On Wednesday14th November at 10.00pm GMT a ten day auction starts for one of my fully functional signed 3x3x4 Cuboids.

Do you have any pictures of the mechanism. I would be interested in how this works.

I believe it's an ES 4x4x4 and he's using is well known "Bandage and extend method".


I say ES verses Rubik 4x4x4, because I recall in the past that both his 5x5x5 Rhombic Dodecahedron and his 3x3x5 were both made from Eashsheens, so I just assumed that he uses 4x4x4s as well.

[EDIT] Tony, what are the dimensions of this puzzle? If I had to guess I'd say 9cm x 9cm x 12cm.

While looking at the last picture, I can almost confirm that it is smaller than 9x9x12. If it were 9x9x12, then that would mean that Tony has fingernails that are around 6.25cubic centimeters in area. That is big for fingernails. I'd estimate the size of the puzzle around 6x6x8cm. Just a guess though.

Silly me. You're definitely a lot closer than me.

I just assumed he took the centers of a 4x4 and made that the size for the center on the 3x3 face. So 3cm square.

But thinking about it, he could make it as small as the ES dimensions, if not slightly bigger. Since 6cm is the size for ES 4s, I'm going to guess 6.25cm, to allow for plastic card.

I checked the auction this morning and it said it had been removed. Is it still going to be put up for sale? I've been trying to get one of your puzzles forever!

Huh, the auction starts on 14th November.

yeah...duh I just forgot my dates. It's weird though. I have Tony as one of my favorite sellers on Ebay and I checked to see all items for sale and this does come up and when you open the link it says its been removed. Strange. Sorry for the dumb question. I'll look at a calendar next time.

I'd say 6.3 x 6.3 x 8.65.
I can only proceed on the assumption that it is similar to my 3x3x5 mod by Tony.

I'd say it was 6.6 x 6.6 x 8.8 cm

Oh well, I get some points out of ten then

Now, just curious, what is the internal mechanism? (If you're willing to reveal.)

It's a dogic!


No, I believe it's a regular 3x3x3. I believe it's in his articles (Check the forum's article section). Much like the 3x3x5.


Bidders - Get your chance. I have one already - Mine is quite a few years old - and it turns beautifully. So I can only imagine what this one feels like!

reeeech, Am I right in thinking you got yours in a private deal? I can't remember any being auctioned anywhere apart from the one I did in 2005.

Tony,

Yeah. Someone (whom you verified at the time) sold me his few Tony Fisher puzzles. That's how I got the 4x4x5 and the Truncated Octahedron as well.

I thought Tony's 3x3x5 was made from an ES5.

Oops... Yeah that's what I meant. The 3x3x5 and the 3x3x4 have the same size cubies and shape (well one missing layer on the 3x3x4 compared to the 3x3x5).

Why would you ask him to do it? you can just look and see what the ending price is and write it down somewhere. Or you can help the Twistypuzzle puzzle archive and upload the date/cost of the functional 3x3x4.

Or You can do it yourself .

ferrari,
All bids are available for anyone to see on eBay. Please feel free to post it here at the end of the auction if you wish.

It sold for £315.99, which really had me scratching my head because it was £7.86 above my bid. I had erroneously believed the minimum bid increment was £5.

It's a shame I didn't figure out what was happening until hours later: the minimum bid increment was £5, so £315.99 was someone's maximum bid. If I'd bid £325.99 I might've become the high bidder. I hope it went to someone I respect. (I never regret losing to Frank Tiex, for example!)

(slightly off-topic)

I used eBay's new "1 Click Bid" console, which is available during the last hour of an auction. During the last two minutes, the console gives a "live" countdown timer and a GREEN or RED banner to indicate whether you're the high bidder. You can submit an instant bid at any time, without additional confirmations, which makes "1 Click Bid" a good system for manually sniping an auction.

The danger is that it automatically suggests the next higher bid, so it'd be easy to carelessly bid outside your budget if the price jumps. Don't use "1 Click Bid" unless you can afford this risk, as it's not practical to retract erroneous bids so late in an auction.

Without checking, I have a feeling increments rise by £10 after £300 is reached.
Don't worry, It did go to a good home.

Yess, that's exactly right. I intended to say that, but I made a typoo.

It's nice to know it went to a good home!