After many years of searching the universe, and many failed attempts at bringing this creation to life, I can finally proudly present Gregoire Pfennig's (RubixFreakGreg) 3x5x7! This is among the first cuboids of this type, with different layers on all sides, that can shapeshift in all directions. This promises to be among the most difficult of cuboids to solve! This will be the first of what I hope to be many puzzles that I've been looking for that I can provide to collectors. This can be purchased soon on shapeways, more on this to come...



Some shapeshifting nightmares:




Some video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loo2GT0y2AY

Enjoy!

One further step in cuboïds planet! Fantastic puzzle, a must have !

My, he's a big boy I guess if this was unstickered it would still be a pain to solve due to all the shapeshifting. Well done you two.

Note: Many failed attempt but I never changed the mechanism, these were only printing problems, and a piece count mistake.

On another hand : Yay ! I have one at home (the only cuboid of mine that I have) and I have to say the shapeshifting is just crazy complicated. I couldn't even get the shape back to normal

P.S: Mine's a bit smoother but I'm guessing that the breaking in. How is it now ?
P.S2: The dark beackground is a great idea !!! The colors are really well emphasized. @ Andreas: isn't it easier to cut it out with Adobe now that it had a dark background and flashy colors ?

My favourite cuboid!
I might be wrong but I dont think you showed the shapeshifting in all 3 directions at once in the video.

Not really, as the contrast between the black puzzle edges and the dark background is poor. In general, black puzzles -> light background, white puzzles -> dark background.

And have it you shall! This is now available for purchase at:
http://www.shapeways.com/shops/puzzlemaestro
Kinks are still being worked out with the shop, so more details to come. Fully assembled and stickered puzzles will also be available.
Stickers can be obtained from Oliver at:
http://speedcubing.hu/webshop/


Yes! Good point Greg. The mechanism has always been brilliant, as is characteristic of your work. I had not realized how mess ups are the rule and not the exception at shapeways! I feel for all you shapeways creators who have to deal with that on a daily basis! I never got frustrated as I knew how worth the end result would be!


Yes, this is definately among the most challenging cuboids I've ever played around with! To all those looking for a unique cuboid challenge, this will deliver! The multiple long extentions make you unable to easily use the same cuboid algorithms. You have to try it to understand what I mean! I tip my hat to anyone who can figure it out!
I did more breaking in, and the movement is flawless! The sandpapery sound was more from the emphasis that happened in the audio, but the movement is very smooth now!

Well, you are obviously a man of good taste
You're right about not shapeshifting in all 3 directions. I was nervous about a critical scramble I couldn't get back from! More video to come.

Hey that's strange! I was thinking about how it cool it would be if there was a 3x5x7 or a 2x4x6 around two days ago...

Great job! I like it.

WOW!!! The collector part of me has in general caused me to avoid most Cuboids. It's not that I don't fine them interesting. Its just that there are so many of them and I know if I start down that path I'll get to the point where I'll want them all and I just can't aford that at the moment. But I must say this one is so tempting it will be hard to resist. I'd love to see it mass produced. I think the property that I like the most about it is that you can actually get to see a large amount of the internal mechanism just from scrambling the puzzle. With a 3x3x3 all the magic which holds it together is pretty well hidden away inside. Here you get to see much of that magic at work and I love that aspect of it.

Very very nice work. Congrats!!
Carl

I believe this is most of the way to having a 2x4x6. Wouldn't it have all the same parts? You'd just have to hide the center slice layer away inside the puzzle and come up with a way to keep it aligned with the rest of the puzzle.

Carl

Claus wasn't involved in this one?
What happened?

BTW: Looks good.
I assume a single cubie measures 20mm ?

Now that's what I call cuboid karma!

That is a very wise philosophy, as I've already gone down that path, and after tasting from the cuboid well, I find there is no going back, and am hopelessly pursuing the collection with the conviction of a rabid dog!

I think if you had a 3x3x5, a 3x4x5, and a 4x4x5, that would be a good enough collection with all the representative cuboid forms. This one represents a significant variation, being an all axis shapeshifter in a form other then NxNxM, so you would be forgiven and not labled as afflicted with collection obsession should you add this to the collection


Claus is my inspiration and has been a fantastic resource to the puzzle collecting community! His opening up the world to access all these cuboids is nothing short of brilliant. I can only hope to approach Claus' service to the community. As such, I believe his inspiration makes him at least indirectly involved

Of note, for a limited time I'll be providing a limited number of fully assembled and stickered puzzles.
The first person to come up with a solution and upload it to a youtube video before I post the solution in about a month or so, will get 20% off the next puzzle from the shapeways shop listed.

The second one will get 10% off, and the 3rd one will get 5% off.
Believe me, the next one is something you'll be very interested in, and I say this as a collector...

Jon and Greg - wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!

Best job ever. A must to have for someone you love cuboids.

Jon your pictures are incredible. I can't wait to see further projects of you both.

Thanks Claus, and I quite agree, Greg is an amazing designer!
I have now worked out a solution and managed to solve the beast! This means that in about 2 to 4 weeks I'm going to upload the solution. Anyone who can work out and upload the solution before that time will qualify for the 20% off offer on the next shapeways project (this will be a another good one!)
So solvers and collectors to arms!
Allons-Y!

Sorry for bumping this thread, but I am wondering why this is only available in white? I am considering getting the puzzle, but I would like to have it in black. However I don't want it assembled and stickered

Ah, excellent question, and thank's for the bump to clarify! When I ordered the puzzle dyed black from Shapeways, I received a most unusual response from them. They stated that they could not offer the puzzle in black because of how complicated it is to dye

Because of the shape of the pieces and the various pores in them, dying it proved to be impossible by their method. They sent me a picture of the catastrophic destruction of various pieces victimized by their dying process. Anyone who has ever dyed shapeways products themselves understands the pain of trying to get dye out of the small holes in the parts, lest it slowly leak out over time making your furniture start to resemble the color of a black puzzle

As such, the only way to get it in black is to either order it in white and dye it black yourself with RIT dye, or, alternatively, to order it fully assembled and black. Here is another alternative, though. Due to the inability of Shapeways to provide black puzzles and the painstaking process of dying it black, we are also going to offer the puzzle as a DIY kit non assembled and stickered but dyed black for you. You can order that directly through the Puzzle Maestro Shapeways shop and leaving a message through there, or pm me and I'll get it taken care of for you. Due to the time and work it takes to dye the puzzle, a service that not even Shapeways will tackle, the offering price for the DIY kit is $280. This is the same price as the fully assembled white puzzle. This is subject to discussion, as I truly want to put this puzzle in the hands of all those who want it

This is such a beautiful puzzle, would the DIY kit include the screws and stickers too? Also, since you are dying the pieces, I'm sure you're making certain all of the pieces are there. I know this is a common problem with Shapeways puzzles.

Thank you for the kind offer!
However, I just realised the puzzle might be too pricey for me to buy it as a complete 3D-print. I am still going to school and my pocket money does not allow me to get it :/
So - I had an other idea. It would be really great for me - and maybe others too - if we could buy only masters from your store to mold them at home
So, if there is any way to offer those, I would be really thankful!

Another good question, and yes, I'll include the stickers, with the color scheme of your choice, and I'll even throw in the screws from Cube4You. I will also examine the pieces and make sure that Shapeways didn't mess up the order, and deal with correcting it if they did, as well as cleaning all the nasty white powder left over from the printing process.


That's an interesting thought, and I'm not sure how that would work. The only thing I'm in possession of is the overall STL file, which Shapeways uses just to print it out. I'm going to wrap my head around a way to cut the cost for the very people who I want to enjoy this puzzle, students in search of inspiration! I may make a pitch for mass production, as the design from Gregoire is so elegant and stable, that I'm sure it would do well. Believe me, if I won the lottery and was rolling in money, I'd be handing out this puzzle like Santa Clause (Claus?)
But keep the faith, I'll think of something

I think, better I know, it is not possible to cast this puzzle with master pieces.

There exist smallest pieces or big pieces with thin legs (less than 1 mm) you can't cast with resin. If you split the bigger ones in parts with castable and non castable pieces, you have the problem with glueing together and the roughness.

Bye the way: It is a fantastic turning and playable puzzle.

Oh man I need this puzzle!


Hopefully they are still available next spring when I'm finnished school

Have no fear! Concentrate on your school work, get good grades and trained for a good job, and don't worry about a thing. I guarantee a puzzle will be waiting for you when you're done