Crazy 2-face Bandaged Uranus

 After solving the 2-face bandaged Jupiter, rline shared that he loves 2-face bandaged Uranus. So I switched the Green from a 1 to a 0-face, and had a go.

At first I forgot that the edge between the 0 faces could be a problem. After becoming aware of the issue I solved all the green and white edges first. Then I used the white side to reduce edges. I kept the white/blue and white/green edges across from each other and put unreduced edges in the other spots on the white face to reduce them with 180° turns. That way I could easily solve the green/white edge later hopefully. After reducing all the edges I used the white face to reduce all the corners, making sure not to turn the green face. I put the other two white edges home relative to the blue and green ones. The blue and green edges did not line up with the blue and green centers yet. So I solved the white corners so I could turn the bottom so all the edges lined up with their centers. The good news is that getting it this far was fun, not frustrating. :) I ended up solving edges first, then permuting corners, then twisting corners. Having two 0-faces and a pink bandage piece certainly makes this a challenge.

Crazy 2-face Bandaged Jupiter

 rline came up with another Jupiter challenge. Swap out the edge bandaged piece for a center-edge bandaged piece, and add a 2-face. Strategy:

1. Reduce Edges (white up)

2. Reduce Corners (white down; pink up)

• Lots at a time, like the edges.
• If Up Replace Down doesn't put it oriented correctly, use it anyway then turn the pink out of the way and twist the corner.

3. Solve (blue down)

• First two layers minus RWB corner.
• Green edges then remaining corners.
• F (up forward down go back) F' to flip edges if necessary.

Crazy Jupiter Bandaged

 rline is back! Back into puzzling. Yesterday I sent him a box of puzzle pieces. A bunch of pieces from the kit Burgo sent me years ago that I have never done anything with. rline will get much more use out of them than I will. Also sent were a bunch of Crazy Tetrahedron pieces. Enough to build every Crazy Tetrahedron Planet and then some. 

He encouraged me to keep the pink pieces of the B4 kit so I could make some Crazy Bandaged Puzzles. His first challenge was based on Jupiter. The white face is a 0-face. All others are 1-faces. Plus there is a B4 Pink bandaged piece.

It was quite frustrating at first, and just about did me in. I was ready to take it apart, put the pinks away, and go back to something easier. Like a simple circle cube. That is all 0-faces. But I'm glad I persevered. I finally solved it, but every solve took hours to do. Then rline told me he can solve it in 20 minutes. What?!? After he posted a video I watched the master at work. Very methodical. Very nice. Very inspiring. I've been able to work out a strategy myself now that I can execute in under an hour. The only time I timed it it was 29 minutes, and since I was hurrying I messed up a few times which cost me some minutes. Here is my strategy—

1. Pink Block (white down)

3 pink edges on bottom.

Get pink corners just like white corners on a 3x3x3.

2. Reduce Edges (white up; start with pink down

Move 4 edges to the top so that a 90° twist reduces 3 of them. Twist. Repeat.

3. Reduce Corners (white & pink down; pink in back)

Unreduced corners in front with the inner of one matching the outer of the other. To get them there, twist the top and use one of the following moves (these are just the same moves that are used to solve the white corners of a normal 3x3x3)—

• Up Forward Down
• Up Replace Down
• (Up Forward Down Goback) (Up Forward Down)
• (Up Around Down Goback) (Up Forward Down)
• If the pink is blocking a move twist it up to the back of the side you want to twist up.

Turn the bottom to reduce a corner. Replace the corner with an inner that matches the outer than will come forward when you turn the bottom back.

If an outer and inner that belong together are on two sides of the same corner, get that color on the other side of the cube. Turn the bottom, twist the corner, turn the bottom back.

4. 2x2x3 Block (white down)

The goal is to solve the pink, blue/red edge, blue/orange edge, red/white edge, and orange/white edge. It doesn't matter what order they are done in.

Use turns of the yellow, blue and orange faces to solve the orange/white. Yellow, blue and red faces to solve the red/white. 

To solve the red/blue edge—

1. Turn the blue then red to move the pink under the red center.
2. Turn the top to put the blue of the blue/red edge over the blue center.
3. Turn red then blue to move the pink back under the blue center.

5. Orient Edges 

Count the bad edges. Bad edges are edges that need to flip. An edge needs to flip if, holding the 2x2x3 block on the bottom left, you could not solve the edge using only turns of the top and right layers. 

If there are an odd number of bad edges, the pink edge needs to flip. With white down and blue on the right, and a bad edge at the top front do R2 U2 L F U2 Fi U R2. Doing this sequence maintains the 2x2x3 block and flips one of the bad edges.

If there are still bad edges to flip put blue down and yellow in front. Bad edges at the top/back and left/front can be flipped with Di (Up Forward Down) D.

6. Solve (blue down)

1. Finish the bottom two layers.
2. Permute edges. up forward down forward up around down. 
3. Permute corners if necessary by double swapping with setup moves and (Up Forward Down Goback) x 3. 
4. Orient corners. Right then Left up forward down forward up around down.

Using this strategy I solved it in under 20 minutes. It was a nice smooth solve with no mess-ups. 

Crazy 2face B4

I know I know, less than two weeks ago I posted, "Basically I can't be bothered with anything that has alignment or sticker or bandaging issues right now. Been there done that. Just want some smooth simple fun." No bandaged puzzles huh? Well guess what has been calling my name lately.

June 22, 2015 I posted on Puzzle Photography:

I haven't played with the Crazy2face B4 Cube in a year and a half maybe. I didn't intend to play with it now. I was enjoying my smooth, simple puzzles that don't have any bandaging. But this started calling my name. So here it is. I'm not sure what it was even named in the past, if anything. It has one 0-face, two adjacent 2-faces, and three 1-faces lined up. And one pink piece. I have an idea that maybe Andy Chillingworth or Kevin Sadler introduced it but I'm not sure. I think it is supposed to be one of the easier configurations but I'm not sure. I'm not looking for hints on solving, but rather if it was given a name. Any ideas?

June 22, 2015
I've been fiddling with it. When I had no idea how to start I tried finding notes I had made previously somewhere, I tried looking at diagrams Burgo had prepared back when, but nothing helped. So I just started fiddling with it and found myself trying to reduce and solve the white edges. The white side is the 0-face. Next I figured I'd reduce and solve the white corners. And by that time figured I'd reduce the rest of the corners. This is where I am now.

June 22, 2015

The next logical step to me in my fiddling was to reduce the non-white edges. But the only way to reduce is on the white side / 0-face, so that means things got a bit muxed ip.

Here is a view of my cool, wet yard in the hot, dry land where I live.

And done. The 0-face and B4 bandage certainly added an extra challenge but once reduced it did not require any special algorithms to solve. Reducing did not require any special algorithms either, just a different technique that isn't needed in solving a normal 3x3x3.