h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Good article.

This reminds me of several other of Rubik's puzzles from the same era.

Rubik's Triamid - this was based on the same principle as the Cube, except that it was arranged as a triangular pyramid with six faces on each side. Unlike the Cube it had no joint in the middle -- instead one had to remove the top sub-pyramid, rotate it, and fix it to the bottom again. This made it far too easy to cheat with.

Rubik's Clock - this was a short cylindrical object with nine clock faces on each side arranged in a 3x3 grid. There were four dials equidistant on the circumference and four buttons in the middle. The dials would turn some of the clock faces based on the configuration of the buttons. Even though the instructions implied that the buttons could only be pushed completely to one side or the other, there was an undocumented middle state that was very helpful in completing the clock quickly.

Rubik's Magic - a most bizarre puzzle, this consisted of nine square objects connected together by many wires stretched diagonally across each square. The idea was to get from a 2x4 picture of three interlocked rings to a 3x3-1 picture of three interlocking rings - each picture being printed on a different side of the squares. This would be accomplished using folds along the square joins.

I think there were others too, but I can't remember them.

Rubik's magic is also called Rubik's rings. I have one and, unlike the cube, can solve it.

My Six year old daughter has recently become quite attached to it and calls it the "shape changer".

I don't recall ever seeing a set of instructions on how to solve it, nor can I remember how I learned to do so myself. Occassionally my daughter manages to re-arrange it in such a fashion that it takes me a good few minutes to get it back into either the "separate rings" or "interlinked rings" position, but usually it is relatively simple to get it back in place.

It never ceases to amaze me as to how this jumble of squares and plastic string remains whole, I don't know what I (or my daughter) would do if it were to break because I haven't seen one in the shops for a while.

I have two of those rings puzzles. One is 2x4 and has three rings. The other is bigger and has 5 rings.

Just remembered "Rubik's Octagon" - this was like the cube but with the corners cut to make an octagonal shape when viewed from above.
I can't remember the last time I took this one out of it's plastic case but again I was indebted to the 'net for the solution, after I had given up on solving it myself.

I solved the octagon. I've still got one in the attic in my puzzles box.

There are a few more:

The Pyramid
Four triangular faces consisting of 9 triangles each - quite simple to solve, since only the six edges really change their positions

Babel tower
Six columns containing six balls each with different shades of each colour. One of these balls can be hidden so there is a free space and the others can be moved about freely. Also quite easy to solve.

...and several others which I just can't describe.

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