I'm pretty lazy so I usally wouldn't make a puzzle, but I've dicided to make these, and I figure that there must be other lazy people out there that also would rather not work to get a puzzle. So I was wondering, how much would people be willing to pay for these? As long as I'm makeing one I don't see why I shouldn't make more, and I could use some more money so to buy more puzzles.
I'ld also aprciate knowing how much you would be willing to pay for a 4x3x3, 4x3x2, and a working master's pyramid.
I'm fairly sure I can make all of these puzzles but I will only try if I think it is worth it(monetarily).
Chris Witham
(a diffrent chris from the one that posts here frequently, don't want to confuse people)

This is a response to all the messages so far. First off, in response to Darren, I don't know how much it's going to be. I'm the opposite of Dodd because I'm going to be the one selling, i.e. I want to charge as much as possible, but on the other hand as a puzzle buyer I would hate someone who did that so I won't.
I plan on making them as soon as I can, and will probably take Carter's advice and start off selling them on eBay until the price drops.
As soon as I can might not be that fast though, because right now I'm working with polyester and latex, and neither of those is good enough.
If anyone knows a place that has silicone and polyurethane for a good price, and ships it in the US for a good price tell me. Because I can get latex and polyester right down the street but I cant find a place in all of Maine that sells the good stuff.
Until I get that anything I make is going to have to be butchered from something else, all of the cubeoids will be made of normal cubes and shaved keychain cubes. And the master’s pyramid will be on hold.
If I make these well and enough people show intrest, I'll start selling them for semi normal prices eventualy. But thats all in the furtre for now.
Also what other cubiods are people intrested in? How about a 3x3x1? or a 4x2x2? I'ld be intrested in knowing what people want because I don't thing people want every single one, for example who would want a 5x1x1? (come to think of it I might)
Chris Witham

There is an extent to which the novelty wears off. There are way too many possible arrangements, eg 5x1x1 as you said, so noone would want them all. however, if you get a working master pyraminx, im sure youd get everyone here to buy one. if you made enough, you could sell them at 'reasonable' prices and make more money from the volume of sales... i know we would all be willing to pay a little bit extra for the effort. so you can count me as interested too. however, id also like to see a photo or too. let us know as soon as you put something on ebay, or what ever you plan to do... when you say 4x3x2, or 3x3x1 (would be interesting) do you really intend that they would all work? is that a bit ambitious?? i dont know. its a serious question.

I am interested in a 3x2x2. Of course, I want to pay as little as possible but I probably would be willing to pay up to $50. I would like to see a picture of your creations before I actually committ to one.

The first puzzles of any design will go for $100 each on eBay. If you make a few, and dole them out on eBay over a period of months, you can keep the price high.

I would love to have 4x3x3, 4x3x2, and a working master's pyramid to add to my Rubik's/puzzles collection very badly. How much would it cost for all of the puzzles to buy? When are you going to be making these puzzles? Very soon I hope.

I'm hip deep in my own Master Pyraminx project right now. Mechanism is designed. Piece shapes are designed. Now all I need to do is protype the pieces, cast some parts, and find the right materials for assembly. Here's where I stand:

$100 - Polyurethane and molding
$ 50 - Milliput and Magic Sculp
$ 60 - Extra Pyraminxes for prototyping
$ 40 - Miscellaneous sampler pack of plastic bits

That's not counting planning, designing, implementing, testing, etc etc etc etc... I'm guessing I've spent about 12+ solid man hours on the project itself, scattered over several weeks. Not to mention all hte Time I've spent playing with Milliput and doing some casting experiments. It's very difficult for me to find the Time to sit down and just crank the thing out, especially if I'm waiting for one thing or another to show up in the mail while designing it.

Price for the final product? It will be steep, that's for sure. The first couple may be sold on eBay to help defray the initial costs. Well over $100 is likely. Not to mention I have a very short list of people I'll probably be giving one away to or at least giving a heavy discount on the price.

Remember Mefferts are planning to release a few new puzzles this year. I hope (for your sake) its not a master pyraminx - I believe they wanted to make one at one stage. For my sake, of course, I hope they do release them - cheaper and free shipping has to win in the end... Id either wait until i see what theyre going to offer and then make some different puzzles, or quickly finish them and sell them on ebay before they become common place...

I should call it the "Order 4 Pyraminx" or "Pyraminx Revenge"

If I understand the Meffert Master Pyraminx correctly, it is merely a standard (order 3) Pyraminx "clone" with more axes of rotation.

I'm thinking that "Pyraminx Revenge" is a more apt name as it is much clearer what that would be, just like a Rubik's is an order 3 cube while the Revenge is an order 4 puzzle.

I have no intentions of making a Meffert Master Pyraminx although I would certainly welcome the chance to buy one or three from Mr. Meffert.

Yes I plan for any cuboid I make to work, if I make one that doesn't and then try to sell I'll say in big bold letters that it doesn't. I don't think it is ambitious to try and make the ones I've said so far, with the exception of the 3x3x1. That one is posible but it would probably not look up to par with most cubic puzzles(because its turning radius would have to be larger than the puzzle the mechanism would be easily visible during every turn).
I think everything I've said I plan to do is posible, and still plan to do it, so unless I'm completely wrong you should be able to look forward to it being made. I will of corse show photo's as soon as I've acctualy made something.

I've been thinking about the novelty of cuboids, and at what point theres no reason to make one. Because the more I think about it the more I see that somethings seem to be exactly the same, the simpilest example would be a 2x1x1 and any other nx1x1, they can be solved in exactly the same way because they are the same puzzle for all real purposes.
So my question is what are the original cuboids? Is there a way I could say I want a cubiod that is 1x1xsomething and immediately find out that the something has to be 1 or 2 for it to be original and anything bigger is just the same thing over again?
Thanks for any help,
Chris Witham
(I hope this made sense, I'm not a good writer)

so what is teh difference between your Pyraminx Revenge, and meffert's master pyraminx?

The Meffert Master Pyraminx is a combination of a normal pyraminx and something like a 3x3x3 cube. It moves just like a normal pyraminx, and it can also make 180 degrees turn along the edges, which acts as if it was a normal cube that you took 4 corners off of and only moved in half turns. I have no idea how they planed to accomlish this, and am not sure wether or not they still plan to do it becuase the only time I heard of it was in and old archive of cubelovers message board.
What I meant was an order four pyraminx, which I think is probably much easyer to make, then the Meffert's master with its 10 axes of rotation.
Hope this cleared things up tyler.

According to the 1981 book "Zauberpyramide" by Tom Werneck, the Master Pyraminx was in fact invented and patented by Meffert. It would look no different than the regular Pyraminx but have the ability to turn on the edges as well. The book says the Puzzle would appear on the market at "a later time" - this is certainly true since it hasn't appeared yet.
Maybe the matter is simply that Meffert included different turning options within his patent for the Pyraminx to make sure nobody else put a Puzzle on the market that resembled the Pyraminx. Making an actual mechanism might be possible but too expensive to manufacture.

I believe the most difficult problem with the Master Pyraminx is that the corner cubies will have to extend completely outside the internal mechanism at mid-turn. This is the same reason it is unlikely that a 7x7x7 cube will every be made. I wouldn't say that it is impossible, but it would require some sort of complex mechanism that temporarily locks the corners in place so that they can not fall off at mid-turn. Of course the additional axes would be another difficult to overcome, however, I believe it will not be as difficult as the former.

Doug.

Should I tell the seller I'm going to butcher his keychain?! Sounds like he thinks it may be collectible as is:

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1707662991

A little filing, some black paint and some tiles should fix that thing up!

Sandy

Keep in mind that Meffert also planned on making a "Senior Pyraminx". It would look the same as the regular Pyraminx, but would only move in the manor that would be added to the Master Pyraminx but without the original Pyraminx motion. It would have 6 axes which would be perpendicular to each edge so they can be turned 180 degrees instead of the 4 axes that the standard Pyraminx has for turning each corner/face by 120 degrees or the 10 combined axes which the Master Pyraminx would have.

Doug.

A 3x1x1 keychain would be really cool painted black with nice new stickers.