When I first started selling variations on my original Barcode Burr puzzle, I came up with this "Master Set" which included a few new ideas of mine, as well as some of Derek Bosch:

• Barcode Burr
• TernCode Burr
• QuadCode Burr
• SuperCode Burr
• ExtremeTortureCode Burr
• CoordiCode Burr

At the time, these were the only variations that I had come up with. These sets came with two sets of body pieces preinstalled with black and blue insert pieces (Barcode Burr and CoordiCode Burr) and preassembled so that you get a chance to do these ones as disassembly puzzles rather than assembly puzzles.

I also sold an "upgrade kit" that omitted the preassembled Barcode Burr if you'd already purchased of those from me.

In the first few versions of this master set that I shipped out, I included an extra "copper" colored body piece so that you could opt to have piece #1 look different than the rest in order to make solving easier. Eventually I stopped doing this in favor of offering rainbow body piece kits as separate items to purchase.

After selling a few dozen Master Sets like this, I came up with several new coordinate motion designs such as:

• GreenCode Burr Master Set
• CrossCode Burr Master Set
• CrossCode Burr #5
• PurpleCode Burr
• GrayCode Burr

In keeping with tradition, and new copies of the "Barcode Burr Master Set" that I sell will come with everything needed to try all of the puzzles, but minimal duplication of shared pieces so that you can save money and recycle shared parts between variations. Here is the list of parts that you'll get with a new purchase:

• Barcode Burr preassembled puzzle with standard silver-gray body piece color (black inserts)
• GreenCode Burr #1 preassembled puzzle with standard silver-gray body piece color (green inserts)
• (1) bag of (9) green inserts, for other GreenCode Burr Master Set variations
• CrossCode Burr #1 preassembled puzzle with rainbow colored body pieces (white inserts)
• (3) extra bags of white inserts, each containing (9) pieces, for other CrossCode Burr Master Set variations
• (1) bag of (12) orange inserts for TernCode Burr
• (1) bag of (12) yellow inserts for QuadCode Burr
• (1) bag of (12) red inserts for SuperCode Burr
• (1) bag of (2) white inserts for ExtremeTortureCode Burr
• (1) bag of (12) gold inserts for CrossCode Burr #5
• (1) bag of (12) purple inserts for PurpleCode Burr
• (1) bag of (12) gray inserts for GrayCode Burr
• hex wrench tool + spare screws
• puzzle info cards for each variation
• insert installation piece identification diagram cards for each variation
• "rainbow roadmap" infographic cards for each variation
• "graycode" solution cards for each variation
• (1) bag of (12) small brass nuts, for use as placeholder markers on the rainbow roadmap diagrams.

These are my favorite four versions of the Haeckel Sphere puzzles, showcased below with cute named coloring schemes:

• 5-color checkered Haeckel Sphere (moonrise)
• 3-color Haeckel Sphere (fireball)
• 4-color tetrahedral Haeckel Sphere (mint chip)
• 2-color checkered Haeckel Sphere (deck the halls)

If you've already got Haeckel Sphere Set #1 then these four are the next ones I'd recommend:

• 6-color classic Haeckel Sphere (Stewart Coffin's original version)
• 10-color Haeckel Sphere (Stewart Coffin's new "Vexit" version)
• 6-color cubic Haeckel Sphere
• 5-color tetrahedral Haeckel Sphere (autumn leaves)

This set includes all of the white colored insert pieces required to make the following puzzles:

• CrossCode Burr #1
• CrossCode Burr #2
• CrossCode Burr #3
• CrossCode Burr #4

This kit comes with one set of body pieces preinstalled with the CrossCode Burr #1 inserts, and preassembled so that you get a chance to do one as a disassembly puzzle rather than an assembly puzzle.

Whereas the GreenCode Burr Master Set gives you 4 variations while keeping 75% of the green pieces the same (small bag of extra parts) the members of this CrossCode family don't share any noteworty pieces beyond the most basic double-pin ones, thus this Master Set comes with larger bags of extra parts.

If you want to spend more: I sell "display upgrade kits" of white insert pieces that contain the 5 ones which are the same between each variation, so that you can have multiple variations assembled simultaneously. You'll need to have an extra sets of body pieces too.

If you want to spend less: I sell this set of white insert pieces as a standalone upgrade kit that does not include any body pieces in case you already have enough of those and don't mind recycling components from one to the next as you try each member of the Barcode Burr family.

If you want to maxx-out your display shelf: This master set + 3 display upgrade kits + 3 sets of body pieces will let you have all four CrossCode Burr variations assembled at once. Honestly though, if you want to go this route then you might as well just buy all four of the individual preassembled from me so that you get to experience them all as blind disassembly challenges as your first experience of them!

This set includes all of the green colored insert pieces required to make the following puzzles:

• GreenCode Burr #1
• GreenCode Burr #2
• GreenCode Burr #3
• GreenCode Burr #4

This kit comes with one set of body pieces preinstalled with the GreenCode Burr #1 inserts, and preassembled so that you get a chance to do one as a disassembly puzzle rather than an assembly puzzle.

On of the interesting things about this family of "GreenCode" designs is that they all share 75% of the same insert pieces, so the only difference between them is which version of maze path "tab" inserts gets installed on pieces #1-3. Another interesting thing is that for each of the four design variations, all three maze path tab inserts are identical. The nature of how these design variations share so many of the same pieces allows this master set to only need 9 extra insert pieces beyond what comes preassembled in order to get 3 more puzzle challenges.

If you want to spend more: I sell "display upgrade kits" of green insert pieces that contain the 9 ones which are the same between each variation, so that you can have multiple variations assembled simultaneously. You'll need to have an extra sets of body pieces too.

If you want to spend less: I sell this set of green insert pieces as a standalone upgrade kit that does not include any body pieces in case you already have enough of those and don't mind recycling components from one to the next as you try each member of the Barcode Burr family.

If you want to maxx-out your display shelf: This master set + 3 display upgrade kits + 3 sets of body pieces will let you have all four GreenCode Burr variations assembled at once. Honestly though, if you want to go this route then you might as well just buy all four of the individual preassembled from me so that you get to experience them all as blind disassembly challenges as your first experience of them!

Here's a fun set of all three stellations of the rhombic dodecahedron, inspired by previous wooden editions I've made such as the IPP29 stellation sets but instead of using Stewart Coffin's original designs for Permuted Second Stellation and Permuted Third Stellation puzzles, I've slightly modified the piece geometry in order to allow them all to 3D print easily. My version of the third stellation is very similar to Coffin's however my second stellation is medium difficulty compared to Coffin's version. A benefit to making the middle puzzle is that it provides a nice ramp-up of difficulty going from smallest to largest puzzle.

I like to deliver these puzzles to customers in the "scrambled" state where one puzzle is solid black, one is solid white, and one is solid accent color. As such, the first three puzzles to solve are those of figuring out how to get these funky looking structures disassembled (not easy). The fourth puzzle (easy) is to sort all 18 pieces to figure out which ones are supposed to go together. From that point, the next three puzzles to solve are getting each stellation assembled correctly.

7 puzzle challenges!

This is a whole family of puzzle designs, all based from the original wooden Barcode Burr but rendered in 3D printed plastic. Each of the puzzle pieces is comprise of a "body" (corner piece) section plus two interchangeable maze insert pieces which attach with screws.

One of my design goals for the family of Barcode Burr designs was to have customers be able to try all of the variations at minimal cost by being able to swap out the color coded insert pieces onto the same corner piece body components so as avoid purchasing so many duplicate pieces. If people want to have more variations assembled simultaneously then more body pieces (and attachment screws) are needed.

The "standard" color scheme that I've always used is with each of the 6 pieces being of the same silver-gray color which looks nice and makes for a tricky solving process because it's so easy to "get lost" however I also offer the "rainbow" color scheme so that people can color-code the pieces in order to make the solving process easier to visualize.

This family of design variations are all stellated variation of Stewart Coffin's "Jupiter" puzzle. In addition to the stellation itself, I've made some aesthetic tweaks to the shape of the pieces in order to give it an organic feeling, somewhat inspired by Ernst Haeckel's 1904 lithograph "Blastoidea" which depicts various members of the sea urchin family.

From a strictly geometric perspective, all 12 pieces of each version have the same 5-fold rotationally symmetric shape as each other. Assembly is tricky to figure out at first if you're not familiar with this kind of puzzle, yet it's not especially difficult to do once you've done it a few times. There are a few fun Ah-Ha moments in this process which include elements of sequence and dexterity challenges.

Coffin's Classic 6-color system (dodecahedral symmetry)

The true beauty and puzzling challenge from solving a Haeckel Sphere comes from the standpoint of color symmetry. Stewart Coffin's published literature on the topic of the Jupiter puzzle seems to steer readers toward a particular coloring scheme where the 60 sticks (of wood) are divided into 6 groups of 10 each, and arranged so that every parallel stick is of the same color, as seen in this example image of the "preferred configuration". There are 4 other solutions to Coffin's classic 6-color version of the puzzle which also have color symmetry, yet do not have parallel sticks matching. Finding all 5 solutions is a fun challenge, and it could be said that the puzzle is not truly "solved" until all 5 solutions have been found. One of the satisfying aspects of solving each color symmetry challenge is that the puzzle itself takes on a whole new aesthetic with each new configuration, and sometimes the most pleasing of the five options is not necessarily the "preferred configuration" which I would define as the one which is easiest to visualize ahead of time due to having like colors touching as much as possible.

6-color cubic symmetry

One of the really interesting things about the geometry of this Haeckel Sphere is that the underlying triacontahedral structure has its own icosahedral and dodecahedral symmetry, as well as several ways to get cubic and tetrahedral symmetry. All of these different versions take advantage of different of those geometric symmetry systems in order to define the color symmetry, so for example there are three different versions of the 6-color Haeckel Sphere. The classic version, as show above in a rainbow colors, has symmetry based on the dodecahedron, whereas this earth-tone version to the left has symmetry based on the cube.



It's somewhat tricky to objectively rank all of the variations from easiest to hardest, so instead I've picked out two groups of four which I think represent a nice selection of my favorites. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see more details about Haeckel Sphere Set #1 and Haeckel Sphere Set #2.

This is a whole family of puzzle designs, all based from the original wooden Barcode Burr but rendered in 3D printed plastic. Each of the puzzle pieces is comprise of a "body" (corner piece) section plus two interchangeable maze insert pieces which attach with screws.