This is my 3x3x3 + Rainbow Cube puzzle. Suggestions for a wittier name are welcome.



It turns like a Rainbow Cube:


And like a 3x3x3:


The puzzle turns quite smoothly and is perfectly stable. It uses a quite unique mechanism, which might allow for other puzzles to be built from it, like a stable 2x2x2 Skewb or a Dino 3x3x3 (but that requires additional trickery). It's somewhat larger than a 3x3x3, measuring 63mm between square faces.
I chose to make the 3x3x3 have different proportions than most other 3x3x3's, this results in a nicer looking puzzle.




VIDEO

It will be available from my Shapeways shop later.

Great design! It looks as though it was meant to be shaped that way!

beautiful! I am intrigued by how you could have possibly gotten it to work. Now, the face turning cuboctahedron is born! (btw that is my name suggestion.)
once again, great job!
-sj

Very nice! Turns so smooth.

Great quality as always.

-Sharon-

LOVE IT!
The puzzle looks great, turns great, is great

Can't say much more

How hard would solving be?

So I guessed it right!
http://twistypuzzles.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=15506&start=307

Nice job!

Amazing puzzle! Although your hint did make my eyes bleed

wonderful, now onto 3x3 + Dino?

I have a few name suggestions:

1. The 3 by rainbow cube (The 3 x Rainbow cube)
2. The Rainbow 3 cube
3. The 3-bow cube

Amazing work as always tomz!!

How about "triple rainbow in the sky"

Ah, you beat me to it! I started working on this exact Face-Turning Cuboctahedron this spring. But I haven't worked on it in some time, so I deserved to get beat. (I have drawings of this from 1981!)

Congratulations! And BTW, yes, "3x3x3 + Rainbow Cube" doesn't remotely do this puzzle justice. It's the world's first Face-Turning Cuboctahedron.

Another classic is born! Congratulations! I love it!

I know this might sound a bit dumb, but what about Triple Rainbow. Because of the 3 + rainbow...
*edit* Didn't see PepeLopez07's post. Or maybe I subconsciously did and thought it was a good idea

Excellent work again Tom

The normal original Cuboctahedron is face turning, isn't it?

I LOVE IT!!!!

I love puzzles like this. Talk with Meffert, it's a really great puzzle to mass-produce!!!!!

I'm pretty sure to accomplish this, you would simply need to extend into a cubic shape, as the rainbow cube is only a truncated corner dino cube



No, the triangular faces don't turn, it's only a truncated 3x3x3

This cannot be extended into a 3x3x3 + Dino cube since one type of part would be missing. Mechanically the part is very easy to make in this mechanism, but it requires a lot of trickery to get a thick enough connection between the mechanical bit and the outside piece. It's a bit like connecting the corners of the 7x7x7.

I had just finished writing a review for the Mini Pentultimate viewtopic.php?f=15&t=19629 and now I see that there is another one I have to get. Congratulations Tom

Cool!!! And I think I'll put in the 3rd suggestion for Face Turning CubOctahedron or FTCO.

Ok... I'm missing something. Isn't that what this IS? Rainbow 3x3x3 not equal 3x3x3 + Rainbow Cube? What am I missing?

Carl

Sorry, I did mean to write Dino 3x3x3.

Very nice Tom. I've been waiting to see this finished since you told us on the IRC. It looks great. With this you could still make an Edges Only + Dino Cube right?

Cool

Looks great . I think it should be (Fully Functional) Face-Turning Cuboctahedron, the FF part to distinguish from cuboctahedron puzzles which only turn about one type of face.

Matt

A face turning cuboctahedron is currently a foetus (hint hint)

I had aready seen this one on Ustream, but it stil amazes me!

I suggest you do : Rain-by-3, it's a good name

- Greg

There have been several suggestions for names which are a combination of 3x3x3 and Rainbow Cube. Personally, I don't think that it should have a name like this, it should have a unique name (the Super-X's name is not a combination of 2x2x2 and Dino Cube). I don't have any ideas at the moment for the name though.

Alex

Maybe something like the FTC, which describes the puzzle perfectly.

FTC could be Face Turn Cube or 3x3x3. I like FTCO. You could affectionately call it "foot company".

Carl

Has anyone ever tried a corner turning 3x3?

Like where the center of the 3x3 is the corner?

It sounds like you're talking about Oskar's Oh Cube. It sort of turned, but got stuck mid way.

I know it has more cuts, but isn't the Eric's Ultra-X the first Face-Turning Cuboctahedron?

Amazing work!

Great puzzle!
You are a genius.

Have you considered putting Redi-style corners on it? That way it could be modded to a cube shape, and the corners would have meaningful orientation.

That is a very nice suggestion! I love it. A Redi 3x3x3 Cube would look quite awesome.

It is indeed one of my regrets that the corners are orientation-less. Though, showing corner orientation does not do much on this puzzle. It's very easy to solve it since you can quite easily change a single corner on the Redi Cube.

The puzzle I would gladly play with. Last time I expressed such an opinion after the Rex cube was built.
I don't have any good name for this puzzle. But if you design cube shape version, name it Zanden Cube.