Combination Puzzles – Rubik’s Tower and more
(This is a continuation from Part 2 of this article)
A Rubik’s Tower, also known as Slim Tower (when in piece configuration 1) or Tower Cube (also when in piece configuration 1) is another type of puzzle cube that is out there. It takes the geometric form of a cuboid, however, it is a non-uniform cuboid. This puzzle comes in a selection of piece configurations, some of these include the following: 2x2x3 (piece configuration 1), 2x3x3 (piece configuration 2), 3x4x4 (piece configuration 3), and the 2x2x6 (piece configuration 4).
Unlike some of the other combination puzzles (such as the megaminx puzzle cube), this one tends to be produced in low volume, and they are often custom made. The process of making one is quite interesting. Usually, they start the internal makeup and structuring of a regular puzzle. The next thing to do from that point is to add cubie pieces to the puzzle. This pieces are either made from absolute scratch, or they may be simply adjusted from regular puzzles.
Rubik’s Tower puzzles that have about three different numbers of even or odd rows have an additional feature that is quite interesting: they can change shape. The Tower Cube (piece configuration 1), however, does not change its physical structure and form. Also, the colors on the top surface cannot be mixed with those on the side of the puzzle. Katsuhiko Okamoto is responsible for the invention of this puzzle cube, hence one of the nicknames for the product: “Okamoto Cube”.
The next puzzle to be examined here is the Siamese cube. These have a very interesting shape in that they are essentially two fused puzzles. This can be taken
notches higher by fusing a higher number of cubes. The biggest fusion of such that is known is known as The Puzzle Museum, which has no less than three puzzle cubes of the configuration 5x5x5. These cubes are combined in two locations in the configuration of 2x2x5.