Not sure if this one has been mentioned before hre, but some of you may be intersted in getting one.

http://www.tri-trick.com/

Thanks for the link Oscar.
Jaap sold them on DCD last week-end.

Wow that looks awesome, yet very confusing solving-wise.

It *is* rather confusing, because the pieces have to be moved in blocks of three.
By the way, if I am not mistaken, Jaap invented this one. Can you confirm this Jaap?

Nice puzzle. Looks similar to "Flip-Side" produced by Think-Fun, though I think flip-side's mechanism is better.

I had nothing to do with the development of this puzzle. I just received a batch of them in return for coming up with a solution for it.

Hi,
I posted this puzzle and its website in the DCD-thread where it was obviously drowned...
I bought a white one from Jaap in Eindhoven. I had to open it because it has two times the digit 6 and no digit 9 => one had to be turned.
I considered it difficult, too. But then I discovered that it has only 181440 permutations, which means it can be completely calculated by computer. I have a computer generated solution which I will only present if Jaap doesn't want to present his.

This is not true. Odd permutations are possible too. In fact, it is easy to swap two sets of three tiles, which is an odd permutation. This does change the state of the vertical slider though.
If you include the block piece into your position counts as well, there are, 8 * 9! positions. This is still easily handled by computer.



I haven't written up my full solution yet, but it uses three move sequences that are quite easy to remember. These can also be used on level 2 or 3 of the online version of the puzzle since they only operate on 7 of the 9 pieces.

This forum doesn't have spoiler tags, so be warned that the following may spoil this puzzle for you.

Oscar and everyone else, thank you for posting about this puzzle.
I always loved puzzles which are based on a simple design, and as usual,
I could not stop myself from ordering one.




Pantazis

Only one?

One for now, and another one right after the financial crisis is over (I hope!)
(one Singapore dollar is 1.1 Aussie dollars right now, while one US dollar is
5/3 Aussie dollars!!! aaargh!)




Pantazis

I know, it's great isn't it. I just ordered a bunch of puzzles from Australia. Sorry, I shouldn't do that. US dollar makes no difference to me. We're pegged, but other currencies have been good this week.

Accepted.
It is like Mefferts Bandaged cube:
It has 1,108,800 positions in total, but only 2520 if only the solved configuration is considered.

this is a seriously awesome puzzle, the solution is not quite as trivial as i expected it to be

Well, I ordered this puzzle on 26 october. I assumed it would take a week or so to get to me. Imagine my surprise when it was in the mailbox today. The puzzle is shipped from a company in Hong Kong. I didn't even catch that. The webpage has nothing else on it though. Shame.

After seeing this I went to see the Contact page of the website:



Looks like Hong Kong is more of a puzzle paradise than we think

The trick is finding them though. There is another manufacturer in Hung Hom and one in Kowloon Bay area. Both of which are a bus trip, then a mini bus change or a taxi. Industrial areas are not ideal for walking, but great for puzzle hunting! There's even a place that I can see from my balcony in Kwai Chung.

This is why I'm still hopeful that I'll find that box of Dino cubes!

Well, Hong Kong has *always* been a paradise for manufacturing.
In the 80s, many of the rare puzzles were made in Hong Kong.
Today, Hong Kong is the still the choice for many puzzle manufacturers
for many reasons! It is also widely know that there are a few meetings
between exporters and importers in Hong Kong every year.

Now, guess where I will be making *my* puzzles.




Pantazis


PS. Seriously though, I think someone who has some good detective skills
*would* be able to find all those lost Dino Cubes (that is, *if* they exist!)
in Taiwan or Hong Kong.

The if is the big one. My husband's roommate at uni's father owned a toy factory in HK in the 1980's. I've been through all the left over boxes and nothing worth mentioning. Same goes for a co-worker of my husband. My sister-in-law works for a company that does factory removals and she is always looking for me. Still nothing.

Where did you say those Dino's were made? Having never seen one, or the box, i'm at a loss. Is there anything printed on the box that might give it away? I'm willing to "share the wealth" as they say if I could just find it.

Believe it or not, the pure abstract representation of this puzzle is closely related to that of the astrolabacus.

Excellent observation, it is indeed a 1-dimensional astrolabacus,
always with respect to the 3-dimensional original!

Now... can anyone guess which puzzle is related to a 2-dimensional astrolabacus?




Pantazis