The Folded and Taped Key to Paper Time
It was fourteen years ago that I ran across a PostScript file of the Key to Time. I thought it was in the Nitro9 FTP archive, home of some of the most genuine early 90s fan fiction I've ever run across, but it doesn't seem to be there now. Perhaps I found it via the old Into the Vortex links page -- you know, back when there were web sites dedicated solely to the proposition of compiling links to a selection of related web pages.
Only today, with the prospect of a day off from work, high temperatures and nothing else particularly appealing, did I indulge in a bit of papercraft, printing out, assembling and then solving the Key to Time puzzle, such as it is. The version I used came from the blog of one Brigitte Jellinek.
Some prop builders contend that Brigitte's version isn't screen accurate, but it does assemble into a cube, as you can see to the right. It took me about two and a half hours spread out across the afternoon, I think, to cut out and assemble the pieces. Solving the cube took about forty minutes of trial and error.
Is that good or bad? I don't know. But I did do something I've meant to for over a decade now. Next!