Here it is – at long last I have finished my copy of the Russian Twisty – OLIDJUS.
And yes it is probably now official that I ‘am’ mad, this copy took me 100+ hours to make.
As with all my puzzles, all pieces are made individually, no moulds or resin are used.
It is a puzzle I have wanted to make for a long time and I managed to borrow an original from a fellow puzzle friend at the end of last year, so that I could collect all the relevant dimensions, details etc. I required.
Some of you will probably wonder “why bother copying a puzzle, surely the fun of collecting is searching for that great item and the satisfaction of eventually finding and obtaining one”. I agree, but just fancied copying one for a change instead of making a Greenhill original. Also the puzzle in effect is no different from the Dodecagonal Prism (Square 1) that I made and christened years ago.
I attach photos of both the original and copy for your interest. Sorry they are darkish. If you want lighter ones I will take some more.

Anthony

Very nice work, Anthony!

You are quite mad indeed!

Sandy

I am dumbfounded. What rare and mysterious technique is being utilized to give the pieces such even detail?

Unbelievable!
This is a masterpiece! You must be so patient Anthony!
Well done.
Vadim

I can't tell the difference between the original and copy. You are quite mad indeed!

Well done. Definately perfect craftmanship.

Anthony, I am in awe! What a terrific job. The materials are different, aren't they? The original looks like it is composed of a plastic that would require high-pressure molding techniques. You found a way to copy it precisely with different materials and techniques. I hope you'll tell us more.

Beautiful !

I wish i could be a fly on the wall and learn from your expert puzzle building skills.

Hendrik Haak`s puzzle-musuem calls this puzzle a Logi-Vip ?

Here are a couple of picture from his website

Again great worrk Anthony !

Michael

In reply to Michael’s response.

I was in discussion with Hendrik a while ago regarding the name of the puzzle.
I was a bit confused at the time as the name – ‘Logi VIP’ was very close to the VIP SPHERE made by Logi Toy, Hendrik has this puzzle as the VIP KUGEL obviously, (Kugel = Sphere). I queried this with Hendrik and following further discussions it turned out that this Russian twisty correctly called OLIDJUS was named after the inventors.
Here is the description I received from Hendrik –

"The Russian name is: OLI-DJuS, that means OLI=short name for logical toy and D=Dimitriew, Ju=Jurin and S=Stulnikow, the first signs of the names of the inventors."

I also attach a better quality photo of my Olidjus copy for anybody’s info and apologise again for the quality of the previous photos.

I would also like to take this opportunity to again thank Hendrik for his assistance on the above.

Anthony

Anthony, could you please give us some insights on the techniques you employ when making your puzzles? I believe that many of us would appreciate that, not just myself.

As for the puzzle itself, your copy looks incredibly close to the original. I've been looking for the patent to this puzzle, but could not find it. There is a patent for another puzzle of the same authors (at least, two of the three mentioned). Look for "Dmitriev Stulnikov" on esp@acenet.

I could also find only the following patent, but this may be a similar concept.

THREE-DIMENSIONAL GAME
Patent Number: SU1423134
Publication date: 1988-09-15
Inventor(s): DMITRIEV MIKHAIL S (SU); STULNIKOV VLADIMIR N (SU)

Maybe I am wrong, but I think the name of the third inventor should be spelled Yurin.