Idea Conceived

Prototype finished

Revealed

Original concept

Core puzzle

Dimensions

~March 1991

?

Tony Fisher ?

Skewb

15.5cm / 6.1 inch

I thought up the idea for this while working on my Octahedron Skewb in 1991. Having made one of the platonic shapes it seemed a natural progression to make the others also. As far as I was aware at the time I was designing something new. However much later I discovered the puzzle was already very well known and called the Halpern-Meier Pyramid. In addition I can now recall seeing a drawing of a similar looking puzzle in David Singmaster's Cubic Circular many years earlier. I am beginning to wonder if I really thought up this puzzle independently. So many puzzles, so long ago!
I cast the first one of these in polyester resin using remeltable rubber (Gelflex) moulds. Originally the pieces were solid though later I tried hollow casting. Later still I made the parts from high impact polystyrene plastic sheet and although trickier to make were considerably lighter. I used standard Rubik's Cube style stickers on most of these although the one in the picture has the same textured blue that I used on my original Fisher Cubes and a few others. This was simply because a smooth blue wasn't available to me at that time.
The quality is very good and rotational movement is excellent. Moves end with a pleasing click. At the time of making, Mini Skewbs were not available so I had no choice but to make it this size.
The only other Tetrahedron puzzle I have made is my 3x3x3 Tetrahedron .
Similar factory made puzzles are available below.