Hot Diggity Dogs Review
I recently had the opportunity to work on "Hot Diggity Dogs" a 
puzzle copyright 2000 with art by Michele Koenig.
Catalog picture:
This is the only art by Michele Koenig that I have from Stave and the theme (two Dachshunds) is quite appealing to the dog-lover in me.
Here's a non-spoiler close up of one of the dog's heads it also gives a good sense of the artwork:
Thus Michele's art makes use of a narrow palette of colors to help tease-and-taunt you as you go. I found the basic assembly challenging because of all of the yellow, blue, and red "sparks" flying around these Dachshunds. The style is nicely whimsical and quite challenging as a "teaser-light-like" puzzle in many respects. Great job by Michele on the art and--need I state the obvious--Stave did a fantastic job integrating the art into the tricks and helping use it to "hide" the solution.
As you move along, you will be faced with the challenge:
I'll give you a hint that's not even a hint, the catalog image is wrong. The dogs in that picture constitute "tangled".
Untangling the dogs was challenging, though I'm still unsure about how to rate the puzzle on the bolt scale. Other trick puzzles I have were much, much harder. (Bonnie & Clyde springs to mind.) Overall, I would probably difficulty set this as only 
or 
for difficulty.
BTW, are there any more puzzles with art by Michele Koenig?
puzzle copyright 2000 with art by Michele Koenig.Catalog picture:
This is the only art by Michele Koenig that I have from Stave and the theme (two Dachshunds) is quite appealing to the dog-lover in me.
Here's a non-spoiler close up of one of the dog's heads it also gives a good sense of the artwork:
Thus Michele's art makes use of a narrow palette of colors to help tease-and-taunt you as you go. I found the basic assembly challenging because of all of the yellow, blue, and red "sparks" flying around these Dachshunds. The style is nicely whimsical and quite challenging as a "teaser-light-like" puzzle in many respects. Great job by Michele on the art and--need I state the obvious--Stave did a fantastic job integrating the art into the tricks and helping use it to "hide" the solution.
As you move along, you will be faced with the challenge:
I'll give you a hint that's not even a hint, the catalog image is wrong. The dogs in that picture constitute "tangled".
Untangling the dogs was challenging, though I'm still unsure about how to rate the puzzle on the bolt scale. Other
trick puzzles I have were much, much harder. (Bonnie & Clyde springs to mind.) Overall, I would probably difficulty set this as only or for difficulty.BTW, are there any more puzzles with art by Michele Koenig?
Tags: hot diggity dogs, review
Comment
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Comment by Erik on January 28, 2009 at 11:10am - Jennifer I borrowed the puzzle. That said it is good to know we can ask for the bigger ones when ordering.
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Comment by Jennifer on January 28, 2009 at 9:49am - Of course we will still sell the bigger version. And if you want, you can even return the little one and we'll credit the purchase price towards the bigger one. We're good like that :) If you connect with our buddy, Ted, he can tell you how tough the big boy is. I think his words were "it near drove me insane." So bring it on! FYI, if you order today between 1:30 and 5:00 EST we'll take 35% off. Of course, I'll have to price the thing out but if any of you are interested send me an email and I'll get my butt in gear and do that. Jennifer@stave.com
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Comment by Bryan on January 27, 2009 at 10:55pm - Yes! I agree! We should get Steve to reinstate and allow us to order the 180 piece version as well and call it a variation on the name Hot Diggity Dogs to distinguish it from the easier version. If it is as difficult as Jennifer states then a 4 Bolt rating would be warranted. I actually found this about as easy as Lion Show, a 1 Bolt Trick Puzzle...my total time was 11 minutes from start to finish on this version version of Hot Diggity Dogs so my 2 bolt rating was more than generous and I would venture to say it should be a 1 Bolt to 2 Bolt rating at the most! I was hoping the trick would be as difficult as Champ, which Steve could easily design it to be, and which is a puzzle I thoroughly enjoy!
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Comment by Erik on January 27, 2009 at 11:50am
- Is there any way to still order the 180 piece version?
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Comment by Jennifer on January 27, 2009 at 11:22am
- Interesting comments... I wonder if we dropped the ball somewhere along the way. The original Hot Diggity Dogs puzzle was much larger, 180 pieces, and earned the 4 bolt rating. We heard from many that it was almost too tough. In an effort to increase the appeal we reduced the size of the puzzle. Much of the 180 pieces were simply 'pieces' and we felt they wouldn't be missed but we also had to tweek the design a bit so smaller version has fewer Trick cuts than the larger version. I guess we should have changed the difficulty rating, too. I'll blame that on Steve! ;) I am surprised that some of you think it should only be a two. I would have thought a 3. A two bolt puzzle should take longer than a 2 sword puzzle. Keep the info coming!
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Comment by Bryan on January 24, 2009 at 10:33pm
- Hi Erik, I must concur. I finally decided to pull out Hot Diggity Dogs and in a relatively short time it was complete (about as long as it takes to complete a 2 Sword Teaser). I would definitely call this a 2 Bolt puzzle but then again I can certainly see how this could have been one that lasted me months and months....I think I just got lucky as the trick just made sense to me. Overall I loved the puzzle and of course I love and adore dogs so I would recommend it to anyone and everyone that loves dogs and Stave puzzles!
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Comment by Jennifer on August 6, 2008 at 2:42pm
- You can find more of Michele's work in Empress Pearl but that's all we have from her. She lived in the area years back and worked with Steve on these two designs. He created the trick and she painted the art.
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Comment by June Herold on August 5, 2008 at 7:54am - Hi. It took me about 4 hours spread over a week to do Hot Diggity and I got a tip from puzzlenut Ted Ruska that made all the difference. I put together the wrong solution immediately and then untangling them was not easy. It would have taken longer if Ted hadn't shared the tip.
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Comment by Erik on August 3, 2008 at 12:14pm
- thanks dave. Hope your first arrive soon.
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Comment by David Minton on August 3, 2008 at 11:08am - I must echo John's thanks. Your reviews are one of the best things on this forum imho. Always very interesting. Still waiting for my first Stave to arrive, but when it does I'll be sure to post a review! Many thanks - David
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