Hi,

This is my latest mod - "The Mental Box"

It's my first ever skewb mod (I think).
Obviously it was inspired by the Tony Fisher's Container/Mental block. It's a cut-down version of Container, hence: The Mental Box!
I was building it on-and-off along-side of my other creations, like "V-cube" for quite a while and the first prototype was much smaller, but got completely ruined!

Vadim

Hahaha

Mental Box would be a great name. It does look very similar to Tony's Mental Block.

Looks fantastic Vadim.

OK Reeech, "The Mental Box" it is!
Vadim

isnt it identical to the mental block, not just similar as some have said.

Quinblz - The proportions are different. But yeah, it's very similar... Vadim, you can solve it the same way no? But then again, skewb mods all can be solved the same way.

Another pretty mod Vadim.

even if it is just a truncated mental block, its still very nice, sorry i forgot to say that earlier. is it cubic or a rectangular prism?

ill probably do this instead of a mental block when I get around to it.

I would prefer this over the Mental block! WOW! it looks perfect!

Looks great Vadim! Hope to play with it at the UK Open 08

does it function like a mental block?

The puzzle IS a mental block, but with the sides cut off.

Very nice build, Vadim. Looks really sharp.

What if you were to build up on the Z axis to make the puzzle cubical? Would it make it look more like a "Box Container" than a Mental Box?


Also, can we see some scrambled pictures? It must be nice for the puzzle, even when out of shape, not to stick out so much.

Good job Vadim.

I like it Vadim.



Don't forget your Envelope Skewb.

Thomas

If you did that, I believe the white center square would grow to cover the entire top.

That could have some interesting ramifications on solving the puzzle: the white-orange edge would become just an orange piece and would be indistinguishible from the other orange piece. These pieces originated as 'corners' on the Skewb, but they belong in different corner groups so they can be inadvertently permuted.

I thought that would give the puzzle two identical-looking solutions, but I just realized I didn't correctly map the pieces onto a skewb. Upon re-examination I found the second solution is not possible due to parity restrictions, so the "Box Container" would actually be a little harder to solve.

Good job, Noah. That would be a another distinct puzzle!

Awesome! Nice job.

The shape changing will be milder then, right?

Excellent - I really like it

in a valid argument someone could say that the fisher cube is a regualr rubik's cube, but different proportions

It depends on whether you're comparing the puzzles' mechanically or mathematically...

The Mental Box solves just like a Mental Block in the sense that it has the same placement and orientation requirements. Both puzzles are slightly more complicated than an ordinary Skewb, despite having the same mechanics.

A Fisher Cube differs from a regular Rubik's Cube because four of the twelve edge-group pieces don't have orientation requirements, and four of the six center-group pieces do have orientation requirements.

Plastic sheets I usually buy in modelling shops in Leicester or Nottingham.
I usually have a veriety of different thickness sheets.
The one I used cost £1.05 per A4 sheet. Not sure what thickness it is, but it's nott too thick, not too floppy.
I used particularly thick ones for my V-cube.

I forgot about that one, thanks Thomas!

If I wanted to answer whether it's a trunkated "Mental Block" or trunkated "Container", I would say, it depends, which sides you are trunkating. Hence I named it a bit of both: if you trunkate Container, it would become a Box!



Yep,
and thanks everyone for the nice comments.
Vadim

I love the scrambled pics, this definetly outranks the mental block in my book.

Nice work!

Big advantage over the Mental Block: can be built from a normal skewb without being enormous. Great workmanship.

I made a prototype a few weeks ago that was a kind of cut down version of your mental box. Just chop off the corners of your puzzle and turn it into a regular octagonal prism. I will post a couple of pictures this week if I can find the time, but it is a bit rough and it is unstickered!

Keep them coming!

Can't wait to see it!! Maybe it will be gold. I like gold puzzles!

This Mental Block was made from a keychain version of skewb.
I only cut sheet plastic with my stanley knife or use minihack saw for truncating puzzles.

Thanks,
I did want to keep it's size to a minimum, though still use Tony Fisher's principle of "mentaling" the skewb, i.e. making it's edges into sides.
Vadim

Vadim,

Here are a couple of pictures of a protype of mine that is very similar. I call it the plinth. It is very rough at the moment!

I like it!
Would love to see it finished!
Vadim

I had a request to post some pictures of internal mech.
Here is one.
Not sure what to add... I cut the edges off and made them into sides.

Vadim

really well done, I hope I'll be able to make things like that one day ! Good job again !