Cast Cake

It's been a while since I last played with a Hanayama Cast puzzle. The Cast Cake is one of their most recent releases from the Cast Puzzle series, having been launched to the market just this past July. 

Gone is the packaging in the form of a black box with clear window and gold text; instead the newer contemporary looking box has the word "HUZZLE", presumably a combination of the words Hanayama and puzzle and spots a nice photo of the puzzle contained within.

The Cast Cake is the brainchild of IPP award-winning designer Bram Cohen, who also designed the Cast Rattle and the Cast Galaxy, the latter one of my personal Cast favourites.

The Cake, well, it's round and looks like a cake with a slice of it eaten. And it measures 4cm in diameter. It looks to me to be made of stonewashed brass or copper as it has a pretty good heft to it. Construction fit and finish on my copy is very good and everything fits and moves nicely without any experiencing of jamming.

The Cake consists of a 3/4 hollowed out circular "cage" and inside resides 3 rotating 3/4 discs sandwiched against one another. The object is to remove the 3 discs from the cage.

It's rated 4 out of 6 stars meaning that its more than moderately difficult but I think it deserves 5 stars because it is way harder than it looks or what I had expected. At first I thought one of the discs could "spiral" its way sideways out like a circular burr, so I tried solving it that way, but apparently not. It took me a good half and hour of manipulating and rolling the 3 discs inside and trying to feel for an "opening" of sorts before suddenly I felt something give and I was able to pull the discs out. I am not sure what I had done but it worked. As I was re-assembling the puzzle, I took time to experiment and was able to discover a technique to it. Thereafter I was able to repeat solving the Cake a majority of the time. Very challenging at first but once you understand what needs to be done (and I am not going to say anymore here to spoil other people's fun), its a matter of practice to get it right.

If anyone needs help, please PM me (I will have to draw a diagram to show you as it is impossible to explain in words).

Currently only available in Japan but should hit retail stores in other countries and available from the usual online sellers in the weeks to come. 

  

Hanayama Cast Galaxy

A puzzle designer's dream....enter a puzzle design competition, win a prize and a major puzzle manufacturer picks up your winning design and mass produces it...leading to fame and fortune! 

In recent years, a number of designers have had their IPP award winning designs produced by Hanayama. They include Vesa Timonen (Cast Loop), Dmitry Pevnitskiy & Kirill Grebnev (Cast Harmony), JinHoo Ahn (Cast G&G) and Kyoo Wong (Cast U&U). But Bram Cohen has had not one but two of his designs turned into commercial puzzles (Cast Rattle, Cast Galaxy)

Released in July this year, the Galaxy is the latest cast puzzle from Hanayama. As of the date of this blog post, the Galaxy is also the best selling cast puzzle domestically in Japan (loads of royalties for Bram, congrats!).

I bought my copy from Torito who had set up shop during IPP34 in London this past August. The Galaxy can also be purchased from PuzzleMaster and Ebay.

The Galaxy is fabricated out of steel (I think). Consisting of 4 interlocking pieces, the object is to separate them. Fit and finishing is overall good and in this instance, I actually like the shiny surface. 

Hanayama has rated it 3 stars for difficulty level, but I think it deserves perhaps a 3.5. Solving requires you to twist and turn the pieces in various directions; for most part you'll hit a dead end and be confused. But get them (just) right in the correct position and they can thereafter be disentangled. Some co-ordinate motion is required. Virtually no chance of accidental solving. 

Both the taking apart and re-assembly is more than fairly challenging. The putting back together is I feel more difficult and you have to make sure you set up the pieces correctly. However, once you get the hang of it, its quite manageable to repeat solve. Overall a nice looking, compact and fun puzzle; one of the best ones so far from Hanayama that I have come across.

IPP33 Exchange Puzzles

At each and every IPP (International Puzzle Party), one day out of the 3-day event is dedicated to a "puzzle exchange". Here is where the exchange participants get to swap their own (or with permission, someone else's) puzzle design with one another. 

In the early days, some exchange participants purchased "off the shelf" puzzles and used these for exchange, but today, the rules are strict; designs have to be original and not something commercially available in the market prior to the exchange.

Featured below are 3 exchange puzzles that I had the opportunity to acquire during IPP33 in Tokyo, Japan last August.

Peak Performance

This puzzle came from Malaysian puzzle collector Yee-Dian Lee, one of several Asians (outside Japan) and the only Malaysian who attends the annual IPP regularly. Lee also has the honour of being one of a handful of participants who have attended more than 25 IPP events (to-date 27) in the 35 year history of the IPP since its inception in 1978.

A rather unusual but interesting and fun puzzle, the object of Peak Performance is to "walk" the red man from the START position to reach the top; the CEO position. This puzzle is made of acrylic and the plate has multiple holes drilled all over. 

The red man must have at least one foot in a hole at any one time, while moving towards the goal. It may seem pretty easy at first, jumping from hole to hole towards the top but the solution is not as obvious as it would appear. There is a subtle trick to this puzzle, nicely tucked away in a little corner and likely to be hidden from most,  me included!

City Block

City Block came from David Litwin. City Block is a collaboration between David and Bram Cohen, the latter who originated the concept behind David's design. For an interesting account of how they created City Block, check out Saul Symonds' interview with the two gents on Saul's blog.

An acrylic packing puzzle using "patterned" acrylic to form building shapes (with windows even), there are two challenges. The first is the "warm up" challenge - use the pieces to form the silhouette of the building skyline that appears at the top of the tray. The main challenge is to fit all the pieces, including the one with its own slot within the tray. 

I didn't attempt the first but went straight to the second harder challenge. Took me a while before I got all 7 pieces into the tray. Challenging but not overly so, compared to some other packing ones which I could never solve without the solution. However, based on what I have read on Allard's and Saul's blogs, I am not exactly sure if my solution is the intended one?

David has his own website selling some of his other puzzle designs.

Eight Squares

When I first played with James Kerley's puzzle here, I thought it was the easiest packing puzzle I have ever come across...place the 12 diamond shaped pieces (kites) into the tray. Did it in under a minute...my fastest ever solve!

Only then I realised that it couldn't have been that easy...and this wasn't the intended solution. In fact it wasn't even a packing puzzle to begin with! But rather the object is to use the 12 kites to form 8 squares (now that's why its called Eight Squares!) outside of the tray. The 12 pieces fit into the tray only for the purpose of storage.

No...this is not the solution...this is how the puzzle is to be stored or transported

I couldn't quite figure what to do with this one until I checked the solution, then I understood. I guess I am really thick here! Eight Squares is a great one not just for puzzlers, but also for mathematicians, geometry enthusiasts or folks who like to play with shapes!