If you are looking for some manual puzzles for a gift or to while away the time, and you come across puzzles from the Japanese company Hanayama, keep looking. I purchased their Cast Coaster puzzle with its worrisome difficulty level of 4 for something that would look nice on the bookcase and that the kids could try solving.

It is disappointing on every level aside from it's being shiny. The puzzle is absolutely no challenge. You simply push on one point on the puzzle and the whole thing comes apart. I wasn't even trying, just running my fingers over the curves and voila, it was all apart. I can't imagine a difficulty level less then this but Hanayama offers 3 simpler levels!

Then I thought maybe it was at least difficult to put back together. While looking it over I saw that it was cracked through from either a poor manufacturing process or poor quality control.

So if you are looking for a good puzzle toy or something that won't be a risk for young kids (no pointy or easily broken parts) I suggest that you pass on Hanayama products.

Tags: quality