I saw them in the recent Tron movie and had seen them in a video somewhere that I cannot manage to find any more. The object flips between triangles and square shapes and I think may be named after a scientist or similar.

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/7686 ... called.jpg

To make it worse - I'm not sure these are actually the items I am thinking of.

Sorry for the vagueness of my description. In the video I saw someone manipulated the shape to change it from looking like a rectangular formation of square blocks that then split into triangular pieces.

Many thanks for any and all advice given!

Darren.

I think they look like the shinsei mystery by Naoki Yoshimoto

some pics here
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=8866&p=91998&hilit=Naoki+Yoshimoto#p91998

They can transform from one shape to the other....but i'm not sure if they are really puzzles....other people can probably give you a better explanation

I would consider this a neat transformation toy, not a puzzle per se. The one featured in the film looks like Yoshimoto Cube (available at the MoMA store) and it is "The Transformation of Two Stellated Rhombic Dodecahedrons From a Cube".Is this the video you are referring to? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQtbcgBWobA

A little more info and some picture here: http://www1.ttcn.ne.jp/a-nishi/y_cube/z_y_cube.html

Skarabajo

I was intrigued by this shot too! My first thought also was a Yoshimoto Cube (my version is called "Magic Blossom"). But it can be a put togethr puzzle too. There are at least two versions, one with six identical pieces and a burr-type puzzle (shown below). We wont now, unfortunatley the puzzle isn't taken apart in the movie.

Even thought the puzzle isn't taken apart in the movie, there are other shots that clearly show this is indeed a Yoshimoto Cube. See attachment below, for instance. Also, when asked about the Bit character, Jeff Bridges himself explains that he was the one who brought the Yoshimoto Cube to the set. See partial interview here: http://www.ugo.com/movies/tron-legacy-jeff-bridges-bit

Skarabajo.

Yep thats it! Thank you =) I knew if somebody would know it'd be you guys - thank you very much! =)

I'm not sure about the one shown in Tron, but the clear one shown above is called "Star Puzzle". It is a put together puzzle.

It is the metallic version of this:
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=20310