Free the Key

Puzzle: Free the Key
Brand: Puzzlemaster
Inventor: Oscar van Deventer

ST: ~15 min

Been quiet around here recently - I do apologize for this, and I hope to improve my posting rate from now on. Well, here is a post to change the situation.

Free the Key

Free the key was a puzzle that came with several others from Puzzlemaster back when I first started puzzling, but haven't decided to write about it until now. It came simply in a blue plastic package that tells you the name, it's difficulty rating, and (helpfully) states that the objective is to remove the disk from the aluminum key. Taking it out you can see some marks on the parts that gives hints about the building quality - but isn't too troubling considering the cheap price. The thing felt quite sturdy, and would've done some damage if it had an encounter with one's foot!

This puzzle is another well known Oscar design, and as with quite a large portion of his designs this is a maze puzzle. It was in my opinion quite something unique, taking keys to be the theme. As you can see there's several notches on the disks which interacts with the key to create a fairly complicated maze, containing several dead-ends along the way to trip you up.

Job done!

So taking the puzzle you start manipulating the disk and in minutes was close to the end-only to be stopped in your tracks two-thirds from the end. Trying again only results being stuck in the same place. Time to explore a bit! After a while you'd find some more avenues to get into, enabling more fiddling - Suffice to say the solution wasn't trivial, requires you a bit logical thinking and planning before getting the job done. A neat little puzzle that would keep you thinking for a while.

Again a great design by Oscar-and I think I have an idea of why both reviews on it's puzzlemaster page gave it a five-star rating. You can get a copy of the puzzle from either Puzzlemaster, or Sloyd for a reasonable price.

Alcatraz the Puzzle

Puzzle: Alcatraz
Brand: Puzzlemaster
Inventor: Brian McDermott
ST: N/A

Alcatraz Puzzle

Every puzzler now and then would probably get to the Alcatraz Puzzle after a bit of surfing on the web. It is a fairly intriguing puzzle with a ball trapped inside a square cage with bars on both the front and the back blocking any possible means for the ball the escape. It lively represents the real-life Alcatraz Prison, as from what I've heard that's about how big the cells are in there to their prisoners. Quite something curious enough to be picked up on first sight.

The inventor was a magician, and was greatly interested by puzzles too. When he discovered that there's no puzzle in the world that satisfied him, he decided to design a good puzzle that he'd never met. And so the Alcatraz was born. It was originally used for his magic shows, but then developed to be the well-known puzzle. You can read the full story here.

I've got the puzzle from quite an earlier order from Puzzlemaster along with a few others, but haven't decided to review it until now-I do have a reason which I'll explain more later. So fiddling with the puzzle the ball would move a couple of millimeters and except from that the brass bars rotate freely and move up and down a bit, there's seemingly no possible movement whatsoever. I think that it is actually pretty obvious how the ball comes out-the challenge lies in working out how. I must've spent rather a good hour on this one without having the slightest progress-the puzzle gives absolutely no feedback!

Jailbreak!

Finally I gave it up and looked at the solution. Have to say it surprised me! I would say that the solution of Alcatraz is very hard to find, but that's not because it was designed well. It's because no good-seasoned puzzler would ever do that to their puzzle! I'd say that Alcatraz is a good idea with a great appearance but poorly designed. No one would consider a puzzle box as a good puzzle if it has been glued together and the solution was to hit it with a hammer... Get the idea? (do not get the wrong idea-you do not break Alcatraz to solve it but it does require some serious force.)

Not quite a good experience this time and although as stated on the website most people give it a very high rating I'd be hesitant to recommend it to others. And although with time it does became easier to open without that much force I still have pain (yes pain!) opening it. It's hard to write a negative review but I feel the need to state my thoughts about that puzzle as people would be taking review into account before buying puzzles. I am sorry if I offended anyone.

The Alcatraz puzzle is for sale here.

Houdini's Torture Cell puzzle

Puzzle: Houdini's Torture Cell

Brand: MrPuzzle

Designer: Brian Young

ST: ~30 m

Opening Bat

Back in December 2010, 50 copies of a limited edition puzzle called the Opening Bat was released. It is a mammoth sequential discovery puzzle that, according to Brian's own words, "As far as sequential discovery puzzles go this one's on steroids!" Taking ten years to design. The Opening Bat is a gigantic puzzle with "multiple puzzles in one", and has just everything to win it countless awards. I regret to this day having not brought it while I still have the money. It is one of the best puzzles ever made/designed. Being such a puzzle king it's not going to come out cheap, and with only 50 copies many puzzler missed out on the fun. Brian received amazing feedbacks for this puzzle- 

"...this is an awesome puzzle!...As far as sequential discovery puzzles go, this one will be hard to top!" - Brian Pletcher

"the One to Rule Them All...definitely a very cool puzzle...much more elaborate than any sequential discovery puzzle I’ve seen" - Jeff

"Brian has done a great job and there's clearly a lot of time and care went into the puzzle. Hat's off to you sir, it's a great puzzle!" - Neil Hutchison

"an Opening Bat is never going to disappear in among a collection of puzzles – it is going to stand out...Brian Young, you ought to be proud of this, very proud!" - Allard Walker

Well, Brian felt that it's too good an idea for just an limited edition and remakes the last part. And here the Houdini's Torture Cell is born!

Houdini's Torture Cell

With the sob-story of missing out the Bat still in my mind, I was keen to not miss the Torture Cell when it came out-and the result of that is having it sitting on my desk right now. The puzzle was sold out literally days after I've brought it-Phew!

Houdini's Torture Cell is a sequential discovery puzzle just like it's older brother, where you'll have to follow a number of steps in order, and all you need to solve the puzzle (tools) is contained within the puzzle itself. It was themed around Houdini's Water Chamber-whereas the wooden peg represents poor Houdini hanging upside-down in the water chamber (a.k.a Torture Cell), and your job is to rescue the great escape artist from it's fate.

Now, as I said previously, the puzzle was a remade of a part of the Opening Bat-but Brian has made modifications to it that made it a much easier puzzle by using acrylic. Being able to see what's going on lowered the difficulty of the puzzle-but hasn't lowered it's rating. Actually, many puzzlers reviewed the puzzle as one of their favorites!

So why is that? I say that it's a fun puzzle to fiddle with, you're aware of progress and little A-HA moments-And finally you make that last step and Houdini is out! All that and the clever mechanism made it a very good puzzle.

A not-so-good looking

Houdini out of his chamber

So upon receiving the puzzle you see Houdini and a ball bearing in the Cell, and a stand beneath it. I've been giving this to lots of people and the first thing they wanted to do is always wanting to get that ball up that stand-Hilarious-(Believe me, you're NEVER going to get it sitting there by dexterity alone!)-Than finally getting Houdini out with a satisfying motion. I wasn't known to be much of a experienced puzzler-and although made the right discovery did not use it the right way! It took me a LONG time to figure out what was to be done. Sadly the step can be easily flunked with random shakings-It is not the solution! The real motion is much more elegant. Finally after spending half an hour at this puzzle I got him out-Sense of achievement!

A fun puzzle to fiddle with, MOST people finds the solution pretty quickly and the solve was rewarding. At the time it was already sold out but if you ever come across one of those it's definitely worth a go.

Hanayama Cast Puzzle: Cast Cage

Puzzle: Cast Cage
Brand: Hanayama
Inventor: NOB Yoshigahara
ST: ~15 m

Cast Cage

This is the Cast Cage from Hanayama, rated level 3 on their scale of 6. Having black and gold as the color choice, it has a unique appearance. This puzzle was similar in concept to those "free the..." puzzles, such as this one, but also had it's own different features. A dark cage, with openings on four sides, imprisons a star, and your goal was, of course, to rescue it. The star's legs has different lengths, and the openings were also different shapes. Only one was (supposed to be) the correct exit, and you'll need to find both the correct opening as well as the series of movements of the star in order to take it out.

Star out of it's prison

After a few tries I quickly deduced where the opening should be and after some fiddling the star was out! Putting it back I tried to do the solution again to make sure I remember it, and showed it to a friend who was at the time with me. He was also able to have done it pretty quickly- but had it out on a different side! Thinking he's broken the puzzle a panicked Will took the puzzle back only to find that there's not just one solution... There was three! I don't know if it was a defective on my puzzle or a general problem, but with the design that's a little inconsistency. Somewhat similar to my experience with the Cast H&H-It is not too big a problem but does let down the overall rating of the puzzle.

Despite that the Cage was another good cage-type puzzle to fiddle with, and I say with Hanayamas the more the better! And as usual, the link to the shop.

Hanayama Cast Puzzle: Cast H&H

Puzzle: Cast H&H
Brand: Hanayama
Inventor: Oscar Van Deventer
ST: ~20 min

Cast H&H

Here's another Cast Puzzle for review: the H&H. At first sight it doesn't immediately show how it should work-but after picking it up it became fairly obvious, like the Cast Disk. The puzzle consists of two "H" shaped pieces intertwined with each other, some grooves on the puzzle makes it not possible to just pull the pieces apart but having to go through a serie of movements in order to separate them. The puzzle is a 3-D maze, and has some really interesting moves. It somehow resembles another puzzle in the series, the Cast Keyring, with similar aspects. As you can see in the photo the name and brand is engraved onto one of the piece, a little detail Hanayama puzzles always have.

The H's in pieces

Now although the puzzle was rated 5/6 in my opinion it was rather easy and I personally would rate it as more of a 3 or 4. Though there are other problems such as solving the parity issue the maze don't have too many dead-ends, and when it do, they don't extend long. I solved the puzzle rather quick-in total there were 26 moves at my count, although there was one kind of move the solution did not use, which is a bit let-down for me. A few days later, I was surfing on the web, and finds a copy of the solution of the H&H. But the problem is-the official solution was totally different with mine! It turned out that the puzzle has actually multiple solutions, and th official solution includes all six moves, not counting that it was the shortest one with only 20 moves (no pun intended). I'm not a big fan of puzzles with more than one solutions, but I guess for some maze puzzles it's just impossible to prevent that. Despite that, the Cast H&H pops out on the range of maze-type puzzles because the way the pieces interact with each other is very clever, maintaining your interest and made the solving progress fun.

On the shelf the nice silver coating made it look nice, and with the reasonable price you just can't go wrong with buying one here.

Chinese Nine Linked Rings

Puzzle: Chinese Nine Linked Rings
Brand: N/A
Designer: Zhuge Liang
ST: ~30 m

Nine Linked Rings

This is the Chinese Nine Linked Rings puzzle. Although being famous not much puzzlers seem to have it. It has been manufactured by quite a lot companies, and goes on to have many styles. This puzzle also have quite a history to it. It was invented by Zhuge Liang, a chinese teacher who also invented other things and led many successful battles. According to history he had invented this puzzle for his wife to play with when he's at war.

Half-Solved

The puzzle has basically two parts, the "sword" and the rings. Nine rings entangle with the sword and with each other, and your task is to take out the "sword". The puzzle is based on a simple principle, and for a ring to be taken on or off you have to meet certain requirements, so that's why you are taking them  repeatedly on and off to try and get the puzzle solved. For example, when you want to get the ninth ring off, the eighth has to be on, and in order to do that, the seven has to be on... In total there's 341 steps to take all rings off, and boy, won't that hurt!

Separated... 341 steps!!!

This puzzle is not particularly fun to solve, as it's just doing the same thing over and over again, but still,  logic thinking is required. I would not recommend it to serious puzzlers, but juniors would receive lots of fun. The Nine Linked Rings can be gotten from MrPuzzle.

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.

Revomaze Titanium Extreme

Puzzle: Revomaze Titanium Extreme
Brand: Revomaze
Inventor: Chris Pitt
ST: ~3 days

Revomaze Titanium Extreme

So wandering in the puzzle world I came about a series of puzzles called the Revomaze, and ever since I solved the first one I became completely addicted to them.

For those of you who hasn't heard of Revomazes I'll give a short explanation. The Revomaze is a series of puzzle invented by Chris Pitt. They are metal maze puzzles where you have to go through a labyrinth until you get to the end. The puzzle have three parts: The outer sleeve, the shaft, and the central core. There is a sprung pin inside the sleeve which walks in a maze engraved on the shaft. You have to push, pull, twist and turn to get to the finish at which point a dot will appear on the shaft. But not so easy! This series of puzzle really stood out from the others because the maze is not 2D, but 3D! The tracks has different heights, and if you drop to some of the lower ones... Start Over! After lining it up with another one on the sleeve, you can pull the shaft fully out, then release the central core out-revealing a certificate for completing the maze, with the signature from the designer himself. The different mazes range from easy to extreme (some have taken people years), but that does not mean the easy ones are a breeze. The units to count the solve times of most Revomazes are hours, or even days, indicating their level of difficulty. Machined from solid brass, the Revomazes are not cheap-but definitely worth the money!

Usually people start with blue, the easiest maze in the series. Following it are green, bronze, silver and finally the unite gold. As of the titanium-it was a limited edition that has a difficulty of about 85/100, whereas the blue was rated 50/100. So how come I had such a hard one as my first?

My serial number-21-50

When I found the Revomaze series, it turns out that I am a latecomer in the show, and some puzzles are going to or already are extinct. So in order to not miss out on any ones that are available, I brought the CE, or collector's set which includes all five puzzles in the main series-plus a limited edition. And you're right, it's the Titanium. But luckily the Ti is a static maze, meaning there isn't any moving parts in the maze, leaving me a classic type Revomaze. Wandering unexperienced in the maze I found some pathways but no other ways to go. Here I give a warning: do not play with the Revomaze for a long period! Your hand would be VERY sore.

Resorting to the forums, I've found the old, useful way-making a map. With a accurate map I was able to find where I haven't gone, and also the only possible pathway to the end. In the next few hours I learned the second element needed to open a Revomaze aside from a clear mind-a steady hand.
Continuing to work on the puzzle the next day. I got further, but the accuracy level required me to draw on the shaft. By now I have been used to the feeling of Revomazes and can easily manipulate the shaft. After a while the dot appears, hands are shaking, the two dots were closer and closer to be lined up-

Open!

Click!

Finally at the 8 hour count the dots lined up with a satisfying click, then the shaft literally dropped out, revealing a rather gorgeous piece of complex work. The high quality machining is definitely worth your little sacrifice. And then the central core was out, along with the certificate signed by Chris Pitt himself.

The puzzle was, although static, very sneaky. Chris implemented something very evil within the limitations of a nonmoving maze and I found out that, being a beginner, I was very lucky on solving this one in just 3 days. I have to say this fantastic puzzle has definitely gotten me hooked already-I am not going to miss out on any future Revomazes!

A close-up of the certificate

Overall the Revomazes series are a great puzzles series that almost passes all compare, and the quality and level of difficulty is both satisfying. This one is a limited edition, so it's not obtainable unless you purchase the costly collector's set, but all puzzles from the main series, another limited edition orange, and plastic versions of the puzzle is available from here.

Hanayama Cast Puzzle: Cast Loop

Puzzle: Cast Loop
Brand: Hanayama
Inventor: Vesa Timonen
ST: ~15 m

Cast Loop

First I would like to apologize of my small variety of puzzles, more specifically, I have been reviewing on Hanayama puzzles ALL THE TIME! I have been, as said, starting on this series for my puzzling and will be getting more different puzzles in the future.


After solving the previous ones I had confidence that I am more of a level-fourish person, and didn't "waste" my money on easier levels. But upon my researching I stumbled upon the Cast Loop which has a pretty high rating. After seeing several blog reviews, I decided that it's time to have it on my hands. It arrives with a string so that you can wear it as a accessory . (how nice!) But considering it's weight I gave up that use.

A rather heavy necklace!

Cast Loop's first assembly, as comes in package

The Cast Loop comes a shiny ring, the words "LOOP" and "Hanayama" is written on each of the pieces. With only two pieces it is not hard, but a bit tricky. The goal is to assemble the puzzle into a complete ring. It has two different assemblies, one of which the puzzle comes in the box, and the other which is the solution. This is not the kind of puzzle where you have to use the trial-and-error method, but rather you can just put the pieces on the coffee table and literally think out the answer. I am known to be slow among the puzzlers, so a good fifteen minutes were used before I solved the puzzle.

the beautiful symmetry

Apart from the puzzling on it, the puzzle itself is a beautiful piece of work, with a nice symmetry to the two pieces. Although rated as in the easiest range of Hanayamas, I personally recommend this one to you as it isn't only a clever puzzle on an old concept, but an artwork as well. Definitely worth buying! The Hanayama series can be obtained from Puzzlemaster, Puzzlethis, Sloyd, and MrPuzzle.

Hanayama Cast Puzzle: Cast NEWS

Compass?

Puzzle: Cast NEWS
Brand: Hanayama
Inventor: NOB Yoshigahara
ST: ~1 week


Now to introduce one of my favorite puzzles...The Cast News. It was invented by Mr. Yoshigahara at the age of 19, pretty amazing isn't it? Some people are born for you to look up onto. The puzzle was rated the highest rating on the Hanayama scale-6. I expected much of a challenge when I brought it-and it definitely give me a good amount of torture time! It was made of two pieces that join together to firm a octagon. The puzzle was defined to be somehow like a compass, with N, E, W, and S engraved on it. It was made of good bronze, and was designed to have a aged look, similar to several other Hanayamas, such as the Enigma, the Coil etc.

Opened

When having a first try, you'll notice things going inside there. Sort of like a marble rolling around. So this must be the locking mechanism! There seemed to be a LOT of things inside because in every direction you tilt, something clicks. Still, being the unexperienced me and haven't seen puzzles of the like, I figured that this must be a multiple-step puzzle where you tilt it in the correct direction, and let one thing block each other until it was finally able to come apart. Oh how wrong I was. Fiddle-Fiddle-dee, no avail after sometime, I finally thought of a approach using a simple law of physics. I tried it-No avail. So back to the fiddling, and I at last determined what was going on there. If I really was right, then NOB was really a clever dude... So five minuted later lo and behold it opened! Examining it, i could tell that I am right. The inventor added a nice twist to a simple concept that makes the puzzle more interesting, which is why I so liked this one. I can only say that if your idea didn’t work, it might not be wrong-Think of your theories again, and figuring the positions of the things inside will surely help.

A good puzzle indeed-To my suggestion you must have it, great invention by NOB again!

Here is where you’ll get this puzzle.

Hanayama Cast Puzzle: Cast Spiral

Puzzle: Cast Spiral

Cast Spiral

Brand: Hanayama
Inventor: Kennet Walker, NOB Yoshigahara
ST: 30 m

This is another Cast Puzzle by Hanayama, rated level five on their six-point scale. It’s shaped like five unique jigsaw pieces put together to form a circle. The puzzle really gives a elegant feeling, and feels smooth when holding it. All Hanayama puzzles seems to be manufactured well, and considering its price, every single puzzle by them is worth to buy. Back to the topic, if you haven’t seen those kinds of puzzles, you will really be puzzled by how this puzzle works. (no pun intended) Exactly what I have experienced-what kind of a puzzle is supposed to be there if it’s only about jigsaw, not considering that there’s only five pieces? Oh how wrong I was. Those kinds of puzzles had a slope in the place where they connect to form a unique interlocking system. Two pieces can slide out in one direction-but will be blocked in the other. That’s easy, you say. The problem is that there’s five! Whenever two pieces want to slide apart, they will be kindly blocked by the other piece beside them. Now the puzzle rating goes from easy to impossible in a minute, huh? This is what I like about the Hanayamas. So when you hold one piece and let go the rest, none will fall out, but instead forms a staircase or spiral-like pattern (hence the name). There’s another more original puzzle like this which is a square formed from four jigsaw pieces, in which they interlock just like this puzzle. The spiral has given a twist to the original, changing the shape and increasing the number of pieces.

The staircase-a unique locking system

Having never seen any type of those puzzles before, i was pretty dumbfounded for some time. I have the basic idea of how it should open, but applied it in the wrong way-and not until some time later did I found the correct solution-pretty clever!

The assembly was trickier-If you didn’t have the pieces labeled, or somehow remembered the correct order, you could sort them into what was called the “Cast Spiral Paradox”. The pieces was constructed in such a way that they could only fit in one way, and all other possibilities were denied. But, because of the joins’ different shapes, some pieces will tend to stuck together when wrongly placed. In fact, they could be stuck in such a manner that you’d have to get a replacement of the puzzle-pretty dangerous! There was also a alternate assembly which is also a paradox-once you got in that formation you were unlikely to fix your puzzle. So I, always doing a lot of research before I bought a puzzle, were well aware of this and labeled the pieces with a pencil before I dissected them-Although later I was able to memorize the order.

Opened!

The puzzle itself was beautifully manufactured-and its quality is great. So if you want a hard, beautiful puzzle this was for you! In fact, it was so smooth that one of my fellow puzzlers joked that it could be a hand massager! While I don't suggest that use, the puzzle was definitely worth buying.

You could get your own copy of the puzzle here.

Brass Pyramid

Puzzle: Brass Pyramid

Inventor: Doug Engel

ST: ~10 s

The pyramid... Mysterious?

Finally something other than the Hanayamas huh? Although I believe the Hanayama series were a star in the puzzling world, I think it's time to change the topic.


This is the Brass Pyramid from Puzzle Master, in my most recent order. It certainly looks nice on your shelf with nice gold polished sides, and a unique pyramid look.

Mysterious-No! Solved.

But yes-I am sure you have noticed this-my solve time isn’t a typo. While I spent a whole paragraph praising it, the puzzle was actually poor. Basically it went like this-I opened the package, holding it in my hand to examine, falls apart.

In the beginning I have brought it for its look and it’s rating (6 on the Puzzlemaster scale which run from 5 to 10)-I am not someone who was easily encouraged, and believed the solving of Enigma to be pure luck. So there I have thought this pyramid to be at least taking me a good fifteen minutes or so. It didn’t last a full minute! The puzzle had a simple mechanism that can be VERY easily bypassed by chance. The idea could be used better and be improved-sadly it wasn’t. There was a twist added to the idea, but not a good one-and it too can be bypassed.

In my opinion it wasn’t worth it’s price, and even rookies (like me) could have it dissected in a matter of seconds. Not recommended-My first (and hopefully last) negative post.

But still if you are a collector and REALLY SERIOUSLY felt that you need to have one-here’s the link. EDIT: Puzzlemaster seemed to be no longer selling this item as it is removed from their page.

Hanayama Cast Puzzle: Cast Enigma

Puzzle: Cast Enigma
Brand: Hanayama
Inventor: Eldon Vaughn
ST: 40 m

Unsolvable Puzzle!!!-or is it?

I realized that I wasn't reviewing my poor little collection in order-Has ben a while since I brought some of them. Hope it doesn't affect this blog! This is the Cast Enigma (yes, sorry for reviewing Cast Puzzles all the time, be patient... Other puzzles coming), rated level 6 (a.k.a MAX) on the Hanayama scale. In fact, it has been so hard that some people considered it unsolvable. I was NOT aware of this fact when I bought this. At first, I was buying this as a birthday present for one of my puzzler friends, and to be sure he got it on time I purchased it a couple of weeks earlier. Well it was so tempting sitting ghtere on my shelf! What happens with a tempting puzzle and a puzzle obsessionist? NOTHING if I was buying it for a friend, so it arrived as his doorstep undamaged. But it so tempts me that I brought an extra one right after his birthday. As you know, I am a serious rookie, so I am not planning to buy Enigma at first when I'm stuck with some level fours. But you know what happens with a hopelessly obsessed puzzler and money! So there a enigmatic chain lay at my hands.

The solved unsolvable

The puzzle consists of three parts, two of them being spiral-looking, and the other one is a distorted "O" shape The thing was polished in a kind of aged gold color, and certainly looks nice if you hang it. Not-so-attractive if it was jumbled up on a shelf!

As of me, I've found this puzzle as very straight-forward, and except one move that delayed me a little, I worked smoothly through and the thing was in pieces in 20 minutes. As of assembly, I have watched closely, and it took me around the same time to put it back. Not here to boast at all, but I have found nothing enigmatic about this one.


The Next Section Is For People Who Already Solved The Enigma

The same thing? No...

And what now? Well, I am not sure if the designer even realized this: There's two other alternate assemblies to challenge you! I've found those when I'm fiddling with this on a very, very bored Saturday. Anyone who solved the Enigma will know how the longer spiral piece and the "O" piece come out. Put them in upside-down, and you've got a alternate assembly with a mirror image of the original Enigma. For people familiar to the puzzle it should not be hard to assemble/disassemble using the method, but it is a fun approach!

Whole-new stuff

The second one is more complicated. Assemble the puzzle having one of the pieces upside-down but with the other up straight will result in a whole-new puzzle. Looking at the picture, you will realize that the bottom two parts has switched! And no this is not a middle state of the original puzzle! It is your own matter to figure out how to exchange the two pieces ad turn it to its starting position.


Back To Normal


So over all a fun and challenging puzzle. Great to buy, as it can took you quite a while (sadly not in my case). A must-have in your collection.

The puzzle is available from Puzzle Master here.

Hanayama Cast Puzzle: Cast O'Gear

Puzzle: Cast O'Gear

Brand: Hanayama

Inventor: Oscar Van Deventer

ST (solve time): ~1-2 h

Cast O'gear

This is the Cast O'gear, one of my first puzzles. It has a level three rating on the Hanayama scale, so it will be a fairly moderate challenge. As with most of my first Hanayamas, they were available from a nearby store for me-lucky me eh? It consists of two parts (the same for most hanayamas isn't it?), a gear with five point like a star, and a box with strange holes on each of its six faces.


Just looking at it, one isn't likely to figure out how this puzzle works until you actually have a go with it. Basically, the gear doesn't just came off when you lift it, but can be turned to other faces. It can rotate 90 degrees in one specific direction on any faces, so it can walk over all faces of the box. However, its movements are limited, because some of the sides are straight, and not curved. To cut a long story short, this is a somehow complicated 3-D maze.


Two of the gears have a part of them being thinner than usual, and this is the key to the solution. One of the face is different than the others, and getting the correct point of the gear to the correct face in the correct direction will free the star. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. There's two ways to solve a maze puzzle-to use the trial-and-error method, or try to make logic out of it and make a map. As with this puzzle, it can be solved using a mathematical approach-I'll explain it later.

Opened-Not enough!

So I got this puzzle. Opened the package. Lost total order in about five minutes. Just randomly fiddled with the gear with no idea what I am doing. After sometime I put it down to rest, and to clear my mind. Thinking I should keep order, I tried a more logical approach. I managed to return the puzzle to it's starting position, then labeled the six sides with symbols. So I recorded (with a paper) all my moves in my second try-half an hour later it lay in two pieces. 100% luck. From now on I used the paper as the answer to the puzzle, following the long sequence whenever I wanted to solve it, and went barsec if a friend scrambles it up.

Satisfied!
My scribble notes about O'gear's route

Well in total not satisfied! And (not learning my lesson obviously) picked up my puzzle after two days. This time, I tried to create a map of the puzzle. (picture coming) It clearly shows me the possible ways. Then, I figured that if the gear has five points and the box, six sides, going over the box with the gear will eventually have all possible combinations together. Trial 1 created. To my surprise it didn't work! I've got the correct point of the gear to the correct face in the Wrong direction! Now oscar throws in another twist! Think (c) Allard... And trial 2 was here to flip the gear 180 degrees. (if you are interested I will email you the trials but I won't write it here as to not spoil the experience for others.) Using the combination, the gear was opened and I won't ever worry again if it was scrambled.


Okay, if you are not asleep yet, my last paragrappppph..
This puzzle was a nice maze, with a great concept. No waste of your money on this one! The top face has two holes that holds the puzzle nicely together, and a great coffee table piece it will be.


There!

P.S The puzzle is available from Puzzle Master here.