I'd like to present the Chimera, a puzzle suggested by forum member pytlivyj_1 inspired on Tony Fisher's V-Dome. It is half of a 4x4 combined with half of a 6x6.

In the solved state it seems like nothing can turn and it really just is a 2x2x2 cube.


However, after a few twists more moves become apparent:


VIDEO



And after just a few moves, it's already quite scrambled and I must say, quite in the style of Mondrian:


I'm very happy with how this turned out and the turning is absolutely gorgeous. Of course, solving this may be a slight bit annoying because you constantly have to solve a 2x2x2, do a twist, resolve the 2x2x2 in to a different position and so on... but a nice challenge nevertheless and a very interesting-looking puzzle.

VIDEO
Buy at my Shapeways shop
Read more about the Chimera puzzle on my website

This is blasphemy!
This is madness!

but seriously this is pretty awesome

Great idea, beautifully engineered. Is this the first of a series? Would this concept translate well to the cubiods?

That's wonderful. Love the name.

Simple way of bandaging! Must be very hard to solve I think.....

I like it.

Not at all. This would require bandaging a 12x12. But this would be hard to solve... I want it!

After designing a version of this a while back (before realising Tom had completed his design), and comparing each other's mechanisms, it doesn't use a 12x12x12 as the base puzzle. It does use a cubic puzzle, but smaller than a 12x12x12.

Great work Tom! It looks absolutely awesome! I like how you've arranged the 2x2x2 sections to give an overall symmetry... Kind of think it should be called the Master AI Cube.

First saw this here and then at G4G10 itself. Great puzzle.Interesting... I don't think this idea popped into anyone's head until after seeing Tony Fisher's V-Dome. However after seeing the AI Cube its clear the seeds were already there. I just find it odd how geometry hides these relationships until after someone has made it obvious. Another example (at least for me) is Tony Fisher's 4Cubes. Despite having the puzzle Sando Ring around which dates back to the 1990's I believe, it wasn't until after 4Cubes was made that this relationship became obvious. I'd be curious, Tom was there a conscious connection between the AI Cube and your puzzle while you were designing it? You did alter the solved state of this puzzle from the one presented by pytlivyj_1 here. However I could also see that being done for symmetry reasons without any knowledge of the AI Cube.

Carl

I immediately remembered the AI Cube because the images of the museums entry show my sample but Luke was faster than me.
Very beautiful.

What is its size?
Its weight?

This could actually be done by hand on a 6x6x6 cube. All you would have to do is sand down the 2nd layers of half of the puzzle, and extend the other cubies with plastic sheeting.

Very nice concept and very well done!

It's edge length is 1.21 cube lengths (1 cube unit = 57 mm).
It's weight is 1.33 cube weights (1 cube weight = 86 grams).

It's worth noting that this puzzle required a bit of surgery. Shapeways made a little mistake and printed one of the center corners inside of one of the large corner pieces. It was quite a challenge getting that out and one of the corners has a nice hole on the inside of the puzzle now!

Really cool puzzle Tom! And it turns so well! I wonder how many different countries' flags you can make at once on this puzzle...

-Eitan

This is very clever!

Thomas

Bravo, TomZ!
Magnificent puzzle. Is made very qualitatively. I congratulate!