I recieved a copy of the Meffert "Pyraminx" catalogue a couple of days
ago. The only solid axis-rotation puzzles not already mentioned in the
Scientific American article or the OMNI article are the Pyriminx Magic
Triangle, Pentagon, and Hexagon, 3 puzzles, all prisms of the named shape,
each side face with 9 squares, and the top and bottom the appropriate n-gon
with corners, edges, and a center. Ie, the Magic Hexagon has a hexagon
on top and bottom, with 6 corners and 6 edges. These should be similar to
a cube, except, of course, the side faces cannot make quarter turns. Also
in the catalogue are a junior and senior "Magic Barrell", a 3-layered
cylinder with 2 (jr) or 3 (sr) arcs cut down from top to bottom, which look
as if they allow half twists; a Double Pyraminx, an octagon with 4 triangles
per side, which I would assume twists about the 4 central hexagons, and
is mechanically similar to the Skewb. Also shown are some textured pyraminxes,
the Pyraminx Star, with small tetrahedra on several Pyraminx faces (it looks
strange, but is equivalent to the Pyraminx, I assume); some bead puzzles
(a version of the Hungarian Rings, another related to the Orb), some
sliding block puzzles, a group of tetrahedron dissections (into 2, 3, 4, 5, and
6 pieces),and a couple of jigsaw-like puzzles. It's quite a catalogue, but
he says most of the items are not yet in production! More waiting.
-- Stan
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