Lockout – Ira Friedman

Lockout
This is an interesting lock puzzle that is actually designed as a game. One person sets the combination by choosing which of the green sliders slide into the grooves in the middle blue blocks, then sliding the blue blocks around to scramble them. The solver attempts to find the configuration of blue blocks that allows him to move the green sliders into the grooves in the blue blocks and unshackle the lock. If a blue block is in the top position, it can also be rotated 180 degrees. It was designed by Ira Friedman (US patent #4,782,676) and manufactured by Irwin Toys Limited. It is no longer being made, as far as I can tell.
I got this at Nick Baxter’s open house before IPP 29 as part of a lot of puzzles I got for cheap. It has an interesting design. I’m not into sliding puzzles, so I recently sold this on the Cubic Dissection auction.