The YOT

Now this may not be one of the more expensive puzzles I own, nor is it one of the rarer ones, but it is easily one of my favourites:

This is The YOT, a very simple but very nice looking puzzle made by HI-Q Products INC. in Canada. I added two photos because in this case I thought it was necessary to see both sides of the puzzle.
The YOT is made out of high quality aircraft aluminium that has been nicely polished, and as you can see in the first photo it contains a real US Eisenhower silver dollar. The YOT is also available in 18K gold and containing an antique silver dollar instead, however it does cost......a little more.

There is also a 'sequel' to The YOT, and it is (rather imaginatively) called The YOT II, which I am now quite tempted to get even though I hear that the solution is pretty similar to it's predecessor.

With The YOT the goal is immediately obvious; you have to remove the coin from it's aluminium casing. The coin will rotate freely within the casing, the top section (pictured right) will also turn freely if held by the small knob on the top and the top section can also be depressed very slightly into the main body of the puzzle.

I now have a decent few puzzles in my collection, but I have not found any of them that can grab a person's attention quite like The YOT can. And it doesn't matter if the person in question has never seen a puzzle like this before, they will love it and won't be able to put it down. They will also most likely be begging you for the solution. Even better is the fact that if you are sly enough you can open The YOT right in front of someone and they still won't have a clue as to how you did it.

I found the solution relatively simple and as such solved in within a few minutes, but I reckon this is only because I have had some experience with puzzles before. Others that I have given it to have taken days or even weeks to solve it!

For a mass-produced puzzle the build quality is absolutely perfect. The finish is great and the mechanism will work without fail every single time. And considering how good it is the price isn't too bad either.

I bought my YOT from eBay, but they can also be bought from several other places. Puzzle Master are currently selling both the YOT and the YOT II.

And for those who are interested, here is a picture of the YOT sitting beside the YOT II, you'll notice that the YOT II is slightly thicker in comparison:

Also read Brian's review of The YOT here: LINK