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Sion

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Twenty dollars for a cube that eveyone admits Is not even good for top solvers. I wish I could give GAN the benefit of the doubt, but that's pretty inexcusable. There are definitely cheaper puzzles that likely perform way better than this.
 
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One Wheel

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Twenty dollars for a cube that eveyone admits isnt even that good. I wish I could give GAN the benefit of the doubt, but that's pretty inexcusable.
That's cheap for a Gan.
 

cuber314159

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:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:o_Oo_O if he actually is. Source?

Twenty dollars for a cube that eveyone admits isnt even that good. I wish I could give GAN the benefit of the doubt, but that's pretty inexcusable.
Especially when moyu have released essentially the same thing but better and cheaper
 
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Twenty dollars for a cube that eveyone admits isnt even that good. I wish I could give GAN the benefit of the doubt, but that's pretty inexcusable.
Yeah, I agree. I thought this would be about 12 dollars at the most, and it's 20$ and worst than an 8$ Qiyi MS
 

Doctor Hedron

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Especially when moyu have released essentially the same thing but better and cheaper
And before that, FanXin had these "training" cubes since at least late 2018. I've been seeing them in local "dollar stores" for a while now, before the pandemic that is. Both the Moyu and Gan versions are just "well-known" companies jumping on the trend that "no-name" brands started.
 

Doctor Hedron

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STICKERLESS Gigaminx

FTFY
For now, you'll have to settle for the stickerless MF8 4x4 minx...

17956117-3.1024.jpg


... or this funky stickerless MF8 Teraminx.

fiwkzAu.jpg


Actually, if you never move the *outer* layers and only move them together with the 2nd layer, then it will function as a stickerless gigaminx, with 2-colored edges and 3-colored corners.
 
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Doctor Hedron

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My two cents on the force examinx idea, speaking as someone who made force 12x12s (cubes, not minxes). I ended up typing waaay too much, but hopefully someone still finds this useful or interesting.

I think it was @Doctor Hedron who said on Reddit that force Examinxes would take about 39 hours

Yeah, it was me. Was it you who said that a literal cow is cheaper than the examinx? :) But yeah, forcing these should take 31-39 hours, IF you plan ahead, be smart about it, and have prior experience with forcing big cubes.

I made various force cubes in the past, including Meilong 12x12s, 9x9s and others, and my rule #1 is to NOT disassemble the cubes entirely. Building a big cube completely from scratch is annoying and inefficient, and piece management would take forever. Instead, one should "swap" faces between cubes in a controlled fashion, six at a time - disassemble six differently-colored faces, one on each cube, and assemble them on other cubes. This is very efficient: you manipulate each piece (including edges) only once, the cubes are always stable and not falling apart, and the pile of cubies at any given moment is manageable. Even then, with actually big cubes (8x8+), that's still a lot of cubies in each color's pile, and finding the right one is hard. Halfway into forcing the 12x12s, I switched to iterations of 1/4 of the face at a time, not full face. This made the piles actually manageable, and I didn't have to bother with the fragile stability of the exposed hidden layer pieces.

---

Anyway, based on my times for forcing 5x5, 7x7 and 9x9, I had concocted an elegant prediction formula that later proved to be correct for the 12x12.

For an NxN cube, the lower bound (in minutes) is:

5.333 * N^2 + 6 * N - 3.333

And the upper bound is the same number multiplied by 1.25. It gets closer to the upper bound if the cube is big (piece management) and if it's not pre-magnetized - on magnetic cubes, everything wants to stay in place very nicely and you are less likely to have random annoying crumbles. For even-layered cubes, use the number for the N+1 cube (that is, for the 12x12, use N = 13 in the formula). This is because while you don't need to rearrange/reassemble hidden layer pieces (N+1-th layer), you still need to work around them carefully and sometimes spend time on fixing them.

For an NxN minx, where N = amount of pieces across an edge (including the corners), the lower bound (in minutes) is:

14.666 * N^2 + 9.667 * N - 5.9333

And the upper bound is the same number multiplied by 1.25. Same reasoning as for cubic NxNs above. For even-layered minxes, it's probably wise to use the result for the N+1 minx, too.

---

HOWEVER, the physical reassembly isn't the hard part here. Yes it will be ~31-39 hours for the examinx (or more if he doesn't do it efficiently), but so what? It's almost a no-brainer decision for a large and popular channel, especially since the video has a decent chance to "go viral". The guy is used to putting many hours of work into his content, I'm sure of it. The process itself is even kind of meditative. I know that I didn't "suffer" while forcing my 12x12s.

But the real problem is cost and logistics. I think 12 examinxes can be realistically bought for $3000-ish (USD) from ZiiCube in the near future. Since he is YouTube-famous, maybe SCS might help him get a special deal directly from the manufacturer. Let's be generous with $2000-2500.

Now consider international shipping during the pandemic. Logistics chains are broken, parcels don't travel very well or very fast these days. I personally have a parcel (from a private person) stuck in China for 2 months already, because there are no flights. Some more "premium" carriers work better, but the cost would go up too. Probably by a lot.

Now consider import taxes and other related restrictions. Yes, Chinese stores can write whatever price you want in the paperwork, but do you think a customs agent will believe that 12 huge and complex toys/puzzles, weighing ~24 kg, supposedly cost only $50 together? Also, 12 identical toys sure looks like a commercial order to me. Sir, are you buying them to re-sell them locally? Do you know that toys in particular are subject to various regulations, being products intended for kids? Do you have paperwork that shows that these toys are safe according to your country's standards?

Then the financial part too, suppose he can drop 3 grand on this, but what would be the "point"? It only really makes sense to do it if you can get rid of at least some of them - I really, really doubt that direct and indirect profits from the video itself can recoup the costs. How many people will buy one? I had a hell of a time finding buyers for the 12x12s. Yes, he is way more famous than me, he has more audience reach, but still it's a hobby that very heavily skews young. Let's be real here, an average "kid" can't afford buying a $400+ exclusive puzzle that will mostly just sit on the shelf, because it's not something you solve everyday. People will gladly press "like" on his video and comment "woaj" or whatever meme is trendy these days, but that will be all.

Hell, I still have 4 leftover force Galaxy V2 M megaminxes that I made. There was demand, the first "batch" of 12 colors sold surprisingly very fast, so I made a second batch due to continued demand - but then it dried up. Now what? I mean, I can afford failing to sell several megaminxes, although tbh I'd rather have money than unused puzzles in a cardboard box in the corner of my living room. But how about failing to sell many examinxes? Now that's bad.
 
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2018AMSB02

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thecubicle.com/products/yj-yuhu-megaminx-v2-m?_pos=2&_psq=yuhu%2A%20OR%20body%3A"yuhu"&_ss=e&_v=1.0

Hmmm, I thought that it came with the black parts in the first place, like in SCS's video.

That doesnt make me happy, I hope some other cubing stores sell them together
 

Cuberstache

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thecubicle.com/products/yj-yuhu-megaminx-v2-m?_pos=2&_psq=yuhu%2A%20OR%20body%3A"yuhu"&_ss=e&_v=1.0

Hmmm, I thought that it came with the black parts in the first place, like in SCS's video.

That doesnt make me happy, I hope some other cubing stores sell them together
I just bought the Yuhu v2 thinking it had the black parts included. I'm about to be very disappointed if they're not.
 
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