Some years back, the author found the following problem in a spatial puzzle book: how many ways can you put four blocks together, face to face (with no vertical rotation symmetry)? He gave each student just four blocks and they collectively tried combinations to eventually agree on the answer of 15. He used to think it was a halfway decent task, being visual, concrete and encouraging problem solving. He doesn't think that anymore. Unbeknown to him at the time, other teachers had been developing much the same task but had made it much richer through deliberate pedagogical tweaks. Some of these are: (1) adding a story context; (2) modelling the context with concrete materials and promoting group work; (3) an explicit teaching segment representing 3D shapes on 2D isometric paper; (4) making connections to number (money) and measurement through costing the houses; (5) differentiation; and (6) designing an advertising poster.