This puzzle is great! Beautiful looks, Elegant movements and Supreme difficulty all make this one of the best of the Hanayamas. Well talking about the difficulty I, being twelve and had this as my 16th Hanayama, disassembled this in 20 minutes. Another 20 minutes to put it back. The part that confuse me the most is when you got the other two pieces all on the piece with the fatter curved piece, and you need to FILTERED to get to the next step, took me another 20 minutes to understand fully how to do that step. So an estimated 1 hr took a 12 year old to solve this fully... I would rate this as the fourth hardest in the Hanayamas, the first being the Quartet, then the Equa, following that being the Vortex. So I recommend this puzzle to everyone. Must-have, if you have some experience with puzzles and not ready to have mastermind-leveled puzzles yet, buy this! This is a Terrific piece of work, would really like to meet the designer... and see if he's a human. :D

Regarding the question of force I've found that the main issue is a small cast flax residue on the side of the pieces, as the sliding is quite precise, even a minimal ridge chages the force needed from slight to consistent Just check carefully if there is any burr and if there try to file it down delicately.

I didn't find this puzzle that hard as the other reviewers. The solution is lengthy, however I felt that the steps follow each other in a fairly straightforward way. Anyhow, the solution is very satisfying, so I recommend Enigma to everybody.

Alex's warning about the slight force move is wrong. Once you get the first piece off, disassembling the other two is still remarkably difficult. You can do it relatively straightforwardly by applying some force, but there's another, tricky, way which takes no force at all. Remarkable puzzle - it's one of my favorites.

I took apart every Hayanama level 10 in less than 2 hrs (Quartet took forever to re-assemble). I eventually solved Enigma, about a year ago. Found it while moving, and cant do it again. Its really frustrating. There are many misleading paths. Many precise moves needed. And as I recall, some force required to pry last 2 pieces apart. This is an excellent puzzle - but will probably a bad choice for a party: will either get bent/broken or most people will give up saying its hopeless.

Really nice. Warning: there is a slight "force" move once you get one piece off. The original classic still manages to befuddle even after solving after a few times. A must for the collector of Hanayama cast puzzles.

Rien à dire, une vraie bête qui cache bien son secret. La manipulation des trois bestioles procure un plaisir sans fin. Nothing to say, a real beast that hides his secret. The handling of the three critters provides endless fun.

This puzzle is elegantly crafted, smooth, and yet devilishly tricky. This puzzle, along with the Cast Quartet and Cast Vortex, is probably one of the hardest puzzles ever. When the rating is ten, they mean what they say. This puzzle requires thought and just a little dexterity at some parts. You might not want to challenge a friend to try and solve it, because you might be waiting for months. Overall, a mysterious and beautiful puzzle. Highly recommended for a person looking for a good puzzle.

I like this one a lot. It's fairly challenging but I didn't think it was all that hard. Cool shape. Recommended.

1 and half hr. nice

Délicieusement diabolique.

Very difficult. Not a good one to share with friends, because you know for sure that there is no chance for them to solve it quickly

I spent a few hours on it, handed it to a friend at work who took it apart within 5 minutes but now i can't get it back together!!! He is currently stumped on the Cast Elk puzzle which I was able to figure out. Just goes to show that peoples brains work differently.

This is truly Hanayama's hardest puzzle. It took me a week and a few quick looks at the solution to complete it, but it was very worthy. Even after removing the first piece, the remaining two would still make a decent 2-star puzzle (on Hanayama-scale). It looks quite average compared to the usually well-decorated Hanayamas, but the challenge it offers is unparalelled. The solution is so long, that it did not fit on one page (like any other Hanayama I know of), so it's quite difficult to learn. All in all, it's a must-have for any serious puzzler.

I never got the puzzle apart on my own, but my daughter disassembled it in 40 minutes. Nonetheless, it looks almost as though it had been designed by an alien intelligence. It is sleek, slick and mesmerizing with an interior logic all its own. It refuses to come apart easily...you must do it the right way.

Awesome puzzle!! A lot of fun to solve! Took me just over two hours to solve it and a about an hour to solve it back. This was my first hanayama puzzle. I was afraid that it would be too hard and maybe i should start with a lesser difficulty puzzle. But i was wrong. Didn't really take me that long to solve. So i would say that it should be around 8-9 level. All in all, quite a fun puzzle!!

It took me 5 minutes to take it apart and a little more to bring it back again. Vortex and Aqua are way more "Boggling" than this. It is a great puzzle compared to others, but the difficulty it's overrated, that's why i give this rating. (if you get the solutions first, you should be ashamed of yourself, and you shouldn't waste you'r precious time! )

This puzzle is just too much of a mess. Sure, it's hard and rewarding, but it's just not that fun. It seems like a complete cluster.

Great puzzle! I was a bit afraid of it after reading that it was by far the hardest of the Hanayamas, but I think it is of comparable difficulty to Equa, Vortex, News and Quartet, at least for me. I like it because the available moves seem fairly straightforward, but you gradually discover additional things that will progress you further than before, until you finally solve it. Quite satisfying.

Very nice puzzle. Took over 3 hours to disjoin and about an hour to assemble back. Perfect for killing time :)

I got my husband 3 level 10 puzzles for Christmas. He solved the 2 wire metal puzzles instantly, so those were a let down, but this one took him about 2 hours (two 1hr periods about 8hrs apart, although he says he was thinking about it a lot in that 8hrs). He has a gift for solving puzzles so it's quite hard to find ones that challenge him enough. I think this one had him stumped for the longest amount of time I have seen so far. I wish there were more difficult cast puzzles though, he really liked it but I would like to stump him for longer.

This is a very challanging puzzle and took me two days to get apart and back together. None of my friends can even come close to the solution. I really had to think about this one and keep track of my steps. It still amazes me that a person crafted this puzzle.

I love this puzzle. It took me many weeks to solve it. I needed a hint to solve this.

Absolutely the best ( read : most difficult) of cast puzzles. I love this. As well i like Quartet, Elk, Chain, Radix and Baroq. I just got Vortex in my hands about 1 hour ago........

davvero difficile complimenti

This puzzle was AMAZING!!! It was hard to figure out, and even after figuring this one out I still love playing with it... I guess I am easily distracted...