Here's my latest mod: The Impossible Dodecahedron.

This is of course not a new idea and you can play with this puzzle on Gelatinbrain's Virtual Magic Polyhedra page, but I don't think anyone ever built this one before with this particular shape. Although it has 12 sides, I used 6 colours, as I prefer puzzles with just the colours of the original Rubik's Cube.

Solving this puzzle is identical to solving an Impossiball, or a bandaged Dogic (like Tony Fisher's Rhomball and Nesting Cubes), or a corners only Megaminx. Unlike the name of this puzzle may suggest, I didn't use an Impossiball. I considered using a Dogic, but I settled for an old Meffert's Megaminx I bought through eBay a while ago. Although movement is excellent, the puzzle is a bit rough. Positioning the 20 pieces was difficult. This one would be perfect for another 'rapid prototype and casting' project, as it only requires one kind of piece and you could use a cheap Chinese Megaminx for the core. Would anyone be interested?

I guess this is the Junior version of the Megaminx. With the Megaminx being the 3x3x3 and the Gigaminx the 5x5x5. The Teraminx that people are currently talking about I guess would be the 7x7x7 variant. Anyone wanna build the 4x4x4 version? Adam (Puzzlemaster42) already proposed that one here.



Thomas

Finally! The Kilominx is born!

that is sweet! is it made from an impossiball as the name suggests, or a megaminx?

EDIT: sorry i didnt read. its from a megaminx

That's awesome! I've always wanted to see an impossiball in the shape of a dodecahedron.

Excellent work as usual Thomas, your posts and builds are what originally gave me inspiration to start puzzle building.

AWESOME mod!

Sweettt. Now lets see the 4x4.

It's been a while since I've responded on this forum, but after seeing this, I just had to get off my lazy butt and say something:
GREAT JOB!! Thomas, you continue to amaze me with your stupendous creations.

I love the simplicity of this. Great puzzle.

Superb! Soon we'll have an entire minx family!
Now we need to make the cousin that nobody talks about.

great work Thomas¡

Really, really excellent. Nice work.

Compliments for another beautiful and smart mod, Thomas!

I noticed that all your mods show together: originality, building skill and clever - yet somehow simple - concepts. Bravo again!

Very cool indeed!!

Would you mind showing pictures of the puzzle partially disassembled and of the molded pieces?

Thanks!

-d

[Ack! I didn't read well enough either, not from the impossiball. Sigh.]

No, I am almost certain it is made from an impossiball (and hence the name). Without the flexible mushroom like centers the turning of this puzzle wouldn't be possible. On a half turn (1/10 of a rotation), the rotating pieces have to flex upwards to allow the point of the lower corners to pass the upper point of the piece it is rotating past. I think you can even see the disk inside between the pieces.

Dave

Those are the centers of the Megaminx. Also, I think it only has Impossiball in the name, because it's the exact same challenge.

How did I miss that? Sorry!
(Thanks for the bolding of the text Noah)

I guess the wide gaps between the pices allow the corners enough freedom to slip under the other piece.

Nice job Thomas!

Dave "I can read, honest!" Litwin

This looks like a careful application of the idea of overlapping type of puzzles. Gaps and possibly the thickness of the walls of the pieces give enough clearance for them to get past each other...

Beautiful, Thomas! It would be nice to have it done in CAD indeed to make the gaps smaller yet still have enough clearance for a nicely turning puzzle.

Wow! Amazing! Nice job Thomas. I've solved one of these before too!

http://users.skynet.be/gelatinbrain/Applets/Magic%20Polyhedra/dodeca_f13.htm

Thanks everyone for the compliments.

Gianni, thanks for noticing. Simple, original mods are what I'm after.

Dave, I really used a Megaminx. Yes it looks like this puzzle can't turn. Hence the name 'Impossible Dodecahedron'.
Noah is right, as he often is.

Aleksey, yes, with a CAD designed puzzle, the gaps can be much smaller.

Here are some images of how I made it, although it isn't difficult to figure out.



I wanted the puzzle to be as big as a Skewb Ultimate. Luckily with that size there was just enough space inside for the pieces to move over the Megaminx, without having to truncate the Megaminx edges. I designed the pieces in Illustrator, printed them on regular paper and glued that on 2mm ABS. Next time I will position the pieces differently on the paper, so there will be more straight lines to cut. Of course, how I did it now is just plain stupid.
I cut out all the pieces and glued 3 together to form 1 corner. With a bit of Epoxy Sculpt I simply positioned them on the corners of the Megaminx. After a few hours I took them off again, gave them a good sanding and put them back on again with glue. It's not a pretty solution, but hey... it's a prototype.
Also because it's just a prototype I didn't paint the puzzle. But, because there's no Epoxy Sculpt showing it looks fine without.
I don't have all the Megaminx centercaps back on again. I made sure the screws are pretty loose (so movement is better, and that way I can easily pop out a corner for disassembly), but now some screws are too high and I can't get all of the caps back in to place. I need to fix that.
Stickers with my Roland Stika and that's that.

Thomas

I think this is the only puzzle I have seen that looks good with gaps!

NOT FAIR THOMAS!

I have just gone my first whole day without logging on for ages, and you sneak this one out!

What a beautiful, simple idea. Something I would not have thought of ever, ever. I love it. I guess it could be made with "solid" corner caps as long as the inside planes are curved slightly?

All this talk of teraminx and gigaminx. Sometimes less IS more!

Well done!

I wish had this one...Great work

beautiful, now all someone needs to do is sticker a 12 sided dice to have the..... "minx"

This is so freaking cute. I love it a lot!!!!!

Wow, I feel out of place in this sub forum, lol.

Nice mod, but I have a stupid question. Are you saying that you just designed pieces to fit over a megaminx? From the way it looks, it's just an outter shell to a mefferts minx.

Nice puzzle, Pembo is indeed right. The gaps look fine

Cool, it's like the equivelent of a 2x2 megaminx! Great work!

Excellent puzzle, looks really professional

Great job! By the way I'm planning on making a 4x4 minx, the easiest way I see is to do what you did with a megaminx but with a gigaminx. The problem with this is the gigaminx would cost close to 1 grand and I don't have that much to spend. So, I think I have another idea, but that's another story...

Great job! I mean really, outstandingly simplistic design.

After hearing you say that I now have a very clear idea of how a Quadraminx would be made. It's the exact same thing as the ES 4x4, as many have said before. But thanks for helping me realise this..

Your welcome.
The main thing that I keep thinking that is making me try to rush on getting the plans for this project is the thought of someone finishing this puzzle when I'm in the final designs and stealing my glory. If that happened I'd lose most hope and motivation for this project and probably stop midway. Really almost this entire project otherwise is just a money issue though.

After seeing how it was made, I think the most amazing thing about this puzzle is the simplicity. Just amazing!!

-d

how does it compare to the size of a megaminx?

I thought about trying this, but couldnt get the pieces to work out right. You did and I congratulate you for that. does it have all the megaminx pieces or is it slimmed down?

realy beautiful job, the spacing makes it look very unique

Wow, amazing puzzle... and it looks just like my 2x2x2. The way the stickers don't fully cover the faces, the gaps that you can see the mechanism a bit through, the way the corners are just caps on a much smaller puzzle inside. Awesome job. This is exactly how a 2x2x2 megaminx should be!

There's really no room for improvent. Probably one of the best handmade jobs I've seen.

Can it be consumed??? It looks like a yummylicious fruit and I want... to... bite it!!!
(I would personally call this artistic and sweet looking puzzle as... Fruitminx!)




Pantazis

This strongly appeals to my sense of hand made goodness.

Very nice. I like how there are gaps.
I also like how it looks like a shell around the megaminx.

When I've seen Author: Thomas , I was excpecting an impressive puzzle, and that is what you do man!

Great job, he looks cute
I love his concept. Is he hard to solve?

Thomas,
Great job!. Awesome build. I love the fact that there is only one type of piece.
Lee

SO PROFFESIONAL!
thomas....congratulation man! yep!

No, It is REALLY easy to solve!

Looks Great, tried looking at it earlier but the pictures wouldn't load. It's so simple and very elegant.

Thomas,

again a very cool idea - I especially like the name

When I see the puzzles Meffert plans to produce and
you don't have the time and big fun to create more than
one piece of a mod, what about contacting him, if he
likes your creations, too? Ever thought about this?
Maybe these Limited Editions soon become a kind of a
"Hall of Fame"

Ahhh. So from my understanding this is essentially taking the idea of the ES 2x2 and applying it to a megaminx instead of a 3x3. Very nice!

Don't forget the crazy uncle in the attic

This is a great puzzle! Especially since I can only do an edges only minx (I just take out the corners )

Cool now get a Gigaminx and do the same thing to make a StarMinx or 4x4x4 equivalent.About that StarMinx we are thinking the same thing.
Look at my post on this topic and the 2x2x2 equivalent I would name it MiniMinx
Any one a 1x1x1
BTW how did U built the pieces???Molds???

Halfway down the thread there are some pictures of how I built the puzzle.

Thomas