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Trick Lock puzzles are so abundant and varied in their designs that it's hard to keep up by just being aware of their existence, much else purchase all of them. I have several of these lock puzzles in my collection, and even though it's lacking the presence of the fancier and more expensive designs, like the Popplocks, I'm still proud to own a nice selection of them.
I've recently added another interesting design to my Trick Lock collection, by Vesa Timonen, the Lock Puzzle - Could have had a better name though. This would've been a brilliant puzzle if not by the lack of quality Bits and Pieces puts in all their puzzles. I've reviewed several puzzles from them before and every single one has multiple flaws. This is truly sad for the designers, who envisioned their creations in one way, but the final product doesn't correspond to what they had in mind.
The puzzle is built from a plated nickel alloy, which is not the best choice if you want your puzzle with a clean and smooth look. It's also quite small actually, measuring only 4.3 x 4.2cm (1.69" x 1.65"), but it's still heavy considering its size and fits comfortably in your hands.
The Lock Puzzle has a very intriguing mechanism, which again, is almost ruined by its low quality. The pieces are somewhat loose and shouldn't move so freely, because it will easily reveal the inner mechanism that should have been hidden in the first place. The idea of the puzzle is to free the two keys from the lock, and even without the puzzle in front of you, you can easily see that the keys are not the "key" to solve the puzzle. If you press both sides on the bottom of the lock, you'll notice that it tries to open itself in half, but the keys maintain it from doing so. You just need to figure out the way to make the keys unlock the mechanism.
PuzzleMaster has rated the puzzle as a level 8/10, and ideally I would agree if it was properly built, but seeing how the puzzle was put together and how easy it was to figure out its mechanism, I would only rate it as a level 6. I managed to solve it within a couple of minutes, which for a Trick Lock is rather disappointing, as I expected it to be much more challenging than that. Reassembling it wasn't difficult, but required a bit of dexterity to get the pieces where they belonged. All in all, a very interesting puzzle that turned out to be very easy to solve due to its lack of quality.
Closing Comments:
Vesa's design is quite original for a Trick Lock, and that's why I was interested in trying it, even though I knew what I was getting into by ordering a Bits and Pieces puzzle. It's a great design, but with poor execution. If you're interested in getting one, just don't expect a great quality and enjoy the puzzle purely for its mechanism. The mechanism itself is what makes the puzzle so interesting and even with all its flaws, I think it's worth a try.
Availability: You can buy the Lock Puzzle at PuzzleMaster for $10 CAD. You can check out other Trick Locks here.
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