While everyone wows (or boos) at gigaminx, I got yet another new puzzle!!! Bought it at Anchorpoint, there are PLENTY of interesting puzzles there (including monopoly, ticket to ride, cluedo, etc.), maybe we should organize a class outing and raid the stores there =)
Ok, back to the point, I got a new puzzle!!! Targetted it since prelims, but that time I decided not to spend too much yet (haven't offloaded my old megaminx to JJ yet). Yet I'm broke before yesterday (gigaminx cost a bomb), and even more broke now, went out with 4 different colours of Yusof bin Ishak's face in my pocket, and reached home with only coins in my wallet yesterday, sigh...
TA-DAAA!!! I duno it's official name, but for now I'll call it the 4-layer barrel, beats the usual "dodecahedron prism" which is quite a mouthful... And not everyone knows what's a "dodecahedron"... they might know how many sides it has though, if you call it "december-hedron" haha =P
And in case it's not very clear how it turns, you can turn the 4 rings layer by layer, and there's the very interesting / weird / sickening vertical middle cut that you can do to mix pieces from the 1st layer with the 4th and the 2nd with the 3rd.
The objective... er... is to make something nice out of it!!! =) Because there's no fixed colour scheme, and there's probably no parity either (if you solve it my way), you can do anything you like with it! For me the "official" solved state is when all the black plastic pieces are on 1 side and the white plastic on the other, and pieces with same coloured stickers and different coloured plastic are opposite each other =)
Oh, and there're a few more interesting things about it:
1) The middle is a square!!!
2) If you put your finger on the edge and trace it (on the picture)... you get back to the origin!!! So you can also call it a "Mobius twisty puzzle"!!! Haha =)
Oh, before I forget, I actually popped the barrel by accident and broke a piece while trying to fix it back... but thankfully it didn't break at a place where there was a spring, so I managed to use, of all things, double-sided tape and masking tape, to hold it in place, and YAY, it works!!! Lucky I didn't waste $22 in a single moment of folly...
And then, another relatively new (or old) puzzle...
Void cube!!! This came to me from God. I mean, it's holy. You know, umm, I mean, "hole-y", haha =)
And contrary to popular belief, this cube is actually TOUGHER than a normal 3*3*3. Because you can get things like...
This... Oops, bad camera angle, take note of the face on the right...
Yes, you've guessed it (or you have not), it's PARITY!!! In other words, a cuber's nightmare haha =P Occurs primarily because you do not know the exact positions of where the holes should be. Ok, I'm doing a bad job explaining this. Anyway, many people would say something like "oh shit how did it happen, I didn't even dismantle it" and maybe throw it away or spoil it trying to pop the thing, and then... you waste $13.
And while you guys (and girls) enjoy all this... Hope "post-A-level entertainment 3" comes up soon!!! =)
~DK~
