Thrift Treasure: The Uptight Spider
It’s been nearly a year since we’ve found a unique enough puzzle at thrift to warrant its purchase. Our last one was in November of 2017 when we happened across a like-new copy of Dribble. It was a single-player game that challenged you to maneuver a glass marble up the track, making it walk on horizontal pegs. Simple to explain but not so simple to accomplish.
This week we discovered The Uptight Spider by Peterson Games at our local Goodwill. Most of the time when you purchase a puzzle, whether new or used, it will include the solution. Jigsaw puzzles have it on the box top. 3-D puzzles might have a secret solution hidden on the box bottom or at the end of the instructions. And in today’s world it isn’t uncommon for a manufacturer to include a URL to the answers hosted on their website.
None of these are the case with The Uptight Spider. A simple nine-piece puzzle where you are tasked to reassemble the uptight spider’s web (presumably because he’s too uptight to do it himself). The tiles may be placed in any of the 3×3 spaces and rotated in any 90 degree orientation. The end result is they must connect to one another by unbroken strands of the web.
The spider’s web isn’t symmetrical, so lining up the strands might work for a few pieces. But you’ll quickly discover that the remaining tiles don’t match up at all! Only through trial and error will you finally succeed in helping the spider spin a new web with no broken strands.
At the time of publication (late 60’s – early 70’s) you could send the company a quarter and an SASE for the solution and information about other puzzles in their line. Sadly, they no longer seem to be in business, so we’ll have to find the right solution out of over 1,300 possible combinations on our own!
If you feel like helping out The Uptight Spider, copies sometimes appear on eBay for around $10 shipped. Right now there is one copy on eBay up for grabs and appears to have been the only one for quite some time. So don’t hesitate – buy it now!
Did you land on this article to find the solution to The Uptight Spider? We’ve found more than one possible configuration and have hidden one here!
What is your favorite type of puzzle game?
I landed on this article because I am a huge puzzle fan! Any kind of puzzle, they are fun and challenging to me! 1,300 possibile ways?? Yes!!