Tag Archives: Take Apart

The Yot

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… not a UFO

The Yot (or perhaps it’s toY backwards?) from Hi-Q Products is a puzzle which has intrigued me for quite some time now, but I’ve seemed to always have another puzzle that I wanted turn up and mean that I put off getting one. Well that’s no longer the case, as my recent shipment from Puzzle Master included one of these fine puzzles.


Note: Video now available in 720p HD.

The Yot is a great looking puzzle, carved from a block of aluminium and measuring 2.75″ in diameter with a silver dollar trapped inside. My Silver Dollar is from 1972 so is a little older than I am. As a non American, I wasn’t in the USA when these coins were in regular circulation, so it’s nice to have one, and what better way to keep it than inside a puzzle? The Yot has a really good weight in your hand and the little handle on the top is well shaped giving a very tactile feel to it. There is a hole in that nub in the top of the puzzle, which may lead you to thinking it’s part of the solution. If anything I think it’s there to prevent a vacuum from forming between the lid and the coin, but may help to disguise the real solution.

The Yot in its box

The Yot in its box

The top of the Yot

The top of the Yot

The puzzle itself isn’t terribly difficult to open, and I opened it within a few seconds of taking it out of the box for the first time. The solution is fairly common to a number of puzzles, and really given the shape is one of only a few possibilities that could be hidden in such a small puzzle. Now if you’re reading this, you’re probably thinking, why would I spend nearly $40 on a puzzle that I’ll open so quickly? Well first off, it’s a very high quality puzzle that is well made, and very precisely machined, so from that aspect, it’s worth the price tag. Perhaps the real reason is that given how well made the puzzle is; the simple mechanism, works repeatedly without fail. Even the box it comes in, while simple, is still well finished and adds to the quality feel you get from the puzzle. The only caveat to that is the badly over photocopied piece of paper in the top of the box giving you info about the puzzle.

The Yot opened, and no this picture won't help you solve it.

The Yot opened, and no this picture won't help you solve it.

The real fun with the Yot is being able to open it in front of one of your friends, showing them that all you need to do is lift the top straight off, then closing the puzzle and handing it to them, and watch them struggle to open it. It does take a little practice to be able to perform the trick that is required to opening it without your audience seeing what you have done, but once you can, the look on their faces is priceless. Even better, you can hand them it in the solved state, so they can take the top off, and almost invariably, they open it, re-close it then turn it over with a smile of their face, then fail to re-open it when they turn it back around, which just leaves them more puzzled than they were to start with.

As a nice touch, it’s possible to remove the coin from the Yot, and close it back up. Now the base of the removable top is visible, however the mechanism and any clue as to how the puzzle works is still hidden, so you could even pass it out like this to show that there’s nothing tricky about the coin. A nice touch and a good piece of design to boot.

The Yot is also available in a collectors edition from yot.com directly where the body is 18k gold, and has an antique silver dollar trapped inside. While it’s a lot more expensive than the basic version, it’s a nice touch and if you’re a collector it may be worth looking at. I’ll be honest, without the puzzle being a little more challenging I doubt I’d consider getting the collectors version, but if you’ve won the lottery, then why not. Editors note: Given the price of gold today, and the solid silver dollar contained within, this may even be an investment.

The Yot II has a different solution to the original, so I may have to pick one up and see how much different it is. It’s in a larger package, so clearly there’s more room in there for an additional mechanism.

If you need a few hints as to how to open the puzzle, then you can go to the Yot’s website, and they have a few clues there. It’s not a full solution, but really you shouldn’t need it.

There are a number of other puzzlers out there have already reviewed the Yot, so have a look at Brian’s review or Oli’s. Jerry also has written about the Yot and the Yot II, so there’s no shortage of thoughts on this puzzle.

Overall, I’d say if you’re an experienced puzzler, you’re not going to have a problem in opening this very quickly, but opening the puzzle in front of someone then watching their face as they fail to open it by doing “the same thing you just did” is priceless. A fun puzzle, a great coffee table item, plus a nice way to store your silver dollar. If you don’t have one, it’s a nice addition to a collection, and would make a very nice gift.

Cast Rattle

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This entry is part 3 of 8 in the series Hanayama Cast Puzzles

Cast Rattle is another excellent puzzle from the Hanayama Cast series of puzzles. This particular puzzle is designed by Bram Cohen. The highly chromed, clinking puzzle challenges you to separate the four joined pieces, then put them back together, before you drive your significant other insane from the rattling. Thanks to Puzzle Master for sending me this puzzle to review.

Cast Rattle by Hanayama

Cast Rattle by Hanayama

As other people have already commented in their reviews, this puzzle really lives up to its name. The four identical pieces rattle and clink with each and every touch of the puzzle, and most attempts to silence it will prove to be futile. The chromed finish is very slick, and there is very little friction between the pieces to keep them in any particular spot. Have a look at Kevin’s review and Brian’s review to see what they had to say about this puzzle.

If you’re familiar with the cast series, then it will come as no surprise to find that the name of the puzzle, and Hanayama’s name are laser etched onto one of the pieces. This puzzle is no exception and lives up to the high quality that we are familiar with from the Hanayama series. It’s a solid puzzle with a good weight and excellent fit and finish. Despite its small price tag, this is a high quality puzzle.

Cast Rattle closeup

Cast Rattle closeup

At its smallest, the puzzle is around 1.5″ square x 1″ high. The pieces fit very loosely together which adds to its tendency to rattle, but there’s really no unnecessary movement here. Moving the pieces around in relation to one another, you can see everything, making this another ‘perfect’ puzzle.

You may not realise it, but this puzzle is actually a burr puzzle. Don’t let that put you off though. I know that many people are not a fan of burrs but this is a great puzzle and you’d be missing out if you passed it by. The loose connection of the pieces, and the ability to see all parts of the puzzle make this a rather unique burr. Nothing hidden from you and yet something keeps the pieces locked together.

With nothing hidden, it should be easy to see how it should open, right? And this is where the frustration sets in. Idly fiddling with the puzzle in your hands is unlikely to see you opening it any time soon. Tugging and pulling wildly at the pieces in the hope they will pop apart also won’t yield particularly impressive results. A more structured approach (and a level surface) help in solving this one. You can see from looking at the pieces and how they connect that all you need to do is line the pieces up, and they should fall apart. The beauty is that the pieces are so accurately made, that the alignment has to be spot on for that to happen.

Cast Rattle pieces

Cast Rattle pieces

I’ve given this puzzle to a few different people to try to solve, and most have managed. The interesting thing is that each person approaches the puzzle differently, and as such I’ve witnessed a couple of solutions. The most Neanderthal solution involved holding two pieces and shaking until things fell apart, to the other end of the scale where carefully aligning pieces on a desk and gently repositioning with a pencil until the top two could lift off. Interestingly both were successful!

After I solved this for the first time, and could look closely at the pieces when I was re-assembling the puzzle, I noticed something very interesting. That led to what I consider to be a very elegant solution. Taking a couple of tooth picks and carefully placing them between the pieces, you can precisely align them, and separate the pieces with minimal effort. I wonder if this was intentional when the puzzle was designed or just luck!

The effect of such a precise construction, and low friction surface is that even when you’re putting the pieces back together, almost as soon as the pieces touch, they will move out of alignment locking themselves together again.

Hanayama rates the puzzle as a level 4/6 and Puzzle Master a level 8/10 – Demanding. I have to say that these are spot on. It’s a challenging puzzle and could keep you rattling away for hours if you don’t look carefully at the pieces and their interaction. Even after solving it, and knowing what you have to do, this still provides a challenge every time you come back to it. I highly recommend Cast Rattle for all ages and level of puzzle solving, although I’d suggest not handing it to the baby!

Cube Vinco

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Cube Vinco is a beautifully made puzzle from Vaclav Obsivac. This modest wooden puzzle unlike many other of Vinco’s puzzles is not a coordinate motion, but rather a take apart puzzle, and is made just as well as any of the other items he sells. I got this one from Puzzle Master, for around $15, or you can get it from Vinco directly.

Cube Vinco

Cube Vinco

This is one of the smaller puzzles from Vinco at only 1 3/4″ cubed. The woods used are fairly plain, however the workmanship is excellent. Each of the four pieces fits together very tightly, so that although the seams are easily visible, determining how to take this puzzle apart is not obvious.

One of the nice features of the way this puzzle is created is that most people when they pick it up will hold it such that as they pull on the sides to try to free the pieces, they will actually be holding onto both sides of the same piece, and in fact holding it even more firmly together, making separation impossible. Even when you know how the pieces go together, it takes a few tries to be able to find the correct finger hold to be able to start moving the pieces apart.

Cube Vinco Halves

Cube Vinco Halves

The puzzle is made up of four pieces, which are a set of two mirrored pairs. The only way to put the puzzle together is to create these pairs, then in turn join them together to create the finished cube.

Cube Vinco Halves

Cube Vinco Pieces

Without seeing the pieces being taken apart, this could be a difficult puzzle to put together, even with only four pieces. In fact when taking it apart, due to the very snug fit of the pieces, more often than not, the pieces fly apart in your hands (and across the room) so you’re not going to see how the pieces were assembled.

Puzzle Master rates this as a Level 8/10 puzzle – Demanding, however I have to think this is a little high. While it’s nicely made, quoting Stewart Coffin, “It is more of an amusement than a puzzle” ( taken from “The Puzzling World of Polyhedral Dissections”). That said, I still think this is a great puzzle to own, and at such a low price how can you resist adding it to your collection!

Bolted Closed

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Bolted Closed is a take apart puzzle from Bits and Pieces, which I came across on the Puzzle Master website and really liked the look of. The contrasting woods, and use of different metals makes this puzzle really stand out. Thanks to Puzzle Master for sending it to me to review.

Bolted Closed by Bits and Pieces

Bolted Closed by Bits and Pieces

The object of the puzzle is to remove the large ball bearing from its prison between the brass rods, wooden supports and the nut and bolts. The choice to stain the wood in the centre portion into a bright red helps to make this puzzle stand out and really makes you want to pick it up. When you do, you realise it’s a fairly heavy puzzle thanks to that ball bearing which is rolling around much more freely than photographs made me think it would.

The puzzle comes very simply packaged in a white cardboard box with the name of the puzzle (listed on the box as Brass Bolt), and some warnings about not swallowing the small parts. Safety information over, I opened the box and removed the puzzle, to have the ball bearing fall out, hit the floor and roll under my sofa. Not exactly the sort of challenge I was hoping for. The main reason the puzzle arrived in the already solved state is I think mainly down to the packaging of the puzzle. With no support or padding it’s all to easy for the mechanism to become free during shipping.

Recovering the ball from under the sofa, I put things back together, opened it a couple of times and thought it was almost a trivial mechanism, with no real puzzle element at all. Rather disappointed, I reset the puzzle, and put it on one of my puzzle shelves thinking it was a pretty poor puzzle. Coming back to it some months later to write the review I was able to solve the puzzle as it was intended, and it has gone up slightly in my estimation. I really shouldn’t have judged it based on what may have been a fluke when I unboxed it.

In coming back to the puzzle and trying to solve it fresh, I found that it didn’t open as easily as it had originally. As it turns out, when I closed the puzzle initially, I had only partially done so. The motions of putting it on the shelf and the taking it back down to photograph, had fully reset the puzzle, making it a slightly better challenge. Puzzle Master ranks this as a Level 8 – Demanding (out of 10) puzzle. I don’t think I’d rank it quite as high, possibly a 7.

The mechanism itself if fairly simple, and most people should be able to open it with a bit of time spent on it. The ball rolling around helps to disguise any mechanism at play so it would be easy to miss the first move to removing the ball as a result. Rule 11 as it is fondly known does play a part, but unlike some other puzzles, the amount of force required is small, and there’s no worry about hurting yourself here, unless you get your fingers stuck between the ball and the brass rods.

My biggest issue with this puzzle really comes down to how well it’s made. Ok, it’s not an expensive puzzle, and it does look great. Many other cheaper puzzles look cheap and this doesn’t suffer that fate. If you look closely though, the fit and finish isn’t all that high which lets the puzzle down slightly, but has to be expected given the price range.

The gap between the support post for the bolts and the base is large enough that you can easily see the mechanism keeping it closed, and on my version the two bolts are actually bent into a slight curve. The result being that getting things lined up to remove the ball have to be spot on or the ball will remain just trapped. I can’t tell if this is by design, or not but I have to think it’s unintentional. By the time you can get the ball close to being removed, the hard work is done, and the very slight bend seems incongruent with the solution.

For a beginner, this is a good puzzle. The ability to get a hint as to the mechanism will keep newer puzzlers interested and it does look good. I’d have to say, give this one a chance, and you may just enjoy the puzzle. If you’re really stuck, the solution is included, but I’d leave that in the box until you’ve at least had a play.

Aluminium Cross by Wil Strijbos

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As I mentioned previously, I was lucky enough to be able to pick up a copy of this re-run of Wil Strijbos’ first ever puzzle design, the Aluminium Cross. John Devost over at Puzzle Paradise had been in touch with Wil to get a few for the US collectors, and I bought mine through John. Wil Strijbos is a fairly well known puzzle designer, creator and collector from the Netherlands. He has a huge collection of puzzles, and has been designing puzzles himself for quite some time.

Wil has a number of glass bottle puzzles (which Oli has reviewed here and Allard over here) and nut/bolt puzzles he designs and makes, but perhaps his most notable works are his aluminium puzzles. Just by looking at these puzzles, it’s easy to see why, they really do look good, they’re well finished and are just a little different to many other puzzles on the market today. You can read Allard’s review of Wil’s Aluminium puzzles over on his blog and Kevin’s over on PuzzleMad. Since Wil makes these by hand, there’s never a huge number of puzzles available, however he does take requests, and has a catalogue of other puzzles for you to buy while waiting on one of his puzzles.

Aluminium Cross by Wil Strijbos

Aluminium Cross by Wil Strijbos

The Aluminium Cross was created back in 1980, when Wil was invited to meet Mr James Dalgety from Pentangle Puzzles after writing to Pentangle about their puzzles. He felt that with such an invite he should create something to take with him. Back in 1980 he made only a few samples of the puzzle, and it has taken 32 years for him to make it available on a larger scale. Looking at the puzzle, it doesn’t look very challenging. There are two bars of aluminium and two rods going through them, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to take apart? It’s at this point it’s worth noting that when Wil announced the availability of this puzzle again, he showed pictures of the puzzle open and closed. That’s right … he shows the puzzle open. Anyone who is able to show you their puzzle solved, and it still be a challenge to take it apart has a good puzzle on their hands. For that reason I don’t hesitate to do the same in this review and show you the same as Wil did.

Aluminium Cross by Wil Strijbos

Aluminium Cross by Wil Strijbos

Even having seen the puzzle already apart, I can confirm that there are no clues there. If anything all it does is serve to intrigue and confuse. I know having seen the images from Wil himself it just made me want one even more.

When I received the puzzle, my parents were over from Scotland on Vacation, and my Dad who is also a puzzler was quite interested as well. At first, everything is locked solid and none of the pieces will slide. Over dinner, I sat and played as we talked and gradually by twisting and turning the puzzle, first one bar moved, then after more work I could remove it. Yet more work was required to finally take the two parts of the cross apart and see how the puzzle was constructed. I will admit that I wasn’t paying as much attention as I normally do when solving a puzzle given that I was enjoying dinner with my family.

To my surprise I had taken the puzzle apart in under 15 minutes. And that is where the fun started. I had to put the puzzle back to the start, so my Dad could open it. I then spent the next 40 minutes trying to work out how I had taken it apart to be able to put it back to the starting position, and ended up having to take it apart again several times to see how each of the elements interacted. My input to the dinner conversation was significantly less than it had been while I was opening the puzzle, and there were a few grunts as the puzzle eluded my attempts to reassemble it. This puzzle is just as challenging to restore to its original state as it is to take apart.

In all there are six elements to the puzzle which need to be understood to solve it. It’s a great puzzle, and as a first design it makes my efforts seem fairly meagre. Having handed the puzzle to my Dad, he opened it fairly quickly, but ended up handing it back to me to put back together. I’ve given it to a few other friends and they have all enjoyed playing with it and agree that it’s a great puzzle.

The first run of the Aluminium Cross sold out very quickly, but I know Wil has batch two ready and I have no doubt that if they continue to sell well he’ll make more.

I’ll be reviewing Wil’s other aluminium puzzles soon, so stay tuned for more from Wil Strijbos. If you’d like to purchase any of Wil’s puzzles, or find out what other puzzles he has in stock, feel free to get in touch, and I’ll send you Wil’s details. He currently doesn’t have a website, but does maintain a mailing list with lots of info.

The Strijbos Metals

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Despite the slightly cryptic title, many puzzlers will already know what I’m talking about. Hailing from the Netherlands, William Strijbos is a name familiar to many puzzlers. His aluminium puzzles are probably his best known, but by no means his only puzzles. Wil also designs bolt puzzles as well as a fair share of coke and whisky bottle puzzles as well.

Wil's Aluminium Puzzles

The collection of Aluminium puzzles from Wil Strijbos

I recently purchased Wil’s Cross puzzle from John Devost through Puzzle Paradise and at the same time had ordered Wil’s Aluminium burrs and his Aluminium Cylinder directly from Wil.

I’ve had the Cross for a few weeks now, but at the weekend, the rest of the items arrived from Wil. As much as Wil knows about designing puzzles, he also has a good supply of packing tape, as there was no box visible on his package, it was so well covered in tape. Guess Wil was expecting rain as this one was watertight!

I’ll be reviewing all of these fairly soon, so keep an eye out for that, but until then, rest assured that these are excellent puzzles, and well worth owning. If you are interested, drop me a message and I can pass on Wil’s details.

If you’re interested, despite the identical external appearance, the Burr on the left is the 10 move burr which is a version of the ‘Piston Puzzle’ by Peter Marineau and the one on the right is a version of ‘Gaby Games’ designed by Phillipe Dubois.

All the puzzles are incredibly high quality, and beautifully made. Well worth having in the collection. While the Burr’s are not new designs, their construction from Aluminium does add to their appeal, and the fit is excellent, making them worthy of note.