Jean Claude Constantin always excels at what he does. His puzzles are some of the most amazing concepts you'll ever find out there and a lot of them are as challenging as they come. Puzzle Locks and n-ary puzzles are a perfect combination and here, with the Schloß Dick, Constantin delivers a great looking and interesting puzzle.

This is a rather small puzzle, measuring only 10.5cm x 6.8cm (4.13" x 2.68"). I would've liked a slightly bigger puzzle, since it can be more difficult to manipulate those small sliding platforms. Nevertheless, the movement of the puzzle is still good, despite it being made from laser-cut wood (plywood).

The Schloß Dick is essentially a n-ary sequential movement puzzle, more specifically a 5-ary (quinary). It sounds intimidating, but in all honesty this feels like a binary puzzle (2-ary if you want to be specific), and therefore it's not as difficult as it looks. The puzzle consists of four sliding platforms that move vertically, while you slide a pin horizontally to match the path of each platform. The puzzle will only be open when all four pieces are slid to the bottom.

This is rated as a level 4/5, but if you're used to sequential movement puzzles, this is easily a level 3/5 or a 7 in a scale of 10. I managed to solve it within 5 minutes, and it took me even less time to put it back together. The four platforms are all different (each has ever larger paths than the previous), but once you know the sequence it's just "rinse and repeat" until you open the lock - It's recursive mathematics, so you should be OK, even if mathematics aren't your forte.

Closing Comments:

I really liked the Schloß Dick by Constantin. It's not a frustrating puzzle, and by solving it in such a short amount of time, you can solve it anytime you want a quick puzzle fix. The only fault, really, is its short size. Definitely worth a try.

Availability: You can buy a copy of the Schloß Dick at Brilliant Puzzles for $25.95 USD. For other Constantin designs click here.

Links:

Check out Goetz Schwandtner's website if you want to know more about n-ary puzzles.