Leprechaun's Dilemma
Patterson G. Feeney
Allen Rolfs
Slocum Classification 4.1 Disentanglement
Dimensions
13cm x 10cm.The ring is about 6cm in diameter.
Materials & Construction
The puzzle is entirely made of sheet metal. Everything fits and moves as intended. Pretty good detailing given that the puzzle is hand-painted. Alan painted a 100+ copies? Wow!! Only problem is that with continuous play (if your solve is slow), the paint can get chipped away.
I usually don't fancy disentanglement puzzles as they are usually way to hard for me. But when I do play with one, I try to choose one that is not too difficult or does not look difficult. In the case of the Leprechaun's Dilemma, its both.
The puzzle was Allen Rolfs' Exchange Puzzle at IPP34 in London. His reproduction is based on a 1912 design pattented by P.G. Feeney. Object here is to remove the yellow ring from the Leprechaun's body.
Difficulty Level
Not too difficult. With a bit of experimentation, I was able to remove the ring in a matter of minutes...hooray. Nonetheless its sufficiently tricky enough that I took a bit more time to put back the ring. What can be taken out (without force), can be replaced. And its all a matter of physics, even though the ring looks "impossible" to remove (like most string/disentanglement puzzles)
Summary
Cute and colourful puzzle that can be solved quickly once you master the couple of moves required. Great for novice "Disentanglers" and a nice exchange puzzle with (IMHO), just the right level of difficulty.
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