Hanayama Cast Puzzle: Cast Elk

Puzzle: Cast Elk
Brand: Hanayama (forgive me)
Inventor: NOB Yoshigahara
ST: 15m

The intertwined elks

This is the Cast Elk from again Hanayama, with the highest rating of 6. I currently was stepping up from the medium range and buying lots of harder puzzles. The elk is one of them.

The designer's name engraved
on one of the pieces

This puzzle is, indeed, shaped as two elks, their horn entangled, and the letters NOB, the name of the designer, engraved onto one of the pieces. Then of course, your task is to separate them. I have classified the Hanayamas into two categories: the first includes puzzles that needs just a few steps to solve, but requires hard thinking. Examples may include Cast Nutcase, Cast News, Cast Spiral, and this one. the other is maze-like puzzles that require a long series of move to solve, and most of them requires the trial and error method (although Cast O'gear is a exception, see an earlier post). Puzzles that fit into this category might be Cast H&H, Cast Disk, Cast Keyring, and Cast Bike. I personally prefer the first one, as they require more thinking and not luck.


Back to the topic, Cast Elk is one of my favorite puzzles because of this reason. They are also beautifully crafted with detail, a common trait among the Hanayamas-beautiful and hard. I have been manipulating the two pieces for some time and was just going in circles. The horns' shape interact with each other to just block you from the last move!

The Elks separated

Later in the day I was watching TV, and taking the puzzle out from my pocket I suddenly found that it was in a whole new position I have not gone to-Kevin have I found another Magic jacket ? :D From that point I was able to progress and finally separate the two pieces. It turns out that I have tried a similar thing before, but the designer has made the two pieces slightly different, so out of the four similar moves only one works. I counted and there were about three moves total in order to save the Elks, but they were really tricky!

Overall the Cast Elk is a lovely puzzle to get, it's a "beginner" level 6, and as always worth your sacrifice. The Elk can be brought from here.