Restoration

by Holly Sipek

Answer:
REVAMP

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We are presented with two sets of images: pictures of entirely disassembled objects. In the right-hand set, the identity of the object being presented is fairly clear from the handful of parts that are shown. In the left-hand set, the identity of the object is much less clear, despite the fact that there are more components shown.

As suggested by the title, or simply by noticing the objects are disassembled, the first step is to match up the images to “reassemble” the objects and figure out what they are. We find some clues are available from the parts in the more ambiguous images, such as the complexity, shape, size, and color.

We notice the right-hand column is ordered alphabetically by item manufacturer, which the flavor text (“brand”) hints at.

Ordered by the left-hand column, whose images are numbered, the matching brands and object names are:

Item NumberLeft ImageManufacturerObject NameRight Image
1RYOBIPower Drill
2IMPERIALSewing Machine
3
MAGLITEFlashlight
4
NINTENDOHandheld Game Console
5
MAGELLANGPS Unit
6
NORTHERN ELECTRICRotary Phone
7
PANASONICMicrowave Oven
8
ARGUSAccordion
9
OSTERBlender
10
MASTERCRAFTSnowblower
11
HOMELITEChainsaw
12
KEYSTONEVideo Projector
13
CJSJ[1]Combination Lock
14
TOSHIBADVD Player
15
SUNBEAMToaster
16
SMITHCORONATypewriter
17
LACIEHard Drive
18
TASCOTelescope
19
SUFFOLKLawnmower
20
OPTIMUSMusical Keyboard
21
SONYPortable Audio Player

We notice each object name corresponds to an abbreviated description on the right side of the final image, and everything in this column uses a “generic” name rather than a branded one (such as “handheld game console” instead of “Nintendo DS” or “portable audio player” instead of “Walkman”). These descriptions are in alphabetical order, which lets us disambiguate between the ‘T’s for the telescope, toaster, and typewriter.

This final image has more pieces scattered about, specifically pieces that look like resistors, though none have the standard four bands. We see the flavor text also hints at resistors.

Next, we draw lines connecting the numbered, left-column item image to the abbreviation of the object it depicts. Each line runs through several bands on various resistors, and each resistor band is crossed exactly once. Resistors have a standard value, 0-9, that corresponds to each color. When we draw a line that passes through multiple resistor bands, it will always pass through the bands in increasing order of value.

List of items by number on the left with lines crossing over to list of letters with ellipses on the right. Each line crosses over a resistor. See below table for more information.

In order from item 1 to item 21, reading colors left-to-right, we get a set of resistor colors for each object. We convert each color to its standard value and use these values to index into the item’s brand name to give the final clue phrase. Since resistor color values start at 0, indexing here also considers the first letter of the brand to be index 0.

We find the intersected colors and extracted letters to be the following:

NumManufacturerObject NameColorsNumbersResulting letters
1RYOBIPower DrillBlack0R
2IMPERIALSewing MachineOrange, Green3, 5E I
3MAGLITEFlashlightBlack, Brown, Red, Yellow0, 1, 2, 4M A G I
4NINTENDOHandheld Game ConsoleBlack, Brown, Red0, 1, 2N I N
5MAGELLANGPS UnitRed2G
6NORTHERN ELECTRICRotary PhoneOrange, Yellow, Green3, 4, 5T H E
7PANASONICMicrowave OvenYellow, Green, Blue4, 5, 6S O N
8ARGUSAccordionRed, Yellow2, 4G S
9OSTERBlenderBlack0O
10MASTERCRAFTSnowblowerWhite9F
11HOMELITEChainsawOrange, Yellow, Blue3, 4, 6E L T
12KEYSTONEVideo ProjectorGreen, Blue5, 6O N
13CJSJCombination LockBrown1J
14TOSHIBADVD PlayerBrown, Orange1, 3O H
15SUNBEAMToasterRed, Orange, Yellow2, 3, 4N B E
16SMITHCORONATypewriterViolet, White7, 9R N
17LACIEHard DriveOrange, Yellow3, 4I E
18TASCOTelescopeBlack, Brown0, 1T A
19SUFFOLKLawnmowerBrown1U
20OPTIMUSMusical KeyboardBrown, Orange1, 3P I
21SONYPortable Audio PlayerRed2N

The final cluephrase, REIMAGINING THE SONGS OF ELTON JOHN BERNIE TAUPIN, leads us to two musical albums: Restoration: Reimagining the Songs of Elton John and Bernie Taupin and Revamp: Reimagining the Songs of Elton John & Bernie Taupin. As “Restoration” is the name of the puzzle (and the spelled-out word “and” does not appear in the cluephrase), we have the answer REVAMP.

Footnotes

  1. This is the only brand not visible from the image itself, but the alphabetical order of brands narrows down possibilities, and CJSJ is included on the list of manufacturers on Wikipedia’s page for combination locks. ↩

Authors' Notes

The images in this puzzle are from Todd McLellan’s beautiful photo book, Things Come Apart. They have undergone some further image editing/photo disassembly in order to split them into two parts. A copy of the book may speed along the matching portion, but certainly isn’t required.

At one point, this puzzle was going to be the exact same thing but with IKEA furniture when someone suggested an idea around the “knolling” photography trend, but in the interest of using already-available images (and because no one urgently needed 20 new pieces of furniture) we switched to this book.