After a few months of hiatus, I'm back with more puzzle reviews... And there's nothing better than return with a great set of puzzles, the Dice Box Series.

This is a collection of six Assembly puzzles designed and produced by MI-Toys, which is based in China and founded in 1992. The design of the puzzles is very elegant, with six polished wooden boxes, each depicting a real dotted dice. Each box has its own corresponding number with silver dots from 1 to 6 on the lid, so you'll know what puzzle's inside.

They range in difficulty from * - one star (easy) to **** - four stars (genius). Oddly, none of the six puzzles has a difficulty of one star, leaving only three possible levels: three boxes have ** - Difficult; two boxes have *** - Unbelievable and there's only one with **** - Genius.

Let's start by Dice Box #1 - Polyominoes

(Click to Enlarge)

This puzzle has nine identical pieces, all with an area of 2x2 squares. The goal is similar to the classic Soma Cube, which is to take out all the pieces inside the box, scramble them up and form a cube so that they fit inside the box, allowing the lid to close. 

The difficulty for this one is ** - Difficult, although "Difficult" might be a bit of a stretch, since the puzzle is rather easy to solve. Given the fact that all the pieces are identical, there's no added twist for placing a piece with the wrong orientation or position, since they're all the same. Nevertheless, it's an ideal one to start with, preparing you for the other ones ahead...

(Click to Enlarge)

Dice Box #2 - Cubes with Holes & Pins

(Click to Enlarge)

Also with difficulty **, I think this one should've been classified with * - Easy, as I found it to be the easiest one in the series. You have eight cubes that when correctly connected, they form a large cube. Each little cube has three adjacent faces that can have pins or holes and the other three faces are all flat. They can be divided into four groups of two pieces with the same configuration: two with three pins; two pins and one hole; one pin and two holes and finally two pieces with three adjacent holes. With the pieces all carefully separated into these four groups,  you can easily solve it, always bearing in mind that the three flat adjacent faces point outwards, thus making a perfect cube.

A nice way to make this puzzle harder could be, to have a 3x3 cube with nine pieces, instead of a 2x2 one. Probably the resulting pieces would've been too small and hard to manipulate, judging by the size of the box (7x7x7 cm). Perhaps an idea to consider by a craftsman, for some other puzzle.

(Click to Enlarge)

Dice Box #3 - Holes & Balls

(Click to Enlarge)

This is the third and last Dice Box with a difficulty of **, although I consider this one the hardest of the three. You're given twelve rectangular pieces, each having a combination of two out of three possibilities: a semi-sphere, a hole or an indentation, giving you a total of eight different configurations. Some pieces can have one or two of the same possibilities, adding some level of complexity.

Solving the puzzle might seem a bit hard at first, but if you separate the pieces into groups, it gets easier. You can start by excluding the two pieces that have a semi-sphere on each side and knowing also that orientation-wise, you can't place at the bottom a semi-sphere or a two-indentation piece facing down, you're left with fewer options. The rest might be solvable with a bit of trial and error, but do this by phases, meaning that if you can't fit the last three or four pieces, don't start over from the bottom, but instead replace a couple of pieces from the middle layers and work your way up from there.

(Click to Enlarge)

Dice Box #4 - Stacked Sticks

(Click to Enlarge)

Now, it gets a bit trickier. The fourth box is a level *** - Unbelievable, but if you managed to solve the previous three, it shouldn't be that hard. There's a total of sixteen sticks making a 4x4 cube, but the twist is that they're glued together in five different pieces with very odd shapes made with three sticks each, plus one loose stick. I recommend saving the single stick for last, because if you try to use it earlier it will only add complexity instead of simplifying the puzzle. The difficulty in the puzzle lies in the many different possibilities you have to connect the pieces, due to their shapes. 

One tip you can use for solving is that, since the finished cube has to fit in a 4x4 area, two connected pieces that have a length of 5 or more squares won't do, thus leaving less possible combinations. As this situation will occur several times, you just need to experiment a little with the pieces and you'll eventually solve it. I'm not 100% certain, but given the unique configuration of the solved puzzle and the way that each piece connects to an exact orientation of the other, I believe this one has only one solution...

(Click to Enlarge)

Dice Box #5 - Rod by Rod

(Click to Enlarge)

The Rod by Rod Box is also the same difficulty as the previous one, but like the first three, I think there's a slight higher level of complexity, mainly because of the number of pieces involved. Actually, from the six puzzles, this box is the one with most pieces, with a total of eighteen. They're divided into six groups with three identical rods each, and every single one is carved with two or three indentations that can be on the top or bottom.

Solving the puzzle is like building a raft with logs. You need to match perfectly every rod into the indentations of the other ones below, in a six layer cube with three pieces each. Sounds tough, right? That's because it is... Starting isn't hard, all you need to do is to put on the box three rods to make the first layer. For that you need three pieces that don't have indentations on the bottom, so that it doesn't leave gaps. Knowing that only half of the pieces meet that criteria, you can put the other half aside for now. After that, you just need to continue building your "raft", always taking into account what pieces you have left, because they will determine how you place them on the box. 

As previously noted in the Holes & Balls description, if you get stuck in the last couple of layers of the puzzle, don't start from the beginning again, just remove a few rods and replace them by other pieces, as most of the times, half of the puzzle is already solved.

(Click to Enlarge)

Dice Box #6 - Half Cubes

(Click to Enlarge)

As we got from puzzle box 1 to 6, the difficulty was also increasing, so as you can imagine this is the hardest one, with ****.

The puzzle has eleven pieces, all different from each other and with the exception of one piece, they're possible combinations of three smaller unit right triangles. The other piece has just an area of two unit triangles. The goal, as the other ones, is to rearrange all the pieces so that they form a cube. It can also be related to the Soma Cube, except the Soma Cube is made from only seven different pieces, and I believe it is also easier because of that, as less pieces means less possible combinations.

Honestly, I don't know why they called the puzzle Half Cubes... If they're referring to the unit triangles, then they should've called it "Half Squares", because two right triangles make a square, not a cube, but I guess that's for another discussion...

Solving this one was a pain. The pieces have all these strange configurations and manage to connect them can be a bit frustrating. There's four flat pieces and the rest are glued in the other shapes, so I recommend to start with the last ones and leave the flats to the final stage of assembly. It took me a while to solve it, but on the last try I made it in around 5 minutes. The trick is nothing of extraordinary... When you see yourself taking more than half an hour with no results, leave the puzzle for a few hours or maybe a day or two, and when you return, you're going to have a fresher perspective on how to tackle the problem. This also applies to every other difficult puzzle you're having trouble with, because the mind always thinks clearer when it have rested.

(Click to Enlarge)

Closing Comments:

After solving the six Dice Boxes, I can highly recommend them to anyone, especially to the puzzle collectors. The set is a great addition to any collection, even if you're not that into Assembly puzzles, because its appearance and presentation stands out for the designers originality and creativity in creating something unique.

I think that the difficulty rating should've been made differently, though. If I had to order them from the easiest to the hardest, I'd say (in box numbers): 2-1-3-4-5-6 or actually use a rating system from * to *****, to better differentiate the puzzles, as three levels seems not enough. In this way I'd classify them as (from #1 to #6) *, **, ***, ***, ****, *****.

If you're interested in purchase the set or just one, there are a few places you can get them. Unless you want to buy them as wholesale, the MI-Toys website isn't an option. If you search on eBay for "Dice Box" and select the subcategory "Jigsaws & Puzzles", there's currently a couple of sellers that have them in stock, although just one of them has the complete set. You can also take a look at Amazon or SeriousPuzzles, both of them have the complete set also. PuzzleMaster has a few available as well. If you're like me and live in Portugal, you can order them from the "Papagaio sem Penas" store.

The Cast Helix, designed by Akio Yamamoto and released in December 2009, is another devilishly difficult puzzle by Hanayama.

Regarding the Helix difficulty, it's among the harder ones. Hanayama gives it a 5 out of 6 and Puzzlemaster, a 9 out 10 (gruelling). This one took me weeks to figure out, after constantly doing the same thing. What makes it very difficult is the way to solve it, which is very different from the natural movement of the puzzle around the star. A good thing is that it's very easy to put it back together, so you won't have the puzzle in the solved state lying around for long.

This is one frustrating puzzle, and very deceptive... If you like enigmatic puzzles, go for it. The way it's designed, it doesn't show how difficult it is, even after you've been playing with it for a while. It always makes you feel that you're close to the solution, but the truth is, you may be very far from it...

The Cast Helix is available at PuzzleMaster for CAD $12.95.

This is the Cast O'Gear invented by Oskar van Deventer, who has contributed with many other designs to the Cast Series, and it was released by Hanayama in October 2002. It was first introduced in 2001 at the 21st IPP Design Competition, at the time simply called, Sunflower. It can be categorized as a Sequential or Route-Finding puzzle.

It is one of the largest puzzles in the Cast collection, measuring around 9cm in height and also, one of the most interesting designs. Other large puzzles available include the Cast L'œuf and the Cast Duet, which curiously were also invented by Oskar himself.

You're presented with a gear containing five teeth, locked in a cube with six holes. Your goal is to find the correct hole path to remove the gear. Now, sequential puzzles can be considered boring, for taking too much time or because you can often find yourself in the same place you started. However, the design of the Cast O'Gear is cleverly done to intrigue you and encourages you to keep going. 

Tips for the solution:

When you're trying to solve it, take a bit of time to carefully inspect it and pay special attention to the slight details and differences in the puzzle. Note that each tooth at the right and left of the main one (the tooth with the hole) has a difference in thickness. Now, take a look at the cube face that's opposite of where you started (the one with two extra holes at the edges), and you'll see that it's different from the ones at the four sides of the cube, which by the way, are all identical. That's the face you need to focus and the gear teeth that have the difference in thickness, as one of them is going to allow you to remove the gear. All that you need now, is find a way to pass the right tooth in the bottom cube's face. If you're still struggling after this, take a look at the solution here.

The Cast O'Gear is not that difficult, if you don't think about the boring part of finding the right sequence of movements... The goal is intuitive and you know what you're supposed to do, you just need time to get there eventually. Hanayama rates the puzzle at 3 out of 6 and PuzzleMaster 7 out of 10, so it's just around the middle of the scale. Returning the gear to its original position is way easier than removing it, contrary to most other Cast puzzles, mainly because you're more familiar with the puzzle's features and particularities.

Oskar's Cast O'Gear is available at PuzzleMaster for CAD $12.95.

Links:

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

The Tetraxis puzzle is an invention by John and Jane Kostick. It's a magnetic puzzle designed to stimulate the brain's ability to recognize symmetry and color combinations.

There are twelve sticks shaped like a triangular prism, divided in four colors (yellow, green, blue, red). Each piece has four magnets, two in the parallelogram base and one in each of the prism's other two faces. Building shapes is easy and intuitive, as the sticks only connect in a way that feels just right.

(Click to Enlarge)

To build the puzzle in its original shape, you can start by joining two pieces together. Add a third stick to form a pinwheel. Now build three other ones and you're left with four identical pinwheels. It won't be much harder to join them one by one until you have the final shape built. After that, just make sure if the color combinations are right, as you might need to swap a couple of sticks to get the desired combination. Tip: try to build each pinwheel with three sticks of the same color. You'll end up with another cool color combination.

The Tetraxis comes boxed in its most recognizable shape already built. The color combination that you'll see right away is three sticks of the same color, pointing at the same direction in a triangular orientation. However, there are other several combinations that you can try yourself. For example: try to have only one of the three colors pointing at a particular direction for the entire original shape (image below). For other challenges, visit the Tetraxis'  image page (Scroll down).

(Click to Enlarge)

You can also use the sticks to assemble the puzzle in different ways other than a closed shape. Some can be magnetically linked (right image below), while others you can use a mixture of magnetically linked and just touching each other, like the four pinwheels below at the left. The pinwheels are linked together by the magnets, but they're only touching each other in a plain surface.

(Click to Enlarge)

You can also see in the Tetraxis' image page, other shapes you can build with more than one puzzle. There are countless possibilities, only limited by your own creativity and imagination.

Closing Comments:

If you're into the type of puzzles that can yield the best of your creativity, then the Tetraxis is a recommended toy for you. Whether you'll get one or more puzzles, you can be sure to have many hours of plain fun with the building possibilities that the Tetraxis can offer. It's also great to have one in the workplace to refresh your creativity.

The creators also do exquisite hand-crafted artwork, with similar structures and a few more complex shapes. If you'd like to know more about these products, you can go to the creators website and take a look at the great collection available. You can contact the designers if you want to buy anything from the site... Here's a video that shows one of these fine sculptures.

Also available from the MoMath website.

(Click to Enlarge)

The Lunatic Lock is designed by Gary Foshee and this particular edition is produced by PuzzleMaster.

There's a wide range of trick locks in the market today, some are cheaper and others can be quite expensive, like this one. The Lunatic Lock falls into the category of the cheaper ones, but don't be fooled, you'll get more than you paid for, as the puzzle can be extremely frustrating to open. It's made of aluminum, which is cheaper to produce, but doesn't look very good as a finish, because it has these brushed strokes and it looks like it's unpolished. I know that if it were made of another material, it would be more expensive, though...

Now, for the challenge itself, which is what matters, you won't be disappointed. When you think of a lock and the way that they are opened, you may think immediately of a key. However, these trick locks are very different. They require a completely different approach for opening them. The only "key" provided in this specific lock is a small pin that looks like a screw. If you shake the puzzle close to your ear, you'll be able to hear something inside. Try to move the pin up and down while rotating the lock and eventually you'll lock the pin in the middle position. Just continue to do this until you finally get the puzzle unlocked. The Lunatic Lock is rated by PuzzleMaster as an 8 out of 10, which is "Demanding", so you'll have plenty of entertaining time, unless you get frustrated before... If you find yourself "locked" without a clue, you can download the solution here.

Curios Cross is a Put-Together or Interlocking puzzle made by manufacturer Magnif. 

Made of clear plastic, to better see the intersecting planes, your goal is to build a cross from only three pieces, two of them identical. The puzzle comes in its box unsolved so there's no way to cheat. Also, I think if it were already assembled, it could very easily be broken in the disassembling process, due to the nature of the plastic used. This way you have to think how to correctly place each piece to achieve the desired shape.

I'm not going to explain a step by step solution, but I can give you a few hints to better tackle the challenge. Given that you have three pieces to work with, and two of them are exactly the same, that leaves a single piece that's obviously the main one and the first of the sequence to build the cross. Next, you just have to find a correct  order to put the other two pieces, keeping in mind that only when the three pieces are partially connected, you can slide them into place.

Once you've successfully built your cross, it's awfully hard to disassemble it, but if you do it right after, it's easily accomplished, because you may still remember the order that the pieces were placed. You don't need to worry about that though, because once the cross is built, it's a beautiful decorating item for any desk, unless you want to challenge any of your friends.

Overall, the Curious Cross is a nice challenging puzzle. The fact that it's made of clear plastic with a bit of tint, makes it visually much more appealing, although it's very easy to break if you're not careful. 

There's an I.Q. rating level on the back of the package based on the time it took you to solve the puzzle:

10 Minutes - Genius

30 Minutes - Brilliant

60 Minutes - Above Average

Can you do it under 10 minutes? My time was approximately 45 minutes, so no Genius, unfortunately... 

You can check PuzzleMaster's website for more Magnif and other related puzzles.

This is the Hanayama's Cast Amour, released almost 20 years ago, back in 1992 and designed by Akio Yamamoto. Back then, there wasn't so many Cast Puzzles being released like today, and between 1983, the year of the first ones and 1992, only about 9 puzzles were built, which is an average of one puzzle per year. Now you can see on average, four Cast Puzzles per year.

The difficulty is rated at 5 (out of 6) by Hanayama and 9 (out of 10) by PuzzleMaster, so it's supposed to be a very tough puzzle. I only agree in part with the ratings, because it's a two challenge puzzle, meaning that after you remove the loops, you have to place them in the same starting positions. Solving the first part isn't that hard, as your only concern is to just separate the loops from the plate, without acknowledging the steps that you're making to achieve this task. When you're trying to return the loops to their positions it's way more difficult to remember the exact way used in the process, so in this situation, I agree with a difficulty of 5 out 6. I would say that the difficulty for the first challenge could be 4, maybe a 3 depending on your puzzle solving skills. To get a solution, go here.

The originality behind the concept of the Cast Amour is amazing, only possible by the genius mind of Akio Yamamoto, also designer of other Cast Puzzles like the Cast Vortex, Cast Seahorse and Cast Claw to name a few. It's proof that when you have a concept for a puzzle, it doesn't only matter its functionality, but also how you present it to the general public in order to captivate their interest in an otherwise ordinary idea.

The Cast Amour can be purchased from the PuzzleMaster store at CAD $12.95.

The Cast Starfish, released in 2008, belongs to the Hanayama's Marine Series, a small collection of six Cast Puzzles that have the sea and ocean as the main theme.

This is my favorite from the Marine Series, and one of the most beautiful in the Cast collection. It may not be the most difficult one, but it's design makes up for the lack of challenge. The goal is similar to some of the others in the series, which is to separate a couple of mackerels joined in a loop from the starfish. The design choice of having the two fish in a different color, in this case golden, adds a lovely touch of contrast to the silver starfish: simple, but effective.

As usual, there's two level ratings, one from Hanayama (2 out of 6) and the other from PuzzleMaster (6 out 10). Since the level rating from PuzzleMaster goes from 5 to 10, they're spot on with the difficulty. The puzzle is relatively easy to solve in approximately 10 minutes or less, but not that easy, as it makes you think what route to take to separate the fish from the star. On the back of the star, there's small grooves that help to move the mackerels around. By rotating them and move through those grooves, you'll eventually free the fish. I did it by "accident", kind of... I was maneuvering the loop like stated above, and just like that, they were free... Sort of like an "a-ha moment". For a graphical solution, click here.

In my collection, I only have three of the six in the Marine Series, the other two being the Cast Claw and the Cast Seahorse, but I also recommend the other three if you're one of those that likes to collect this type of puzzles. The other three are the Cast Seabream, the Cast Shark and the Cast Reef.

All of these puzzles above are available at the PuzzleMaster website. Have fun collecting them and most of all, solving them.

The Mushroom Mountain by Hanayama is a Slide Puzzle with an added difficulty.

The area of the puzzle is a 3x5 rectangle with mushrooms on each sliding piece. Each piece has a different number and orientation, except for the middle four pieces, which have two for both left and right directions. When you first unpack the puzzle, you see that every piece is pointing outwards from the center, and the goal is to get all of them pointing into the opposite direction, which is to point to the middle of the board.

Now, the puzzle could be much simpler if it were possible to just slide every piece to wherever you wish, but that's not the case. Some of the mushrooms will block each other's movements, because, as you can see from the pictures, they go outside the boarders of their own sliding piece and can sometimes overlap with another mushroom that's on its way. This will make many of the otherwise simple moves an impossibility, so you'll have to find an alternative route to get a specific piece to the desired place. Such movements can be sometimes, quite a pain to overcome, because as you work your way around those pieces already in the right place, you'll often find yourself forced to move them of their correct place, just to move another piece that can only pass through that path.

The difficulty is rated by PuzzleMaster as a level 7 out of 10, although I found it to be more frustrating than difficult. If you're a slide puzzle wiz, you'll solve it eventually, but the bottom line is that it's not so straightforward as you'd expect a slide puzzle to be. There's many methods and techniques to solve a puzzle like this: mine was to start first with the bottom line, then get the four pieces from the right middle line and upper line in their correct order, and finally use the remaining five pieces to work as a 3x2 puzzle.

The package of the puzzle comes entirely written in Japanese along with its instructions, but you can figure out what you're supposed to do by the pictures, and there's also a diagram at the bottom of the puzzle with the numbers in their correct order for both objectives.

I liked the Mushroom Mountain puzzle. It's a little challenging and frustrating at times, but not so much that'll keep you from solving it. It's nice to see other original ideas used in this classic and simple concept, for a change. Highly Recommended.

The Mushroom Mountain can be ordered from the PuzzleMaster website for CAD $11.99.

Note: There's another version of this puzzle, also available at PuzzleMaster, called "Bamboo Shoot Village", which has bullets instead of mushrooms.

The Cast Flag, an old design back from the 19th century and brought to Hanayama by NOB (Nobuyuki Yoshigahara) with this new updated version, which was released in 1994.

All in all, the Cast Flag is easy to pick up and solved in no time, but it feels good to play with. It's stress and frustration-free, although still provides a good amount of thinking, courtesy of the Hanayama minds. The good thing about the easier levels of the Cast Series is that they are easily understood by a wider audience, making them a great choice for parties, to entertain friends.

You can find the Cast Flag, along with the rest of the Cast Puzzle Collection at PuzzleMaster for CAD $12.95.

The Cast Key is one of the first three puzzles released by Hanayama, back in 1983. The other two were the Cast Star and Cast ABC. The Key puzzle originated in Britain in the late 19th century and has ever since been intriguing puzzle fans around the World. 

The design is stunning, as it resembles two old keys from a couple of centuries back, and they appear as if it were impossible to separate them, although a careful inspection of the keys reveals a few interesting characteristics that are "key" to solve the puzzle. Some of those characteristics are thiner passages on one of the keys, three to be exact, and they serve as a way to pass through the opening of the other key.

The puzzle is one of Hanayama's easiest, rated as 1 out of 6 and 5 out of 10 by PuzzleMaster. Its looks are certainly deceiving, but its goal is pretty straightforward, even for a non-puzzler. This makes fiddling with the puzzle very intuitive and you won't need no more than five minutes to unlock it. There's no need to explain step by step the solution, but if you feel "locked", you can always download a solution at PuzzleMaster.

Video: Click here to see a video solution of the Cast Key.

Closing Comments:

Always regarded as a symbol of curiosity and mystery, the keys have the power to lock the deepest of secrets. It's this knowledge that kept people all these years fascinated by keys and by what they represent. For this, the Cast Key is one of my favorites from the Cast Series, and though they're one of the easiest from Hanayama, it doesn't mean that you won't enjoy solving it... I know I did. If you liked this one, then you will also love the Cast Key II, a new version released in 2006 and designed by Otake & Wong.

The Cast Key is available at PuzzleMaster for CAD $12.95, as well as the others from the Cast Series.

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

The Secrets of the Heart is a puzzle from Bits and Pieces, designed by Doug Engel and sold by PuzzleMaster.

The puzzle is made by five nickel plates in the shape of a heart and a gold ring. It's quite heavy for its size, but expectable due to the number of metal plates used in the puzzle. At first glance it may look like the goal is to remove the ring, but you actually need to unlock a sliding arm from one side of a puzzle. When you do this, you'll discover that inside is a small compartment to enclose something special.

As far as difficulty goes, the Secrets of the Heart is a fairly easy puzzle to solve. It's rated by PuzzleMaster as 5 out of 10, so the easiest you can get at PuzzleMaster. To open it, you'll just need a couple of minutes to inspect the puzzle: the ring functions as a locking system and you just need to rotate it from one side to the other, in order to allow the arm to slide off the puzzle. Returning the arm to its position is even easier to do, because you already know the secret to open it, so you just need to maneuver the ring appropriately to close the heart again.

As an experienced puzzler, you won't find the Secrets of the Heart remotely challenging, but it's definitely a must for a collector, especially if you're into metal puzzles. It's very different from what you're used to see in puzzles and on top of that, a simple and beautiful design.

The Secrets of the Heart is available at PuzzleMaster for CAD $14.99.

The Star of David is yet another puzzle produced entirely and sold exclusively at PuzzleMaster. For many more PuzzleMaster's wooden puzzles, check the following list.

The name of the puzzle comes from the resemblance, in shape, to the Jewish symbol, known in Hebrew as the "Shield of David", which is a hexagram composed by two equilateral triangles.

The design is cleverly done with the use of two different wood colors, enhancing the beautiful contrast seen in the middle of both sides. This easy technique of using two or more colors of wood can maximize the elegance of an otherwise simplistic design.

The object of the puzzle is to separate all of the six interlocking pieces, but it's not actually as easy as it looks. PuzzleMaster has its level of difficulty rated as an 8 out of 10, so it does need some thinking in order to successfully solve it. 

If you're familiar with the technique known as "coordinated motions", then you're half way there... This solving method requires a simultaneous manipulation of the puzzle's pieces instead of a simple sequence of movements. You do need a careful maneuvering of the puzzle, because its pieces are fragile and easily breakable, especially the internal parts, which are cut in a way that may come apart with excessive force. Spoiler alert: The secret in this puzzle is to separate the puzzle in two parts of three pieces each, and then separate the remaining ones, one by one.

One thing I've noticed after solving the puzzle was that, the parts where the pieces fit into one another had spots of the opposite color marked on them. I suppose this was due to the fact that the colored pieces weren't completely dry when the puzzle was assembled. A proof of that is that I was unable to separate the final two pieces, because they were actually glued together, and with the fear of breaking them, I just photographed the pieces like this and assembled them back together.

Despite the fact of the undried paint, it doesn't throw you off on the solving experience and the challenge it provides. If you don't have a clue about the solution, you may require several tries before being able to solve it. It does look great on a desk or shelf, for its attractive design though...

The Star of David is available only at PuzzleMaster for CAD $11.99.