soma body stop me

So, this little red box arrived in the mail yesterday. SOMA madness begins again !

Intriguing....

This one is made of carved marble and it's really, really early. Not even our friend Thorleif Bundgard has one of these. The pieces are individually carved, not blocks glued together like the wood ones, which is way cooler me thinks. The marble is also a very beautiful color.

It's pretty small too, which again, with the box, size and instructions sheet you will see below, leads me to believe it is from the 30's or 40's. It was designed in 1936 by Piet Hein for those of you who have not checked out my earlier posts on this addictive little "game".

Here are the early instructions. The paper is so worn but not ripped or torn. It feels almost like fabric it is so soft from being handled and folded over the years. There are lots of notations in blue, red and black indicating which forms were solved or built I think.

The writing at the bottom is very interesting and lovely. It says:

"The Soma Cube"

"We have prepared one of the very interesting game for our foreigner customer. If you want to be a one of the happiest man and if you want to have a very joyfullife, please take it and try to build up the pictures of this paper. Especially when you have in a trouble, and when you are uncomfortable from loneness. please try to make it then it will brings your every happiness and good luck, and it will take out your all bad troubles, We hope you will enjoy very much with soma cube, many thanks your sincerely"

Gotta love it.

A "steamer". Huh? Is Piet implying what I think he is???

Ok Peit, time for a new translator. This looks nothing like a traditional Caribbean soup Sopa de Mondongo! 

Big bowl of Sopa de Mondongo for a big boy! DELICIOUS!

Ok, back to my new passion. I like this one.

Scary. I tried to build this and couldn't. Yet....

This is what the 7 pieces look like. 

As I said before, the lines are carved to mimic individual blocks.

This is my version of a dog. It differs from the official instructions, but I like to break the rules... (I couldn't figure it out.... yet....)