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Tuttminx

Concept

The Tuttminx, desinged by Lee Tutt in 2005 and mass-produced by Verypuzzle 6 years later. Verypuzzle has made 3 designs so far, each one getting rid of a particular issue.
The idea and geometric design of the shape can me simply put: it's the extension of a dodecahedron to a truncated icosahedron. (Maybe a bit easier: it's a football).
Its surface consists of 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons, which makes 32 sides in total. But despite this massive amount of sides to wrap your head around, the puzzle isn't actually that hard compared to other puzzles which may seem easier at the start.
It's a non-jumbling puzzle, which means that every piece lands into a spot it's supposed to land into, it doesn't get out of orbit (although I find this term rather deceptive). The previous versions of the Verypuzzle production were able to jumble, although this was never intended. Their last design got rid of this problem, altough it's still possible with the right (rather loose) tensions.

Personal experience

The DIY Kit

I bought the DIY kit and I've got to say, it's was an interesting experience. Some days I could pull my hair out because of frustration, other days I couldn't stop because how much fun it was. Seeing the puzzle grow while I put it slowly but surely together was something I won't forget soon. I'll definitely get more DIY puzzle kits whenever I can. The only thing I was a bit insecure of was the color scheme. I found that deciding 32 colors out of the 40 (I believe) they sent, and choosing where to place them on the puzzle, was a responsibility I didn't prepare myself for. I'm a perfectionist when it comes to such (irrelevant?) things. Placing stickers is no problem, but choosing the colors was the most difficult part in the whole process. But after all, it turned out great and I couldn't have expected it to be better.

Solving experience

My first thought when I had a 32-sided puzzle in my hands was: 'what was I thinking?'. Nevertheless, I scrambled it (which took me quite a while actually), making sure I wasn't turning too brute so none of my work wouldn't be for nothing. Then I sat down with a cup of coffee and a head full of thoughts. Actually, now that I'm reliving that particular evening, I don't think that I ever took a new puzzle that seriously. Maybe because this was my first really challenging looking puzzle (many more to come!).

Anyway, I was thinking about how to approach this. After all, I didn't try some commutators or designed some algorithms before I dived into the scramble. I started on a pentagonal face, probably because I was thinking to approach it like a Megaminx, but I soon found out that that wasn't that easy after all. After I placed the first few pieces, I was starting to realize that this wouldn't be a walk in the park.
Nevertheless, with some standard commutators and cycling pieces around, I soon got the the last layer and edges. This was a bit trickier, but I could manage to do it anyway.
I thought I had encountered a parity issue during my third solve but I was not sure why it had happened. Convinced in the math which says it's absolutely impossible to have parity problems on a Tuttminx, I started looking around to see what could be wrong. It turned out it was just a simple 3-cycle.
My first solve took me about 2 hours, which was less than I expected from such a monstrous looking puzzle. My first feeling was disappointment. Maybe I got my hopes up high during the assembly, thinking I would be challenged for days. Nevertheless, I enjoyed every bit of the solve and the next day, it was scrambled again!

The Tuttminx wasn't as hard as I was expecting, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a wonderful puzzle! It's a puzzle I often scramble, which means a lot, I suppose. It has a beautiful look while it's scrambled, all the different colors on a rather unusual geometric shape, something I a person as myself can admire.


Source: http://twistypuzzles.com/
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