Cast O'Gear

Here's another puzzle from the Cast series by Hanayama. This is the Cast O'Gear:

I don't think that it's one of the nicest looking puzzles by Hanayama, but it it definitely is a fun one to solve.

I couldn't really understand exactly how it worked before I got it just by looking at pictures of it, but I'll try and explain. The goal is to remove the gear shaped piece from the cube, and this is done by rotating the gear from side to side using the slots in the cube. The gear can only be removed once it is in the right position in the correct side of the cube, and you can only turn the gear 90 degrees in one particular direction on each face of the cube, depending on how that particular slot is cut. Also, not all of the cube's edges are rounded, meaning that you can only move the gear over the rounded edges and not the others, this is the main thing that makes this puzzle a lot trickier than it looks.

The first time I solved this puzzle I didn't do it correctly. As with most puzzles, taking it apart is only half of it, you also have to reassemble it in order for it to be considered solved. There is a particular 'starting' position that this puzzle needs to be left in when starting and finishing it, and this is shown by two indentations in the edges of the cube for the gear to slot into once it's on the correct side.

Once again this is another great puzzle from Hanayama. It took me around 10/15 minutes to solve properly, which is about right for it's difficulty rating of 3 out of 6. And as with all of the others it's not particularly expensive, which is why I have quite a few of them.

This puzzle was bought for me from NetGadgets and it is also available from Puzzle Master.

Also read Brian's review of the Cast O'Gear here: LINK