I purchased the above model kit in Japan for about $6. It’s as much a puzzle as a plastic model since it doesn’t contain any instructions and acknowledges its own difficulty. Here’s what’s inside:
Three parts for the shrimp, and two runners containing 364 identical pieces of rice:
The rice grains are translucent and very convincing. Here they are off the runners:
The challenge is to make a piece of shrimp nigiri. With no instructions you’re free to assemble the rice as you see fit, which obviously requires plastic cement.
This was indeed a challenge. My glue is very fluid so I used a paintbrush to apply it and applied the rice grains individually with tweezers. It was difficult to get them to adhere and form a blob naturally, and the fumes from the glue quickly became overpowering.
I did this for an hour, applying exactly 177 grains before deciding I was done. It was an accursed procedure, akin to making a monochrome jigsaw puzzle. The translucency of the rice made it difficult to see individual grains once applied, and my eyes were in agony when I stopped. Here’s what I had created:
And here it is turned correct-side-up:
An imperfect shrimp sushi perhaps, but undeniably recognizable.
What do you think? Did I pass this challenge?
