AWESOME NEW PUZZLE, THE "QUAD CUBE"

[Deleted member 2864]

http://www.tdcgames.com/CUBES.htm

Stumbled across a nice toy store the other day. They sold something called a quad cube. It's 4 2x2's hitched together. What's more is that it's FULLY FUNCTIONAL!!! That means it can make funky shapes. The colour scheme is exactly like an eastsheen and even the sound is like the eastsheens. So the cubes may just be mini eastsheens that the company gets, mods then ships it out =b. I can solve it but not quickly. It involves intuitively fixing the shape to it's original form, then solve it like you're solving 4 2x2s from one of the outer cubes to the end. Every cube is smooth except for one which for some reason is exetremely stiff.

Overall, perhaps one of the most unique puzzles I posses due to it's shapeshifting abilities and it's awesome simplicity. I reccomend it to everybody. Great challenge on the fixing the wierd shape part and lazy cubing on the final 4 cubes.

 

[minsarker]

was it 18.95?

 

[AvGalen]

It is not awesome, it is not new and it is just EastSheens, actually created by EastSheen, actually sold by EastSheen and actually on the frontpage of the EastSheen-website.

There is no challenge in fixing the weird shape and solving it is just solving 4 2x2x2's

(They also create them with 2 2x2x2's and 3 2x2x2's)

And it seems to cost 18.95 (expensive) which you have to pay through 2rich.com

 

[d4m4s74]

the X-cube is cool, but not "new" either

 

[ImNOTnoob]

THey sell 'braintwist' puzzles at my local science center..
I wonder if it is the same as Xcube.

 

[d4m4s74]

nope, the braintwist is like totally different

 

[Gunnar]

Yeah, I wouldn't say new. I've had mine since EC 2004, where my brother bought it for me. As Arnaud says, it's nothing special, just several 2x2s put together. It's only good as a collectible.

 

[toast]

Haha, I got one for Christmas, it's pretty fun.

 

[cookingfat]

I have one with three mini 2x2x2s fused, it's fun, but doesn't turn nice. Looks good on the shelf though.

 

[It3ration]

Someone just gave me one of these - I keep running into some weird parity issue. The end cube is perfectly solved except for one corner cubie that is in the wrong orientation. How is this possible? Maybe I accidentally twisted it? Hmm.

 

[byu]

Someone just gave me one of these - I keep running into some weird parity issue. The end cube is perfectly solved except for one corner cubie that is in the wrong orientation. How is this possible? Maybe I accidentally twisted it? Hmm.

I'd take it apart and reorient it. I don't think that's possible.

 

[pcharles93]

Someone just gave me one of these - I keep running into some weird parity issue. The end cube is perfectly solved except for one corner cubie that is in the wrong orientation. How is this possible? Maybe I accidentally twisted it? Hmm.

I'd take it apart and reorient it. I don't think that's possible.

Are all the different colors facing the same way i.e. red faces are facing the same way?

 

[It3ration]

Actually I've discovered it's just an illusion. If one corner cubie is misoriented, it means you have to swap corners with the "shared" corner, and then perform a 3-corner cycle to fix completely. This thing was tough! I'm an experienced cuber, but it took me about 2 hours to get this one. The difficult lies in the shared corners, and also that since turning the middle cubes totally changes the shape and sometimes gets stuck, it's very hard to keep track of what you're doing. Great puzzle, but I won't be scrambling it again.

 

[AvGalen]

Actually I've discovered it's just an illusion. If one corner cubie is misoriented, it means you have to swap corners with the "shared" corner, and then perform a 3-corner cycle to fix completely. This thing was tough! I'm an experienced cuber, but it took me about 2 hours to get this one. The difficult lies in the shared corners, and also that since turning the middle cubes totally changes the shape and sometimes gets stuck, it's very hard to keep track of what you're doing. Great puzzle, but I won't be scrambling it again.

You are highly overestimating this puzzle. All problems you encountered could have been avoided if you simply:
1) Change the shape to the final shape. This should only require a couple of moves (think 3) and will avoid the "sometimes gets stuck" entirely
2) Start with 1 of the cubes on either end and work your way to the other end
3) Figure out which color is supposed to go on which face by figuring out the colors and orientation of the hidden corner. That will avoid all permutation-parities and also all orientation issues.
4) There is no 4

First time took me 10 minutes (or less)
Second time 2 minutes
Scrambling takes 2 minutes as well because the puzzle turns really crappy

 

[DavidWoner]

Meffert's calls this the "Platypus Cube" and it has been on their site in many variations for a while: http://sites.webec.com.hk/meffert/index.cfm?id=675966&fuseaction=browse&pageid=106

 

[AvGalen]

Meffert's calls this the "Platypus Cube" and it has been on their site in many variations for a while: http://sites.webec.com.hk/meffert/index.cfm?id=675966&fuseaction=browse&pageid=106

Are you absolutely sure that Platypus is the same as 4 bandaged 2x2x2's? I think they are entirely different puzzles.

 

[d4m4s74]

he was talking about the other cube on the page (x cube)

 

[Kenneth]

Yop, platyplus is an old Meffert's puzzle, I first solved one in 1982 and it was pretty easy.

Have not seen one since then exept for images on the net.

 

[AvGalen]

he was talking about the other cube on the page (x cube)

That makes more sense. Maybe Vault could be a little more precise next time?

Meffert's calls this the "Platypus Cube"

Most of the topic and the topic title was about the quad cube