Chopsticks to be used

This is a stickman puzzle hand-made with wonderful woods. The goal is to get the 2 chopsticks out of the wooden box without any force and without hitting the puzzle.

The first impression you have when looking at the puzzle is the quality: this is very well made and everything is well hiden, so good job Rob !!

The chopsticks cannot go to the washing machine but can be used to eat rice since tung oil was appplied to them, to make them usable. However, I wouldn't use them to eat for fear of damaging them.

The box is smooth to touch and not sharp at all. Thus, you can imagine that it took time to craft.

This puzzle (even if not considered as a "real" puzzle by the designer) is rather simple, even for people that are not familiar with puzzles, because there are not a lot of steps to solve it. As for me, I consider it as a puzzle because you have to do things to get the chopsticks.

Now, let's eat sushis! I am jocking, I won't try that!!

What really count here is the mechanism. It is very cool, easy to understand, but it is funny the way the chopsticks go out of their box. At a meal, for example, it can amaze your family and friends.

Understand what R2D2 has to say

The name of this puzzle may remind you something...Any idea? Well, it reminds me the robot in Star Wars that accompanies the Jedis. Perhaps the designer, the famous and at the same time unknown German designer Roger D, named this puzzle in homage to these movies?
Or perhaps the name comes from the initials of the designer?...Any other ideas?

Anyway this puzzle is made with a special metal (I don't know if it is aluminium or other kind of metals), 2 big balls, a smaller one and acrylic. As with all the Roger's puzzle, this puzzle does not come with any instruction nor with solution. But it's clear that the goal is to make the small ball going through its way.
So where is the difficulty?

Well, just have a look at the picture: when you move the puzzle, the big balls move also in their receptacles and block the small ball. And as they are bigger, then they are heavier and thus move faster and are more sensitive to (even small) moves.

You will be either blocked by one of the 2 big balls no matter how you move the puzzle.
No dexterity is required contrary to what many people think!! As I said before the big balls will always block you, that's physics.

There is a method that work each time, but this is a pretty unusual method. You will be surprised how to solve this puzzle.
You need to be in good health to solve it... :-)

To conclude: a good puzzle with a strange solution, but it works!

Cast box

It's long time that I have not reviewed an Hanayama puzzle, so here we are: the cast box!

This is a pretty easy puzzle (does not mean not good!) which goal is to free the metal ring.
To do that you have to go through the different faces of the cube, rotating at the same time the ring.

If you already have some puzzles from Hanayama, this shape and, above all, the solving process (go through each face) should remind you more difficult puzzles from the same company: cast cuby or cast o'gear which are ranked 3/6 in terms of difficulty (2/6 for the cast box). If you have these 3 puzzles, which one is your favourite? And why?

Even if the difficulty is simple, this is still an enjoyable puzzle and I am sure that if you collect Hanayama's, you may have (and like) it. That is useless to repeat again, but that is pretty rare: even if this is a mass-production, the quality is very good, and any company should try to have the same standards of quality.

I tend to say that solving it is easier than reassembling it, what do you think?

If you have troubles, you can still cheat and look at the solution!

Pirate's padlock

If you have (or have already seen) the Pirate's puzzlebox from Stickman, you will recognize this lock, and solving it is part of the Pirate's puzzlebox.

This is a nice wooden trick lock, well designed and well crafted. You can see the signature of the designer on the back of the lock.

I think this is an original trick lock because usually trick locks are made from metal and I have almost never seen any good wooden trick lock that is handmade. So here it is an exception :-)

As it's not as sturdy as metal, then you have to be gentle and not use force (it's not required though!) not to break the lock.

About the solving process, well it's not too difficult and pretty straight-forward but I am sure that you did the usual things at the beginning like me and it did not work :-)
But then you quickly find what you have to do by analyzing the whole lock. The good thing with this lock is that you will be able to see the inside of it: the mechanism is pretty simple but so well thought and designed that it required several steps to solve it.

I think that all these locks have been sold out already, but if you find one, I strongly advise you to buy it. But don't use it with your bike...just put it in your collection after having solved it (of course!!)