Cast W-U
“Cast W-U” - it is my first puzzle, the one which
started my passion for such 3D puzzles. Before it, I met the Hanayama puzzles
thanks to a roommate of mine, who got “Cast Vortex” for his birthday. Since then,
I wanted to get one of these as well. And about a year later, we had a present
giving for Christmas at work. The colleague who had to buy a present for me decided
to take a puzzle, as
she suspected that I might like it, without even knowing that I really wanted such. And she hit the jackpot! I was very happy
to see that this was my present. I started unpacking it and saw that the puzzle
was tied to a paper. I was kidding that maybe unpacking the puzzle is part of
the challenge. When I was done with this, I had no idea how I have to separate the
circular piece from the other two pieces, connected with short chains. I tried
two or three things, but then I decided to proceed as we do at my job - do some
planning - before trying to solve it one more time. I looked carefully at each
piece, then at the whole structure and… I got the idea. My colleague was a bit
disappointed, because she wanted to nonplus me, but at the end it took me about
10 minutes (15 with a break) to solve it. She said she had had to buy me a higher
level of difficulty in this case, but I said it was OK. As my first, I didn’t
want to crack my nerves on a very difficult puzzle. So, level 3 out of 6 (as per Hanayama's rating) was sufficient for me at that point.
So, now, I still think the idea of this puzzle is great. It is something building
on “Cast Horse”. And it could be solved with logic only, that makes it almost
impossible (if not truly impossible) to solve with luck. So, I would give it
the following ratings:
Idea: 5
Implementation: 3
Experience: 4
Difficulty: 3
Overall: 3.75
Finally, I think it is suitable for beginners. Give it a try and have fun.
Strange to solve this puzzle before "Cast Horse", which I think is a much easier and better puzzle. W-U is flimsy for a Hanayama and no improvement over the osiginal, although it is harder. The W-U is one of my least favorite Hanayamas.
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