Spinning Wheels

(Click to Enlarge)

Rotational/Rearrangement puzzles are quite common to see. But how many are made by Jürgen Reiche's company Siebenstein-Spiele? This German puzzle manufacturer makes gorgeous puzzles at an affordable price, which in my book is always a plus. Their presentation is always something to contemplate, as they use different wood colors, many times in combination with acrylic, for maximum visual impact.

Spinning Wheels is a very nice puzzle that appears to be rather easy to do, but still can transform into an interesting challenge. Rotational/Rearrangement puzzles use basically the same logic as a Twisty Puzzle (Rubik's Cube), only it's presented in 2D. If you have experience solving cubes and other twisty puzzles this won't be too difficult, but fun is guaranteed.

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The puzzle features four overlapping wheels, each with four numbers, and each sharing two numbers with its adjacent neighbors. The idea is to rearrange the wheels so that each one shows the numbers from 1 to 4 in sequential order and counter-clockwise - Not sure if clockwise is solvable.

If you tried a similar puzzle before, you know that you need to have the wheels properly aligned to have smooth movements, which is not always achievable, since the pieces are a bit loose. To be fair, a puzzle with tight movements also jams, so it's something you have to live with when dealing with mechanical puzzles. Overall, it has a satisfying movement.

As previously mentioned, this is not an easy puzzle to solve. It's rated as a level 9/10. By nature, Rotational/Rearrangement puzzles are always difficult, so that's a given. But in general, as far as this type of puzzle is concerned, it's not the most difficult I've encountered in this category. Took me about half an hour to solve it. If it had a couple more wheels, then it would have been one hell of a challenge. As it is, I'd rate it a 7/10, and not more.

(Click to Enlarge) - Solved

Closing Comments:

Spinning Wheels by Siebenstein-Spiele is a great introductory puzzle for the Rotational/Rearrangement category. It's challenging enough to prepare you to other, more challenging puzzles. As an added challenge, try to get each of the four numbers in groups, instead of sequentially (like 111, 222, 333, 444).

Availability: Spinning Wheels is available from PuzzleMaster for just $29.99 CAD. Siebenstein-Spiele also has many other interesting puzzles on offer.