Hoping some longer time members can help me here.

Where do I go to buy twisty puzzles that haven't yet been mass produced? I know about shapeways. But that's it. (and I do have a very nice one coming my way soon).

But let's say I want to buy a 4x5x6. I look on shapeways and TomZ has made one and I could buy that one. But is he the only one? What if someone else has made one but it isn't on SW?

And take the 3x3x7, for example. It doesn't show up on shapeways, so how do I know whether someone out there is making or selling it? Is there a list on the TP site somewhere, sort of like a shop of non-mass-produced items?

(Note that this is not about seeing some puzzle that has been made, it's about seeing puzzles that people are selling.)

Thanks.

I would start at the Museum. For example, search for 3x3x7 and look at this one. This was made by Traiphum, who you can contact on this forum, and ask him to make one for you. Also, Tony Fisher is a good person to ask about puzzles and who might make them.

If the puzzle isn't in the museum, it probably hasn't been made (except for the most recent puzzles which have just been announced).

This is no single list so Googling is your best bet if you can't find them here. In the case of spectacular puzzles like the 4x5x6 or proportional 3x3x7 you are very unlikely to find them being sold by anyone other than the original creator. If you do then you should check before buying since they may well be KOs.

Thanks for the replies so far. I'll freely admit this area has never made much sense to me, particularly with the KO issue. So let me give a specific now.

I search in the museum for 2x2x5. It comes up with Jesse Werner as the inventor. So I look in the member list and see that Jesse hasn't been in the forums since early 2011. He does have a youtube vid of his 2x2x5. And so do a number of other people who have each apparently made one themselves as well. So can a cuboid ever be "knocked off"? (I remember a thread a week or two back where Tony commented that he would never consider anyone to be able to own the rights to a cuboid, or something like that) Does Jesse own rights to the 2x2x5? If I ask someone else to make me one, am I or that person doing the wrong thing?

I see names such as TomZ, Greg and Tony F (and I'm sure I just offended some people whose name I didn't say) mentioned a lot on here as puzzle designers/builders. Does it mean that theoretically if I wanted something made I could just ask one or more of them to do it?

Another case in point:

let's say Traiphum is happy to make me one, can I buy it from someone else who also happens to be able to make it? (Not that I'm suggesting I wouldn't want to buy it from Traiphum...)

Next case in point: The museum, under a search for 4x5x6, comes back with: So Tom made it, but only at Sigurd's request. Who owns rights to it? Does this mean Sigurd owns the first one made, and then Tom made it available on SW for anyone to buy?

Last case: I search for 6x6x3 in the museum. no results. So I assume this means no-one has ever made one, at least that the TP forums know about?

hoping some of this can be cleared up.

Hi rline,

Greg has made a 3x6x6 - sometimes the success or failure of searching for cuboid names depends on the digit order...
http://twistypuzzles.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=23050

Rob is correct, the search term is critical to success. For cuboids, the edge sizes are written in increasing numerical order, so 3x6x6 not 6x6x3. Unfortunately, the naming and classification of puzzles can be a little haphazard, which does not help finding the puzzle you are looking for e.g. DeFTI, Starminx, Starminx I, Starminx II, professor-, master- etc.

rline,
The questions about cuboids are not easy to answer. I personally do not claim ownership over any of mine and I doubt whether many would for the other simple ones. However nowadays people are designing complex cuboid mechanisms and producing the most amazing puzzles. So I suspect many of these people wouldn't be happy with these creations being copied especially if the same mechanism was used. Where possible I would advise you to always ask the original creator first. If he is not willing to make one for you he may say it's ok for someone else to.
Please remember we are making this stuff up as we go along. There are no hard and fast rules. However, your basis should be the KO policy combined with a sense of what's right or wrong where the policy doesn't cover something.


In this situation you should show Traiphum some respect. Ask him if it's ok to buy it from someone else (although the potential maker is the one who should really be asking). The same applies to the 3x4x5. They are both members so communicate.

Regarding the 2x2x5 I would try my hardest to contact Jessie (he signed into Youtube in May 2012). If that proves impossible all you can do is make your own mind up based on what I said at the beginning.