Hey forum,

This is my latest puzzle, the royal pentultimate. It has 6 axis of rotation, with 4 cuts per axis, resulting in 24 cuts total.









Although the photos look quite ugly, the puzzle look much nicer In real life. I had to apply a lot of superglue to keep the stickers on, and for some reason, it really shows in the photos. I will be making a v2 with flat faces, and hopefully I will be able to iron the stickers on.

Video

As you can tell form the video, the turning quality of this puzzle is far less than perfect, but I plan on do a second version with an improved mechanism. I hate to draw comparisons, but the challenge of getting this puzzle to turn well is on the same level as Oskar's Brilliant 17x17x17. When executing a slice turn on his 17x17x17, there are 64 parts that need to be rotated; on the royal pentultimate, there are 60. To make matters worse, the direction of the force used to turn the slice layer in the royal pentultimate is not normal(meaning perpendicular) to the cut planes to any of the parts being rotated, meaning that some of the force is transferred into a different direction, causing alignment and "squishyness" issues; due to the cubic nature of the 17x17x17, this problem is non existent.

I will not be selling copies of this puzzle, as it does not function well enough. With all of the things I have learned from building this puzzle, I think I can get v2 to work much better, and assuming that works well, I will auction a copy off.


A Family photo:

Oh my God!!! You sir, are a legend. What I'm upset about is that there is not a chance that will ever win the auction. Ever.

Slightly off topic, but is the Master Pentultimate on the right your design? I plan on buying a Master Pentultimate from you in the near future, and I would much prefer a flat design rather than pillowed.

Eric, you are way too harsh on yourself, the turning is great!

WOW. That is amazing. With all of these "royal" puzzles lately you surely are the "king"

Again, I feel your pain for the stickering. Wow. Some of those stickers are the size of a flea!

Great work. It looks like it turns pretty well in the video.

Great work Eric. It looks like to me the turning is very good if the puzzle is all aligned, otherwise it locks up a bit.

Man, this is a work of art! Simply BEAU-TI-FUL!

Thomas

The most beautiful dodecahedron I've seen since the starminx and the petaminx. Absolutely gorgeous.

Aha !!!! YOurs is pillowed!! that gives me a reason to make my own, non pillowed proportional one

But i'll never get turning or anything as good as you ^^'

Great job, your RP is amazing!

Incredible. Great work.

Now all that's missing is a four-layered one.

This is fantastic and the turning far surpasses my expectations, however alignment seems to be extremely important Excellent job.

This is amazing! Do you think anyone will be able to solve it?

This is a perfect example of the combination of extreme engineering and beauty. You should be proud of your work Eric!

First of all this puzzle is amazing. Second, would it be rude to ask how many pieces are in it?

cubedude76 wrote: Do you think anyone will be able to solve it?

Without a doubt, i think any of the guys that hang out in the gelatinbrain thread would be able to tackle this one pretty easily.

yummyyummypbj wrote: would it be rude to ask how many pieces are in it?

The part count is 544, not including the core.

Info on the piece count: 533 pieces IF you take an eastsheen 2x2 type core (circular centers --> no need for screws)

Oh I'll gladly have a go at this magnificent piece of pure awesomeness!

Is there any particular reason for skipping the professor version?

Sjoerd wrote:Is there any particular reason for skipping the professor version?

Yes, it's very hard to get the internal bandaging for the professor version working.

You are definitely treating yourself too harshly. This is a wonderful puzzle!

-Eitan

Eric you are a genius

Wow what an amazing puzzle. You have really been turn out some truly impressive works of art lately. This is definitely one of my favorite dodecs.

Shapeways is a must. It hardly turns poorly.

The ingenuity behind the design of this puzzle is staggering! Major Kudos to you, sir. Your puzzles or simply astonishing

Wow! it looks amazing, and the turning is much better than I expected after reading your description of it.
I love it!

Wow! That is awesome!

You mentioned that you thought the turning quality was bad, and that it didn't function well, but by the video, it looks fine. Also, do you know how to solve it?

the legend is born!!! simply mindblowing!!! conratulations Eric and good luck with the auction

I will be praying that this is uploaded to Shapeways one day... the pictures are amazing, but when I watched the video, my jaw hit the floor. Superb puzzle, great job as always, I hope to own some of your puzzles one day!

Chris

Wow!
Oskar so needs to see this.
Looks like the universe is going to get blown up twice as often now!

Ummm... I think you skipped a cube (or two).

Awesome puzzle, though!