You've sung the song. You've danced the dance. Now own the puzzle lock. The Hokey Cokey Lock is the first puzzle lock designed by Ali Morris and was Steve's exchange puzzle at the 38th International Puzzle Party.
The first TwoBrassMonkeys puzzle to be made. The HoKey CoKey was a Jury 1st Prize Winner in the 2019 Nob Yoshigahara Puzzle Design Competition Each puzzle comes with an engraved keychain bottle opener, the engraving may differ slightly on the puzzle we send you as supplies of the IPP exchange versions of the keyring are almost exhausted.
The whole puzzle, including keys, weighs about 175g, and stands about 90mm tall by 40mm wide.
The HoKey CoKey Lock is a trick opening lock which means it opens in a non-conventional secret manner. In the USA the song the lock is named after is known as the Hokey Pokey and in New Zealand the Hokey Tokey. The puzzle has been made by modifying a standard brass padlock.
Ali Morris designed the lock for his friend (and co-conspirator at Brass Monkey Puzzles) Steve Nichols to enter as his IPP Exchange puzzle at IPP38 in San Diego. And the exchangers loved it! Or at least they loved playing with it once Steve stopped making them dance the Hokey Pokey in front of lots of other puzzlers and then presented them with their puzzle!
The first thing you might notice is that the lock has two different keys. So why give both keys? If one can open the lock then clearly the other one cannot. It’s also a very nice gesture for Steve and Ali to give you a keyring to keep the keys safe on.
And then why call it HoKey CoKey. Could you really have to dance the Hokey Pokey, or more correctly the HoKey CoKey, to be able to solve the puzzle lock? Is there a clue in the song to solving the puzzle? Well, you’ll really only know the answer to that for sure once you’ve solved it.
It’s very well made and the changes to the mechanism are well disguised.
