Hi Twisty Puzzles fans,

Hexed Mixup was inspired by the 7-Color Magic Puzzle (aka: Massage Ball) by Otto Wu. I saw this puzzle when I visited Claus Wenicker. The completion of the design was triggered by the HexaMixUp idea by Krystian Wilisowski. The puzzle has three types of moves: rotation of a side, rotation of the top half and rotation of a central slice. Ever though this puzzle does not jumble and it is not fudged either, solving it is rather complex due to the reorientation of the (partially unbandaged) hexagons.

Watch the YouTube video.
Buy the puzzle at my Shapeways Shop.
Read more at the Shapeways Forum.
Check out the photos below.

Enjoy!

Oskar

Another amazing puzzle Oskar! I also love the pattern of the cuts.

2 remarks:

1) Could you show the mixup scrambling in the video please?
2) Can't the edges also be split in half (like the centers) to turn on a hexagonal layer turn?

This is one of my favorites from you though !! Sincerely amazing !

Great puzzle!

@Greg
It took me a while to figure it out but he IS doing mixup moves. Normally a slice of this puzzle should only rotate by 180 degrees but he is rotating it by only 90. If I'm correct this is the first mixup puzzle to not change shape

Well done Oskar it looks very nice. (it is to bad I do not have the money to buy this)


Thank you for sharing.

Oh wow, very nice indeed, I like this a lot! I love the symmetry and the fact it maintains its shape (I'm not a big fan of shapeshifters as I think the insides of a twisty puzzle should remain hidden). Also I see that the horizontal layers can be locked together in some cases as the central hexagons are bandaged except in one direction, just to add the extra challenge...

Fantastic work, as always!

Have you considered a simpler, cubic version of this puzzle?

I like this idea also, you could probably make it (and many versions of it) just by bandaging a 6x6...

Has oskar ever been known to go for simpler?


It is a good idea though.

Actually, by bandageing a 4x4

True. I was looking to keep the same proportions, but a bandaged 4x4 would be far simpler/cheaper and would work the same way, if that's all you wanted.

Oskar, how hard would it be to make a version with fully unbandaged hexagons (i.e. 6 kite-shaped pieces each)?

Oskar, I think with the correct proportions you can also make 45° moves on the 3 middle layers, but that means the edges have to be able to be replaced by centers, making the mech more complicated

Hi Jared,

That would be hard. The kite-shaped pieces would fall out easily as nothing keeps them in at the sharp ends. So I would need a central rail to keep the sharp ends of kites in. That would take space that there isn't, so the puzzle should be made bigger. Also the space between rail crossing should be filled with a hidden floating piece that could jam.

Yes, I have given your idea a lot of thought, which is why I settled for half-hexagons that are nicely confined from opposite sides and that stay in place.

Oskar

Great work Oskar. This puzzle just seems perfect in every way. Possibly one of my favourites from you.

Well done.
No fudging: TRUE
No jumbling: TRUE
But what would this puzzle look like if all its stored cuts are "unstored" ?

BTW:
Regarding your posting time: You must have skipped sightseeing. How could you?

Very interesting puzlle.

What about a version where there is no lateral cut, so only whole hexagons are needed?

Or, what about a version where there are two lateral cuts, above and below the small triangles? Split hexagons wouldn't be needed for that either.

Just an idea... I tend to prefer doctrinaire puzzles, that's all.