Hi puzzlers, I'm proudly presenting the Tuttminx, one of the greatest puzzle of years to you!



Background Infomation
The first Tuttminx was designed and prototyped by Lee Tutt in 2005, you can find related information from links below. It is now mass produced by VeryPuzzle with generous permission from Lee Tutt.

You can find related historical information from links below.
My puzzle based on the megaminx
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=4186
Vote for puzzle of the year
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=4107
Complex Puzzle Ideas [LONG]
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8406
Puzzles that should be built
viewtopic.php?f=9&t=9371
The Top 10 Greatest Custom Twisty Puzzles of All Time
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=11664
Eitan's Half-Buck
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=16668
Unreal puzzles...
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18960

In early 2010, I asked Lee if I could mass produce the Tuttminx with curved cuts. To my surprise, Lee replied soon with a generous offer, "... In any case, I give you my permission to make and sell them. It would be nice if I could get an autographed one when you finally finish the project." Impressive kick off indeed.

In the following year, with the help from many people, I redesigned the cube, witnessed the long and costly process of manufacturing. The original plan was a release before Christmas, however many things go unexpectedly. Fortunately I was able to send out samples to Lee before 2011. It is an invaluable experience running through all steps of landing an idea.

Now, you can buy it from VeryPuzzle.com for only 59.99$!



Video will come soon. Visit http://www.verypuzzle.com for more information. Feel free to contact me through emails in the product data sheet if you have any questions/suggestions.

Enjoy!

Leslie Le

P.S. VeryPuzzle is a new puzzle provider, based in Mainland China, aimed at making unique puzzles more prevalent. Let us know if you have any original puzzles seeking for manufacturing. We respect original builders.



UPDATE: 1st Feb, 2011(GTM+8)
The white Tuttminx is available now: http://www.verypuzzle.com/index.php?rou ... duct_id=75



For black version, follow this link: http://www.verypuzzle.com/index.php?rou ... duct_id=50


UPDATE: 17th Feb, 2011
Footballminx series has been updated with five more models.
Tu-c/F1: Footballminx I


Tu-c/F2: Footballminx II


Tu-c/F3: Footballminx III


Enjoy!


Leslie

OMG!!! WOOHOHOOHOHOHOOOO!!! You rock you rock you're the best omgomg!!!

Sorry about that but it's just so epicly amazing!!!

- Greg

Great News! =D Will it be available in white also? anyway Congratz on getting it MP!

Sharon

Wow. This is wonderful to see. Great work, Leslie!

w00t! I've admired this puzzle for a long time. Never ever thought I could ever own one. I cannot wait.

This is awesome news! Can I ask why the cuts are curvy?

Just bought mine! Was I the first?

I wonder how big this puzzle is, any help?

Cant wait!

Chris

with generous permission from Lee Tutt.

Great Leslie

One for me

too cool!

Upon seeing this (the title of the thread) I was suspicious. I looked at it. I did a lengthy happy dance. Then I looked at the price. It is more expensive than most other puzzles (except higher-order puzzles) but this can be defended by manufacturing costs. Personally, I am quite pleased to be able to pay $65 for a Tuttminx!! Hooray!!

I really need to get one of these! It's really cool, I'm happy it's mass-produced.

Alex

Holy monkey banana saxaphone cold duck time Paul Bunyan white chocolate glue.

My jaw just fell off.

Very cool but yikes 65$

Chris Hemerich

Very cool! Good work, and thanks to Lee Tutt for generously allowing another one of his puzzles to be mass produced!

I'll have to pick one up sometime soon!

Ben

Great Puzzle
Good Luck Leslie

My guess is, that making it curvy enables you to make it smaller. Because the puzzle has such a huge mass and volume and around it there is only this seemingly thin layer of moving parts. Now cuts are "deeper". They are not really deeper because the puzzle is the same but they are "further inside".

I want to know the size of it too. Give some comparison to 3x3x3 please.

I did read in your letter that edge lengths is 22.5 mm and penta-penta distance 104 mm which is the largest distance it has from side to opposite side.
That seems friggin small for this beast.
I guess I will buy one.

http://www.verypuzzle.com/index.php?rou ... duct_id=49

Has anyone noticed these pics yet?
It is infact really small.

The size is about 4" (inches) squared. This measurement stems from the box size, 4.33".

Chris

Wow.

1. Is there a video showing how it turns?
2. Are you using 32 different colors? Many colors will be very close to each other, right?

Wow. What a great way to start off 2011! so many new puzzles to buy, so little money...
This puzzle looks great, IMO better than the original Tuttminx (no offense to the original designer, I just feel the curved cuts are more beautiful (: )
A few questions, however:
1. will this puzzle be available at other online retailers (eg. Lightake, Now Store, etc.) or even, possibly, Mefferts?
2. will there be a video soon? I'm always interested in the turning.
3. how many colors?

Great achievement bringing a monumental puzzle to market, congratulations!
I will definitely buy when I get the money (:

I just ordered mine. I can't wait to get it

I hope these are still available once I've got some cash to work with.

This is amazing, I just ordered one and I can't wait for it to get here!

BTW, is this your website? Because there is only one product, the tuttminx.

Under "rotational symmetry", it says that the puzzle jumbles. Is this true? Can it make 60° turns on the hexagonal faces?

It defines both jumbling and normal symmetries in the "rotational symmetry" section so I'm sure it can be jumbled.

Beautiful puzzle! I'll be buying one tomorrow.

"Jumbling enabled: moving parts of pentagonal faces and hexagonal faces can be interchanged, it's really challenging!"

I don't think they could have said it much more clearly than that. A rather cool puzzle! Nice work Leslie.

The "jumbling" that people are thinking of is really disappointing. Allowing those moves just turns it into a longer solving megaminx.

I'm kind of doubtful that it's really jumbling at all (according to Bram's definition), but I'll wait for the video.

A very beautiful one. Would be challenging with jumble. thinking to get one. Though a little bit expensive for me.....^^

I thought this at first as well, but looking back at it, rotating a hexagonal face would create an even cycle of 6 edges and 6 corners. This should allow an even parity of pieces, creating positions not commonly found on the megaminx.

As in, corner parity or edge parity.

And even so, you can always scramble and solve it without jumbling.

I would like to congratulate Leslie Le on this. When he contacted me about a year ago for permission I was skeptical he could manufacture it since the core requires so many axes. I gladly gave him permission, in the hopes he would succeed. He recently shipped one to me and it turns very well. The curved sides give it a very cool look and allows jumbling if the screws are left a little loose. It is just about perfect in size, smaller than mine. The curved cuts also give more to grip on the edges (although a flat hand is the easiest method for me to turn it). He did a great job and I am proud to be associated with it. While the original design was mine, making it manufacturable was all Leslie's and he did a great job on a very complex puzzle and with significant improvements. I am glad it can be shared with others. I completely endorse it and hope you enjoy it too!

Hmmmm... never thought of that. I'm still confused how to tell what the even/odd thing means (don't try to explain it, I'm sure I won't get it).

So if you're right, and you solve this like a megaminx, saving a pentagonal face for your last layer, which of the following do you think would be possible?

1. You can swap just 2 edges
2. You can swap just 2 corners
3. You can flip just 1 edge
4. You can rotate just 1 corner

I assume the Rubik's cube has an even cycle too (4) but it doesn't allow any of these properties.


@Lee T.
Thank you for inventing this puzzle in the first place.
So you're saying we need to have a few screws loose if we want it to jumble?

The idea that loosing the screws makes a puzzle jumble sounds interesting. I just wonder if the concept 11 will do the same thing.
Congratulations on the nice puzzle, I could hardly believe a puzzle consisting of more than 400 parts could be mass-produced. Should I expect some more to come, like the starminx?

This looks to be an extremely wonderful puzzle. The original inspired awe when I first read the original thread.

One question I have: Someone suggested that the hexagonal faces could be subjected to 60 degree turns rather than just 120, but it is clear from viewing the photo that certain hex edges are thicker than others. Oskar pioneered the art of "fudging" with his "Illegal Cube", a pentagonal prism that allows 90 degree turns of the square faces. It would only require a slight amount of fudging to all edge, corner pieces to transmute the puzzle. As it is, I imagine that the angles are close enough to make it work, but the puzzle would probably become poor or unstable in movement. Is this the "jumbling" people refer to?

Another question, is that with 32 unique colors, would some of the faces would be difficult to differentiate in all but the brightest lighting???

Either way, this is an incredible achievement, and I may get this puzzle in the very near future. It is truly a beautiful piece of art, and looks gorgeous even without rotating it. I would almost be afraid to scramble it, lol.

Kudos and congratulations to you both, Leslie Le and Tutt!!!

Update: Order placed

Wow this is like a holy grail of puzzles. I can't believe it and a nice add to my collection. Thanks for the info.

Fantastic puzzle!!!
I hope mine arrive soon.

This is what the "Futtminx" (fudged Tuttminx) could look like. And here is a 3D PDF of it.

Oskar

Assuming that the red edges are equal it probably should be able to jumble without 'forcing' or 'fudging' a turn. Now the question arises, ARE they equal?

The edges aren't the same. The only way they'd be the same is with fudging.

I really want one of these but can't justify $65 for it...anyone think (or know?) these will come down in price?

I think both 1 and 2 on that list are possible, but the point you bring up about the Rubik's cube is interesting.

"Parity" occurs on a void cube, only because the centers aren't visible. So now you have me doubting myself. Can Lee Tutt or the makers of the puzzle confirm that parity exists on thi puzzle? I'll let everybody know once mine comes in.

Wow, I kinda like the Futtminx better. Cool.

I just ordered mine.

No fudging is needed. The cuts are different depths making the edges the same. Congratulations on producing this!

Allow me to edit your sentence with some punctuation: No, fudging is needed! There's no way to change the depths of planar cuts and make this puzzle possible. Some sort of trickery must be afoot, such as this case, where he used curvy cuts.

pffff

Actually I'm sure you will. I didn't get it at first either but it's actually shockingly simple. Hit me up via PM or start a thread.


For a twist of a hex face, a 6-cycle is an odd parity so yes, you can swap two corners. This also 6-cycles the edges. Thus, the parity of the corners is tied to the parity of the edges. If all of the edges are solved then there will be no parity in the corners and vice-versa.

It shouldn't matter if you leave a pentagonal or hexagonal face until last. The parity should show up in either case. The difference is that you won't be able to fix the parity if you leave a pentagonal face until last without breaking a hexagonal face.

You absolutely can not flip a single edge or twist a single corner.

As you point out, on the Rubik's cube, a face twist is a 4-cycle which is also an odd permutation. On the Rubik's cube the parity of the corners and edges is also tied together. Try this: swap to corners and then fix all of the orientations and re-solve the edges. You will end up with two edges swapped in addition to the two corners swapped. The Void Cube can have an edge parity without a corner parity because a slice move on the void cube is a 4-cycle in the edges but doesn't cycle the corners (which allows the parity of the two pieces to get out of sync). On the Tuttminx, just like the Rubik's cube, there is no way to change the parity of the corners without also changing it for the edges. It's parity in both or parity in neither.

From looking at the picture, I don't see any reason why this isn't exactly like solving a Megaminx. If you run into a parity case, do a single, 60 degree turn of a hexagonal face and then re-solve the pieces using only 3-cycles (or 5-cycles).

With all that being said, I ordered one so fast my mouse probably left skid marks .

sweet mother...

Thank you Leslie and that you Lee Tutt! This is one the greatest puzzles ever. And with the new movements, its even more attractive!

My only concern is: Does it have unique colors for each face? I have ordered already tho. This is too good to miss!

Lastly, I cant wait to see what puzzles are next from you

@Sharon: Tuttminx White will be available in days. I have to prepare a few more before putting them online.

@SEBUVER: The idea of curved cuts is not at all difficult while the true reasons are quite complex. It's a trade-off result of putting all things like convenience of handling, jumbling, manufacturing, size, weight, rigidity, catchy, overall apperance etc.

@schuma: I have selected 38 colors out of 78 colors to meet the criteria that no two colors will confuse after putting them side by side. However, they can still be confusing under poor illumination and the challenge varies individually.

@Monopoly: Due to limited production rate, currently I can't provide enough quantity to other retailers. Anyway, they will distribute to retailers. It comes with two sets of stickers, there are 36 colors.

@MonkeyZ: Yes it is a site under my name.

@Lee T.: Thank you so much. It couldn't have been possible without your invention as well as generosity!

@MonkeyZ: these two arcs are very close but not equal.

@trixter: the price will go down along with the release of financial pressure.

@Sigurd: there are 36 different colors in total. You can choose 32 of them and arrange at your command.

Thank you all for your compliments and kind support. Our aim is to bring more unique puzzles into production. Which means, more available.

Leslie Le

Very well explained!

Looking back again, due to the semi-visible orientation of hexagonal face centers, you would really have to be paying poor attention to end up with a parity.