Cluebox - Sherlock's Camera Puzzle Box

a good brainteaser to keep adolescents busily entertained

It is actually 4.5 stars, rather than 5. But in the spirit of festive generosity I am rounding it up instead of down. The puzzle arrived quickly, it is compact and looks good, both as packaged and the puzzle itself. There was indeed an interior compartment for small gift objects (supposedly jewellery) that I could access before putting the puzzle underneath the xmas tree, but I had to try to open it more than once as the mechanism is very finicky, The compartment is really tiny - I had to remove the packaging and squeeze the jewellery very tight in there. Our adolescents were intrigued by the puzzle box, said it was addictive but also frustrating and spent several days trying to solve it - ultimately successfully. (a good investment then given it required more than just 30 minutes!) Frustration is caused by the fact that the required logic is “invented” and it necessitates a great deal of imagination to come up with ideas how to proceed (very similar to full-sized escape rooms based on fictional stories). So be ready to employ the trial and error approach and check for hints to confirm you are on the right track because ex-ante it cannot be clear what will be instrumental. Be prepared that the first correct attempt at moving forward at nearly every stage may fail - and you won’t know at that point if this is because that was not the correct approach or because you were 1 millimetre off somewhere and that is why the mechanism did not react and you simply had to re-try. I am relieved that the jewellery I put inside was not damaged.

Good overall puzzle

It is a good overall puzzle that was delivered very promptly

Very well designed, kept me thinking until the end!