This is one of three reviews to be published this summer while i’m away on holiday,
This post is about metal puzzles that I received for my birthday and fathersday. My thanks of course go to the family members who donated them.
The Hanayama series is a series of beautiful iron cast puzzles published by hanayame toys in Japan.
There are 2 kinds of packaging around, one is a beautiful shiny red/black cardboard box, the other a dull grey-green? cardboard box, which I dont have myself but did see on ads in the USA.
The puzzles themselves are very solid, and have varying degrees of difficulty. The manufacturer has them labeled with a number of stars, more stars meaning more difficult. Many of the puzzles have been designed by well established names in the puzzle world such as Oskar van Deventer and Nob Yoshigahara.
New puzzles seem to be published regularly, and can be mail ordered at several places:
- https://www.nextag.com/hanayama-cast-puzzle/products-html#!
- http://www.zoompuzzles.com/hanayama_cast_puzzles.html
- http://www.brilliantpuzzles.com/Hanayama_Cast_Puzzles.html
They have varying degrees of difficulty, 1-5, and come without a solution, though you may try the generally know video sites if you are completely stuck. I now have one of the rings, the cast duet and the cast quartet, and probably one or more others, and I’m very satisfied with them. There must be somewhere between 50 and a 100 of them by now,
justpuzzles 