The Master Starminx by Eric Vergo

gingervergo · **Joined:** Fri Mar 06, 2009 9:23 pm

Hey Forum,

I am very proud to present my latest puzzle, the Master Starminx. It is simply the best puzzle I have ever made.

Video

Buy at shapeways

Sorry Andreas, I don't have a scale!

Robert111 · **Joined:** Sun May 30, 2010 5:29 pm **Location:** England

Truly awesome.

Robert

Luke · **Posted:** Sat Mar 03, 2012 6:11 pm

Excellent work Eric. The turning quality is brilliant, forgetting about the complexity of the puzzle. At $200, this is a steal.

Kapusta · **Posted:** Sat Mar 03, 2012 6:12 pm

Phenominal.

Benf207 · **Posted:** Sat Mar 03, 2012 6:24 pm

Fantastic job Eric!

Gus · **Posted:** Sat Mar 03, 2012 6:30 pm

Curvy cuts combined with straight cuts, awesome! How many pieces are there in this puzzle?

RubiksMaster614 · **Joined:** Mon Jul 18, 2011 6:56 pm **Location:** Chicago,

Wow. Just wow.

bmenrigh · **Posted:** Sat Mar 03, 2012 6:48 pm

This knocks out two of my must-have puzzles in one step: GB's 1.1.4 and the Master Brilic. Absolutely beautiful puzzle and certainly one of the most fun to solve.

LukeLane1984 · **Joined:** Thu Jan 05, 2012 9:43 am

Very cool! And it turns like a dream too!

TGCubes · **Posted:** Sat Mar 03, 2012 7:27 pm

No. Way. This is awesome!

otischeng · **Posted:** Sat Mar 03, 2012 8:03 pm

Truly awesome! very complicated puzzle though......

Tony Fisher · **Joined:** Sun Mar 27, 2005 7:37 pm

Type 'amazing' into thesaurus for my response.

katsmom · **Posted:** Sun Mar 04, 2012 7:54 am

gingervergo wrote:

Hey Forum,

I am very proud to present my latest puzzle, the Master Starminx. It is simply the best puzzle I have ever made.

Sorry Andreas, I don't have a scale!

You can always send it to me Eric, I have a scale 8-)

Sigurd · **Posted:** Sun Mar 04, 2012 8:02 am

Amazing puzzle Eric. It looks soooo good! And quite fun solve too

I was thinking: when will the next big puzzle, that is not a cuboid, come? And here it is!
What a beast puzzle! And at this price, it's a steal!
Only thing I am a little worried about is the small stickers. I am not sure how well they are gonna hold on except if they are super glued down.

X-TownCuber · **Joined:** Thu Jan 20, 2011 7:37 pm

Very cool puzzle. I like it a lot. what is the difference between this and a starminx+megaminx?

Sigurd · **Posted:** Sun Mar 04, 2012 9:09 am

X-TownCuber wrote:

Very cool puzzle. I like it a lot. what is the difference between this and a starminx+megaminx?

If you look at a normal Starminx puzzle you will notice that the cut goes directly through the corner.
This one has a curvy cut to it.
If you ask me though, then I would not call this puzzle the Master Starminx. Look at my avatar to find my answer to that question (Starminx + Pentultimate).

Letti · **Joined:** Tue Dec 06, 2011 7:19 pm

I'm gonna buy this beast.

nice job.

Frank Tiex · **Posted:** Sun Mar 04, 2012 12:37 pm

You're making me poor :shock:

juanan · **Posted:** Sun Mar 04, 2012 4:20 pm

awesome job Eric ¡¡¡¡

Drake · **Joined:** Sun Jan 02, 2011 6:48 pm **Location:** Canada

Woah

, great job :wink:

.

pirsquared · **Posted:** Sun Mar 04, 2012 11:44 pm

Holy cow, that turns well. Well done, Eric!

-Eitan

gal_eon · **Joined:** Mon Feb 21, 2011 1:16 am

This is incredible!

Andreas Nortmann · **Posted:** Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:15 pm

gingervergo wrote:

Sorry Andreas, I don't have a scale!

That is sad. Seems like I have to wait until Claus or Frank buy one sample...
Do you have a ruler? Can you tell me the edge length?

More important:
Can you make new images?
After all background is cropped away the remaining height will be less then 350 pixel. That means the images for the entry in the museum will get blocky and that is a shame for a puzzle like this.

Andreas

wwwmwww · **Posted:** Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:40 pm

pirsquared wrote:

Holy cow, that turns well. Well done, Eric!

I have to agree. That appears to be one of the best turning Shapeway puzzles I've seen regardless of complexity. Add to that this appears to be one of the more complex ones and I'm really impressed. Any tips or tricks you leaned that you are willing to share that you think help this puzzle turn as well as it does? Any special lube? Any unique rule for tolerances not discuess here? What radius fillets did you use inside this puzzle? Does this puzzle have springs in it or just screws? Really curious how you managed to get this to turn so well.

Great job,
Carl

Frank Tiex · **Posted:** Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:42 pm

Andreas Nortmann wrote:

.. Seems like I have to wait until Claus or Frank buy one sample...
Do you have a ruler? Can you tell me the edge length?

"order will be shipped on or before March 27th" + a weekend for assembly please :wink:

Andreas Nortmann · **Posted:** Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:53 pm

Frank Tiex wrote:

"order will be shipped on or before March 27th" + a weekend for assembly please :wink:

Thank you in advance, Frank.

gingervergo · **Joined:** Fri Mar 06, 2009 9:23 pm

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the overwhelming response! It's nice to see the puzzle is being well received.

I have uploaded a video to youtube explaining the mechanism for the puzzle. Hopefully it will answer any questions about it. If anyone wants to talk more about it, I would be happy to share over skype.

Andreas, the puzzle has an edge length of 35mm. I will take some more pictures within the week and send them to you!

DLitwin · **Posted:** Mon Mar 05, 2012 11:40 pm

Wow! That video was great, thanks. The pieces of this puzzle are amazing shapes, you could probably play chess with them

Dave

oxymoronicuber · **Joined:** Wed Apr 13, 2011 4:17 pm

Great puzzle. Great videos (I'll pretend I understood all of it!).
And am I right in saying that it looks more beautiful scrambled?
It's a work of art.

wwwmwww · **Posted:** Tue Mar 06, 2012 6:16 pm

gingervergo wrote:

I have uploaded a video to youtube explaining the mechanism for the puzzle.

WOW!!!! You really went above and beyond what I was expecting in terms of an answer. Thank you SO much. If you asked me, I'd say you combined the shell mech with some of ideas behind Oskar's floating anchor mech in a brilliant way. Very well done. This is a video I'll be watching several more times.

Two question that I don't think were answered in the video:
(1) What kind of lube do you use?
(2) Do you have the pieces printed in SW&F or SW&FP?

DLitwin wrote:

The pieces of this puzzle are amazing shapes, you could probably play chess with them

I read this before seeing the video and I have to agree. Particularly after reading your reply my mind couldn't help but think "There is the knight" and "Oh, that piece would make a great queen." at several places in the video. The geometry inside this is just crazy... (and I mean that in a very good way).

Carl