Mine came in this morning. I had expected it to come apart easier than it does. I really haave to wiggle the pieces a lot to get them apart (or back together). If I handed this to someone who didn't know that it was supposed to open up they would never know to even try removing the top layer after they soved it.

As far as the PDF on the memory stick goes it is nice. But I have to say that the pillowed master pyraminx looks terrible and I really hope they make a non-pillowed one.

Way to ruin the surprise

Really I don't mind, but a spoiler alert would be nice.

That's really a very small part of it.

There is no surprise about it, it is actually an old picture which has been posted on here a few times already over the past year or so.

I recieved my Treasure Chest yesterday in the mail. It is very nicely rotating (not speed solvable). When mine arrived, it was set in the 6 spots arrangement rather than the 6 checkerboards like in the photos. Once solved, you need to wiggle the lid a little bit to pry it off.SOILER ALERT!!! (highlight text to read)
It is a massive 106Mb PDF manual, 255 pages, with an image gallery of virtually every puzzle Meffert has ever produced or had in stock, followed by several solutions/hints manuals, some of which are redundant, followed by a treasure trove of old 80s published books, pamplets, and catalogs regarding the Pyraminx, and even some fascinating Egyptian Pyramid trivia...
End Spoiler.

Mine arrived today:


Oskar's Treasure Chest (Meffert's) by Puzzleparadox, on Flickr

Oskar's Treasure Chest (Meffert's) by Puzzleparadox, on Flickr

It's very nice! I love the design and I think it's a steal at the price.

Can someone please send me an invitation to the jade club? my email adress is: devinvanhoucke18@hotmail.com

Thanks in advance,

Devin Vanhoucke

There seems to be a price discrepancy on the Jade Club website. Last time I checked, the puzzle costed $18 - 10% ($16.80), but now it is marked $36 without a 10% discount.

What happened?

I think it has been $36 plus discount from the very beginning, I was never aware that it was $18.

Then again, I could be wrong.

Chris

I ordered mine right after they went live (I was on skype and Uwe told me it was going up) at that time it was $36. I don't know where you are getting $18 from....

Hm, all right. Perhaps I was mistaken, though I could have sworn it was $18.

Thanks, anyway!

I find it interesting to note that the Treasure Chest is a lot like a combination lock. The default solution to remove the lid is like a combination lock set to 0-0-0 (solved), but I modded mine to open up only with the six checkerboards (Pons Asinorum). It's my favorite cube pattern and I usually display all my odd-numbered cubes in this configuration. You can unscrew the toothy bits with a Phillips screwdriver and rearrange the pieces so that the puzzle opens with a different configuration besides solved. I'll make a post about it in the modding section later.

Based on that, you can actually use it as a safe. That's pretty clever. Of course if someone really wanted the contents, they could just break the thing open.

-d

But they wouldn't know that it had contents inside of it!

GENIUS

My kids would, they know there's chocolate in it.

It would really be something, if maybe 20+ years from now, a family is cleaning up the belongings of a former twisty puzzles member and sells their puzzles at a garage sale or hock them on eBay. The buyer then recieves the Oskar/Meffert Treasure Chest and opens it up to discover a platinum/diamond wedding ring worth thousands of dollars! Do they send the ring back, or keep it?

Today, I have received my Treasure Chest. The colour scheme is the usual: white opposite yellow, green opposite blue, red opposite orange.

Have they changed anything?
The orange is close to pink, though. I'm quite pleased with it and after applying a tiny bit of my usual silicone spray it turns and opens very well.
It will make a great gift for my son who has just completed his doctorate in "economics and computer science" Some content will go with it for sure
P.S. I have ordered a second one for my collection immediately!

I wish the tile was not labelled "Treasure Box", but that is my only complaint. A signature from Oskar and a brand logo like most other puzzles (not this one though) are acceptable, but putting the name of the puzzle onto the puzzle itself is a little... I don't know.

The turning quality is not speedsolvable but it is still better than most storebought cubes. Reassembly is annoying without a strategy. I've modified mine to open with a Superflip (which means it's the Yellow side that opens due to the issue of the middle layer edges having only one side with teeth).

Very nice! The Superflip is perhaps the most challenging pretty pattern on the cube, requiring 20 moves. Still, in modifying the combination to open the Treasure Chest, one is limited to the middle layer edges staying in the middle layer, and each edge within the middle layer must retain the same orientation as the others. Your edges are all flipped, so yes, yellow side opens instead of white.
There is no orange face: in fact it is pink, pink, PINK!

Regardless, the cube is very beautiful either way. Also notice that the white face has a sparkle pattern whereas the other five colors are a square mosaic.

Has anyone had problems with the USB stick?
Mine does not work anymore.
This is what happened:
1. I read the pdf file on notebook A and copied it immediately to the hard disk (never bad to be cautious )
2. I wrote some files to the stick on notebook B.
3. I tried to read those files on notebook A. The USB stick was not recognized any longer. I tried it on a different USB interface and the notebook crashed three times. The screen got black and there was obviously an electrical problem. A different stick still works fine on the very same interfaces.
4. I tried the stick on notebook C and it was not recognized.

I'm a bit sad that this nice device lasted a few days only
My wife and I agree with you that it is a very beautiful puzzle, but my wife agrees with me that at a certain angle the face opposite to red looks more orange than pink

I had a similar problem with the USB. It only works on a higher power port, and when I try plugging it into any other, it not only doesn't work, it also disables that port completely until a reboot.

If there's an error on a port, it is shut off. Use a higher power port (USB 2.0, probably, no? I would be thoroughly surprised if it were USB 3.0)

I do not want to derail this thread, but because the USB stick is part of the delivery, it should be OK discussing it here.

All my computers have USB 2.0 and on all ports many different USB devices work without problems (icluding different hard disks without external powersupply) .
If you read my post again, you'll see that my problem is a bit more complex: The stick worked twice on computer A and B. Then I plugged it into the very same port of computer A again and it was not recognized and even crashed the computer several times. There must be a problem with the connector plug and power supply, though.
I could read the stick on an old notebook on an USB port with additional power supply (using a quite special PCMCIA adapter).
BTW, the plug is different from any other USB plug I own: Any other plugs have a little metal `cage` (probably the wrong word) around the contact area. I'm afraid there is a reason for this `cage`.

The thing is, I can not trust this stick to work as reliable as other USB sticks.
It has fulfilled the task of transporting the pdf file to me, but I'll never use it again for normal business.
I'll test the stick from my second Treasure Chest when it arrives and hope for a better performance.
In principle, I like the idea of a keyring USB and the special appearance of the Meffert's stick.

I would argue there is no white face. It's grey, grey, GREY!

Does anybody know if the stickering on this is manual or automated in production? In other words, have the stickers been put on by a robot, or individually (one at a time) by human workers? Any insight would be appreciated, thanks.

Technically it is SILVER! (darn, there is no silver color on the side)

Kelvin, it is automated. Not humanated. Ah, rereading I thought you were meaning the process of production. That is automated, the stickering...sadly, it's human. Can't you see the 'human error'

Thanks Rox!

Unfortunately, my Treasure Chest puzzle must not have made the pre-Chinese New Year mailing as I am still anxiously waiting for its arrival.

I'm an ELET major (Electronics Engineering Technology) so I know a thing or two about electrical stuff. My appologies for the huge font, but I wanted people to read it.

Okay, I may have mentioned this somewhere earlier, but now I will repeat it. The USB stick suffers from a critical design flaw. Take your Meffert USB stick out and look at the connector tab. You will see a two exposed sides to the USB connector: One of those sides has the four gold contact tabs on it, and the other side is bare metal. There is literally nothing to prevent the USB stick from being inserted up-side-down. The vast majority of USB devices have a rectangular cage protecting the contact pins and preventing improper insertion. The Meffert's USB stick lacks this protective cage. If you insert the USB stick upside down, the metallic side will create a short circuit between the +5 volts pin and the Ground pin (0 volts), possibly frying your motherboard! Before you insert this stick into your computer, closely examine the inside of the USB port. You sill see four metallic prongs which will normally make contact with the USB device when it is plugged in. Make double sure that you position the USB stick so that the four contact pads on the stick will make contact with the prongs inside the USB port. Once you have retrieved the PDF file from the USB stick, I recommend that you do not use the stick again.

Konrad, the problem you experienced with the Meffert USB plug was that you inserted it backwards and shorted out the USB port. Most motherboards have some form of overcurrent protection on their USB ports, but many do not. Your motherboard turned off the USB to prevent frying the USB controller, or possibly the entire board or even shorting the power supply. Many older motherboards use fuses or have no overcurrent protection at all. In the event of a blown fuse, the port will not work again and will require extensive micro-soldering tools to repair, which can often be more expensive than replacing the entire board. Or worse, in the event of an unfused USB port, the power supply will short out and possibly fry the entire board or at the very least your computer will likely crash and need rebooting due to the voltage drop. Overcurrent protection may have saved your board, but computers contain extremely delicate electronics and may not be able to withstand being shorted repeatedly. Notebook computers are especially susceptible. I almost lost my Laptop once to due to a faulty connection inside USB-powered cooling pad fan that shorted my USB port.

Use extreme caution that you are inserting the USB stick correctly. In many legal jurisdictions, an electronics manufacturer/distributor/retailer could be held liable for damage due to faulty electronics, but I doubt that goods imported from Hong Kong would qualify.

Does this mean I should return my Nike + sportsbands? Since I bought ours in HK they cost just over $100 @. I have three of them. Are you telling me that they will destroy my computer because they don't have the little blocking mechanisms on the part that goes into the USB port? Wow! You would have thought a company as large as Nike would have thought of that when they started production...

It's a good thing I read your post. Now I have to just find the receipts so I can return them.

Yeah, that was very helpful Stardust4ever, thanks for posting that. I took your first advice and only opened it on an old computer and very carefully inserted it, but the latest post was more explanitory.. excellent to know. Basically it's OK if you know what you are doing, but take care, one day, a lapse in concentration could be costly!
Cheers,
Burgo.

Thanks stardust! Actually I had not read such warnings before. On the other hand, the problem seems to be a bit more subtle in my case.
I was aware of the missing metallic case and was careful enough to avoid plugging it in the wrong way.
I had used in successfully on two different computers, before I have encountered any problems.
Luckily all of the ports on 4 different computers are still working.
I'll follow your advice and never use it again.

Rox, can you, please, inform Uwe about the potential danger?

I will, but I really see can't categorically say there is a problem. Bug has been using one of these and she wouldn't know up from down. Like I said, I have the same on all of our nike+ watches and have had no problems. I wonder if all are faulty, or if you just got a dud. I have been using mine and like bug I don't know one side from the other. I've inserted those things (watches and Uwe's USB's) both ways and have had no problems.

I'll pass on the information.

How about a nice little piece of electrical tape over the one side of the USB?

@stardust4ever, can you post some pictures showing the faulty (& good) USB sticks?

Roxanne, the Nike+ SportBand won't create a short circuit if inserted upside-down, simply because the side without the gold-tabs is made out of plastic (which is non conductive). On the Meffert's USB stick, the side without the gold-tabs is made out of metal and that is the problem.

By the way, since this is a problem of conductivity, you can simply use a nonconductor to prevent transfer of electricity... So, you can cover the metal side (the side with the Intel logo) with Scotch tape or thin vinyl. If you do this, please continue to use caution and inspect the metal side regularly for use and tear of the Scotch tape or vinyl.

Skarabajo.

Personnaly, I didn't face any problem using this USB key in 2 computers (maybe this is just luck?).

Actually, what's inside is not very interesting.
So, maybe the best solution is to throw the USB key directly in the bin (with its content) and be very careful next time you want to buy something from Mefferts (mosaic, gear pyraminx and now usb key: what happen to Meffert's ?)

Here is a few pictures of my white version, along with my solution to the USB problem.

I also include a picture showing that the pink side is also orange.

I just came up with this idea.

To saw off (I know the tiles are ultra glued ) all the tiles and replace them with stickers of the same color. Scramble it up, and now... You have no way of knowing if the puzzle is solved or not. The most tempting situation is when you put a diamond ring inside. Until someday finally it opens up, you can have the ring!

@pianocubing That is exactly what the cube was invented for.

Just like what oskar did for his gift pyraminx... scramble it with no stickers...

so if i want to find the misterious secret treasure i risk a death trap?? ohhh come on...
how many of you had problems?
i wait the oskar's chest in the next days

@Muffet, thanks for the pictures. That USB stick looks like the worst quality device I have ever seen. A "free" gift? It would have been safer for your PC if Mefferts had put a small piece of C4 inside instead This certainly seems to be a case of "spoiling the ship for a ha'porth of tar".

LOL, I remember that video well! Here's a link for people to enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCVehI3ky4g

Just curious folks, what arrangement was your Treasure Chest in when it arrived? Mine had a 6 spots configuration, but most of the photos I have seen showed it in either the pons asinorum (six checkerboard) position or solved state. I later re-keyed it to open with pons asinorum pattern.

Concerning the USB stick, I've seen a small handful of other cheap sticks with no casing around the contacts, but these were cheap PBC boards with no outer shell, and the backing on the PBC was also non-conductive as Skarabajo has indicated. Tape should easily fix that steel backplace.

The few people that I know who ordered one received it in the centre-swap pattern that yours arrived in. I just like displaying mine as checkered, and it seems so do many others.

Hey now! No complaints about the center bits being mucked on those puzzles, Dave taught me who taught Uwe, who taught Jet, who taught the factory workers...who lived in the house that jack built.

See it's all a TP kind of thing.

Two riddles for me in one post: C4 has many meanings. Did you think of Composition Compound 4 (explosive substance )
And "ha'porth of tar" I had to look up in Google. Maybe the Americans have a problem with this UK slang too?

Ha! The checkerboard pattern was the first pretty pattern that I learned as a child. 6 spots was the second pattern I learned how to do, followed by four spots. Combine both 6 spot and 6 checkerboard pattern together and you get 6 tarltans. Good times.

I just find it ironic due to the fact that 6 checkerboards is a simpler pattern for a novice to learn how to do.

The checkerboards is easier to learn, but the center swaps is only 4 moves. Faster in the factory.

Last time I checked, 6-spots was 8 face turns, and 6-checkerboards was 6 face turns.

Both are done with slices, so if you count a slice rotation as one move, then the checkerboard pattern is only 3 slices, once slice move shorter than the 4 slice algorithm for 6-spots.

Well, checkerboard pattern is still faster than spots, unless you're using the quarter-turn metric instead of mere face rotations...