Polyominoes and Polycubes — Page 4 of 4
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CHUNKY-OCTSTM ...designed by Rodolfo Kurchan A member of the polyominoes family, octomino pieces consist of 8 squares each. There are 369 different octominoes. Only 20 of them are included in this subset: the "chunky" ones with two squares attached to a 2x3 rectangle, all different. Here are the 20 pieces arranged in a diagonal staggered square in 8.5" tray. The colors show three categories: 9 symmetrical, 4 with a domino attached (two connected squares), and 7 with two separate squares attached. Color mixes may vary. Even with over 8500 solutions, it's elusive to find just one. Its booklet includes a huge variety of different puzzle themes: rectangles, squares, pentomino shapes, an alphabet, numbers, symmetrical pairs, closed fences, mother and child, stairs and ladders, and many other creative challenges, large and small. Two original strategy games will engage 2 to 5 players, ages 10 to adult.
   
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Coming soon! ROBERT'S T PARTYTM ...designed by Robert Vermillion The 28 tiles include four each of five heights of the letter T, four straight trominoes, four single squares, and four voids. The T's contain 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 squares, each size a different color. They fill a 10x14 rectangle with hundreds of different designs, including surprising symmetries. Leave the voids where needed. Its workbook contains a wealth of activities, from color matching, non-matching, color pairs, enclosed T's, the longest path, pathfinders, two-player cooperative games, and much more. It's irresistible to look for new combinations and invent new challenges for a set with such purity of form.
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DUAL QUINTACHEX® ...by Kate Jones This checkerboarded field of waves hides a secret: 24 five-celled tiles (all different shapes) uniquely patterned with frosted colors. All-acrylic construction forms an 11x11 square in 22" black tray. Many other designs to solve are contained in its handbook. Select silver or gold paired with another color of your choice. Designed for sophisticated puzzle solvers and collectors.
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HEXACUBE ... handcrafted by Kate Jones and a crew of four The 166 different shapes of 6 cubes joined, plus 4 unit
cubes, are built into a 10x10x10 cube, in a hinged
fold-out wood box. The pieces are sized to Quintillions
and Super Quintillions. In fact, they are constructed from
the parts of 10 quint sets and at least 4 superquint
sets. Each piece is carefully tailored to fit easily and
smoothly with any other piece, no matter how convoluted
the combination. Over the years many interesting questions
have been proposed for subsets of Hexacube, and for long
blocks other than the 10-cube to build from the entire
set. A 2x3x166 block snaked across our office and down the hall. The owner's manual includes a naming system and diagrammed solutions to the 10x10x10. Exploring other sizes is up to you. The 35 planar hexacubes plus one non-planar, for example, will nicely fit into a 6x6x6 cube. When ordering, please allow at least 4 months for Kate to build your Hexacube.
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Guest appearance! BLOCK BY BLOCK® invented by Piet Hein, produced by ThinkFun, Inc. The immensely popular 7-piece Soma cube of decades ago has been brought back by the ThinkFun (formerly Binary Arts) folks under this new name. It's made of molded plastic in a nice handling size and fits well in all those three-dimensional shapes. Soma expert Sivy Farhi contributed much research material. A deck of puzzle cards with hints and solutions will keep you pleasantly challenged for a long time. The graphics are great. Recommended for ages 8 to adult.
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Polyominoes ... the definitive book by Solomon Golomb This is the new edition of the original, definitive polyominoes book, more than a quarter century after its first publication. (We still have a couple of the Scribner 1965 first edition hard covers as well, on demand.) Dr. Golomb updated and revised that 1965 edition, with many new puzzles, packings and patterns, including a major section on pentominoes. The 248 pages with 243 figures get into the mathematical underpinnings of these fascinating shapes and include discussions of several other polyforms plus a hefty bibliography. Published by Princeton Univ. Press, 1994. Princeton now offers only the paperback version and ebook for $35. Amazon sells both soft and hard covers of the 1965 edition, used and new if you're lucky to find them. We still have a few of the 1994 hardcover,
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