Dogic

The Dogic (/ˈdɒdʒɪk/) is an icosahedron-shaped puzzle like the Rubik's Cube. The 5 triangles meeting at its tips may be rotated, or 5 entire faces (including the triangles) around the tip may be rotated. It has a total of 80 movable pieces to rearrange, compared to the 20 pieces in the Rubik's Cube.

The Dogic was patented by Zoltan and Robert Vecsei in Hungary on 20 October 1993. The patent was granted 28 July 1998 (HU214709). It was originally sold by VECSO in two variants under the names "Dogic" and "Dogic 2", but was only produced in quantities far short of the demand; for a long time, the only feasible way to acquire it was via second-hand channels such as eBay.

In 2004, Uwe Mèffert acquired the plastic molds from its original manufacturer at the request of puzzle fans and collectors worldwide, and made another production run of the Dogics. These Dogics were first shipped in January 2005, and are now being sold by Meffert in his puzzle shop, Meffert's until September 2010 when the lack of interest for Meffert's Dogics made Uwe Meffert stop his Dogic production run.

According to Uwe Mèffert, 2000 units have been produced by him. Now, the Dogics are very rare and are sold around $500 on eBay.

The basic design of the Dogic is an icosahedron cut into 60 triangular pieces around its 12 tips and 20 face centers. All 80 pieces can move relative to each other. There are also a good number of internal moving pieces inside the puzzle, which are necessary to keep it in one piece as its surface pieces are rearranged.

There are two types of twists that it can undergo: a shallow twist which rotates the 5 triangles around a single tip, and a deep twist which rotates 5 entire faces (including the triangles around the tip) around the tip. The shallow twist moves the triangles between faces but keeps them around the same tip; the deeper twist moves the triangles between the 5 tips lying at the base of the rotated faces but keeps them on the same faces. Each triangle has a single color, while the face centers may have up to 3 colors, depending on the particular coloring scheme employed.

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Wikipedia