Today, we are happy to announce our new puzzles, Carl's Bubbloid 4x4x5 & 4x5x5, have been mass-produced and will be released to the market soon. The Carl's Bubbloid 4x4x5 & 4x5x5 are the co-operated project between Carl Hoff, David Ang and me.
The Bubbloid 4x4x5 is originally called Bubbloid122, while the Bubbloid 4x5x5 is called Bubbloid112 .
They both are the implementation of the concept of a shape-preserving corner-turning cuboid.

The difference between the two variants are the number of pieces shared on moves in the same edge.
In this case the edges of two dimensions have one piece shared between adjacent moves. The edges of the third dimension have two pieces shared between adjacent moves.

The mechanism do not have much corner-cutting feature as speed cubing cubes. They do turn acceptable, fun and challenge to solve. You have to retain the stickers to solve it.

You won't regret to try and play them on hand. We shall have black, white, and a limited blue edition.

We are currently talking to our worldwide business partners about the wholesales orders. If anyone in the puzzles business and interested to be our oversea partners, feel free to contact me at calvinfan@hknowstore.com .

Wow this is incredibly exciting! Congratulations Carl!!

Any plans of the other Bubbloids/Bubblisms?

It's been a while since a new Calvin's Puzzle puzzle was announced (not counting stickered or metallic variants of older ones).

This is good news.

fantastic! -- i was hoping the Bubbloids would be massproduced.
thank you Calvin, and congratulations, Carl!
 

Awesome! I hoped the Bubbloids would get mass-produced some day. Congrats Carl!

Btw, am I correct in saying that the Mosaic Cube is basically a Bubbloid 111 (4x4x4)?
Also, is this the first multi-core mass-produced puzzle? (apart from Siamese, Triamese, etc. puzzles)

Greetz,
Quuador

Congratulations Carl!

I hope the 123 will be considered for production in the future. It was my favorite Bubbloid.

Awesome! Finally 2016 is getting some cool new puzzles!

Congratulations Carl - I hope this venture is the first of many for you!

Those look magnificent...Congrats Carl, I cannot wait to get my hands on those.

Brilliant! I just hope that they don't cost $99

Whoa! Congratulations Carl

I didn't think we'd ever see any Bubbloid mass produced because of the crazy shape of the core and the way the corner feet hook into it. Perhaps the core and corner designs were altered to make them more injection molding friendly?

Congrats Carl. These have always been a puzzle I wanted but 3D printing was too expensive for me. I can't wait to play with one for real instead of just theorizing about it.

OMG!

This is awesome!

Thanks everyone!!!

Zzupler wrote:Congratulations Carl - I hope this venture is the first of many for you!

As do I.

There is so much I want to say I'm not sure where to start. I wasn't sure when this day would get here and there were times I wasn't sure it would. This project started out of an email conversation David Ang and I had that started in December of 2013. He wanted to get these two Bubbloids produced and I was eager to let him take his shot at them.

Then on 2/16/2014 I got an email from Konrad Sassen. He had previously purchased a Bubbloid122 from me and he was letting me know that he had emailed Uwe Meffert to see if he was aware of me and my Bubbloid122. He was recommending to Uwe that he mass produce it saying it was "such a beautiful puzzle!!!". I thought that was a very nice gesture but I honestly didn't expect anything to become of it. I was quite wrong about that... on 2/17/2014 I got an email from Uwe stating that he wanted to mass produce it. I had already told David he could give it a shot so I tried to tell Uwe as gracefully as I could that I had already given the mass production rights to another. Uwe certainly didn't want to take no for an answer and he told me why he was the best guy for the job, etc. Just a few months earlier I thought the very notion of one of my puzzles getting mass produced was a pipe dream. Now I felt like I was stuck between 2 producers and struggling with what to do. I had given David my word, but at the time he had no track record and I had already been approached by others that said that wanted to mass produce my designs just to give them the STL files and then never to hear from them again. David was always responsive via email and seemed honest to me but Uwe had a proven track record and I knew he could do the job. Still at the end of the day my word meant something to me and I had given it to David just a short time earlier so I told Uwe no but if the mass production rights were to revert back to me that I would certainly be back in touch. At the time I felt like I was likely shooting myself in the foot as I really didn't know if David would be able to do what he hoped he could. I'm not even sure if he knew himself at the time. But I'm so happy that I stuck with it and gave him and Calvin the time they needed. I never expected it to be 2 and a half years but the time and effort they have put into this has amazed me.

I have one pre-production sample in hand at the moment. I have just emailed Calvin to see if he has any concerns with me posting pictures of it as I believe there have been several mold revisions since as they are real perfectionists. Honestly I couldn't be happier with my pre-production sample. It turns great. As good or better then 3D printed ones I have without the noise. But Calvin and David kept making changes as they knew they could make it better. I think there were 6 or so revisions made before I got my sample and at least a couple since. The way they adapted the design for mass production is really ingenious. The corners on my sample are 3 pieces and the screw has a spring on it. The core itself is 6 pieces and its held together with 2 smaller screws itself.

In fact, I had Calvin ship my Pre-Production sample to my home in Arizona last December. I flew home for Christmas and got into Phoenix late on Christmas Eve. It was just after midnight, or Christmas Day, by the time I had gotten home. So this was the first "present" that I opened on Christmas Day and I can't even imagine a nicer Christmas gift at the moment. The first public showing of the puzzle occurred on the trip back to New York after Christmas. That was in the baggage claim office at the Albany International Airport. That story is detailed in a post here. And I even make mention of this puzzle in point #18.

This has been one very long road but I hope everyone is as happy with the results as I am. I hope to be able to post some pictures soon.

Carl

Congrats Carl. I have the complete Bubbloid/Bubblism set 3d printed from shapeways. This is definately exciting news. Now many people can enjoy the puzzles as I have.

Quuador wrote:
Btw, am I correct in saying that the Mosaic Cube is basically a Bubbloid 111 (4x4x4)?
Also, is this the first multi-core mass-produced puzzle? (apart from Siamese, Triamese, etc. puzzles)

Probably, I can't think of any other way to do it.

Finally, another wish that had come true
Congratulations to all of you, Carl, David Ang and Calvin.

I have made a few topics where my Bubbloid 122 #8 was mentioned lately here and back in 2013 here
Here is one of the many pictures I have posted



As Carl has mentioned in his post above, it was my intention to get this very beautiful puzzle mass-produced by making contact between Uwe and Carl. As it turned out, the contact had happened, already, but due to some misunderstanding Uwe had come to the conclusion that it would be too hard to assemble. So, my initiative helped to clarify this misunderstanding, but it was too late, because there was an agreement with David Ang already.

Extract of an Email to Uwe and Carl February 2014 wrote:When I saw a few nice pictures of a Bubbloid 122 with a Royal Blue body on the twistypuzzles forum (Carl knows the thread and I sent a link to Uwe.), I remembered a remark from Carl that he would love that one of his puzzle would be mass-produced.
Therefore, I sent an email to Uwe a few days ago asking if he knows the puzzle and his designer.
As it turned out, some miscommunication had happened and Uwe thought that the Bubbloid 122 is extremely hard to assemble.
I'm glad that this is sorted out.
...
When I showed a little album on Facebook with Bubbloid pictures at the end of 2012 I gave it the title "A puzzle beautiful as a flower".
...

In the meantime I had given up hope that any of the Bubbloid puzzles would ever become affordable to other puzzle friends.

I'll gladly buy all mass-produced Bubbloids and hope that others will enjoy them too.

This is great news! Congratulations, Carl, and congratulations to everyone because these puzzles will be more accessible now. Fantastic!

Awesome! Always wanted to own one of these.

Congratulations Carl! I can't wait to buy these...

Congrats on getting these mass produced. I think a lot of people will enjoy them. I know I've always loved my Bubbloid 445 puzzle. If they do turn as well as Carl says, I find it hard to believe that someone could be disappointing with that aspect of it assuming his turn similarly to the one in my collection.

Can't wait for them to be released! I'm defiantly getting a 455 one.

Now if only we could get some of those Bubblism puzzles mass produced as well...

Floyd

Congrats, Carl! These will be a day-one purchase for me. Awesome to see them mass produced. Haven't been many "exotic" puzzles mass produced lately.

Oh wow, this has been on my wishlist for a long time I really like the "regular" color scheme instead of the orange on top as it is on Calvin's cuboids. Although, I dont know whats the topface on this puzzle while solving it

Boza wrote:Oh wow, this has been on my wishlist for a long time I really like the "regular" color scheme instead of the orange on top as it is on Calvin's cuboids. Although, I dont know whats the topface on this puzzle while solving it

Calvin's have the same sticker pattern as Carl's originals. I would consider the square faces the top face. So in this case the top would be white, which is the way I want it.

These two are beautiful puzzles! Congratulations!

GuiltyBystander wrote:Calvin's have the same sticker pattern as Carl's originals. I would consider the square faces the top face.

That is correct for the 2 pictured above. These are the first two that I have seen stickered but I would expect that to remain true. Here are the stickers I have been using for my 3D printed versions.

http://oliverstickers.com/stickers-for- ... d-112.html So yes the square faces are considered the top and bottom. White on white looks a bit odd to me, that is why the sticker set at Oliver's included a black set of stickers. But I believe all the ones I made and sold personally were always dyed black so I don't recall ever using the black stickers.

Carl

Konrad wrote:As it turned out, some miscommunication had happened and Uwe thought that the Bubbloid 122 is extremely hard to assemble.

Yes. I forget the exact details on the timing. I'd need to go back and re-read some emails. But Uwe had seen this video on YouTube where I discuss the difficulty assembling the first Bubbloid123.

https://youtu.be/Tevckk028bs

From that he had assumed that all the Bubbloids were very hard to assemble. I did explain to him that all the difficulty in the assembly was due to my decision to make the core a single part. This means some pieces need to be popped into place. However I knew back then that any injection molded version would require a multi-part core and that would solve all the assembly issues.

And based on the sample I have in hand I can indeed confirm the assembly doesn't require excessive force. I still tend to assemble everything but the outermost edges and then pop them in and tighten up the screws but they make a very satisfying click as they pop into place. But even that force can be avoided with a different assembly order.

I'm still waiting to hear from Calvin if its OK for me to share mechanism pictures but till then I'll share this pic.David Ang emailed this picture to me on 6/18/2015. That was the very day Intel laid me off last year. So I had some great news to balance out the horrible news. This was the first picture of an injection molded sample that I had seen and once the project had gotten to this point I felt confident that these would be available... eventually. At the time, I was thinking we were on pace for a Christmas release but this process is slow so my advice to other designers... be patient.

I know a few of you may have seen this image already as I know Calvin had shared it with at least Oskar as he emailed me on 6/22/2015 offering me congratulations.

The one I have in my possession I believe is the very sample you see on the left here. It is a gorgeous red salmon color with two gun metal gray pieces in it. I LOVE the colors... as I believe this was mostly a test of the then current version of the molds I don't think much thought was given to the colors so they likely just used what the had on hand at the moment but it makes me wish I had some more puzzles in these colors.

Most of my friends that I have shown it too at first think the puzzle has something to do with the 2 gray pieces. It is still unstickered, as I can't bring myself to cover up the beautiful plastic.

Carl

I wonder if buying 2 bubbloid 112s and combining the parts if you could make a 111 (mosaic cube)

grapefruit95 wrote:I wonder if buying 2 bubbloid 112s and combining the parts if you could make a 111 (mosaic cube)

Probably not, since the cores are pretty different from the mosaic cube...

This is incredibly exciting! Can't wait to see these made. So many possibilities with just a few parts.

Congratulations, Carl.

All,

Calvin has given me the OK to post these.

This is the sample that I received last Christmas. A corner cap and outer edge removed. Some more pieces removed. The inner most part of the corner does indeed have feet that extend into the core just like the original. I also find it interesting and original how the two outer parts of the corner form the upper lip of the grooves that hold the other pieces in. This removed the need to use force to pop pieces into the puzzle. A close up shot showing how the inner most part of the corner interacts with the core and other corners. A picture of the parts that make up the corner. 3 injection molded parts, a screw, and a spring. The puzzle now half disassembled. For the most part I'm amazed how true to the original design they were able to keep things. Here is a picture of the core. It is held together with 2 small screws. You can see where one is on the right. And a picture of the core disassembled. It is 3 pairs of identical parts, 4 pairs if you count the screws. You can also see how much smaller these screws are then the ones used for the corners here. Is this the first mass produced puzzle to use two different sizes of screws? I've seen that in 3D printed puzzles before but I can't recall having seen this done on a mass produced puzzle before.

Also I need to add, this is my pre-production sample. I believe more tweaks have been made since this one was made and I don't yet have a final production sample though I should soon. So I can't really say how similar this is the the final version.

Enjoy,
Carl

These are some other pictures that I received during the development process. These first 2 are dated 10/20/2014.

Here you see two of my original 3D printed puzzles next to what I believe are 3D prints of some of the initial designs. These next 2 are dated 11/23/2014 and are also more pictures of 3D prints I believe. Enjoy,
Carl

Wow, what else to say? Just wonderful. Not only I think this puzzle is beautiful and artistic, I also see it as a gorgeous piece of design in terms of its structure, the look of the puzzle, the interactions between axes and shared pieces and combinatory. It catches attention at first sight, but the more I look at it the more I like it. I think it is a must-have.

Congratulations for your design and for getting it mass produced, Carl.

I'm so happy to see these mass produced. I bought the 122 just before the pricepocalypse, and it is without doubt, the most beautiful puzzle I owned.

Congratulations Carl!

Congrats on your first mass produced puzzles Carl!
Looking forward to adding these puzzles to my collection soon!

Carl

Thanks again everyone. I just noticed that Calvin sent me a picture showing some of the parts of the current versions. They look quite similar to what I have so its not obvious to me what's changed. Here is a picture I got back on March 17th of this year. I'm not certain who had the bright idea to photograph black puzzles on a black table but I think it turned out surprisingly well. I can make out the wood grain of the table being reflected on the front face of the Bubbloid 4x4x5.

Enjoy,
Carl

Carl, Calvin,

Congratulations! Excellent work, highly innovative!

Please make sure that Anthony Villaveiran (boublez) gets some copies too. After all, the puzzle was called after his childhood nickname "Bubbles", as he proposed the original challenge leading to these two wonderful puzzles!

See also this 2011 Twisty Puzzles Forum Thread.

Oskar

Fantastic looking puzzles, and as always it appears that Calvin has done a great job with the production quality. Can't wait to see these in person! Congratulations Carl, and to everyone else involved!

Oskar wrote:Please make sure that Anthony Villaveiran (boublez) gets some copies too.

I will. I see he hasn't visited the forums here since Sep 09, 2014 so I sent him an email. Looks like the last time we emailed was in 2012 so I hope the address is still valid. As it cannot hurt I'll try a PM too. Any chance you've had any more current contact with him Oskar?

Carl

P.S. Ok... I just got this.

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently: dd@easyenergyusa.com

I trust that is safe to post as it appears to be a dead email. Do the moderators have the ability to check if this is the same email address the PM notification was sent to? And if anyone knows how to get in touch with Anthony can you point him here or point me to him? Thanks...

Carl thanks a lot for those mechanism pictures! I'm so impressed by how the core has been split into multiple pieces so that it can be injection molded. I thought the complexity of your core would forever prevent this puzzle from being mass produced. I bet the core is more than 50% of the cost of the whole production.

Still, the execution seems very clean and it looks like it's going to turn exceptionally well. This is one design where "popping" will be just about impossible.

Brandon Enright wrote:I bet the core is more than 50% of the cost of the whole production.

That is certainly a possibility. I have some drawings that Calvin sent me months ago of the layout of the molds. I don't think I should post those but I may ask if I can. But based on what I've seen I believe 3 separate molds are needed to make these puzzles. Two of the 3 molds are for core components exclusively. And even the third mold which has all the other parts also has the small caps which belong to the core. So if the molds are the biggest cost factor, and I think they are, the cores may account for two thirds of the production costs.

Carl

Congratulations to Carl. This is my second collaboration project with Calvin. When I first saw Bubbloids at Carl's Shapeways site, it was like love at first sight. It's like what Konrad had said, a puzzle as beautiful as a flower, it has all the right curves, I have a liking for curvy cuts puzzles which always seem more intriguing especially when you see how it turns. When I got hold of the 3D printed puzzles, I just felt that these puzzles should be appreciated by more people. I took this 2 Bubbloids and Eitan's Twisted Cubes to Calvin in May 2013 to discuss about mass producing it after getting permission from Carl and Eitan. I took the opportunity to undertook this project after Meffert's evaluated it initially and concluded it was not suitable for mass production. All this while I waited for patiently for Carl's updates. I have utmost respect for Mr Uwe Meffert for those wonderful puzzles he help to produce and had no intention to offend anyone. So when Konrad tried to rekindle Meffert's interest, Carl had already given me the go ahead. All the while I've been transparent in communicating with the designer on progress and development. Although my role is more of someone connecting the dots, I am willing to take the risk and and take the extra step to make something really happen. In helping Carl to have on of his signature puzzles in the market, it makes me really happy. I thank Calvin for willing to undertake this risk with me. I hope I don't cause misunderstanding about my intention. Do pm me if you think of any puzzles that you think should be mass produced.

OMG this is the best news all year for twisty puzzles! So much congrats Carl, Calvin, and David, I'm just so ecstatic to see these wonderful puzzles mass produced!

As some people here that I've talked to so far knows, I myself am on disability, and came into twisty puzzling only in the past year. After what's happened with Shapeways, I could never afford to 3D print Carl's exquisite masterpieces now, but seeing these mass produced has me almost in tears, because I'll finally get to own them and have them in my hands.

I only hope this further paves the way into having more of Carl's and even other designers puzzles mass produced in the future.

Thank you guys so much for all of your hard work to make this happen!

Nowstore has them on pre-order for a good price. Thankyou nowstore and all concerned.

Always loved the look of these puzzles. This is great news!

rline wrote:Nowstore has them on pre-order for a good price. Thankyou nowstore and all concerned.

Thanks for the heads up, placed my order for the 5x5x4.

Greetz,
Quuador

rline wrote:Nowstore has them on pre-order for a good price. Thankyou nowstore and all concerned.

Thanks rline! I have pre-ordered the two.

So it's always a very long story to mass produce a puzzle. Thank you Carl, David and Calvin. So usual puzzler like me would have a chance to own and play these very marvellous puzzles!

Wow! I'm very happy seeing these wonderful puzzles got mass-produced! Thanks to Carl, Calvin and David for making this happen.

Loved this puzzle ever since it was first revealed, years back. Great job Carl for getting such a beautiful and interesting puzzle mass produced!

I'll definitely be picking up the 'long' version when it comes out, the 'fat' one looks great too.

Just bought the 5x5x4 in black and the 4x4x5 in blue.