Spherical tuttminx is a spherical version of the Tuttminx, which is a Rubik's Cube-like twisty puzzle, in the shape of a truncated icosahedron, which is as known as a soccer ball.
In analog specifications of Rubik Cube puzzles, this puzzle serves as truncated icosahedron in spherical form, but with 32 different rotating axes!
32 rotating axes can be found at any spherical parts with "black dots" on them. Please see attached photos to identify where these "black dots" are. They can be found fairly easy among these photos.
Condition is new, no box as its home assembled and thoroughly tested. Stickers are challenging to to satisfy dual colorings. It comes with standing ring.
Very few are made. This puzzle is tediously and artistically handmade and stickers are placed precision in the USA, hence the main reason for its high price.
12 colors in all, fairly oppositely polarized (For example if you see blues at north pole, light blues at south pole all over). Once each pentagon is colored, its internals are 5 colored, matching edge-wisely to each of pentagon's adjacent neighboring pentagons.
It contains internal spring mechanisms, which makes the puzzle to rotate pretty smoothly considering right alignments.
Each of the 700+ parts are hand made!
182 floating parts
32 rotating axes
-- 12 faces of dodecahedron (pentagons)
-- 20 corners of dodecahedron (somewhat between triangles and hexagons)
32 caps
The core consists of 62 polygonal jigsaw parts hooked together.
660 stickers precisely placed
Building this puzzle took about 5 months, from start to finish. Then another 3 full days of evaluating colors and installing stickers as there are 1112 stickers in all!
On that puzzle, there are 12 pentagons, with 5 different colored triangles at its internals. Outlined pentagons are single-colored while internal pentagons are dual-colored.
If someone asks why are some dual-colored while others are single colored? Because rotation rules need to be identified and applied as there are two different shapes and angles involved in this puzzle. To follow rules properly, dual-colored parts MUST remain within dual-colored areas; single-colored parts MUST remain within single-colored parts. See last 3 photos for corrected and wrong moves.
Approximately dimension of the puzzle:
Height: 145mm / 5.75 inches
Width: 145mm / 5.75 inches
Length: 145mm / 5.75 inches
If you don't have measuring tapes with you, I would say size is somewhat smaller than a bowling ball.
Please keep few things in your mind before making a purchase:
(1) the puzzle is NOT DESIGNED for speed cubing although it turns smoothly. Rotate on moderately off-alignments will certainly guarantee to jam or explode few pieces from the puzzle.
(2) rotation rules of the puzzle MUST be followed because the puzzle involves several different shapes and angles: pentagons, triangular-hexagons and rectangles. Pentagons are to be rotated 72° (or 1/5 of a circle) freely, triangular-hexagons are to be rotated with limitation 120° (1/3 of a circle, stopping at every other side of hexagon) instead of expected 60° (1/6 of a circle) freely. PLEASE BE AWARE ABOUT THESE ROTATION RULES!!! By ignoring them certainly guarantees a puzzle leading to over tightness or be stuck in jams, or possibly falling apart too often, which often leading to buyer complaints/returns/misunderstandings (which can be headache for both of us). Please see attached photos to understand corrected and wrong moves. As long as rotation rules are exactly followed, puzzle is certainly enjoyable.
Drop me a message if you have any other questions
Thank you for looking at the post. Happy puzzling!
--------------- Background information on Tuttminx ---------------
DEFINITION OF TUTTMINX PUZZLE: A Tuttminx is a Rubik's Cube-like twisty puzzle, in the shape of a truncated icosahedron. It was invented by Lee Tutt in 2005. It has a total of 150 movable pieces to rearrange, compared to 20 movable pieces of the Rubik’s Cube.
The Tuttminx has a total of 32 face centre pieces (12 pentagon and 20 hexagon), 60 corner pieces, and 90 edge pieces. The face centers each have a single colour, which identifies the color of that face in the solved state. The edge pieces have two colors, and the corner pieces have three colors. Each hexagonal face contains a centre piece, 6 corner pieces, and 6 edge pieces, while each pentagonal face contains a centre piece, 5 corner pieces, and 5 edge pieces.
The puzzle twists around the faces: each twist rotates one face centre piece and moves all edge and corner pieces surrounding it. The pentagonal faces can be twisted 72° in either direction, while the hexagonal faces can be rotated 120°.
The purpose of the puzzle is to scramble the colors, and then restore it to its original state of having one color per face.
NUMBER OF TUTTMINX COMBINATIONS:
The puzzle has 150 movable pieces: 60 corner pieces, 60 edge pieces that are adjacent to a pentagonal face (so-called pentagonal edges) and 30 edge pieces that are not (non-pentagonal edges). Only even permutations of all three types of pieces are possible (i.e. it is impossible to have only one pair of identical pieces swapped). Thus, there are 60!/2 possible ways to arrange the corner pieces, 60!/2 ways to arrange the pentagonal edges and 30!/2 ways to arrange the non-pentagonal edges.
All corner pieces have only one possible orientation, as do all pentagonal edge pieces. The non-pentagonal edge pieces all have 2 possible orientations each. Only even orientations of those are possible (meaning that it is impossible to have only one edge piece flipped over). This means there are 229 ways to orientate the edge pieces.
The number of possible combinations on the Tuttminx is therefore equal to
(60! x 60! x 30! x 2**29)
-------------------------------- approximately equals to 1.2325 x 10**204
8
The full number is 1 232 507 756 161 568 013 733 174 639 895 750 813 761 087 074 840 896 182 396 140 424 396 146 760 158 229 902 239 889 099 665 575 990 049 299 860 175 851 176 152 712 039 950 335 697 389 221 704 074 672 278 055 758 253 470 515 200 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 (about 1.2325 septensexagintillion on the short scale and 1.2325 quattuortrigintillion on the long scale).