Customer Reviews

ThinkFun Gordians Knot

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

With many puzzles, a few moves will completely take the puzzle apart. They don't allow much playing around. A successful disassembly may mean that the puzzle is undisplayable and put away, sometimes forever.

Gordian's Knot requires lots of moves to take apart -- over 60 -- more than any simple 6-piece puzzle. Thus, it can be fiddled with and set down again in a perfectly presentable state. Taking a puzzle apart is generally more fun than putting one together. Myself, I have thousands of puzzles, but this is the one that I've played with the most, due to the fact that I don't have to do any clean up when I set the puzzle down again.

I bought this as a gift for a puzzle lover and then couldn't resist getting one for myself. It is frustrating fun at the highest level. A challenge you will not be able to put down. I even had trouble taking it apart and putting it back together without the written directions. I have yet to do it on my own even after doing it with instructions once. The written history of the Gordian Knot and directions are done in a concise, interesting, and understandable accompanying book. It is hours of fun and challenging for all levels. If you like Rubik's cube and chess, you will love this as you definitely have to plot your moves ahead to be sure you are going in the right direction.

I ordered this for my son, who is young (7) but loves these kinds of things. Knowing he would need the assembly instructions I was happy to know they were included. He actually got it apart on his own!! But the problem now is there is a misprint on the assembly guide. Steps 9 and 10 are missing and 13 is printed twice. I hoped to find an online guide but I can't find one. I hope someone uploads one soon. Until then, I'm disappointed.

I love brain teaser puzzles. I'm not the best at figuring them out, but I like to entertain my brain with them. I've solved quite a few (still haven't managed to solve the rubik's cube, but perhaps one day I will sit down and try to understand how to solve the darn thing). I picked this one up at a local store about 3 weeks ago and played with it for about an hour each day. It took me about 7-8 hours to "untie" the knot. There were a few times that I felt like pulling an Alexander the Great and cutting the thing in half, but I stuck with it and eventually figured it out. This is a great puzzle for those of you who are more strategic thinkers and don't want to deal with the mathematical algorithms involved with a Rubik's cube.

I will note that I found a couple of pieces relatively tough to move. Specifically, the light blue and yellow pieces do not slide in and out of each other as fluidly as they should and it took me a good hour of being stuck (and reworking the puzzle from the begining) before I realized that it was a fault in the puzzle design and that I just needed to use a little muscle to pull the pieces away from each other. Other than that, this thing is great fun. I'd also like to add that putting the puzzle back together is almost as difficult as pulling it apart. Don't lose the directions....it is 60+ steps to put it back together!

The amazing thing about this puzzle is you get to a point where you're convinced it's impossible and someone is having some fun at your expense as you try to disassemble a toy that can't be disassembled. But if it can't be disassembled, then it can't be assembled and there it is proving you wrong by its very existence.

I've lent this toy to 3 puzzle-loving friends all of whom have reached the "this is impossible" point.

The only negative is that some of the pieces don't slide unless you really push on them. They'll slide but it takes more finger strength than a child could muster. Reading some of the other reviews here, I get the sense that there's some variation in the manufacturing process as other reviewers find sliding the pieces easy enough that a child can do it.

On the plus side, the pieces are solid enough you never get the sense that the toy will break as you shift some of the pieces.

This puzzle is an all time great puzzle. Well worth the $10.

It took me a couple of days of casual tinkering to get this thing apart. The booklet says that this design was generated by a computer program to be the most difficult possible 6-piece puzzle and I believe it.

It's not overwhelming; there's at most only a few different positions to move to at one time. The problem is keeping track of where you are and what positions you've already visited. You can't just randomly twiddle pieces because with 60 moves you'll never get even one piece out.

This was fun but somewhat frustrating. I did it without any help from the booklet and thought I had it mastered but then I tried beating it again and couldn't easily get the first piece out. I haven't touched it since. Once you defeat it it's just tedious.

Ok, so I have not been able to take it apart, neither has my family, and neither have any of my friends. We leave it out and inevitably everyone picks it up and gives it a try, with no success of course. Maybe somebody will figure it out sometime, but until then, I think it is even more useful.

Everyone has begged me to cheat and read the solution, and I always refuse. Once we solve it, then it is somewhat useless at a time killer. And by the way, for that hyper family member or friend, they can play with it while everyone is watching a movie, playing another game, or whatever, and they are guaranteed to stay focussed.

I'm sure it will get old, but for now, it has had hundreds of hours of use, and for only a few dollars. Let's compare it to the toddler's fascination with the box, rather than the toy that came in it; inexpensive but endless fun, only for adults.

Get this one and leave it out. You won't regret it.

This may look easy, but it is SO NOT! It's a great toy that will keep you busy for hours, trying to think up new strategies to conquer it! Takes brains!

I've had this for a few weeks and finally can disassemble and assemble without the instructions but it took a few weeks of tinkering with it daily. The quality and sturdiness of this puzzle makes it worth the $10 paid for it. Fun puzzle to let family and friends borrow (without the instructions, ha ha). Most fun I had for only $10 in a long time and can be shared with many people.

I bought it for my daughter, Petra, who is only 2 years old, and she tried but gave up after a couple moves, it looked simple enough in the photos, but I was mistaken, It is actually a challenge. It took 49 moves to just remove the first piece. It took me about an hour to take the puzzle appart. So it is simple if you are an engineer and take things apart and build them for a living.