Did I just dig up a rare puzzle?

[Tgrede]

Hey, so as I have started collecting puzzles I slowly remembered a weird puzzle I had when I was a kid and never knew the name of it or had ever seen it again. Even to this day I don't see anything like it, and there isn't much said about it in the twisty puzzles museum, apparently its called rubik's shells. And when you push a button it makes the puzzle harder and the button cannot be unpushed. What is the rarity of this puzzle if anyone knows of it.

 

[Animorpher13]

can you post a photo or two?

 

[Bubtore]

This here ?
http://www.twistypuzzles.com/cgi-bin/puzzle.cgi?pkey=897

 

[Tgrede]

so the blue wheel is on the same wheel as white, and the red wheel is on the same wheel as green. Apparently when the buttons aren't pushed down the wheels move independent of each other, and when the button is pushed the wheels move with each other. The goal is obviously to get each color ball in its respective color of wheel. I have never seen this in any puzzle store or anything.

 

[gokkar]

I have one of these. They aren't made anymore, so I think they're somewhat rare, but there's a surprising lack of information out there about this puzzle.

 

[Tgrede]

Yes that is the correct puzzle.

 

[Tgrede]

Its really interesting, and definitely pretty difficult as i'm currently trying to figure out how to solve it.

 

[willtri4]

http://www.jaapsch.net/puzzles/rubshll.htm

 

[cmhardw]

Wow, I feel old. Yes, I guess these are now somewhat rare. I bought my first one in a puzzle store, but I haven't seen them being made for years. eBay may sometimes have one.

The shells is still one of my very favorite puzzles. With both buttons pushed it's difficult, but it follows the same concept as other twisty puzzles in that commutators, conjugates, and order of a permutation being useful to you to solve the puzzle.