by email as Brian finishes them.

If you would like to be added to the wait-list please email [email protected] and we’ll confirm we have your name down. We already have more than the number of puzzles coming through in the next couple of months on the list so if you do request to sign up now please understand it will be later in 2024, maybe as late as 3rd quarter, before the remaining puzzles are finished.
There is no deposit required. And no obligation to buy. We will contact people in order they signed up as puzzles become available.

PRICE: AU$ 605.00 including Australia Tax (AU$ 550.00 ex tax if shipped outside Australia) plus express trackable post. (The value of the puzzle dictates that Australia Post will not send via standard international post)

Update September 2024

Brian is back from IPP and determined to get some more puzzles made and sent out to wait-listed puzzlers. Thanks for your patience.

We do still have a few spaces on the waitlist. Please email us at [email protected] if you are interested. We have retired and our website is closed for sales but we are happy to arrange to send you one of the last of these puzzles.
Whilst we will not be selling puzzles anymore the website will continue with just the archive history of Brian Young puzzles and other puzzles made by us here at Mr Puzzle over the past 30 years. We recognise that many puzzlers use it as a research tool when looking for information about puzzles in their collection or offered for auction or sale by others

Note> The price of the puzzle is charged in Australian dollars – AU$550
If you’re outside Australia the exchange rate is set by your method of payment either PayPal or Bank. Estimated exchange rate towards the end 2024 – AU$550 = approx. USD 360 or Euro 335 or GBP 280.
For Australian buyers – puzzles shipped within Australia are subject to an additional 10% local Goods and Services Tax making the price AU$ 605.

Keep on Puzzling.
Brian & Sue Young @ Mr Puzzle.

Details of the puzzle:

The goal is to find the 30th-anniversary plaque with its pearl.

Most bolt puzzles have just one or two moves but Brian wanted to make a full-blown sequential discovery puzzle out of a bolt. In the end, he had to hand-make the bolt too! To celebrate 30 years of puzzle making Brian included a few well-disguised hints of puzzles past. But don’t think that means you’ll solve this one easily.

This approach is a little unusual, Brian normally would like to put something radically new into every puzzle that he releases. But this one is actually more like a greatest hits of a lot of his designs to celebrate the last 30 years.
Even so, you might not easily recognise some of the moves. The puzzle has been checked by some pretty good puzzle solvers around the world and some of them had a bit of trouble with different parts of the puzzle, probably because they’ve never seen the trick in the original puzzle made many years ago.

Basic Rules:
You will NOT need to use any hitting, spinning, sudden movements, or jarring. Nothing is done up tight, and there is definitely no need for any force.

BBBB is made here at Mr Puzzle. There is no donor bolt. Brian is machining it all himself from scratch, including the bolt, from hexagonal and round brass stock. There are pins and magnets inside.
Base:
– Most of the puzzles have a base made from Papua New Guinean Ebony. These ebony puzzles vary from streaky to quite uniform colour.
– There are just 28 puzzles that will have a Queensland Walnut wood base. The photo below is representative of most of them. (Queensland Walnut was the wood used to make Whilemmina Wombat back in 2008; because Brian is retiring he’s using up some old wood stock).
– Some of the uniform coloured PNG Ebony look very similar to the walnut.

Size: Bolt – 65mm long Hex diameteer 30mm Base – 110mm x 50mm x 40mm

Solution: As is the custom with many of Brian’s puzzles he wants to give people the best chance of puzzling before he publishes the solution. We’ll keep everyone who buys updated when it is available.