The Archives
These are older puzzles, some from the earliest days of 3D printing, and a few even older. Also some holographic puzzles, including the puzzle that earned my first patent.
Qboid
Qboid is the mass produced version of one of my oldest 3D printed puzzles; the 1-2-3 Pocket Puzzle. I actually made a series of these puzzles with different style cuts and resins. Many years later, BrainWright picked up the puzzle, mass produced it, and sold it under the name Qboid.
Purchase Qboid on Amazon.
Or buy Qboid at Eureka! Puzzles & Games.
Snowflake Puzzle
Snowflake was created when I was asked to design a winter themed puzzle. The hexagonal shape of a snowflake seemed like the logical place to start, so I began there and turned the shape into a bumped "cheese" puzzle. It's actually very hard to tell when the puzzle is solved, which is only made easier due to the patterning applied to the center of the snowflake.
Star of David
The Star of David puzzle is a 24 sided solid with six axes of rotation, and each axis having two rotational layers. The six tips of the puzzle can turn in 90 degree increments, while the next layer below the tips can turn in 180 degree increments. The Star of David is essentially a higher order version of my Ice-9 and Rhombic18 puzzles.
Purchase Star of David in my Shapeways shop.
Buy it ready to play on Etsy.
Siamese 2x2x2
This puzzle is a fully-functional Siamese 2x2x2 magic cube. being fully-functional means that the two fused cubes can exchange pieces with each other since the upper and lower layers rotate on a single axis through the center of the two cubes. The puzzle is essentially a shape-modification of my Fun Block puzzle.
Purchase Siamese 2x2x2 in my Shapeways shop.
Fun Block
Fun Block is a six sided block with five axes of rotation, originating at three different points. One axis at the center of the puzzle allows pieces from the two halves to exchange sides, and the four peripheral axes allow 90 degree turns.
Purchase Fun Block in my Shapeways shop.
Pillow Domino
Pillow Domino was originally designed to go along with the pocket-friendly pillowed shape of the 1-2-3 Pocket Puzzles (Qboid). It was simply an experimental shape-mod of a standard Domino puzzle.
Pentacle Puzzle
The Pentacle puzzle is essentially a pentagonal floppy cube. It turns on five axes, one at each point of the star shape. It is a bit trickier than it might seem at first glance since the reverse side shows the same pattern, but it is mirrored.
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Purchase Pentacle frame here: Shapeways shop.
Purchase Pentacle color chips here: Shapeways shop.
Face-Turning Octahedron
Sometime in the early 2000's I developed the first face-turning octahedron puzzle. After filing for and being allowed a US patent, I found out that the same puzzle was simultaneously invented in Japan. That puzzle is now mass produced by Lanlan. I colored my original puzzle with only four colors, as this fully defines the puzzle, and I think looks better than using eight colors.
Buy the Lanlan Face-Turning Octahedron HK Now Store.
Early FDM Printed Puzzles
This is a small collection of puzzles that I printed on one of the first FDM machines in the early 2000's. The FDM machine back then cost over $120,000! Compare that to modern home machines that can cost as little as $300.
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The 3x3x5 is fully functional, and was the first puzzle to prove that this geometry could be made fully functional.
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The Rhombic Dodecahdron is possibly the first jumbling puzzle ever made.
Early Cast 2x3x3 Puzzles
When I first gained access to a 3D printer in the late 90's, I began making puzzles by printing masters, making silicone molds, and casting the parts in urethane. The 3D printer I used then was extremely high resolution, so the casts came out looking great with just a bit of finishing on the master parts. These 2x3x3 puzzles were some of the earliest I made as I was figuring out the processes.
Holographic Inside-Out Cube
This puzzle was developed while I was working in Polaroid's holographics division. The puzzle itself is not new (fold the box to turn it inside-out), but the use of holographic imagery made it particularly fascinating to play with. Unfortunately it also would have made it very expensive due to the large number of holograms used, so it never made it past a few samples that I hand made.
Holographic Sliding Block Puzzles
These puzzles were developed while I was working in Polaroid's holographics division. Since the puzzle design used a reasonable amount of holographic material, plans were put in place to mass produce them. Alas, Polaroid shut down the holography division before those plans could bear fruit, but I did make several of these puzzles by hand. This puzzle also became the basis for my first patent.
