For the 27th International Puzzle Party, held in Australia in August 2007, Kate designed a visual pun for the theme of "Sudoku" and "Koala" and presented it to the attendees with a long list of puzzle challenges.
The 36 little laser-cut gray bears in each set (a by-product of our popular Bear Hugs sets) had been hand-painted with koala faces, and each had a colorful number on its chest. There were 6 sets of each number from 1 to 6. Only a limited number of 85 sets were made. Sorry, we don't have any for sale. Of course, we do have our original Bear Hugs and Bear Hugs Jr. available without limit.
Acknowledgments — Notwithstanding the plentitude of gray bears that we had stockpiled as "free" raw material to use up, the Sudo-Koalas were arguably our most expensive IPP puzzle to date and a huge team effort. The heroic contributions of all are deeply appreciated. Thanks, guys!
- Michael Keller for deriving the major part of the solution
- Thomas Atkinson for laser-cutting required shapes
- Richard Grainger for sorting 85 times 36 critters into the exact groups
- Tijl Koenderink and Thomas for loading them all into cartons for hauling
- Josiane Smith for painting all but 36 of the 3060 individual noses, eyes, ears and numbers
- "Fabe" for sorting painted bears back into sets
- Richard for trimming the boxes
- Josiane for "stretching" the boxes
- Michael and Thomas for wrestling 36 bears into each box and attaching labels
- Dick Jones for wrestling two footlockers of bears through countless airport security checkpoints
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