Kuku (SonicGames)

The Kuku is a puzzle from the manufacturer SonicGames (formerly SonicWarp). And despite a few minor quality issues I've been told of they do tend to make some very good looking puzzles, this being one of them.

The Kuku

The three pieces of the main body are machined from aluminium which have then been anodised so that you can clearly distinguish between them. One piece also has the Kuku name printed onto it.

The Kuku reassembled but with the coin removed.

There is a plastic coin hidden inside of the puzzle, this coin has a serial number on it that can be used for some kind of prize-challenge-type-thing on the SonicGames website, however as I am mostly interested in the mechanical aspect of puzzles I don't really have any interest in that kind of thing, so I won't go into the details of it here. I'm sure however that you could read more about it on the Kuku page of the SonicGames site should you desire to do so.

As this is a Take Apart puzzle the object of it is to take apart the Kuku in order to remove the coin from inside. This isn't a particularly difficult challenge, although I have been told that two different versions of this puzzle exist, and one has an additional aspect to the locking mechanism that makes it somewhat more difficult to open. Either way I would imagine that most puzzlers could open the Kuku in under half an hour, depending of course on luck, past solving experience, the weather, stock market values etc. 

It has a nice little coordinate motion aspect to the solution which I found worked very nicely. It reminds me of a spherical version of the Pandora's Box puzzle that Pentangle made a while back.

While I would not recommend this puzzle based on how good it is as a puzzle, I would actually be happy to recommend it based on the feel and aesthetics alone. It is a lovely looking puzzle that also feels nice and weighty despite it's rather small size. The main downside here is the price, which can be anywhere between $60 and $80.

If you're looking for a Kuku, you can find one on Puzzle Master, along with several other puzzles in the SonicGames series.