First of all, I'd like to say thanks to everyone for their support of the production run of Helicopter Cubes.

It is such an incredible design, and such a wonderful experience to push it from a custom puzzle to a production item. I gained some fantastic experiences I'd never have had otherwise!

I feel so happy to have been a part of bringing a production puzzle to this fantastic community, and so sad that there are those among us right here that prey on the people who love to do this.

A few months ago, at the height of work and family demands, my website "www.thetwistystore.com" was attacked in an extended siege by an experienced hacker. Portions of my website were erased over the weeks, and eventually a command was executed that successfully erased my entire website. This was really a staggering blow for me, because the website had taken so many weeks of work to put together, and this effectively shut down sales of helicopter cubes.

To make matters worse, the attack was executed in prolonged stages that corrupted my website backups themselves, so the site was truly lost, and I have had to admit that family and (day job) work needed more attention then and now. Full time I'm sure I could fight people like that and come out on top. But I do enjoy my family and my day job, too, and this wonderful hobby should stay a hobby for now, especially with people like that among us. I've had to concentrate more fully on the things that matter most to me, and that's meant letting this attack go.

A small message was left for me by the hacker that I won't post here. It was a targeted extended successful attack.

Some time later, a UK seller began selling Chinese pirated copies of the Helicopter Cube. This is a seller I've happily bought puzzles and stickers from in the past. I've realized our community is a combination of fantastic, super-intelligent people I'm so honored to know. David, Bram, Oskar, Adam, Andrew, George, Pantazis, Geert, and so many others I look forward to seeing again. But it also includes people who's only goal is to make a buck at any one else's expense, like this shameful UK seller, who is aware they are pirated.

So the attack was a success, and aside from my 10 year old son the ebay entrepreneur selling a box of cubes on his own, Helicopter Cube sales really dried up.

It's probably not good etiquette to admit this, but I lost a good deal of money making the Helicopter Cubes. Enough to buy that fabled crate of Dino Cubes at Ebay prices. Adam made some royalties, but not what he deserved for such a great, key puzzle design.

We had plans for more follow up puzzles using the same core (the expensive part) to make more designs with rhombic dodecahedral symmetry. Maybe that could still happen some day, or some puzzle magnate might ask to use the mold for that purpose. (fingers crossed)

For now, I'm knocked out by the attack. But I'm still glad I did the project. My son watched me, and it was really good for him. He watched me set up my web store when he was 9, and all on his own, he set up his own web store, called "ZTwist". Even though he's now only 10, he's done it all by himself, including photos, writeups, and shipping. I sell to him at a high wholesale rate, but he does just fine for a 10 year old. The post man totally knows him now, and he prints his own postage. He has blown me away in his customer service. He's much better than I was, honestly, which makes me proud.

So if you'd like real helicopter cubes, visit his store (he has no control over the ads, this is a free site he's been using, but it works.)

http://ztwist.webs.com/apps/webstore/

He's really pushing me to get the blue version to market, so maybe that can happen soon.

If you don't have a legit helicopter cube yet, I suggest you get one from him!

Again, thanks to everyone for your support. I love this community and I hope I can set aside more time for puzzle design and building soon. I've got some more ideas....

-Jason (IO)

I’m very sorry to hear about this. I have been looking for a helicopter cube for a while now and this looks like a perfect opportunity. I have two questions, maybe I should ask on they ztwist site directly but 1. Is there a reason a pre-stickered black cube isn’t available and 2. If i buy 2 cubes do I get charged double for shipping or isn’t cheaper?

Wow Jason... what a story...

Firstly, I am glad you are still active by sending this message. After meeting you
in 2009 and 2010, I was afraid you had lost interest. It is good to know I was wrong.

Regarding losses, it is really a BIG gamble. The toy market should be the goal,
not the puzzle market, because the latter is not viable unless you have an established
net of contacts and/or a lot of cash to invest in aggressive marketing.

The reason I am saying it is a gamble is because toy companies will only commit if the
design has many wow factors (always in the opinion of a handful of marketers). And
because of this, there are many brilliant ideas which end up into the rubbish bin.

In any case, this experience was eventually proved to be priceless, as discovering the
abilities of your young boy, means that you are actually doing an excellent job!




Pantazis

I'm really sorry to hear this story! You are convinced that one of this community has made that attack. This is especially sad.
Maybe, if some of the bright computer experts here, offer their help and you share some evidence with them, it would be possible to track this person down?

I have asked myself very often: "Where are they now? Jason and the Helicopter Cube?"
(You had not posted for such along time.)
I'm glad to have read your post and to know that you are still interested in puzzles.
I'm really proud to own three cubes from Jason Smith: Helicopter twins from TheTwistyStore and your Compy Cube.

Good luck!

I too am sorry about what has happened to you website. I was under the impression that you had simply let the domain go, however it is shocking to here that in reality it was attacked.

Thank you for shedding light on the "other" helicopter cubes sold on the UK website. I know of this site and was actually thinking about buying one after recently seeing them up for sale. I did question the price at which they were being sold and I am thankful that I delayed buying from them. I will definitely be buying from your Son's website. What an achievement for someone so young. I have a brother that age and it is quite an eye opener to see what can be achieved by those willing enough to try.

I wish you the best of luck with any future plans you may have.

Mind telling us who this seller is? Or am I to stay in the dark and not buy from any UK seller? I don't mean to be rude; this is actually a serious question as someone who doesn't know of the store you're speaking of.

The site is amazingly set up, but when I run it in Safari, the text on top is cut off at "$". Just A tiny issue and you can expect me buying from there soon.

So this message, that this hacker left you, did it curse you or anything?! Are you not posting because of the language or just not to give him the satisfaction of posting it or anything?
I am kind of confused because I totally don't understand why someone would do this in the first place.
At first, I thought you were going to say that the KO seller did it. But that wouldn't make much sense since it still doesn't change the fact that the KO product is illegal.
What's the point of the whole action?

I just feel pity for this little sad person who did this.
I can just again urge everyone to refuse buying any KOs in the world.

WOW your son is 10? He appears much older by email, I didn't expect that ^^

He indeed has great customer service and has offered me a great trade offers with mini choppers for helicopters. I like the blue greyish helicopter but still prefer the black/white ones to be honest

It's sad someone would hack a twisty puzzle website

Jason, sorry to hear about the attack. Terrible thing.

I've been wanting to PM you for months about getting a helicopter cube from you guys but I was told how busy you were so I figured I'd wait. I'm glad to know I can still get a real one and glad I waited. Thanks for all you've done.

I too know the seller of these KO Helicopter Cubes. Back in the day he was a really nice puzzle seller. He sold me items privately (they weren't KOs) for really good prices (two of the items were to help me build a Gigaminx). Recently though he's been selling many KO puzzles for legitimate puzzle prices. It's astonishing how he still has a business at the prices he sells puzzles for, but then again, the UK puzzle market isn't very knowledgable of wider sources.

Anyhow, I can't wait until I buy a white Helicopter Cube from you and your son soon. I own a black one which I bought off Tony and have loved it ever since.

Sorry to hear about the attack, but glad to see you are back!
I think legal actions should be sought against the attacker and the pirate company, but it's understandable that you don't want to focus on that.
However, you should expose the UK seller here for our reference.
Lastly, I wish Mefferts or MF8 see this and pick up what Jason left off (mf8 would be the better candidate since they are much more equipped against KOs).

If you want, you could migrate from webs.com to nearlyfreespeech.net.

You'd have to buy a domain, and DNS services, but if you get those both from nearlyfreespeech, you get a great deal and very cheap hosting.

I would be happy to design a site for your store (I need some more designs on my portfolio). I'll be fine to do it for free.

And I would be happy to provide security consulting including code reviews of the website and supporting code, DB permissions and policy, web hosting provider selection, etc.

You haven't really provided any technical details of how the attack was carried out but I'm confident that with a bit of help you could be secure against any casual or persistent attacker.

Wow!! I don't understand why anyone would do such a thing but I've seen other sites attacked for no reason before. I think there are the low lifes out there that get their kicks from doing stuff like this simply because they can. They don't need a reason.
Could you clarify what you mean by "here"? Are you saying the hacker is a member of forums here at Twisty Puzzles? I certainly hope not.

And I love my Helicopter cube. Its the first mass produced jumbling puzzle. Nothing will ever take that away. Thanks...

I wish you and your son the best,
Carl

Got a Helicopter Cube from Mefferts last year. So sorry to hear about the attack.

But I'm excited by the news that will make some new puzzle with the same core!

I have just bought my original one from your son.

I think this is a really bad thing, what happened with your site, but a good example for us all (who owns such a site) to protect as well as possible, and of course make backup files at least weekly.

Hey everyone! Thanks for reading my rant, and thanks for the nice words. I think my disappointment in the hack showed through a little too much, but the whole thing was really such a positive experience.

Many of you were right-- a simple upgrade would have fixed the security flaw that allowed the hack. Another example of the fact that if it was my full time job it wouldn't have happened.

I saw Zane had 3 more cubes packed yesterday!

Anyway, thanks again everyone!

Wow. Truly sad news. Luckily I got in on the initial shipment . Got a black and a white one. Good luck on future puzzles, these are beautifully made!

Just bought one.

It's great to know there's a place where I can get a legitimate one. I was starting to worry that I'd missed my chance.

Very touching story. I am glad that I was able to get two of them from your son on ebay a while ago.

I was wondering if they were going to become rare, but apparently not.

Glad to see that you are back in business!

Just bought one!

And that's amazing that your son has put all of that together himself!

Jason, if it helps, I had a couple of my own websites hacked (and once replaced!),
so I can understand how you feel. And not having offline back-ups can be extremely
devastating! I had to increase security in some cases, which have (since then) prevented
them to be an easy target (not that there exists a perfectly full proof way! - I had
experienced the ugly face of computing - with infections using widely distributed disks
instead of being online - since... 1984).

In any case, I hope to see you again soon!




Pantazis

Hi,
It's Zane from ZTwist. I am glad to say today I safely landed in the Phoenix,Arizona tonight . I took a full suitcase filled with Helicopter Cubes, and even though I am on a vacation at my Grandparents house, I will still be taking and shipping orders . Thanks!
-Zane Smith

That's dedication. I'm impressed.

Bit more than 2 weeks I have received my cube.
The quality is really good.
I'm really happy to have this puzzle in my collection!

Thanks!

I'd guess that the attack was not just some random act, but the pirates responsible for producing the knock-offs were working in close connection with the hackers themselves. Bigger players have been taken down by hackers as well. Sony PlayStation Network was offline for a whole month.

Glad to hear your son has created an outlet for the legit Helicopter cubes. He seems ultra-talented for someone his age.

A quick question: Are you merely selling the remaining stock of the original production run, or do you have the capacity to make more when you run out? Since the molds have already been produced, I assume it is just the cost of set up, labor, and raw materials preventing your from producing another run. I got my Helicopter twins at Mefferts when they first became available. The white one, I jumbled up, and the black one, I only use 180 degree turns. Wonderful puzzles.

Hi Olivér, Glad To hear you got your cube . I am glad to hear you like you Helicopter Cube. Enjoy!
-Zane Smith

No, I am just selling the Helicopter Cubes from the original run. We still have the molds, but I doubt we will do another run . I am still glad to hear you like your Helicopter Cubes. Also thanks for the comment .
-Zane Smith