Akio Yamamoto is one of the most prolific puzzle designers when it comes to Hanayama. At least, 13 of the 70+ Cast Puzzles available are from the Japanese designer, all of them rather unique puzzles in their own way. The latest to join the family is the Cast Dot, an intriguing but fun puzzle to play with.

The Cast Dot comes in two identical pieces, one black and one silver. Quite honestly, I would have preferred to have the combination of silver and gold, like many other beautiful Cast puzzles. Nevertheless, it's a stunning puzzle. The idea is to disentangle the two pieces by figuring out how the dots interact with each other.

This is one of those puzzles that's easy to take apart, but quite a whole different story to put back together - well, most disentanglement puzzles, actually. Think of the pieces interacting with each other as folding paper. It's like doing Origami, but without the possibility of messing up the paper...

This is a level 2/6, rated by Hanayama, but I half agree. You see, you have two tasks: one is to take the pieces apart, which is fairly easy and accomplished within a couple of minutes; the other part, however, not that easy, and definitely not a level 2. I'd say it's more like a level 4, which is already a rather difficult challenge.

I found there are multiple ways to solve this puzzle, both by taking it apart and by putting it back together. To ease your task of getting it back together, I suggest taking a photo of the solved puzzle, so you know where you should go. Since there are multiple ways of getting there, just keep trying until you reach the final position. The ride is pretty fun and not at all frustrating.

Closing Comments:

The Cast Dot was a very pleasant surprise. I was expecting an easy puzzle, as suggested by Hanayama, but what I found was a much more challenging puzzle - in a good way. It just goes to show you that you shouldn't tackle a puzzle by underestimating its difficulty. It just might surprise you. Whether you like it or not, that depends on how you like your puzzles...

Availability: The Cast Dot and all of its Hanayama brethren are available at PuzzleMaster.