Cast Coil

Name
Cast Coil

Designer
Edi Nagata, who is also well known for a number of puzzle designs including the famous Polo Shirt and Arrow Case packing puzzles.

Manufacturer
Hanayama. Launched back in 2011, the Cast Coil is available from various online retailers including PuzzleMaster of Canada and Ebay.

Type & Classification
Take-part; disentanglement

Dimensions
3.3cm (Length) x 3.3cm (Width) and 2.5cm (Height)

Materials & Construction
Made of zinc alloy and brass. Quality of construction, finish and fit is generally good. Both pieces have a matt patina surface (which is what I like). Not a large puzzle by any means but very weighty in the hands.

IPP
Edi's Twin Snake puzzle, the wooden version of which the Cast Coil is based on, was his competition entry for IPP29 at San Francisco, USA in 2009.

Overview
The Cast Coil is not new, having been around commercially since 2011. I have had it for quite a while and recently got round to it. The object is to dis-entangle/separate the two interlocking pieces that have been "coiled" together. Initially when I started puzzling with it, I found myself getting stuck. Firstly the two pieces are pretty tight (and this seems to be the general consensus amongst several other puzzlers). Secondly, trying to get the right orientation with the puzzle was also not easy as both pieces look almost identical, but not quite (thanks to puzzler George Bell for pointing this out to me).

On closer examination, one would discover there are grooves cut into each of the pieces and here is where they allow for rotation of the two pieces against each other. For the initial several minutes, I found the pieces locked in a dead end which ever way I tried. But eventually once I figured out the twist and turns, and how the two pieces interacted with each other, things became easier as I went along.

Re-assembly took me a whole lot longer to "twine" the two pieces back to the original state. I had to once again figure out how to orientate the pieces correctly and then to twist and slide the pieces back into position. The two pieces fit well and snug with relatively tight tolerances, so once in a while, even though the pieces seem stuck, rotation may actually be possible. Just be more gentle and persist.

Difficulty Level
Hanayama rates the Coil at 3-stars (out of 6). About there, I guess.

Summary
Not overly difficult but provides a decent challenge. A well constructed (and very pocket-able) puzzle that can be solved repeatedly once you have remembered the sequence of moves. And yes, after some time puzzling, the two pieces do become looser and you can move the pieces more easily.

Choreographed Motion

Name
Choreographed Motion

Designer
Andreas Rover. For those of you who do not know, Andreas is the developer of BurrTools, the wonderful saviour programme that allows users to solve mechanical puzzles, mainly those consisting of square, prism or sphere shaped units, including high level burrs.

Manufacturer
Andreas Rover. Currently still available via his website for 17 Euros.

Type & Classification
Interlocking; Take-Apart.

Dimensions
6.4cm (length) x 6.4cm (Width) x 2.7cm (Height)

Materials & Construction
Acrylic (perspex). Overall good quality of build with the moving pieces nicely cut to tight tolerances. There is glueing of pieces involved here. As the acrylic is transparent, there are some areas where you do see the dried glue between the joined surfaces and a couple of small stains here and there. But this can't be helped since Andreas did it all manually by hand, 140 copies in all! Check out how he did it from his site.

IPP
Choreographed Motion was Andreas' Exchange Puzzle at IPP29 at San Francisco, USA in 2009.

Overview
I first saw the Choreographed Motion from fellow puzzle blogger Oli Sovary-Soos' Flickr album that accompanies his Hotmail. I asked Oli where he had got his copy from and he promptly directed me to Andrea's puzzle website. After exchanging email with Andreas and several days later, the Choreographed Motion, along with two of his other puzzle designs were on their way to me.

The Choreographed Motion consists of an acrylic box "frame" within which sit four interlocking pieces. Each of the pieces have notches and grooves formed by different shaped black acrylic pieces glued to the transparent ones. Physically, the Choreographed Motion does bear a certain resemblance to the Internal Combustion puzzle, except here you can see the insides.

The object of the puzzle is of course to remove the four individual pieces. However, unlike the Internal Combustion which is more a sequential movement puzzle, the Choreographed Motion requires (as the cleverly chosen name does suggest) certain coordinated moves to disassemble the puzzle.

I tried the traditional one-piece-at-a-time approach but from very early on, discovered that this wasn't going to work. More than one, two or even three of the pieces have to be manipulated, all at the same time, to slowly manoeuvre each piece away from the frame. While disassembly was fairly challenging, surprisingly I found the assembly easier (strange!) and was able to get the pieces back into place quite a bit faster than I had taken them apart.

Difficulty Level
A nice challenge but not too difficult, given its only two dimensional. The pieces may squeak a bit here and there at first and you will experience some tightness, but after some playing, they will be "seasoned" and loosen up slightly so that movement becomes smoother. With some practice, I actually could solve it repeatedly quite easily.

Summary
For 17 Euros, very good value for money both from a quality and puzzling standpoint. Nice design of a "framed burr" puzzle using transparent acrylic (instead of the usual wood). I am wondering how much more difficult it would be if the frame is not transparent. Highly recommended and do approach Andreas before he runs out.

A Drive Down Lombard Street

Name
A Drive Down Lombard Street

Designer
Brian Young

Manufacturer
Brian Young. Puzzle directly available from him via his website Mr Puzzle Australia priced at A$70/-

Type & Classification
Dexterity & Sliding

Dimensions
14.4cm (Length) x 7.6cm (Width) x 3.7cm (Height).

Materials & Construction
The box is made of Papua New Guinean Rosewood, six sliding tiles made from Western Australia Jarrah, acrylic and steel. Construction fit and finish is to a very high standard. The tiles fit well and slide smoothly. There is enough "gap" between the tiles so humidity would not be an issue for this puzzle.

IPP
The Drive Down Lombard Street was Brian's Exchange Puzzle during IPP29 in San Francisco, USA in August 2009. Like most of Brian's exchange puzzles, this one is a themed puzzle inspired by the popular tourist attraction, Lombard Street in San Francisco, which is the world's most crookedest street.

Overview
The object of the puzzle is to "take a drive down Lombard Street"; manoeuvring a ball bearing from tile to tile at the starting point on top, ie Hyde Street down to the bottom end point, Leavensworth Street. Each of the six tiles have grooves and notches cut into them to allow the ball bearing to roll atop each tile and to move from one to the next. All the six tiles are also able to move or slide, similar to a regular sliding puzzle. The tiles are covered by acrylic so you cannot physically touch them but must use dexterity in order to move them around within the confines of the box.

Solving the puzzle requires one not only the use dexterity to move the ball bearing from tile to tile, but also  the tiles need to be in the correct orientation to enable the grooves to be aligned properly for the ball bearing to roll from one tile to the next. Basically slide/move the tiles to form a maze with the grooves and navigate the ball bearing through the maze. To make things even harder, the grooves on each tile are cut differently so forming the maze is not that simple.

And because there is a one empty space to allow the tiles to slide, the ball bearing can quite easily fall off a tile (if one is not careful during the sliding  process) to the bottom of the box. I think Brian also deliberately made the grooves shallow enough to allow this to happen to make the puzzle harder. Here you have to reposition the ball bearing on the starting point again and begin all over.

Difficulty Level
The puzzle provides a fair amount of challenge but is not very difficult. Yes, it requires dexterity and some thinking to get the tiles in the right positions. I took about twenty minutes to get from start to finish, with several falls and re-starts in between. After a while you will get the hang of it and you can quite easily prevent the ball bearing from dropping over the side as you move the tiles around.

Brian states that the "ultimate solution" is one with the least dexterity required; with minimal tile movement. I am not sure if I solved it with less or more steps than what he intended as I was just focused on getting the ball bearing to the end point. But his solution sheet requires a minimum of fourteen steps, and this is only after certain tiles are already in the right starting position.

Summary
The Drive Down Lombard Street provides a nice and different twist to the usual sliding puzzle genre in that there is also a dexterity element thrown in. It doesn't take too long to solve. But more importantly, I think its a pretty fun puzzle to spend time with.