It's that time again... Another Cast Puzzle, another adventure. And what an adventure the Cast Trinity is. This is one hell of a challenge, and it's not by accident that it won this year's IPP 38 Jury 1st Prize. One thing that I have to mention though, is that I prefer the look that it had when it was presented at the IPP, with the three distinct colors (copper, silver and gold). It look absolutely gorgeous. Hanayama went for a more subdued presentation, with just one color (bronze) for all three pieces.

Designed by Kyoo Wong, the Trinity, as its name suggests, is comprised of three similar pieces, although at close inspection they each have unique features. At the starting position all three pieces are interlocked with each other, so separating them seems quite a complex task. It's rated by Hanayama as a level 6/6, and I completely agree with them. The design is very elegant, maybe sort of reminiscent to a mixture of the Cast Radix and the Cast Baroq.

The Cast Trinity does have one thing that is quite unusual for a Cast Puzzle, and that's because it has multiple combinations you can make with the three pieces. With that, you're not limited to a unique solution, and that's a good thing. If you mess up the original configuration, it's not like that's the only one you can make. I think this makes it a tad easier than say, the Cast Vortex (one of the hardest Cast puzzles ever, in my opinion). But, it's only slightly easier. It's still a very difficult puzzle to solve.

Just like any other interlocking puzzles of this nature, the Cast Trinity is probably even more difficult to put together. When you're taking it apart, you don't notice the order that the pieces are separated, but putting it back together should follow a certain set of movements. I'm still trying to put it back to its original state, but I'm no closer to it than when I started.

Solution: You can download the solution for this puzzle here.

Closing Comments:

The Cast Trinity doesn't disappoint in any way. Looking at it, you'll know immediately what awaits you - a great challenge. Maybe the color choosing by Hanayama could've been different, but that's just a minor observation. If you like tough puzzles, you can't go wrong with this one.

Availability: The Cast Trinity is available at PuzzleMaster for $15.99 CAD. Check out the store for others in the Hanayama Cast Series.

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.

(Click to Enlarge)

With a curious circular shape and two hinges attached at both ends, the Misery puzzle is definitely an intriguing design, where the goal is to free the rope and bead from the frame. Made from laser-cut wood, the puzzle looks a bit intimidating at first, but you shouldn't fear it, since it's actually easier to solve than you'd think.

When you start the rope is attached at one end of the frame. There's a small path inside the circle from where the rope can move through, but for that you need to move the hinges back and forth, because they might be blocking your path. The movement of the hinges is limited, but it's enough to make the rope pass beneath them. One thing you should take into consideration, which is common among string puzzles, is that the rope is quite long and easily entangled. You should plan your moves carefully and strategically to avoid making any unnecessary knots.

The difficulty of the puzzle varies from your experience with this type of puzzles. I didn't find it very challenging and was able to solve it within 10 minutes, but it can be very challenging for beginners. I believe a correct classification of its difficulty would be a level 7/10. Putting the string back to its original state is straightforward, since you just need to reverse your previous steps and follow the curves of the puzzle from outside to inside.

(Click to Enlarge)

Fortunately, solving the Misery puzzle by Siebenstein-Spiele won't make you miserable. On the contrary, it's challenging enough without being frustrating, and provides a rewarding and satisfying feeling after solving it.

Availability: You can find the Misery puzzle at Brilliant Puzzles for just $15.95 USD. There's also a wide variety of Siebenstein-Spiele puzzles on offer there.

Glückspiel is a Constantin puzzle that requires a lot of dexterity and hand-eye coordination. German for "Gambling", the name of the puzzle is indeed a gamble if you're not used to disentanglement puzzles. You'll find yourself struggling to put some order into the chaos caused by four mere pieces that just don't like to be close together. Can you reassemble the puzzle after you separate the pieces?

The Glückspiel feels very much like a Cast Puzzle. Although a little bigger than the average Hanayama flagship series, the design and build quality is quite similar. There are four identical pieces, made from thick metal and coated in a silver finish, just like any regular metallic puzzle. At the center of mass is a metal pin with two wooden discs at each extremity, which keeps the pieces from naturally collapsing.

The first part of the challenge is to remove this pin and have the pieces move around each other freely. Next you'll need to find a way to separate every single piece from each other. At first, this is not an easy task to figure out, because the pieces are very well entangled - This reminded of the Cast Devil, with a similar solving process. After you have all pieces free from each other, you have to reunite them and form the original shape...And here lies the real challenge. This is a level 8/10 puzzle, and I partly agree, if not for the tough reassembly. I would say around 8.5-9/10.

I was able to separate all the pieces within a couple of minutes. It's not hard to figure out how the pieces interact with each other or how they should be separated. The problem, however, is to get all the pieces in the correct orientation and position in order to keep the central pin in place and stable. This took me about half an hour.

I found it very difficult to find the right orientation of each piece, because even if you know how they should appear when assembled, it's hard to visualize how they should be positioned at the point of entry. This was more or less a trial and error exercise until I found the correct position for every piece. In the meantime, I was also struggling to keep the pieces in the right configuration at all times, since they were always collapsing after almost every slight movement. This is why a great level of dexterity is needed. After this, getting the pin to fit in place is a walk in the park.

Closing Comments:

Glückspiel by Jean Claude Constantin is a little different from his other more popular creations, but it's still a superb design and intriguing enough to give it a try. Again, Constantin proves that he's a jack of all trades who can design and build any kind of puzzle.

Availability: I got the Glückspiel at PuzzleMaster, but as of writing this review it's out of stock. Check back soon to see if it will be available again. Nevertheless, you can always check out other fascinating puzzles by Constantin.

Disentanglement puzzles have become quite popular these days, mostly due to Hanayama and their Cast Series. There are many types of disentanglement puzzles: some of the hardest ones have a mixture of metal and rope, but I prefer the metal-only ones, for obvious reasons. Even though Cast Puzzles are more popular and usually of better quality, it doesn't mean that other metal puzzles out there are rubbish. A good example of this is The Captive Ring (a.k.a Magic Loops), which was first introduced in Europe and America in the 19th century.

If I didn't know all Cast Puzzles pretty well, I'd say this puzzle could belong to the beloved Hanayama brand. It's very well built with a thick and strong wire (6mm in diameter - 0.2") and has a length of 11cm (4.3"). It's also coated with a shiny and smooth surface, which is better for handling it.

The puzzle is comprised by two loops and two rings. One of the rings connects the two loops and can't be removed from the frame. The other ring, however, is free to travel across the length of the loops, but not entirely free, since the middle ring is blocking its path. Your task is to find a way to free the ring and then return it to its original position. Although this looks like a very difficult puzzle, it's actually moderately challenging. On the Hanayama scale of 1-6, a fair rating would be a 3/6.

The main ring starts out at the opposite end of where it's supposed to get out. To remove it, you need to go through the middle ring, but how? Both rings are cut and bent outwards in one spot, and that same spot is the key to the solution. If you tilt the rings at the right angle, you'll see that it's possible to overlap them. Doing this in the right way will enable you to pass the ring over the other and finally remove it. Now all you have to do is to put it together again...

Closing Comments:

The Captive Ring was a very pleasant surprise for me. With a simple topology, an elegant design, and a challenging, but not frustrating solution, it's a great one to get you started on disentanglement puzzles.

Availability: You can get find The Captive Ring at PuzzlesdeIngenio.com for just €1.50.

(Click to Enlarge)

The Cast U&U is comprised of two almost identical U-shaped bolts and four almost identical nuts. These subtleties in the design are so small that you need to study each part very thoroughly. The two pieces have a natural silvery color, much like any other metal bolts, with no special coating - It would be scratched very easily otherwise. The size is quite small, but average for a Cast Puzzle, each part measuring 4.5cm in diameter (1.8").

The first thing you notice when you study the puzzle for the first time is that the nuts can rotate freely up and down the bolts, but they can't be removed. This immediately tells you that the solution must make use of the right positions for each nut. The bolts are not entirely round, they're actually flatten on both sides. The aperture between the two ends of each bolt is so narrow that you can't separate them by simply pushing them out.

Hanayama has rated the U&U as a level 4/6, but after having solved it within 10 minutes, I reckon it's not that challenging. Even putting it together again is not that difficult, although you have to keep the nuts correctly aligned, just like for when you solved it. The difficulty of the puzzle is pretty much finding the correct alignment of the nuts, which is easily overcome by a careful examination or at least some trial and error.

(Click to Enlarge)

Hanayama has yet again produced a great addition to the Cast Family. The U&U is a pleasure to play with, but that's already guaranteed with any Cast Puzzle. With 62 different designs already in the series, it's becoming increasingly difficult to choose the best ones. Nevertheless, this one belongs at least in the top 20.

Availability: The Cast U&U is available at PuzzleMaster for $12.95 CAD. You can also find all the others of the Cast series.

Ring on a Stick is the second puzzle from Dimiter Vakarelov I've had the pleasure to solve so far. Recently, I've received a very nice package from Dimiter with several unique string puzzles, all designed and handmade by him, and among them there were these three amazing puzzles that were made using real wooden sticks - Something I had never seen before, although Dimiter took inspiration from one of Kirill Grebnev's designs, the Attached Ring.

The Ring on a Stick puzzle is a little different from the first puzzle I reviewed from Dimiter, the Cherries on a Stick, but not that different... On the outside, both puzzles look quite different from each other, and besides the stick and the metal rings, there's not much similarities. So how come they are so similar in their solving methods? This is what's so fascinating about this type of puzzles. You have to discover for yourself what principle - or combination of principles - comprise the solving method for each puzzle.

See, all these string/wire puzzles you ever saw are based on only 5 or 6 different principles. It's up to designer to find different ways of utilizing these principles and using different combinations to create a new puzzle. So, for every string/wire puzzle you solve there may be one, two or even more principles represented in the design, and the fun in them is to apply your previous knowledge learned from other puzzles. It sounds easy in theory, but I'm far from understanding all principles, and sometimes it's quite difficult to visualize how to solve a certain puzzle, even if you've solved a hundred different ones before. It all depends if the designer was successful to mask and hide as best as possible the principles used in the puzzle.

The goal in the Ring on a Stick sounds easy enough to understand. Just find a way to remove the big wooden ring. To make your task a bit more fun, a metal ring and a string, which is too short to be stretched across the entire length of the stick, make the design quite challenging but still easy enough for an experienced puzzler. Attached at the end of the string is a small wooden bead that's too large to pass through the opening in the metal ring, and the protuberance at one of the stick's extremities is too large for the wooden ring's diameter, but there's a simple way to overcome that...

The Ring on a Stick was a very pleasant surprise in the way that it only took me a couple of minutes to solve after I had solved the Cherries on a Stick - which by the way took me a few hours. This is a bit difficult to explain in words, but to make it simple, both puzzles use the same principle. I had the fortune of finding out almost right away that the Ring on a Stick had to be solved in a similar way, in other words, the string had to pass from the inside of the metal ring to the outside. After that, the wooden ring was all but free.

In terms of difficulty, the Ring on a Stick is slightly easier than the Cherries on a Stick. Not only because I already knew the solving process, but because I believe it's easier to do the steps required to solve. They're easier to understand. I'd classify it as a level 7/10. As a reference, the Cherries were to me an 8/10.

Closing Comments:

It's hard to choose from the two puzzles which one I prefer. They're both so original and fun to solve, I wouldn't want to choose. For a beginner, the Ring is probably a better choice to start, but it's always a bit relative when it comes to classify string/wire puzzles.

Availability: Dimiter can produce any of these puzzles on request. For prices and other questions, drop me an e-mail and I'll put you in contact with him.

A few weeks ago I got in the mail a nice package with several string puzzles, all designed and made by my puzzle friend Dimiter Vakarelov. Dimiter is a mathematician, so coming up with all these different and interesting designs comes natural to him. As you can see from the image above, his designs are highly original and, of course, quite difficult. I'm going to describe in more detail one of the puzzles I already solved, the Cherries on a Stick.

The design of the Cherries on a Stick is quite unusual, especially if you're used to the mass-produced string puzzles. Inspired by Kirill Grebnev's Attached Ring puzzle, Dimiter decided to use for this puzzle an actual wooden stick from natural wood. Only the wood bark was peeled off, leaving a beautiful natural color. The rest of the design is complemented with two bright red beads and a highly malleable string, which is actually quite useful in the solving process. The main piece - the one you're supposed to remove from the puzzle - is an odd-shaped metal ring that moves somewhat freely along the stick's length.

The goal of the puzzle is pretty straightforward. As I mentioned above, all you have to do is find a way to remove the metal ring from the stick. The "how", however, is anything but straightforward. Keep in mind that even though this was the first of the seven I've managed to solve, it doesn't mean it's easy. It just means it's easier than the others. In terms of difficulty, I'd say it's around a level 8/10.

So, how do you solve this thing? On one end, the stick stretches out in two opposite directions, making it physically impossible to remove the ring from that side. That means the ring has to come out from the bottom end of the stick. The only problem is that both Cherries prevent that from happening, since the string is too short to guide the ring all the way to the end. That's when a couple of tricks involving the string and the ring come in handy. The idea is to free one of the cherries from the ring, which in turn frees all the string's length enabling you to slide the metal ring out of the stick. It's not easy to discover this process, although with a lot of experimentation and persistence you'll start to see it from another perspective.

It took me a few hours to solve this puzzle and, on the first time I was able to remove the string I didn't have a clue how I got there. I managed to reset it after much trial and error, and after another dozen times solving it, I am now able to understand what's going on. I could still be solving it with an extra step or two, but I can do it fairly easy now, both the solving and the resetting parts.

Closing Comments:

Dimiter's Cherries on a Stick is a brilliant puzzle. I've never seen anything even remotely similar in my six years of collecting. Both the design and presentation are flawless, and because it's handmade it has even more meaning for me.

Availability: Dimiter produces his puzzles in very small quantities, and in some cases he might need some time to make extra copies, but if you're interested in any of his designs drop me an e-mail and I'll send you his contact.

(Click to Enlarge)

There are clearly some differences between the two puzzles, but some things remained the same, like the intricate mesh of strings, remarkably untangled, as they stretch from one end of the puzzle to the opposite side, as if defying logic. That's the most common characteristic between the two puzzles - So similar, and yet so different.

Now, to the differences: First, the overall shape of both puzzles is what stands out immediately. The first Brainstring was basically a cube, while the newer version is a truncated octahedron, which is visually more attractive. The number of total elastic strings is surprisingly the same, twelve, although the arrangement is different (three per face on the Advanced version and four per face on the Original version). Another welcome improvement over its predecessor is the inclusion of colored strings, which is easier to distinguish from inside the puzzle's transparent surface. The aspect of the pegs also took an overhaul, now looking more like a porcupine, adding a more stylish and bold visual effect.

(Click to Enlarge)

There are three main patterns you can attempt when solving the Brainstring Advanced, although you can create your own: The puzzle already comes solved in one of them, which is three of the same colored pegs on each face. You can revert to this pattern when you try any of the others. Another pattern is to have any three different colored pegs on each surface, and finally, any two of the same colored pegs on each surface. All patterns require you not to leave any entangled strings.

I found the difficulty level between the two puzzles about the same. In other words, expect any of the two puzzles to be quite challenging, no matter which pattern you choose to solve first. When you first attempt to solve the puzzle, it looks quite confusing and it's hard to understand what you're supposed to do with the elastic strings. There are two opposite faces where the strings can cross paths, but there's no mention in the rules about how many strings you can maneuver at any given time. For that reason, take it as a clue that you can manipulate as many as you can handle. Be careful though, because it's very easy to lose track of the strings you have out of place and, before you know it, you'll have an entangled mess difficult to get out of. Start with two strings at a time, and as you gain confidence, you can add more strings to your juggling.

Closing Comments:

The Brainstring Advanced is definitely a great improvement from the first version. Its design is more attractive, but above all, it stayed true to the original concept - A fascinating puzzle like no other, perfect for the whole family to try. You won't regret it, that I can promise you.

Availability: The Brainstring Advanced is available at PuzzlesdeIngenio.com, with worldwide shipping available.

(Click to Enlarge)

The Cylinder is presented in a chrome color and consists of two rings that rotate freely in 360º. Within the rings are three apparently similar pieces that don't appear to be affected by the rotation of the disks. These pieces don't move up or down, and the rings can't be separated either. With a little persistence, however, you'll see that the pieces can actually be moved.

That's when the Hanayama hint in the puzzle's description comes in handy. This is a quote from the actual description: "go about it as if you were cracking open a safe". That's also why I mentioned this is unlike Hanayama. They don't usually give out hints for solving their puzzles, so I was a bit surprised by it. Following this important piece of information I proceeded slowly by rotating one of the disks until I saw something that could indicate I was on the right path. I'm not sure how many complete turns I made with the ring, but it took me a while to finally see some progress.

(Click to Enlarge)

Now, all I had to do was putting the puzzle back together again. You'd think that'd be easy after seeing the internal mechanism, wouldn't you? Well, all I can say is that this task is even harder than taking it apart. I can't remember the order in which the pieces were removed, and the process is anything but straightforward. I tried to follow a solution guide, but that only includes the description of the solving process and doesn't show which piece is first removed. Note that two of the pieces are identical. So, as of now, the puzzle hasn't still returned to its former glory.

Solution: If you find yourself stuck you can download the solution here.

(Click to Enlarge)

The Cast Cylinder is quite difficult to solve but, to my surprise, I'm finding it ten times harder to put it back together. This is classified as a difficulty level 4/6, and I agree with it if you're only taking it apart. However, doing the reverse is as difficult as any of the 6/6 level puzzles. Prepare for some frustration with this one.

Availability: You can find the Cast Cylinder and all the others in the Hanayama series at PuzzleMaster.

(Click to Enlarge)

The puzzle consists of two apparently similar, but distinct parts that start out entangled in each other. Since the two parts appear almost identical, Hanayama chose to coat them in two different colors, silver and gold. The contrast also looks gorgeous and gives the puzzle a shiny and elegant appearance. The size is slightly bigger than the Cast Donuts, with a diameter of 4cm (1.6").

The goal of the Cast Twist is somewhat straightforward, but still a bit overwhelming due to all these grooves that criss-cross the entire surface of the puzzle. There's a protrusion in each piece that you'll be able to use in order to navigate both mazes, so you should pay attention to their position at all times, albeit being difficult at times, because of the tight tolerances between the two pieces.

The first movement that you'll be able to perform will be to slide the gold piece across the silver one, but you'll be immediately stopped with almost nowhere to go. The only course of action is to study which path the silver piece should take, and at first your options are limited. As you move further along more paths will open, but so will do many dead-ends. It's here that the puzzle becomes tricky, and solving it will require a good dose of trial and error, but that alone won't get you far. You need to figure out how to get to the exit.

As mentioned above, the difficulty level of the puzzle is 4/6, but after spending almost an hour solving it and putting it together, I honestly think this one deserves a higher rating. A 5 would most certainly be a better fit for what you should expect when you try it yourself. Putting it back to its original position won't be a walk in the park either. It's equally challenging due to the long path you must take from start to finish.

Solution: If you feel your brain "twisted", you can download the puzzle's solution here.

(Click to Enlarge)

Oskar's Cast Twist follows the Hanayama tradition perfectly. A superb design, combined with a fun and challenging solution, and made with high quality materials at a competitive price. It's no wonder that they sell like hotcakes. Highly recommended, as usual.

Availability: You can find the Cast Twist, and all the others in the Hanayama series at PuzzleMaster.

Granville is one of the most interesting rope puzzles I've tried so far, and definitely the best one in the Flabber Floovers collection. It has a very unusual goal, unlike any other puzzle I know. Curiously, this isn't considered a very difficult puzzle, and yet it had me stomped for a while. Read on to know more about this fascinating little puzzle.

The puzzle looks very well built with different colors and materials. It actually has a very good quality/cost ratio, considering its low price. Comprised of two identical metal rings, except for their color - one is golden and the other silver - plus a rope with two beads attached at both ends, the goal is not like you'd expect in this kind of puzzles.

Usually, your first impression about these puzzles is to remove one or more parts from the main body, and while you'd be correct 95% of the times, it's not the case with Granville. Here, the goal is just to exchange positions between the two rings. Sounds simple enough, but like I said above, I found it much more complex than I could ever expected.

Now that I have finally solved it, I can't understand why it took me so long to figure it out. I guess the unusual goal of the puzzle was part responsible for the different approach needed. You often have the same mindset when solving a puzzle type you already know, and the fact that I didn't have to remove anything from the puzzle took more time to adjust. It was clear that the knot at the top of the puzzle was the key to solving it, but I dread all kinds of knots and so I proceeded carefully.

Since all you need to do is exchanging positions between the rings, the solving process is basically to follow the rope with one ring at a time until they are in opposite positions. You will need to constantly readjust the knot back and forth to allow each ring to travel from one end to the other, but once you find the correct steps, it shouldn't be too difficult. I was the one who was making it difficult for no reason. Just goes to show you you need an open mind when solving puzzles that require a totally new approach.

Closing Comments:

Granville is quite unique when it comes to rope puzzles. Now that I understand its solution I can admire its beauty. It's a great challenge, even though it's classified as a level 2/4, and it's now one of my favorite rope puzzles. I highly recommend it if you're looking for something new and different.

Availability: You can get a copy of the Granville puzzle from PuzzlesdeIngenio.com, in Spain. Worldwide shipping available.

Update: Shortly after publishing the review for Granville, I received a message by a puzzle friend from Sofia, Bulgaria. Dimiter is a mechanical puzzle enthusiast and designs and produces puzzles as well. After seeing how original the idea of the Granville puzzle was, he was able to design and build three different models based on the same principle. The fact that he did all this in such a short amount of time is amazing. Below, you can see photos of those models.

String/Wire puzzles, or as I like to call them 'Torture' puzzles, are a rare kind of puzzles that I usually tend to stay away from but can't seem to resist for long. It's like a siren song. I know it'll end badly but still I want to believe that it's going to be different and easier this time around... It didn't, at least not with The Glasses.

Since I've been reviewing these string puzzles from Sloyd - I reckon they were eight - I was saving this one for last due to its obvious higher difficulty and I wasn't mistaken. It's one hell of a challenge, which is odd because at first sight the design doesn't seem too much complex, even the wire frame is not very intimidating. Since you all know the concept of 'appearances can be deceiving', you get a pretty good idea of what I went through over the past few weeks.

So, as I mentioned above, the design is very simple. The frame is made in the shape of a pair of glasses, without temples, and attached is a string - a lengthy one I might add - with two beads at both ends. The beads can't go through the two big openings in the metal frame, so a different approach is needed to solve this fiendish puzzle. Yes, it involves knots, and knowing my history with them I always end up creating one too many. The design also reminds of The Rack, another wire puzzle. I don't own it though, so I'm not able to compare them and see how similar they actually are.

Sloyd classifies The Glasses as a level 5/5, and I couldn't agree more. There's no way around it, this is a very challenging puzzle and one of the few hard ones I was fortunate enough to solve, albeit only after a few weeks of on and off puzzling. How did I do it, you ask? I wouldn't know where to start. This is one thing that always surprises me when solving string puzzles. When attempting to untie an undesired knot I sometimes seem to make progress just by accident. It was a little bit like this with The Glasses. When I finally saw the string hanging from the bottom of one of the big openings, the puzzle was all but solved. That was a marvelous feeling, but now, how would I put it back? Long story short, I didn't... Well almost, the string is looking a little funny compared to the original position, but it's close enough. No way am I going through that again in the near future. I consider it 90% done...

Closing Comments:

The Glasses are definitely not for beginners, unless you want to end up with an unsolvable puzzle. It you like extreme challenges this is a perfect choice, but don't expect to solve it in a heartbeat. It's something to enjoy step by step, that is, if you like this type of 'Torture' puzzles.

Availability: The Glasses are available at Sloyd for just €6.05.

Day Trip is a rope puzzle from Eureka's latest series, the Bon Voyage puzzles. This is a collection of nine puzzles, all rope, with travelling as the main theme. Even their names are holiday-related. These also vary in terms of difficulty, from 1 to 3 stars. Day Trip is rated as 3 stars, so this won't be a picnic. The original version, the Tricky Dicky, was designed by Rick Eason - Thanks for the info, George!

The design of these puzzles is very colorful and vibrant. This is actually where Eureka excels at, presentation. They're also small compared to other puzzles of the same type, which could be great to take them with you on your travels. Day Trip's design actually looks quite simple, but looks can be deceiving and, in this case, very true.

The puzzle consists of two different sized sticks attached together by two pieces of rope. At the end of the larger stick there's a lengthier rope with two rings attached, a colored one at the other end and a metal one that can move up and down along the rope's length. Your task, as you might have guessed by now, is to free the metal ring from the puzzle and put it back to its original position. Be prepared, because this one could take a whole trip to figure out.

To solve the Day Trip it actually took me more than a day, about two hours total. Most of that time, however, was spent untying knots that I involuntarily did while attempting to solve it. The small rope loop found between the two sticks was mostly responsible for the knots, since it becomes very easy to "collect" a few knots with just a couple of moves around the puzzle. My advice here is to never make a move without first studying how to reverse it. If you lose your train of thought for a moment it will be very hard to reset the puzzle and start again.

So, after much frustration, I was eventually able to solve it, but not without its problems. Putting the ring back was just as challenging as removing it. Yes, you just have to reverse all the steps until you finally do it, but when you try to solve a puzzle countless times, by the time you eventually succeed you already forgot how you did half the moves. If you've solved any wire/rope puzzle before, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about...

Closing Comments:

Day Trip is a terrific challenge and, despite all the frustration, a very rewarding one. I have another puzzle from this series in my collection to try, the Summer Holiday, and so far I'm impressed by their quality. Stay tuned for my thoughts on the next one.

Availability: You can get a copy of the Day Trip puzzle at Puzzles de Ingenio, in Spain. Worldwide shipping available.

The Owl is my third puzzle from the Flabber Floovers collection. Released by Family Games America, this collection of 12 unique puzzles, mostly rope ones, brings enjoyment to all puzzle fans with four difficulty levels, whether you're an experienced puzzler or just a beginner.

Today, I bring you a more challenging design, a level 4/4, or at least they say. I actually found it a bit easier than I was expecting, but I'll explain in more detail below. The puzzle itself is quite intimidating at first sight, with a large rope length, enough to scary away the most courageous of puzzlers.

No wonder it looks so complicated... With four wooden blocks plus a bead and finally a ring to free, you have many things to worry about and too many parts that can make the puzzle a real mess with knots. Two of the wooden blocks look very similar in shape, but one of them is slightly wider, enough to block the ring from passing over it. There's a couple of knots between these two blocks that need to be untied before doing anything with the ring. Only after that you're going to include the ring in subsequent steps.

As I mentioned above, the puzzle turned out to be much easier than I'd thought. I was clear that those knots between the slotted bars needed to be taken care of before doing anything else, and while they looked complex at first, it was actually pretty intuitive to untie them. When you finally clear the space for the ring to get between the two bars, it immediately reminded me of the classic Horseshoe puzzle. And it wasn't any coincidence, as I was able to perform the same exact steps to free the ring as you do with the Horseshoe puzzle. I was very surprised to solve the puzzle quickly, but even more surprised to see a different and more advanced version of a well known classic. Since the solving process was rather easy to do, putting the ring back to its original position was even easier. I wish more puzzles were like this one, easier than you expected.

Closing Comments:

The Owl is now my favorite puzzle from the Flabber Floovers collection. Not because it was easy to solve, but because it takes a simple design like the Horseshoe puzzle and adds its own elements to create one of the best variations I've seen in a while. Definitely recommended, and even if you're a beginner go for it, because it might surprise you by how simple it really is.

Availability: You can find the Owl and all the others in the Flabber Floovers collection at Puzzles de Ingenio, in Spain. Worldwide shipping available.