Pantazis' Magic Box belongs to a new style magic series, the Magic Myths. The stringing of the square tiles is based on the rubiks magics, but the concept is unique.

I have created so far, a 5-tile, 7-tile, and 9-tile magic myths. The one here is a 7-tile one. You need to notice that there is a consistent and smooth continuity on the stringing that preserves the stability just like in a normal rubiks magic. In other words, if they had inifinite tiles, you would't be able to distinguish this type of stringing from a normal rubik's magic! Just think of it as a form of mobius type of stringing!

The only catch(?), is that they can never be flat, i.e. they are 3-dimensional by nature! In my opinion, that is not a disadvantage. Their movements are directly related to the magics we all know, but because of its 3-d state, some are not similar at all!!! It moves very nice and it is very very puzzling! (It is a puzzle after all).

Future projects include other odd tiled magics, e.g.

5-tile: The Magic Thrones of the Gods (two different states, one with the throne of Zeus and another one with Poseidon's!)
7-tile: The Magic Wrath of the Cyclops (one state will look like a Cyclops foot and the other state will look like his lair).
9-tile: The Magic Secret of Atlantis (one state will look like and ancient column, and the other one as an Atlantian fish!)

I have also developed another 5-tile template, where not one, not two, but three(!!!) secret and extremely dangerous (strings could come off) moves are required to bring it into a cube form! (of course, one side of this cube is open).

So... the first prototype is a combination of two concepts that I had never seen being used before.

- First concept, is the creation of the closed loop odd numbered tile magics, which by nature, are 3-d.
- Second concept, the use of the transparent tiles to make the puzzle more challenging, i.e. to solve the puzzle, one specific tile must be on top of another specific tile and by looking through both of them, an image will appear. This image is made by a combination of parts that belong to each tile.

To solve the puzzle you must:

- First bring it in a form similar to the "create the cube" puzzle (as shown in the above pictures), with the only difference, that one of the top tiles of the box is missing (it is a 7-tile after all!).
- Then you must look directly inside the box towards the bottom tile, and by connecting the bottom-box tile with the the tile OUTSIDE the box, you get a combined image. Does this image look like a capital Pi which includes a small "Pi"?

If yes, you have found one of the FOUR hidden solutions. Each solution has a completely different configuration when the images are combined. Of course, since we have four solutions and seven tiles, one tile has to be shared!
Finding one of those four solutions, is easy, but finding all of them, can be a very tough challenge!!!
Each and one of those four solutions was carefully designed and the connecting parts for each solution were deliberately made different. By now, it must be obvious that to reach them, you need to know how to make some new style of moves!

A small video (avi format) may be view HERE (2 Megabytes, AVI format). Iin this video file, I initially found a wrong solution - the small Pi is mirrored as the curly part of the small Pi is supposed to be on the left - but eventually I end up with one of the solutions.

Pantazis "Stringing Order" Technique:

All of my single closed loop magics are made with my stringing techinque described below.

ODD NUMBERED MAGICS

Circle 1:
Stringing the 1st to the 2nd and then 3rd (front and back)
Then, stringing the 3rd to the 4th and then 5th (front and back)
....
Then, stringing the nth to the 1st and then 2nd (front and back)

Circle 2:
Stringing the 2nd to the 3rd and then 4th (front and back)
Then, stringing the 4th to the 5th and then 6th (front and back)
....
Then, stringing the (n-1)th to the nth and then 1st (front and back)

EVEN NUMBERED MAGICS

Circle 1:
Stringing the 1st to the 2nd and then 3rd (front and back)
Then, stringing the 3rd to the 4th and then 5th (front and back)
....
Then, stringing the (n-1)th to the nth and then 1st (front and back)

Circle 2:
Stringing the 2nd to the 3rd and then 4th (front and back)
Then, stringing the 4th to the 5th and then 6th (front and back)
....
Then, stringing the nth to the 1st and then 2nd (front and back)

This creates two "circles" (whose order must be strictly followed), that traps each and everyone (except one! - but that is ok) of the "3-tile open loop magics" of each stringing. The two large string-circles make sure that the pressure is spread (i.e. halved) along the magic. And by having one stringing "on top" of the other, it ensures that the first supports the second. If this practice is used, from my experience, the magic is very strong and robust.