Ever since the invention of the Rubik's Cube there have been countless toys that tried to replicate the success it had, all that enthusiasm around it. It's difficult, however, to replicate not only the success but also the era that made it all possible.

Today, we have many distractions, not only in the form of other toys, but other forms of entertainment as well. Many possible Rubik's successors may pass under the radar because not many people knew about them to begin with. This is, in my opinion, what may happen to Bram's Magic. A one of a kind toy/puzzle that may be a victim of today's many distractions and a saturated market.

Put Bram's Magic in the golden 80's and you could've witnessed a major icon being born. Unfortunately, we're in 2018 and Bram's Magic is just another novelty among others. Nevertheless, that shouldn't put you off trying one of the best puzzles I've had the pleasure to play with in the last 10 years. It's that good!

Bram's Magic is the combination of the brilliant work between two geniuses in the puzzle community, Bram Cohen and Oskar van Deventer. If you love puzzles and you don't know who they are, you probably have been living under a rock for the past 15 years or so. They're two of the most prolific puzzle designers in the world, and this puzzle may be their best work yet.

This lovely invention has everything you could ask for in a puzzle: a challenge; fun to play with; easy to understand; flawless and smooth movement; and most of all, hard to master. And yet, once you pick it up it'll be very hard to put it down. Its mesmerizing twisting movement, combined with the shapes and patterns you can create, make for a very satisfying experience, indeed.

Like any other good puzzle, there's a main goal between all that fun, and that's to try and get one of the sides all white and the other all blue. Sounds simple enough, but that's actually as hard as a puzzle can get. You'll need to understand the puzzle's movements and patterns very well before you can attempt this daunting task. One simple movement and all your previous hard work can be undone in a matter of seconds. You have to predict what a specific movement will do - what shape you must go for in order to get the pattern you want. This is one really tough puzzle... But darn if it isn't fun!

Closing Comments:

Bram's Magic is so good, a genius couldn't come up with it on his own. That's why it was invented by two geniuses. If you don't like a tough challenge, you can just play with it as a fidget toy... for hours on end. I know I've been having a great time with it. Highly recommend it to anyone, even non-puzzlers.

Availability: Bram's Magic is available at PuzzleMaster for $24.99 CAD. A similar and cheaper version is available for $19.99 CAD, made by ThinkFun.

If there's one thing that I learned from almost 10 years of puzzling is to identify puzzles from the most notorious and prominent puzzle designers just by looking at them. That's what happened to one of the most recent Hanayama Cast Puzzles, the Mobius, designed by Oskar van Deventer from The Netherlands. If you don't know Oskar's creations, he is a master of mazes. Many of his puzzles involve you navigating something through a series of obstacles and paths, and the Cast Mobius is no different...well, a little different. The theme for the puzzle is "Belt" - The question is: Can you unbuckle it?

The design of the puzzle, as the name suggests, is inspired by the Möbius Strip, discovered by two mathematicians, August Ferdinand Möbius and Johann Benedict Listing. There's a ring locked inside the strip and many obstacles on its surface, which will make your job of releasing the ring that much harder. It is a level 4/6 puzzle, as rated by the manufacturer, so a moderate challenge awaits you.

The puzzle has the Hanayama distinctive feature of contrasting colors between the two pieces, with the strip being made of a material that looks like brass, and the ring made from plain old aluminum. Both pieces are well made and polished, a standard with all Hanayama puzzles.

It's hard to classify this puzzle solely as a 2D or a 3D maze. My take is that it's neither and both - Maybe the correct answer is 2.5D...

The ring has a diameter larger than the strip, so it can navigate in any direction, as long as it doesn't encounter any of the many obstacles lying around in the strip's surface. While attempting to solve the puzzle, you'll find obstacles on both sides of the strip, so you'll need to be constantly flipping the puzzle to see where you should go. Keep in mind that the exit point to release the ring is the same as the starting point.

To be honest, I didn't find this puzzle to be as challenging as the manufacturer makes it seem. The puzzle looks a little intimidating at first, but with a little trial and error you should be able to solve it in under 10 minutes or so. I think it's more a level 3 than a 4. Putting the ring back is not that challenging either. There are multiple ways to find a path to the exit, though. Some quicker than others, of course.

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

Closing Comments:

Even though I found the Cast Mobius a little easier than I would like, I still think it's a fun puzzle to play with, and a nice challenge, especially for anyone not that familiar with puzzles. It's one of the most impressive designs in the Hanayama series, and that's a great achievement by Oskar van Deventer.

Availability: PuzzleMaster is the way to go for everything Cast Puzzles, including the beautiful Cast Mobius. All the others in the series are also available here.

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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.

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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.

Back in 2009, Oskar van Deventer was responsible for inventing a new type of puzzle that would forever change the landscape of Twisty Puzzles. This new and revolutionary type of puzzle featured gears instead of rotating faces and was simply called Gear Cube. Since then, we've seen a plethora of different Twisty Puzzles with gears being launched, some by Oskar himself, while others were designed by fans of the concept. Some of these even took the concept to the next level by making it much harder than the original.

The Twisty Puzzle I have here today for review is another great one by Oskar, the Gear Shift, which is actually based on an idea by Bram Cohen, who has teamed up with Oskar on other several occasions. The Gear Shift could be described as the beginners version of the original Gear Cube, because it's a little easier to solve, but it's actually much more than that, since it introduces us to an ingenious new way of manipulating the core of the puzzle itself and change the way the corner pieces interact with each other.

In terms of size, the Gear Shift is exactly the same size as the Gear Cube (6.1cm or 2.4"), but the pieces are much bigger in the new version. The number of pieces, however, is much smaller in the Gear Shift, totaling just 8 corner pieces, four big gears and four small ones. Also manufactured by Meffert's, the Gear Shift is presented with the classic high quality fluorescent stickers, which are almost peeling-resistant.

Unlike the original Gear Cube, a single move of the Gear Shift is able to rotate all eight pieces at the same time, this way easily scrambling it with just a few moves. Solving it is just as simple, but here you can add an extra "twist" and make it more interesting. As hinted above, you can change the way the pieces interact with each other by pulling the core apart along one of its three axis at a time. By doing this, you'll be able to move two opposite faces independently. In other words, four pieces at a time.

I believe it's because of this pulling apart method that the puzzle is much easier to solve, since you can focus on one face at a time. Once you have solved a face do the same for the opposite one and the puzzle should be solved in no time. For an added difficulty, you can try to have in each face four different colors and solve it from there.

Closing Comments:

The appearance of the Gear Shift can be a little intimidating at first, but once you get to know how the puzzle works it actually becomes quite fun to play with. Manipulating the core is a touch of genius and, knowing how easily Oskar can set new standards in the Twisty Puzzle community, I wouldn't be surprised to see new puzzle variations of movable cores in the near future.

Availability: You can get your Gear Shift at PuzzleMaster for just $20 CAD. Click here to browse other Oskar's designs and here for other puzzles from Meffert's.

Links:

Oskar's Official Website

Jaap's analysis of the Gear Shift

Oskar van Deventer's Writer's Block has been on my wishlist for as long as I've been collecting puzzles - That's over five years now. The reason it took me so long to get it was because of its packaging, which is very bulky for its size and would always steal precious space for other puzzles (see the package here). You all know how postal services are with box restrictions. The puzzle is manufactured by Recent Toys, and it's probably the company with the worst packaging design out there. All of their puzzles are packaged in giant boxes, which not only are hard to open, but it's basically a waste of materials. Long story short, I had to ask for the package to be taken out and only the puzzle itself be sent.

The name of the puzzle is quite interesting, and for those of you who don't know, the term refers to when an author is unable to write new material (explained better here). The puzzle is very unique and like nothing I've ever seen. Only the genius of Oskar could create such an amazing concept. It consists of seven pens that keep the mechanism locked with their buttons, and with the help of a key, inserted at the top, you will be able to open it, sort of like the movement you do to flip a notebook's page.

The mechanism is easier to explain if you think about the Lights Out puzzle. Anyone should remember this classic. The pens have only two states, on or off, but the tricky part is that the key is only able to turn on some of the pens at the same time, while turning off others in the process. The goal is to find the correct sequence of movements necessary to get all the pens with the same state - On.

The key itself is quite unusual. You can turn it and flip it over in eight different ways to produce different results. The pens can also show 128 different positions and you can solve it in only four moves. Numbers courtesy of Jaap's Puzzle Page. The difficulty depends on the number of moves it takes you to open it. You should be able to eventually open it by trial and error, but that wouldn't be no fun.

This is considered a difficulty level 7/10 and I sort of agree. The puzzle can be solved within a minute the first time, or it could take more than 10 minutes. I don't think it should be more than that, even for a beginner, because of the number of pens and ultimately, the number of possible moves. I solved it in a couple of minutes the first time, but curiously enough, it took me twice as much to get all pens in the off position. The challenge is basically the same, except in reverse. I still don't have a flawless system to solve it, so my times are always varying. Still, it's rather fun to solve it multiple times.

Closing Comments:

I waited so long to get this puzzle that I was afraid my expectations wouldn't be met and I would be disappointed with it. That feeling was quickly overcome the first time I tried it. The concept and design are so original that it will be a while before you're bored with it. I strongly recommend it to any puzzler out there. Oskar never disappoints.

Availability: I got my Writer's Block at PuzzleMaster, but it's currently out of stock. Just keep checking their site, because it should be restocked soon. You can check other puzzles by Oskar here.

Links:

Oskar van Deventer Official Website

What happens when you put Ola Jansson, Oskar van Deventer and Uwe Meffert in a room? The Jade Chopsticks happen, a beautiful and different kind of Twisty puzzle.

The final product is a combination of ideas, first the 1x2x5 designed by Ola, which was later followed by Oskar's extreme version, the 1x2x13. The Chopsticks version is scaled down to 1x2x9 - and my guess here is to just make it more stable - and with Meffert's magic touch in the final design, we see an elegant design without the need for stickers or any other special colors.

Instead of stickers, the patterns featured on the puzzle are made by two sets of lines, curved on one side and straight on the other. On the left and right sides we can see the words 'Jade Club' written in a "semi-ambigram" - that's because the letters are rearranged to form another word instead of simply flipping it over like a true ambigram. Each letter can still function as a double letter depending on how you're seeing it.

Much like any other Twisty puzzle, the goal is to mix it up and try to put it back in its the original pattern. In this case, when scrambled, the puzzle will have a mixture of both types of lines and the left and right sides will have the two words jumbled up. It's not very easy to turn the puzzle though, especially along its horizontal axis, since you're trying to align nine segments at the same time. However, the individual segments do turn nicely and smooth.

So, how hard, or easy, is the Chopsticks to solve? - Well, that pretty much depends on your skills with Twisty puzzles. Since I'm not that good, it took me about 10 minutes or so. Even after I've successfully solved the two sets of lines I still had to rearranged the words, which was the hardest part. Overall, and compared to other Twisty puzzles I still think this is an easy puzzle, and proving that is PuzzlerMaster's rating of 6/10, where 5 is the lowest on the scale.

Closing Comments:

Made with the Jade Club in mind, the Jade Chopsticks is a stunning puzzle with an original design. While it's not remotely challenging for experienced puzzlers, this is a perfect collector's puzzle worth having in your collection. The Chopsticks come in a milky white color, but I know there's a gold version for Jade Club members, although I'm not certain it's still available at this point. If you can get your hands on one, do it quickly, since these puzzles tend to run out of stock fast.

Availability: The Jade Chopsticks are available at PuzzleMaster for $20 CAD.

Links:

Oskar van Deventer Official Website

Meffert's official Website

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Back in 2008, Oskar's contribution to the vast catalog of SmartGames was the Anti-Virus, which is one of the few not invented by Raf Peeters, SmartGames' resident designer. Anti-Virus could be described as a fancy version of Rush Hour, since both concepts are based on getting pieces out of the way and free the main piece, but in reality, Oskar's game is much more than that. It excels in every way on how a multi-challenge game should be done. The result is a gorgeous, vibrant and colorful game, very addicting, and above all, quite challenging, which is a rare thing in this type of games.

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There are 11 pieces in total, although two of them are single white units, placed on the board to make your task of sliding the pieces much harder. The other nine pieces can be divided in six different groups with three of them being unique. The challenges won't use all of the pieces at once, but they are varied enough to include a different number of them in each puzzle.

The game has a good progress in terms of difficulty as well, starting with the "Starter" level and going all the way up to "Wizard" in five different levels and 60 challenges. Unlike many puzzle games I've tried, the Anti-Virus game can be really challenging once you reach the last difficulty level. Some of those puzzles required me to reset the board a few times and start over before being able to finally solve them. All puzzles are provided with solutions, but use them as a last resort only, because it's much more satisfying and rewarding solving a tough puzzle by yourself.



Once again, Oskar delivers us a masterpiece in the form of a puzzle game, not so common in his designs, but probably one of his best creations, and definitely my favorite game from SmartGames. What else is there to say? - If you love challenging puzzle games and still don't have this one you owe it to yourself to add it to your collection.

Availability: You can find the Anti-Virus puzzle game at Sloyd.fi for about €25.

Links:

Oskar's Official Website

SmartGames Website

The Planets puzzle by Oskar is a highly original concept that shouldn’t be missed. If you like a good challenge, this is just right for you. On the other hand, if you’re easily frustrated by hard puzzles, you’ve been warned…

Availability: You can buy Oskar's Planets at PuzzlesdeIngenio.com.

Links:

Video Demonstration

My quest to review all Cast Puzzles is over... Or so it seemed. Just when I thought I had all of Hanayama's flagship puzzles, comes yet another two great additions to the family, the Cast Box and the Cast Harmony. I hope I can get my hands these two before they release another one, so I can say, yet again, that I have all Cast Puzzles.

So, the not so final Cast Puzzle review is for Oskar's Equa, released in September 2008. The Equa had previously been entered at the 2004 24th IPP Design Competition and, curiously enough, the original version, manufactured by Tom Lensch, was made entirely of wood and had a different name, Space Rings. The puzzle represents a planet and its surrounding ring, with the main theme being "heaven".

The design of the puzzle is quite intriguing, reminiscent of some model that you'd probably see on an astronomer's desk. You can see two rings, perpendicular to each other, that seem to be trapped inside a symmetrical frame. What you're supposed to do, even though it looks like an impossible task, is to free the rings from the frame. You also need to separate both rings afterwords, as well as returning the whole puzzle to its original form.

Rated by Hanayama as a level 5/6, I would expect it to be less of a challenge than any of the 6/6 tier, which is not the case. Harder than this, in my personal experience, are only the Nutcase and the Vortex. I've had the Equa for more two years now. In fact, it was one of the first Cast Puzzles and it took me forever to solve. I only solved it recently, as the last Cast Puzzle review was fast approaching.

Although I was able to successfully remove the rings from the frame, I'm still uncertain on some of the steps, because they weren't done in the same session, but over the last couple of years, whenever I got a little patience to pick it up.

It's important to note some of the puzzle's tricky workings. Each ring has a small pin that prevents it from moving freely around the frame. Instead, you can only rotate the rings around the axis of the pins. If you're able to separate the rings, still inside the frame, then it's possible to shift one of the pin's position in relation to the other. The openings on the rings can easily fit on the frame's edges, and by constantly fiddling around with this notion, I was able to slowly progress... Really slowly.

On some occasions, the puzzle almost got stuck on one of the frame's edges. I suspected the tolerances might have been a little tighter on mine, but I eventually got it unstuck. The final couple of steps, when I could finally see the rings almost out of the frame was a real treat. It'd taken me over two years to see this happening, so you can imagine my excitement.

After removing the two rings, it still took a couple of minutes to separate them. This was one though nut to crack. The reassembly, like almost always, is a pain and no different from the reverse process. After a few unsuccessful attempts, I knew I wasn't going anywhere and, unless I wanted to spend another couple of years trying to get it back together, I had to follow a video.

Well, even looking at a video, this process is anything but easy. It's not going well as of the writing of this review, but I refuse to give up. This has to go back to its original state. I did notice something, though. My previous suspicions that my copy had tighter tolerances were correct. In the video, the guy seems to move the rings effortlessly from one place to another, but mine seem to have a mind of their own and they insist to get stuck all the time. I have to take breaks in between sessions, just to let my fingers get a rest. We'll see how this goes over the next sessions...

Closing Comments:

Having had quite the experience solving the Cast Equa, my overall feelings towards the puzzle remain unchanged, even though it took me a long time to solve it. The puzzle looks fantastic, and the concept, as if we ever expected something different from Oskar, is a masterpiece. Don't take my word for it about the difficulty. You might get luckier than me. Let me know in the comments section how was your experience with it.

Availability: If you want to get a copy of the superb Cast Equa or any of the other great Cast Puzzles by Hanayama, visit the website Sloyd.fi. Worldwide shipping available. If you'd like to try your luck at one of the rare original wooden "Space Rings", contact Tom Lensch.

Links:

Oskar van Deventer Official Website

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) 

My previous review was about the Cast Nutcase by Oskar van Deventer, and this week I present you yet another one of his genius creations, the Cast Chain, released by Hanayama in July 2002. Although it's another level 6/6 puzzle it's much easier than the Cast Nutcase, which is a relief. The key word for the Cast Chain is simply "chain".

Visually not so appealing like other notable Cast Puzzles, as the Radix or the Marble, the Cast Chain makes up for its concept, which is quite interesting. Maybe a different coating finish would've helped, with two or three contrasting colors (golden, silver and bronze).

The puzzle consists of three different pieces that are linked together and move around relatively free, except you can't separate them that easily. Each piece is different and at close inspection you'll notice they have these notches that are essential for you to free them.

Curiously enough, the Chain has three possible solutions, depending on which piece you choose as the middle one. This is, more or less, what you'll read in the provided description of the puzzle, but I prefer to look at it in a different way, at least from what I experienced. It's more like what piece you happen to get in the middle, as opposed to what piece you choose to put in the middle - Big difference.

Moving the pieces around is not as easy as you'd expect, but as you discover how they interact with each other it becomes easier to do it. Swapping the order of the pieces is a bit tricky, but I'm going to try and explain. First you start by joining the two pieces from each end (this is done by aligning the extremities of each piece making a two-by-two square). After this, the pieces look a bit more entangled, but if you now do the same procedure with the middle piece and one of the other two, you managed to change the order of the pieces. To help you locate where each piece is at all times, they were marked with spots on one of their extremities, which may have one, two or three spots.

Putting the puzzle together proved to be a lot easier, because by then I knew how the pieces should be positioned. After this you should be able to try the other two solutions. For me, one is enough, but maybe you like the extra challenge...

Closing Comments:

After having written many reviews for Oskar's puzzles I am running out of adjectives to describe his genius. Each of his puzzles has its own personality and the Chain is no different. Such an original design, it's a shame Hanayama didn't put that much work into its visual appearance - It could have been much better.

Availability: You can find the Cast Chain and all of the others in the series at Sloyd, in Finland. Worldwide shipping available.

Links:

Oskar van Deventer Official Website

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)

Oskar van Deventer, yet another prolific puzzle inventor who contributes with many of his designs for the Hanayama Cast Series (11 so far), has outdone himself, again, with the Cast Nutcase, which may as well drive you nuts if you attempt to solve it. The Nutcase was released by Hanayama in November 2006 and the key word is "interlocking".

The puzzle itself is very different from any of the others in the Cast family. The design doesn't stand out much and its object is anything but straightforward, which might take some time to even begin to understand what you're supposed to do with it. Yes, the puzzle does comes with an explanation, but only tells you what you're supposed to accomplish with it, not a single clue as to how to get there. In fact, the Nutcase has two goals: the first is to remove a small nut that moves freely inside it; the second goal needs you to swap the engraved nuts "Nut" and "Case" over as to read Casenut instead of Nutcase. I believe both can be accomplished at the same time, but I can't confirm that, as I didn't solve it yet.

The Nutcase is one of the toughest Cast Puzzles I've encountered so far, right on par with the Vortex, and I own all of them. It's rated by Hanayama with the highest difficulty level 6/6, and in my opinion these two should have a special rating of their own, as an exclusive level 7.

I got the Nutcase back in April this year, together with a lot of other puzzles from Sloyd, and since then I've tried on and off to solve it. The result, as expected, is always the same. I end up getting frustrated and leave it for another few weeks to try again. After eight months of constant disappointment, I'm ready to admit defeat on this one. I just can't figure this one out. The outer nuts can be screwed on and off freely up and down the bolt, but there's no apparent visible change with the movements. The bolt is actually two bolts that should come apart, but the only thing you notice is a slight movement of less than a millimeter when you try to pull them apart. There's a small hole on both sides that allows you to see a small nut move inside, but again there's no clue of what its purpose is in the actual solution. I guess this one has to stay unsolved for quite a long time, until I gather enough courage to pick it up again.

Closing Comments:

If you really like those close to impossible challenges, the Cast Nutcase is the right choice for you. Whether you're a veteran puzzler or not, be prepared, as this puzzle might be the toughest nut to crack yet.

Availability: You can get the Cast Nutcase at Sloyd, in Finland. You can also find there all the others in the Cast Series.

Links:

Oskar van Deventer Official Website

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)

Today's Cast Puzzle comes from the genius mind of Oskar van Deventer. As a puzzle designer, Oskar has an enthusiasm for mazes and labyrinths, and this shows in many of his creations. The Cast Disk, while it's not exactly a maze, it still feels like one in the sense that you may find yourself going in circles without the slightest hint of where the exit may be. The Disk was released by Hanayama in May 2001 and the key word for it is "circle".

If you have previously played with the Cast O'Gear, then you'll find a slight resemblance with between the two concepts, as both of them have you going around in a circle in order to remove one of the pieces. In my opinion, I liked the design of the O'Gear better, but I enjoyed the challenge of the Disk much better.

The design of the Disk is reminiscent of two cogs that are interlinked and the object is to try and separate them. This would be an effortless task if the disks had all their dents with equal measurements... They actually don't, and this makes the puzzle very fun to play with. Both disks appear to be fused together at a perpendicular plane in their starting position, and this very state is the one you're going for once you separate them and try to put them back together. The dents appear to be identical in both disks, but they are, in reality, a mirror image of each other.

Hanayama rates the Disk as a level 2/6, and I sort of agree... While it may be a little confusing to keep rotating the disks back and forth and not see a real progress, a careful observation and some persistence will have you separate the disks within 5 or 10 minutes. If you do it randomly, you might be at it for a while.

When you first start to rotate the disks you'll notice that in order to pass to the next opening, you won't be able to perform more than two or three rotations at a time around the same dent. You need to analyse each of these dents and realize which one is the most likely to free the other disk, otherwise you'll keep returning to exact same spot over and over again. The movements necessary to free the disks won't always be in the same direction, as both clockwise and anti-clockwise movements are needed. Returning them to their original state is a bit easier, because you can clearly see where they're supposed to be joined together, unlike the opposite challenge, where the exit is not that easy to see.

Closing Comments:

The challenge of Cast Disk won't probably offer too much resistance and it's far from being frustrating, but one thing that I love about most Cast Puzzles is that even when they're easy to solve they're still quite fun and enjoyable. The path to solve the Disk is not that easy to remember, so after you've solved it you can still pick it up again for another run.

Availability: You can get a copy of the Cast Disk at Sloyd.fi, as well as any of the others in the Cast Series.

Links:

Oskar's Official Website

George Bell's analysis of the Cast Disk and Cast Duet.

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)