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Friday, May 22, 2015

Zobrist Cube: mechanical puzzle of the month

Photo original


A story: almost 20 years ago I bought a Burr Set of puzzles from Interlocking Puzzles.  The set consisted of 30 to 40 pieces and made 314 6-piece different burr puzzles. It cost $150. I was hesitant because I didn't really understand what a burr puzzle was.  When I got it, I worked my way through all 314 puzzles.  Took about a month.


Zobrist Cube Code Classic II Cube


The Zobrist Cube comes from Al Zobrist. I saw an advertisement for it in Discover Magazine.


Al Zobrist is the brain behind this monster set. At first glance, the Zobrist Cube looks like an ordinary Soma Cube: assemble the pieces to form a 3x3 cube.  However, The Zobrist Cube should be renamed as The Zobrist Cube Set because it comes with 33 pieces - most are unique, some are duplicates.


Each pieces has an embossed letter on it.  The Zobrist Cube Set comes with a manual that describes over 20 THOUSAND  cube combinations.  Fortunately, these are grouped into easy & hard levels.


At the top of the hard levels is a great quote from Stewart Coffin who describes these harder puzzles as '30-minute' puzzles.


Having done a bunch of Soma Cube variations over the years, I instantly headed to the hard ones.  The first one I did in 10 minutes.  The next one - I gave up after 30 minutes.  I skipped to somewhere in the middle and solved the next 3 in about 5 minutes each. I may have been lucky.


Al has turned this puzzle set into a game: 2 people square off, and select 2 random puzzles (with different pieces of course) and see who solves their first.


Zobrist Cube Classic I and II Cubes
Somebody, somewhere in this great land, is going to take the time to solve them all. It won't be me.


$35: perfect gift for a kid, adult, a graduation present and for yourself.


http://www.zobristcube.com/

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