Cast Harmony (奏)

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Some of the best Hanayama Cast Puzzles have this fascinating characteristic of looking more like pieces of art than actual puzzles, and the Cast Harmony by Dmitry Pevnitskiy and Kirill Grebnev is certainly one of them. The Puzzlers' Award and Jury First Prize at the 2010 IPP Design Competition is also a good indicator of the Russian designers' excellence.

The Cast Harmony, here as a double meaning for the musical reference of the pieces' shapes and also for the beautiful harmony between the two pieces. Represented are the G clef and the eighth note. Your task is to simply separate both pieces and then return them to their original position. This is not a hard thing to do, but the solution is quite elegant.

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Just like most Cast Puzzles, the two pieces are coated with contrasting finishes, silver and gold. The Harmony is rated as a level 2/6, but even that seems too much, because I solved it within half a minute. I would've been quite disappointed if this wasn't a Cast Puzzle, but to be honest I didn't. With this design there wasn't much the designers could do to make it harder.

The solution, of course, is very straightforward. The only part that seems slightly challenging is the spiral, which is where the note should pass in order to be freed. I hope I'm not giving too much away, but I believe anyone can figure out how to solve it just by looking at it. Curiously enough, even though it's a very easy puzzle, I find myself solving it all the time. It's such a beautiful puzzle and with a fitting solution, you feel the need to solve it "just one more time".

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Closing Comments:

The Cast Harmony is easily one of my favorites from Hanayama now. I don't mind that it's easy to solve, at all. You don't need a tough challenge to enjoy a puzzle, as long as it is well designed and well built. Hanayama can launch all the easy puzzles they want, I will always be proud to add them to my collection. This is a must-have for any collector.

Availability: You can get the Cast Harmony from Sloyd, in Finland. Worldwide shipping available.

Links:

Hanayama Cast (in English) - Very useful website in English, with plenty of information on all things Cast.

Hanayama's Factory Visit (Many thanks to Roxanne Wong for sharing these pictures)