The Legend of Zelda - Addison Sign

The Legend of Zelda Addison Sign is probably the weirdest puzzle in the Hanayama puzzles series.

The goal is neither to separate pieces nor to reassemble them, but to balance them!

Indeed, you have to use the rods in conjunction with the sign to create a self-supporting structure without using the small human piece.

Not the official solution as you have to only use the pieces

So far I have not found the official solution, and I guess there are multiple solutions. It's mostly about dexterity (I don't really like that side of puzzles) and I am pretty sure a solution shown by someone may not work for you (it may as well!).

I feel this is a unique puzzle and the only (so far as I am wrriting this post) hanayama puzzle that uses this kind of solving process.

Do I like it? Yes and no. Yes because it's unique and a very beautiful puzzle. No because I prefer disassembly / reassembly puzzles.

 

You can get it, as usual, on Puzzle Master website! 

 

The Legend of Zelda - Hylian Shield

The Legend of Zelda - Hylian Shield is part of a Hanayama series with the Zelda theme.

Already having others in the series and being super fan of Zelda, I needed this one as well.

The goal is to detach the shield from the stand and reassemble as in the picture below

 

To be honest, this is not much of a puzzle as it should take you few seconds before solving, it's a merely 1/6 in terms of difficulty.

But it is a nice looking puzzle and displays well in your puzzle cabinet.

So if you're looking for a serious challenge, you can skip this one. If you intend to complete your Zelda series / hanayama puzzle collection and/or if you're a fan of Zelda, then you should get it. 

 

Get it on Puzzle Master website! 

 

The whole series is here 

The Legend of Zelda -Triforce Puzzle

We're not talking about this video games (even if I am found of all Zelda games!), but again about a puzzle, with obviously a Zelda theme. Let me show you a new Hanayama puzzle: Triforce Puzzle.

Hanayama is famous for its metal puzzle series ranking from 1/6 to 6/6 in terms of difficulty (1 being the easiest) and from time to time they make their puzzle with a new "theme". I remember they made some puzzle with a Disney theme for some of their old creations. And sometimes they even make like special edition with black or gold coated paint on them.

This time they have decided to go through one of the most (if not the most!) famous video game license to make 3 gorgeous puzzles. I will only show one of them: the triforce puzzle.

 

You will immediately notice the size of the packaging: it's the double size of the usual hanayama puzzle. It honestly gives justice to the brand and quality of both Zelda and Hanayama. Hanayama did a really good job here. You can find all the stuff related to the video game: the famous triforce shape that appears on each side of the package (except the bottom -but who cares?) and the level of difficulty is not given in terme of stars of digits but in terms of gems (the gems are the currency in zelda). All of that makes sense!

Nothing bad to say about the quality, same as the other hanayama puzzle, you cannot go wrong with it!

I want to highlight something about the price. It's more expensive than the usual hanayama and many people (you know those who are ready to pay thousands for a puzzle...) were not happy with that. Let me explain some things: first the package is bigger and needed more effort to design and probably to make. Then, and for me it's pretty obvious: Hanayama must have paid some fees to Nintendo and Hanayama still needs to make to money. So again, disregard the small increase and go for it!

 

Now what about the puzzling part? Honestly I liked it a lot. It's a nice puzzle to fiddle with. I managed to make it move a bit and thn I could see the internals and I immediately knew what was going on there. Still I could not find a proper way to solve it until with a bit of.... and of ****

Spoilers avoided !!

Then I managed to find the solution online and there is a very clever way to solve that puzzle, which make it even a better puzzle. Way more clever than my fiddling solution...!

Now I will play with the other 2 in the series to make a ranking of my favourite. 

Despite its not huge difficulty, I am sure you will enjoy triforce, maybe even more when getting the proper solution!

You can buy this puzzle at Puzzle Master webshop!

The other puzzles are the Sword and the Emblem.

If you want to buy all the 3, you get a discount!

What about some cast puzzles by Hanayama?

 Quick reviews for nice Hanayama cast puzzles !!

 

Cast Coil

Only 2 pieces to remove, but never underestimate seemingly easy cast puzzle. You will have to "perform" many moves and pieces will be like dancing around each other. A very clever puzzle designed by Edi Nagata.

Did I tell you that I usually like when the puzzles is composed of different colors, it looks more stunning!

 

 

Cast Keyhole

This puzzle has been designed Vesa Timonen and it's like a maze pattern that you have to solve to separate the pieces. I don't know if it's Vesa or Oskar the guy with more Hanayama puzzle, but definitely Vesa designed a lot of them and I am sure he will still have more clever ideas for future cast puzzles :)

 

 

 

Cast Hexagon

It's a puzzle designed by Mineyuki Uyematsu consisting of 3 pieces to free. The shape of the "tray" and of the pieces makes this puzzle unique in my mind. Ithave tricky moves and challenging to solve. Precision is a key word for this puzzle in terms of crafting the puzzle and solving it, no force needed. Gentle moves and maybe rotations or dancing moves? You will have to figure out, but I am sure you will have fun with it. Definitely a must-have in your collection!

 

You can buy them on Puzzle Master webshop, but you definitely should go for bundles if you intend to buy a lot in one shot!

Some cheaper Yuu Asaka

Cheaper does not mean less good. More expensive does not mean better. Don't be fooled by marketing things!

Still let me introduce you some cheaper puzzles made by Hanayama and designed by Yuu Asaka, you know the famous devilish packing puzzle designer !!

Jigsaw 19

This is the same copy as the Yuu Asaka version. Same pieces, same goal, same solution.

Maybe there is a very slight difference: the pieces are somewhat kind of rounded on some edges making the assembly more confusing than the Yuu's puzzles.

Jigwsaw 29

 

Same comment as Jigsaw 19

 

Jigsaw 28

Compared to the 2 previous puzzles, this one, as far as I know, has not (yet?) been produced by Yuu and thus making it a unique design by Hanayama.

This is the trickiest of these 3 because of the shape of the pieces. I hope and bet that you have an idea of how the pieces will connect together right....many possibilities!! This puzzle is no joke!

For sure, I advise you to buy it. For the price you will get plenty hours of thinking. No doubt about that.

The quality is perfect and the previous 2, the fit is very precise. Nothing bad to say!

WARNING: these puzzles come assembled. If you don't want to spoil the fun, open them blindfolded or ask someone to open them and scramble the pieces.

SSSP & Valve puzzles

Quick review of 2 hanayama puzzles

SSSP Emblem Shooting Star

It's basically the same kind of puzzle that another existing puzzle in the hanayama series: cast diamond. But in a different shape. It's also a bit more expensive. I don't know if this (and the other in this special series) was released for a specific event. 

Personally I like the design a lot and for sure I love the solution. For a true collector, both cast diamond and SSSP are needed. For a newbie, only cast diamonde will be "mandatory" :)

Note that this puzzle is sold out at Puzzle Master webshop. But I still put the link of it. So check from time to time if there is stock again!

Cast Valve

Cast valve has a nice shape and it's very pleasant to play with it. Push, pull, turn the pieces to solve it. I managed to solve it blindly, and I am quite sure many of you will not completely understand how it works.

It's designed by Vesa Timonen who is famous for having designed many cast puzzles!

I have a mixed feeling about this puzzle: for sure it looks beautiful and it's pleasant to play with it. However I solved it by luck without by real analysis (even if I deduced that there must be some groves to be aligned, etc.).

Putting back together is way more difficult. I managed to find solution, but it was not easy at all. I wished that the outside part of the puzzle (not the silver core but the golden part) had some writtings on it so that we could better see which side we have to align with which part of the silver piece. Else this is very difficult to follow the explanations. 

So a nice puzzle, but definitely not my favourite one !

Many cast puzzles in a row !

In this post, I will quickly review some cats puzzles by Hanayama. Many of them are not that difficult, but all are enjoyable !

Cast Diamond

The seemingly easy puzzle that will puzzle you for some time. As with this kind of puzzle, I am sure you will be able to solve it, forget how you did, then solved it again....process should be this for some time.

A perfect puzzle to torture a beginner and to challenge an experienced puzzler!

Cast Key II

It's an interested maze-like puzzle. Well it's not a maze in the proper sense of the word. But it's a path-finding as you will move one key on the path of the other, with different kind of moves. I feel this is a must-have in any cast puzzle collector. I mean it !

Cast Marble

Long time ago it was rated as 4 and now it's 5/6. I pretty mcuh agree with 5/6 rating.

The goal is to separate the 4 parts of the puzzle: there are 2 part for the ball and 2 parts for its cage.

And to do so, you will have to find the perfect alignment. The disassembly move is very satisfying and unexpected!

This is a perfect level 5: it's challenging, but you should be able to reasemble it easily and quickly if you remember the trick. It's not going to take forever like it ca with some level 5/6 cast puzzle.

Go for it !!

 

Cast Loop

This embodies the perfect level 1 cast puzzle with very clever twist moves. I am sure you will love it.

Cast Harmony

This gorgeous looking puzzle is not that difficult bt still interesting: you need to navigate the music notes along each other. Personally I think the link is more interesting than the solving process, but the solve is still nice.

 

Cast Love

One of my favourite puzzle. The 2 halves go together is a loving twist move. It will need you some thinking on how to approach the puzzle. And once solved, you will want to solve it again and again like a fidget toy :)

 

Cast Slider

A very weird looking puzzle composed of 3 parts, all of them dancing like a fidget toy. You will understand once you've played with it. I would say the most original cast puzzle from this post. For only this reason you have to buy it. Of course, the solve is nice!

Cast Diamond, Cast Key II, Cast Marble, Cast Loop, Cast Harmony, Cast Love and Cast Slider can all be bought from Puzzle Master webshop.

Note that Puzzle Master also sells sets of puzzles for discounted price! The best way to start of complete your cast puzzle collection for a reduced price!

A set of 58 Hanayama puzzles

A set of 33 puzzles with level 4-6

A set of  23 puzzles with level 1-3

More chess pieces

I already reviewed a chess piece by Hanayama in a previous post and this time I will review all the other ones from the same series.

All these puzzles were initially designed and made by Marcel Gillen long time ago and since then mass-produced by several companies.

The mechanism are somewhat a little bit different from the original pieces in the way that the original pieces were a bit more difficult. Resulting in these recent ones being pretty easy. But it depends on the experience you have with solving puzzles!

 

The knight is the easiest one in the series and should not take you that long. A nice starter for the whole series.

Let's continue with the rook: a nice one with another trick. I like the design of it with the star on the top!

What about the pawn? In my opinion, this is the best in the series. I like the implementation of the tricks, pretty clever!

The queen is a bit like the king (well they love each other, don't they?) in the solving process. Does not mean the same ;)

And to finish: the bishop. It gave me a bit of difficulties. I would rate it the most difficult in the series. The solving process is satisfying. Don't break his head :)

In my opinion, the mass-produced version are an affordable way of playing with these very famous puzzles. I do recommend them if you're a metal puzzle lover or an hanayama puzzle collector.

If you're really looking for challenging puzzles, then they may not be your cup of tea: they are rather easy.

You can find them on Puzzle Master webshop and if you buy the bundle with all the pieces, it's cheaper.

Don't get fooled by the color: black, silver, gold or any possible color it does not matter. The solving process is the same!

Hanayama - chess piece KING

From the Hanayama series, there are not only the cast puzzles, but also the series of the chess pieces.

Basically all the pieces on a usual chess board !

So let's talk about the King.

First thing to notice: the packaging is awsome and give justice to the beauty of the puzzle itself.

Second thing: the quality is super nice, but you knwo that you cannot go wrong with Hanayama. The precision is perfect and I have never had any issues so far with their puzzles.

Now the solving process: it's definitely not the hardest hanayama puzzle: it's rated as 3/6. I would pretty much agree or maybe a 2/6 is you're seasoned with other chess pieces in the series.

The mechanism is clever and should puzzle your friends for some time until they solve the puzzle and get their reward (a small little coin inside).

The chess pieces exist in several color but the solution is the same. So the color does not matter but it would be better to collect the pieces in the same color :)

You can buy the puzzle on Puzzle Master webshop!

Cast Dice

Cast Dice is an Hanayama puzzle with a nice looking design and designed by Timothy Collins. It changes from the usual designers of cast puzzle (Oskar and Vesa) :)

It is composed of a cage (but it's not a hedgehog style puzzle) and 3 pieces that go in the 3 possible directions of a dice. It's rated with a 3/6 difficulty. For some reasons I disagree a bit, let's see.

It did not take me super long to solve, but it was mainly with fiddling and without real understanding nor applying any logic to the puzzle. And BAM it came apart and I solved the puzzle. Ok fine!

Normally you usually solve a level 1/6 puzzle with luck 'and not with all), so I would give it a 1/6.

Reassembling is also fiddling with the puzzle and BAM it reassembled !!!

Well that was pretty much the scenario how it happened with me. Reassemling the puzzle is somewhat a bit more difficult.

For theses reasons some people may not like it and I could understand. But I am a metal lover and cast puzzle collectors and well it thought this was a cute puzzle and a nice fidget toy. So for sure it's definitely not my favourite hanayama puzzles, but I don't hate it!

And yes, I still advise you to buy it !! :)

You can find Cast Dice on Puzzle Master webshop

Spread the love with a cast puzzle !!

 Well...you can also spread love without puzzles :-)

As you may (or not) have understood from the title, this post will be about a Hanayama cast puzzle, a new one called Cast Love.

It's been designed by Scott Elliott, famous for several cast puzzles using nice sequences of moves.

This cast puzzle is a level 1, which is super easy on the Hanayama's difficulty scale. But don't get fooled by the rating: this is a more challenging puzzle than you may expect.

I now tend to be careful before judging a difficulty and I don't usually trust Hanayama's rating and I was sure that it would take me more than few seconds to solve it. Actually it took me way more than expected (not days however, and luckily for me !).

The quality is nice, the display as well: I really like that the 2 halves of the heart are disassembled. Personally, selling the puzzle assembled would ruin the puzzling fun !!

From the image of the packaging of the puzzle, you know how the puzzle should look like when it's solved. But that does not help much...

I am sure you will fiddle a bit trying again and again to solve the puzzle when suddently with a move you did not want to make intentionnaly you will finally solve the puzzle...unintentionnaly :)

The solving is very pleasant and normally you should remember quite well to solve the puzzle again and again (for the fun: with cast loop, I could not solve the puzzle immediately after solving it several times....I am bad I know lol)

I highly recommend the puzzle if you're a metal puzzle collector and if you like the cast puzzle series. It's a nice puzzle, great quality and a nice little challenge as well.

Maybe one of my favourite level 1 cast puzzles ! Honestly (yes, yes!) :)

Hurry up to buy it :)

 

Solution here!

 

Cast rotor

Up for the review is a toughie! A level-6 cast puzzle from hanayama called "the cast rotor".

It consists of 2 "rotors" that dance around each other during the solution process. Both rotor have a notch in the center on both side and have 3 holes. You will have to manipulate the rotors many times to solve the puzzle. Actually the solution indicates that it requires around 30 steps to solve....scary! ....but you're more prone to make way more moves (I am sure I did more than 100 haha).

Basically you have several possible moves: you can use the notch, you can rotate the rotors close to each other and in each other.

Honestly you cannot really solve the puzzle by thinking, you will solve the puzzles at some point.

In fact you cannot predict more than 30 moves. Then, you will proably get confused and do some moves and then few moves later be back to your starting point. This is why this is definitely a level 6!!

The words "rotor" written on both rotor will help you either to solve the puzzle using the solution or reassemble the puzzle with the solution (sorry, but yes I did reassemble the puzzle with the solution and I am not ashamed at all ! I want a proper starting point if I want to solve again the puzzle! and I really advise you to use the solution to reassemble the puzzle).

This is a cleverly designed puzzle but also nicely crafted as it requires precise tolerances. No force need. If it does not go through a notch, you should not force it. Be gentle !!

After spending hours and hours rotating the...rotors, I finally found an unsuspected move (that is needed to solve the puzzle). This was clearly my "ah-ha" moment. And in this moment you clearly notice that if the puzzle was badly manufactured, then this move could not have been made possible (with an impossible puzzle to solve at the end!).

Still, this move did not reall helped me to solve the puzzle, but I made some progress and at some point I solved the puzzle!

Finally !!

This is really a very cleverly designed puzzle and a tough one if you like challenges!

Even if I am pretty proud of having solved a hard cast puzzle, I am not super kind of these level 6 for several reasons: pretty hard to solve and mostly you will solve them with luck.

Secondly, you're not probably willing to have a second try to solve the puzzle once you've already solved it before. Personally I prefer trying to solve again some lower level of cast puzzle as I am sure that I will be able to reassemble them and I can show the solution quickly to friends (which is impossible for this puzzle hahaha).

One more time, I am sorry but I don't like the "new" packaging of the cast puzzles. The previous packing were way better to display the puzzle as you could see it....! I am sure they changed because it must have been too costly....

Do I advise this puzzle? Hell yes !!

You can find one reseller of this puzzle here!   And the solution here!

Cast slider

Vesa Timonen did it again !!

Here we are with a new Vesa's design which obviously has been produced by Hanayama company.

I think you can only agree that msot Vesa's puzzles have a difficulty of around 3-4 but are way more difficult than what you should expect, all are good and devilish and all are very rewarding when you finally solve them :)

Cast Slider is composed of 3 parts, 2 being identical. OK easy? Well not that much. When you play with it you will soon notice there is an obstacle, which is easy to identify: it's the protubing part of the middle piece. Without it, it wuld be quick to solve that puzzle. But the genius of Vesa is to have added that part, which will stump you I am sure!

I thought it would be not difficult to solve, but it still took me several minutes (honestly I did not time it, but for sure less than 1 hours). I analyzed it and still I could not figure out how to solve it, but with an unexpected unintentionally move (or maybe I did it on purpose without paying too much attention too it), I finally solve it. Very rewarding puzzle. I cannot solve more without spoiling, but maybe the reassembly process will be a little bit more difficult? Once you know how to solve it then it's quick and easy.

This is the perfect puzzle to bring with you as it can also be used as a fidget toy :)
And it will puzzle your friends as well.

Yes, fidget toy!!! :)

Challenging without being frustratingly difficult, this puzzles really embodies for me what a perfect cast puzzle is and should be. It's a level 3/6 but don't get fool by the rating, it will surprise you!

Congrats Vesa!

You can buy this puzzles at this puzzle webshop.

They even have other nice puzzles to sell as well as other things, check it out.
 

Solution here!

The rarest Hanayama cast puzzle

True, I wanted to get your attention! :)
But I am sure I am right, so let's talk about a cast puzzle: cast oskar

This puzzle is old, not sure about the date, but just have a look at the package. There is no mention of Hanayama, the difficulty is not written, but the name beginning by "cast" is clearly shown.
So my assumption is that this is the old Hanayama company which produced some puzzles and then they changed their name and expand. My assumption is even stronger when I look at the small paper inside which shows some famous cast puzzles: cast jey, S&S, nut, star, elk.

However this oskar key has never been made by the nowadays known as the Hanayama company, not sure why, contrary to the other puzzles in the series that are still produced.

The small paper is in Japanese so I cannot comment about it. I assume that the designer is Oskar (as regards to the name of the puzzle), but maybe I am wrong?

So the goal of the puzzle is to extract the keys, basically there are 2 keys that slides on each other. Your challenge is made more complicated that the "oskar block" in where the keys slide has some internal contraints. I mean: the shape inside it makes it more complicated for the keys to slide.

 By analyzing carefully (that I did not not at the beginning) both key you should quickly understand how it should get out of the rectangular shape...or that's what I thought. I think I can spoil a bit as I am sure not a lot of people will be able to play with it. I thought a key should get free first and then the other key would follow. But at the end it appeared that both key got free at the same time while still "attached" to each other and when both keys were out of the rectangular block then you can separate them.

This nice cast puzzle is far from being simple as you need precise moves and many moves to solve it. But it's not overly difficult, so in my opinion it's clearly worth a 4/6 for the difficulty. It's a very nice concept and definitely collectible.

Medallion: Hanayama special edition!

OK I assume you all know the Hanayama's famous cast puzzles composed of usually (but not always) 2 pieces to separate and then to reassemble.
This puzzle is also a cast puzzle but does not belong to the "official" list of the cast puzzle series because it's a special and limited edition (hence the price is more expensive than the usual price of cast puzzles).

Designed by Oskar, this puzzle is composed of 2 rings that rotate creating a maze and a "tray" composed of 2 parts that you can push and pull.

So you're facing a 2 sides-maze: you have to move a disk, then push/pull the tray, move the other disk, etc. You need to anticipate the next moves depending on the path of the maze.
My technique to solve was was to look on both side each time.

But don't get me wrong: this is a difficult puzzle. I don't really know the rating of the difficulty as it's not written on the box but I would assume at least 5/6. You can be easily lost and make useless moves!

It reminds me kind of the other cast puzzle called L'oeuf, but I have some difficulties with the previous one as the moves were not super smooth and some slight force was needed. For this medallion puzzle, no force at all is needed, the moves are very smooth!

I even found another challenge with this puzzle!
I did not reassemble the puzzle in the "proper" configuration, resulting in a puzzle with the writting on the top with the flat side of the tray pointing up (come one, it's not just about rotating the whole puzzle hahaha!). If you look well on the first picture I put, the writting was at the bottom.
Who's up for this challenge??

In my mind, this is a really nice addition to your collection and definitely a must-have if you like (like me) the cast puzzles.

Being a special edition it's not available everywhere. I advise Puzzle Master webshop to buy it. Plus they offer a big range of puzzles. No doubt you will find something suitable for you! :)

The solution is here :)