Holiday Puzzling – Christmas Advent Calendar

As empty-nesters, my wife and I decided to celebrate the holiday season with advent calendars.  A puzzle calendar for me and a lego-ish puzzle for her.  I was surprised by the number of puzzle advent calendars that were available on Amazon.  I zeroed in on one that had a lot of mini hanayamaesque puzzles sprinkled with some disentanglement puzzles.  I thought that this might be a good opportunity to try some of the easier Hanayama puzzles that I never acquired.  Normally, I acquire all Hanayamas from level 4 on up although I do have some of the easier ones as well.

The puzzles are not identified with the Hanayama brand and the quality is not quite the same. It would have had to be pretty bad to not be worth the price but I was braced for the worst.  However, the quality was better than expected and I was very happy to open one of the 24 2” cubic boxes every day leading up Christmas Eve.

Here is a brief overview of each day:  

Day 1:  ABC (Level 1) – Good beginner puzzler.  Nice choice to get things going.  When done, I looked at solution and it showed removing the loop earlier, but this was not actually possible.  1 down, 23 more to go.

Day 2:  Lock – Nice little lock with a key.  I tried everything and was sure that it was broken due to being a reduced sized lower quality reproduction.  Then I did something that I normally never do and peeked at the solution sheet.  The solution sheet verified that it was indeed my brain that was of reduced size and lower quality and the lock was doing what it was supposed to – confounding me.  The score was now 1 and 1.

Day 3:  Disentanglement Puzzle – Typical beginner disentanglement puzzle that took seconds to solve and reset.

Day 4:  Chain (Level 6) – Good puzzle and worked well in the smaller size.  However, it didn’t feel like a level 6 Hanayama puzzle, leaving me to wonder if it’s really the same as it’s big brother.  I’ll need to compare them at some point.

Day 5:  Keyring (Level 2) – Not difficult but not a quick solve either.

Day 6:  Star (Level 3) – Not supposed to be difficult and I’ve solved a larger version in the past.  However, still haven’t managed to get this one apart.  Nice to have a puzzle on the side that will take some more effort.

Day 7:  Key (Level 1)– Nice entanglement of 2 keys.  Not difficult but fun.

Day 8:  Violin (Level 3) – Was working on how to remove the key piece when the real key piece fell out.  This one has a nice logical solve after analyzing the pieces.

Day 9:  3 Rings – Argh!  I’m too scared to make too many moves trying to untangle this entanglement puzzle.  Wish it had been the 2 ring version to verify what I thought needed to be done since I’ve never done that one.

Day 10:  Disentanglement Puzzle #2 – Still easy but nice step up from Day 3.

Day 11:  Loop (Level 1) – Easy puzzle, especially since I have the larger version.  This version has some quality issues but still works fine.

Day 12:  S&S (Level 3) – Nice version of 2 entangled pieces that need to be separated.

Day 13:  Quartet (Level 6) – I actually have the full size version but have never gotten around to doing it.  I thought that it was supposed to be difficult but found it quite easy.  Perhaps it’s not exactly the same.

Day 14:  2 Rings – Lowe and Behold, the easier version of 3 rings from Day 9.  Although not difficult, this puzzle has a very nice Aha moment.  Need to apply what I’ve learned here and retackle 3 Rings.

Day 15:  Laby (Level 5) – A 2 piece, 2-sided maze puzzle.  I have and have solved the bigger version but did not have time to solve this smaller version yet.  It’s now sitting next to Star and 3 Rings.

Day 16:  Elk (Level 5) – I have the larger version of this one and solved it very quickly.  Much move quickly than the original version.  It leaves me wondering whether it’s really the same or the tolerances are not as tight making it easier to move the pieces.

Day 17: Dolce (Level 3) – Nice implementation of 2 entwined lovers that need to be separated.

Day 18: Remove The Ring Disentanglement Puzzle – Another nice disentanglement puzzle with the goal to remove a metal ring.  This one is similar to the horseshoe puzzle but utilizes a cord instead of a second horseshoe.

Day 19: Disk (Level 2) – This one was a disappointment.  It came apart in a couple of trivial moves although it looked like it was designed to require many more moves.  Checking with the instructions, a 13 move sequence is mapped out.  The quality on this one is a complete failure, which is a shame since the small size is nice for this puzzle.

Day 20: Delta (Level 3) – 3 piece coordinate motion puzzle.  I didn’t find it a challenge because I’m familiar with these types of puzzles but it’s a must for beginners.

Day 21: Coaster (Level 4) – Simplicity itself to scramble.  Difficult to get it back into position.  Similar to the many ring puzzles, this puzzle has 3 rings that are connected in a chain and can be interwoven and laid flat by aligning the notches.  It’s not difficult to get 2 links aligned but getting that third into place has so far eluded me. 

Day 22: 4 Rings – HaHaHa (or HoHoHo).  Should have seen this one coming.  Right in the unsolved puzzle pile you go.

Day 23: Amour (Level 5) – Easy enough to take apart.  Had to study it a bit to get it back together.  This seemed much easier than a level 5 but maybe this version is more forgiving.  I always thought that the plate represented a heart, but looking at the Hanayama description, it’s really an apple to commemorate the original sin.

Day 24: G&G (Level 3) – 2 intertwined G’s that need to be separated.  Nice little challenge with several rotations.

  

The Other One