Product description: Puzzles are part of magic for me, they have an inner working which can be similar to some gimmicks sold in the market. But in this case, the aim is to find the solution to the puzzle and one of the most amazing I’ve seen is the DanLock. Although it looks like a regular padlock, this puzzle is very tricky to solve and the working is just beautiful when you crack it. The idea is to open and close the padlock, I think this will trick your brains for hours but when you crack it, the satisfaction is just amazing. Let’s get into this review !
Price and where to buy it: This is sold at $140 (+ $13 for shipping) and you can send a mail to Michal, Dan’s daughter, to order one: michal@danlockpuzzle.com.
What you get: You get the lock inside a lovely little velvet bag with a padlock embroidering on it with a gold thread, it really is a lovely packaging. Inside, you’ll find the padlock with a small card which says that everything you need to crack this is here, that you shouldn’t use force to open it and good luck! The padlock is beautiful, with a laser engraving logo on it. You get one broken key and a full one. It doesn’t look like much but boy this is clever, when you see the mechanism, I think you’ll be like a child opening his christmas presents. The craftsmanship is superb, the price is what it is but what you get is first class. It looks so beautiful as a decoration piece too, I love everything about it.
Teaser: I think you should watch Chris Ramsay video on the Dan Lock, it’s well made but don’t watch it if you don’t want to know the secret:
The pros and the cons: Here is the core of my review, let's begin with the cons, as I will usually be doing, I prefer to keep the good things for the end.
THE CONS:
The price may be a step but when you consider all the work that have been put into this, It’s not that expensive.
THE PROS:
This is one of the best puzzles I’ve seen, the quality, the craftsmanship, the mechanism, the solution, everything is very well made and very interesting.
This will take you a few hours or a few days to open it, I’ve done it within a day and a half, some moves are easier than others, they’re hidden things, curious mechanism, everything for a puzzle to be exciting.
Once you solved it, I think this would fit perfectly well on your magic shelf, or in your home because it can be something that will trigger imagination and curiosity. If you have some friends at your house, they might be wondering what is that lock with a broken key on it, and then you can give it to them and they’ll try to solve it.
What I like the most with it is the fact is a multi phase puzzle, you unlock one phase so you think you cracked it but then you're stuck again. It gives you bang for your bucks because the several phases are all very creative in the way they're solved.
I’m a sucker for ingenious mechanism, I love tricky gimmicks which work amazingly well and I’ve fallen in love with the Dan Lock which is very very clever too.
Overall rating: This is one of my favorite puzzle, it’s exceptional and it would make a perfect gift for any magician who likes beautifully made object like this, 4/4 hearts.
As for the difficulty level, it took me a day and a half to crack it so i’ll say this one is quite difficult, 3/5 stars.
Similar products: The B Lock is another puzzle padlock made by Boaz Feldman which is also very very good !