Customer Reviews

Cast O'Gear Puzzle

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is by far one of the coolest puzzles I have ever seen.

Even after you solve it, it makes an awesome desk toy; it's immensely satisfying to simply play with and move the gear around. While it isn't super difficult to solve this by accident after moving the gear around randomly for a long time, coming up with an actual solution (by which I mean, a full movement algorithm, with which you could reliably move any tooth of the gear into any of the six faces of the cube in any desired orientation) will take quite a bit of thought. For someone new to the puzzle scene, this is probably the best place to start.

Like all Hanayama's puzzles, it's built rock-solid and will never bend or break unless you're really trying to, so it'll basically last forever. And it only has two pieces (which are pretty big), so it'll also be pretty tough to loose one of the parts.

If you're seeking a serious challenge, this is decidedly NOT going to be it. This is just a casual puzzle that's pretty to look at and fun to play with. I honestly couldn't recommend this enough for someone who's either new to puzzles, or just wants an awesome desk toy. For people who have experience solving these types of puzzles, this one is admittedly going to be pretty easy to solve.

Beautiful, sturdy, fun to just handle and move the gears around and fun to solve over and over. Not super difficult, but the solution is satsfying.

This was my second of the Hanayama cast pocket puzzles and its a great item.

Like the others I've aquired it looks great and is solidly built. So its going to last a long time and looks great on display. The metal has been given an aged look that helps hide the wear that will result from repeatedly fiddling with the puzzle, which I find myself doing alot.

The actual solution is fairly easy to determine once you spend a few minutes analyzing the puzzle, but actually accomplishing what you know needs to be done to remove the gear from the box will take a bit longer. Its not a hard puzzle, but the various ways in which you can move the gear to eventually remove it give it plenty of play value.

A good starter puzzle for people and one I highly recommend.

If you like puzzles, this is a really fun one. Not too hard to solve. I would rate this puzzle as easy-medium.

I've bought some of this toys of Hanayama. This one is nice, but not my favorite. The reason is that you sometimes solve the puzzle by accident (trial and error), so without much brainteasing. Anyway, it's fun, specially if you like something with the Rubik's Cube logic.

Fun puzzle, definitely one to hand to someone new to these types of puzzles. Its intriguing to turn the wheel and discover the solution. A well designed piece.

This thing works exactly the way it looks it should, with the piece rotating along, and you being able to spin it periodically to change direction. It feels pretty solid, and I had no problems with it in the 20 minutes it took me to solve. That being said, it was a bit easier than I had expected, but was definately one of the funner of the easier ones.

I have two odd complaints though:
1. Sometimes it won't move in a certain direction, and you never really know until it happens. The holes all look the same size, and the 'keys' all look the same, so why this issue? No idea.
2. Rocks? Seriously, little rocks fell out of the puzzle as I was moving. Two fell out on their own, and when I looked inside, after completing it, I could see a couple more stuck inside. They're all triangular little white stones with copperish residue on them. Not a major issue, but I hope they weren't important or I'm going to need to change the durability score I gave this thing.

If anyone has any idea what's up with those rocks let me know, it's driving me crazy :P