Dec 14, 2014

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.

1 comment:

  1. 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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