Hanayama Cast Quartet

Cast Quartet

The Hanayama Cast Quartet came from Puzzle Master. I had been putting off attempting this one because of a number of blog posts stating how very difficult it was - Gabriel failed to open it despite his enormous puzzling experience! Brian, with his almost superhuman puzzling skills managed to open his but even he had to give up and get the solution to reassemble it! So with these ominous words ringing in my ears I decided I should have a go too. Not, I tell you, to compare myself to these seasoned puzzlers (I am still very much an amateur!) but more because I had really enjoyed my other high level Hanayama's and also because I am an eternal magpie and am terribly attracted to shiny things!

This one came in the usual immaculate Hanayama packaging and was assembled into the initial state (this puzzle can be disassembled into 4 individual pieces and an alternative assembly is also possible to try!) The difficulty level is 6 out of 6 on the Hanayama scale and 10 out of 10 on the Puzzle Master scale - this means it is about as difficult as it gets - Gulp!!! The puzzle is manufactured from the same black chromed metal as the Cast Equa I reviewed earlier and it looks absolutely lovely. My long suffering wife says that whilst it looks lovely, the sound of it has driven her to distraction (she absolutely hates me jingling constantly!) Dimensions are 5cm long and 3.2cm wide and deep, it is also a good weight in your hands. There is no solution provided with the puzzle but if you wish (YES you will need it!!!) then download it from here.

When you first pick this one up it appears that all the pieces are identical but in reality they are not - they are actually 2 pairs of identically shaped pieces and within each pair 1 piece has the maker's name stamped and the other has Quartet stamped on it. Initial attempts rapidly lead to the conclusion that this is not going to be a quickie! One movement is possible on either of the pairs (one easily and one with more difficulty) and after this you meet a dead end! At this point it dawned on me that being systematic may be important - I decided to try each of these movements with the other pieces starting in different positions. I decided to try each of these movements with the other pieces starting in different positions but now moving in different directions! Many things are possible and they all seem to end up more or less with the same impasse! At some point during this laborious trawl through multiple orientations and directions I managed to get 2 pieces rotated - AHA! progress at last! Again I could go no further and this time I struggled to put it back the way it came! So far I had been at it for about a week (not continuously, you dope! I do eat and drink and unfortunately have to work! about 3 or 4 hours in total).

OMG! This is a part of the solution!!!

I put it down for a while to try and preserve my marriage and played with some of my other toys - the quieter ones!! Every so often the Siren's song would call me and I would idly jingle about but always with no real progress and a mean look from "She who must be obeyed"! Recently "SWMBO" went on a trip to visit her parents for a few days, leaving me alone and free to play to my heart's content!! Unfortunately, I still had quite a lot of work on but could play with it in front of the TV at night without getting the laser stare. I believed that my systematic attempt had exhausted all the simple rotations and orientation changes so I tried other moves but could get nothing to work at all and I started to think about looking at the solution. before doing so, I left it in my pocket for a day and when I took it out there was a completely new configuration I had not seen before. It took me quite some time to fathom exactly what had happened and to get it back to the beginning. This time I started again and managed (with some difficulty) to achieve this new position and now started to look for more moves. The pieces did seem to be more freely movable but not in any particularly useful way. I was quite determined to remember the moves and so really struggled to get any further. Finally, I bit the bullet and, like Brian, just went for it, deciding to worry about the reassembly later. From this point I think it took me another half an hour to get it apart. What a tremendous sense of achievement!! I think this has been the hardest one so far.

Cast Quartet Pieces

There is an alternative reassembly which is possible and it is pretty easy to achieve - it took me only a few minutes. This assembly is particularly attractive and is possibly how I will store it long term.

Alternative Assembly

Of course, at this point I needed to try and put it back together and apart from the last 3 piece positions, I had absolutely no clue how to go about it. There had been so many twists and turns and un-linkings that I could only put the pieces together and have a bash. Each time, I got to something that looked promising (i.e. nearly finished) but was definitely not any position I recalled during my disassembling odyssey! After a further 2 days, I gave up and tried using the PDF solution in reverse. I have to say that the pictures are good enough quality to help you undo it but it is actually quite hard to tell the pieces apart on the pictures to be able to use it for reassembly! In the end I had to use a YouTube video to manage it (even this proved tough!) I have managed to do it several times now and still get a kick out of it because it is still so difficult.

If you are after a seriously tough puzzle then go for this one, it looks great and will keep you busy for a long time. BUT, if you easily get frustrated then avoid it - as Brian said "it is almost too tough".