Hanayama Cast Metal Puzzle Square

Loved this Hanayama Cast puzzle. I've collected 5 of these so far and my favorite is of course this one with a close tie to the "Marble", then 3rd the "Spiral". All of the puzzles from Hanayama are TOP NOTCH. You can't go wrong with any, though this one is a little tougher for beginners. The weight and the two tone metal look amazing and make this one you can't put down.

I first ran into this puzzle at a car smog testing place. I only played with it for a few moments, but I loved the way it felt, and wanted to get one for myself. After getting it, the puzzle itself is pretty easy to take apart and reassemble, though it took me entirely too long to figure out WHY it comes apart and goes together. The first time it just fell apart on its own, and the first time I got it together, it just worked. It was much later that I discovered the secret, though it seems from the other reviews I'm alone in that part (so they say!!)In any case, I love it not for the puzzle, but for the appearance and the feel of it in my hands. I fiddle with it all the time, and have thoroughly enjoyed having it on my desk. Would definitely recommend.

I know it's a bit expensive, but this is a beautiful steel puzzle. It's made with quality with smooth edges and shiny! It's a very challenging puzzle that is easy to take apart but... just try to put it back together. It's a different type of puzzle perfect to give as presents because it's very unique.

I thought I would love this puzzle just from the look of it.I am serious when I say this: It took me much longer to free this puzzle from its box, than it did for me to end up with a pile of separated pieces laying on my desk. I struggled with the packaging which included two pieces of tape, several pieces of cardboard and what looks like freezer wrap. Once I got the puzzle out of the box, I turned it around in my hands a couple times tugging at it, and it simply fell to pieces onto my desk.Where is the challenge in that?Now it turns out one of the movements within my square is defective and sticks, so that might be why it fell apart, but even if that were resolved, I'm betting the same would continue to happen.The square is interesting enough to mindlessly fiddle with, and what i find is with minor fiddling, it will fall apart on me, but it is much more difficult to put back together than for it to fall apart. So I fiddle with the square intact, it randomly falls apart, then I have to stop what I was doing to actually work at putting the pieces back together into the more interesting assembled square, which will then quickly fall apart on me again as I go back to fiddling.Again, I'm disapointed with this one. There is a good chance I'll be sending this back as defective.

I gave this one to my mechanical engineering brother-in-law who is great at anything mechanical, including robots. He had never seen these before, and he found this one to be challenging. I gave five more to other guys on my gift list. They enjoyed passing them around. None could solve them after hours of trying. I'm anxious to see who solves theirs first!

My boyfriend loves these puzzles and he enjoyed this one as well. Im not too good at them, but this kept me occupied for hours-it was that addicting.

I don't understand why it's rated a 6. I solved it in about a minute and a half. Another puzzle enthusiast friend of mine said he just "got lucky" because it came apart almost immediately after he picked it up. I had someone else try it last night and same thing, just came apart. It's a good looking piece though, but don't expect hours of head scratching to solve it.

This is one of those harder to get back together puzzles. As some have said they can fall apart but you have to look inside to figure out exactly how it works and why it worked. It a good analytical puzzle to get back together once you have it apart.