Platypus

This nice little interlocking animal puzzle came from Mr Puzzle Australia. Made by Australian jewellery designer Kathy Bass, who has produced four other animal puzzles in the series, these have been termed as "the poor man's Berrocals". Just in case you have never heard of who Miguel Berrocal is and his amazing "torso" puzzles, check out the website featuring the man and his work.

The Platypus is not large, measuring about 8.5cm from nose to tail and 4.5cm at its widest from left webbed forefoot to right webbed forefoot. It is handmade of pewter and the surface finished with bronze oxide. Mr Puzzle Australia informs me that a real platypus in the wild is of a similar body colour. My copy is very well made and quality, fit and finish is excellent. Well I suppose one cannot expect anything less, since this is meant to be an ornamental display piece.

Consisting of 6 interlocking pieces, the object of the puzzle is to take the Platypus apart. This is a relatively easy process and the moment you remove the first piece (and it is not hard to determine which part of the Platypus is the first piece), the rest of the individual pieces can be removed pretty easily. Like many take-apart puzzles, there is still a sequence of steps here to follow, so if you happen to try to remove the wrong piece, nothing will come apart. There is, however no need whatsoever for a computer software such as BurrTools to find the solution. Assembly is everything done in reverse (but a bit more tricky) and the Platypus becomes whole again.

Overall, a very nice and well-crafted display item for the desk or mantle, which also does double duty as a mechanical puzzle.