The sterically protected dithiadiazolyl radical (F3C)3C6H2CNSSN. (1) crystallises in two polymorphs: 1alpha, comprised of monomeric units and 1beta, containing a mixture of both pi*-pi* dimers and S = (1/2) monomers; whilst both polymorphs exhibit similar structure-directing motifs, the variation in packing leads to different magnetic behaviour.