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some thoughts after a week of trying VCubes (3x3 -> 7x7)

Kaiju_cube

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20210412_150421.jpg


I wasn't into cubes when the VCube debacle went down. But after seeing the designs and reading and seeing the video(s) of their dramatic history (thanks Cubing Historian), I decided I wanted to try them, so I bought them.

The pillowed design looked neat, I still haven't seen a pillowed 3x3 except for the GoCube, which seems more 'rounded' than actually pillowed. So I was excited to try them.

First I got the 3x3 and 4x4. They're both incredibly light and turn really smooth. They don't corner-cut or have any flex to them, but they are actually very nice puzzles that put the Rubiks ones to shame in terms of smoothness and feel when turning.

So I decided to get the 5x5, 6x6, and 7x7. And that's when things took a turn.

According to internet history they were the first 6x6 and 7x7 so I had high hopes of owning these "Classics" and figured they'd be just as nice as the 3x3 and 4x4. **spoiler alert-they are not**

For some reason the 5x5 is cubed while all the others are pillows,.. this makes no sense to me. And it doesn't turn,.. at all. The amount of force required to turn the sides is absolutely ridiculous, it's just as bad if not worse than the Rubiks 5x5,.. which is basically a square brick.

The 6x6 is better and does turn, but it locks up constantly and makes doing algs like parity algs pretty painful and take much longer than it should because you basically have to re-align the layers after every one or two turns.

And the 7x7 is pretty much the same. I can do a regular (nice) 7x7 like MGC or Shengshou pretty quickly, but the VCube 7x7 took hours. It's hard to turn, layers lock up and need constant re-aligning, and even worse, at one point I had to just stop and make new stickers for it because some of the stickers fell off and wouldn't stick back on. Luckily I have a few Shengshou Gigaminx's that come with extra stickers, so I was able to trim the corners off the sticker sheets and use the 'extra' to make some stickers for the VCube.

After fighting the 7x7 all morning to finish the solve my fingers actually hurt.

So my final thoughts for the VCube line? The 3x3 and 4x4 are pretty neat and worth owning. No they're not 'speedcubes', but they are nice additions to a collection. If nothing else they're different because of the pillow design and the white plastic and black stickers replacing the white ones.

The 5x5, 6x6, and 7x7 are basically trash. I solved them each one time and don't think I'll ever solve them again. Maybe the 6x6 if I feel like punishing myself one day, it was the best of the three.

They seem solid though, very Tank Like,.. much like the Rubiks brand cubes are.

but Rubiks has tiles instead of stickers that fall off, so I'd probably still recommend them. .. though not the Rubiks 4x4 or 5x5,.. those are pretty awful and also fall into the 'One Solve' category for me.

I've found MoYu, MGC, Shengshou, YuXin, and YongJun all make much, much nicer big cubes, for less money. At the moment I'd say MoYu and Shengshou make my favorites, but MGC, YuXin and YJ are not far behind them.

I tried to give VCube a fair try but they were underwhelming and at time's just downright frustrating to use.
 
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ender9994

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Good analysis!

It should be noted that the v-cube 6 does also come in a cubic design as well as pillowed. Additionally, v-cubes had really good stickers when they first came out. Later on, their quality crashed, which was when I stopped supporting them. Take a look at, and zoom in on the picture below. Notice how the black v-cube stickers were peeling. They were purchased much later on and only had 2 - 3 solves. The white v-cubes in the picture were purchased directly when they were released, had hundreds of solves on them, and the stickers were just slightly chipped.

vcubes.jpg
 

abunickabhi

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Good analysis of the v-cubes. Its good to know that you went through the entire process of getting to know more about v-cubes a decade after they were extinct. The big cube hardware have come a long way after this.

I remember dreaming about buying all the V-cubes in 2010, when there were no other good puzzles on the market. I am happy that I saved some of my pocket money then by not buying, and also just focusing on 3x3 for a couple of years, until chinese manufacturers made good cubes.
 

Kaiju_cube

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Good analysis of the v-cubes. Its good to know that you went through the entire process of getting to know more about v-cubes a decade after they were extinct. The big cube hardware have come a long way after this.

yeah I really like studying the history of things and how they came to be. It's what led to finding out about these old "Rubiks killers", lol...

20210412_165542.jpg


So of course I had to look for one to see what they felt like "back in the day", and compare it to my Rubiks,... and yeah it's better.

I have a problem with wanting one or two of everything because they all feel and sound different. Sometimes very different...

20210412_165707.jpg

that MoYu bag is one of four,.. (all filled),.. plus the backpack has a bunch... I have a problem

20210412_165818.jpg

then there's the shelves,.. the desk... hahaha. I have a problem with collecting things I'm interested in.

20210412_171053 (1).jpg
(the Rubiks Impossible photographs surprisingly well? It looks solved on the shelf and scrambled in the pic. Neat! )

It started with a Rubiks shelf and then it snowballed once I bought a Meilong GTS3 and discovered how much better new cubes were than the old Rubiks ones.

Though my favorite of the past few weeks has been the MGC and the Qiyi MS Magnetic. I really like how the Qiyi feels and how 'clacky' it sounds.
 

EngiNerdBrian

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Interesting read.Reviewing the vcube 6 & 7 and comparing to today’s hardware is just out of context though IMO. Yes, they don’t turn great and I often joke at how crunchy my v-cube 7 is. The 6 & 7 definitely are not quality puzzles by today’s standard but they were remarkable pieces of hardware in their time!

My v-cube7 is one of my favorite puzzles in my entire collection because of how amazing and radical it was to have in 2008. It was so out of this world at the time. It’s a relic, definitely no MGC, and an awesome piece of history...best appreciated if you have personal experiences in its actual time in the spotlight.
 

qwr

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The vcube 3 is very "inspired" by the guhong v1 I believe. Mine (also used) has about line to line forward cutting and a little reverse cutting. Not as good as guhong, but not far from an alpha v or other pre-guhong cubes.
IIRC the 2x2 was pretty good (comparable to ghosthand?) until the wittwo and dayan came along.
I personally never have lockups when I solve my vcube 7 because I turn slowly. Idk if it's because mine is broken in, but mine is not crunchy at all, rather solid and smooth, with a little rattle like mefferts puzzles.
 

Kaiju_cube

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I wonder if yours was an early gen with the better stickers, or just very well broken in.

I like how solid and (crunchy?) the cube is, I just wish it were easier to turn. Especially the 5x5 is absolutely ridiculous it's so hard to turn. Much like the Rubiks 5x5 I have. You can't turn the sides with fingers, You have to grip the entire side with your hand and turn with your wrist and forearm.
 

ender9994

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The vcube 3 is very "inspired" by the guhong v1 I believe. Mine (also used) has about line to line forward cutting and a little reverse cutting. Not as good as guhong, but not far from an alpha v or other pre-guhong cubes.
IIRC the 2x2 was pretty good (comparable to ghosthand?) until the wittwo and dayan came along.
I personally never have lockups when I solve my vcube 7 because I turn slowly. Idk if it's because mine is broken in, but mine is not crunchy at all, rather solid and smooth, with a little rattle like mefferts puzzles.

I wish I hadn't sold part of my set so I could compare turning on new vs broken in vcubes. The difference was insane. The 7x7 was terrible new, but got quite good after lots of solves.

On a slightly unrelated topic: has anyone bought their 9x9 yet?
 

guelda

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Interesting to read!
My first cube was a 3x3 V-Cube I found in a store at the beginning of last year. I chose it because it looked original (there were not much choice anyway), so I learned with it. Well, as I was really slow, it didn't bother me. But once I got a real speedcube, I knew I would never touch it again! Indeed no corner cutting leads to very frequent locking so it is quite useless. The turning is unique though.

The 3x3 and 4x4 are pretty neat and worth owning. No they're not 'speedcubes', but they are nice additions to a collection. If nothing else they're different because of the pillow design and the white plastic and black stickers replacing the white ones.

My thoughts exactly :)
 

SH03L4C3

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The orange centerpiece from your main 3x3
yeah I really like studying the history of things and how they came to be. It's what led to finding out about these old "Rubiks killers", lol...

View attachment 15389


So of course I had to look for one to see what they felt like "back in the day", and compare it to my Rubiks,... and yeah it's better.

I have a problem with wanting one or two of everything because they all feel and sound different. Sometimes very different...

View attachment 15390

that MoYu bag is one of four,.. (all filled),.. plus the backpack has a bunch... I have a problem

View attachment 15391

then there's the shelves,.. the desk... hahaha. I have a problem with collecting things I'm interested in.

View attachment 15392
(the Rubiks Impossible photographs surprisingly well? It looks solved on the shelf and scrambled in the pic. Neat! )

It started with a Rubiks shelf and then it snowballed once I bought a Meilong GTS3 and discovered how much better new cubes were than the old Rubiks ones.

Though my favorite of the past few weeks has been the MGC and the Qiyi MS Magnetic. I really like how the Qiyi feels and how 'clacky' it sounds.
wow. all of my 30 cubes are in 1 moyu bag and 1 small container.
BTW I didnt know you can get the v1 off of amazon!
(is this legit?) https://www.amazon.com/Dayan-GuHong...ywords=dayan+guhong+v1&qid=1618323135&sr=8-31
 

Kaiju_cube

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gosh, tempting me with another cube. :D

30 cubes? that's cool. I actually have no idea how many I have. One day I should take a group picture or something to get an idea.

my latest new cube that came in is a custom Gan. I wanted purple interior with green magnets...

asdf.png

and yesterday the MGC Megaminx I ordered from China finally arrived. Took like 5 weeks. Always seems to take such a long time when I order from China. It's why eBay, Amazon, and The Cubicle are so tempting. The price difference is huge sometimes though. Like from China I can get the MoYu 15x15 for like $175. but The Cubicle wants $300. .. that's a pretty substantial price difference. To save $125. I wouldn't mind waiting 4-5 weeks.
 
Last edited:

SH03L4C3

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The orange centerpiece from your main 3x3
gosh, tempting me with another cube. :D

30 cubes? that's cool. I actually have no idea how many I have. One day I should take a group picture or something to get an idea.
over the summer, my cubes were all over the house so my mom made me have a spreadsheet with all of my cubes, and she got me the moyu bag and another small container, so now I am organized.
 

EngiNerdBrian

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yeah I really like studying the history of things and how they came to be. It's what led to finding out about these old "Rubiks killers", lol...

View attachment 15389


So of course I had to look for one to see what they felt like "back in the day", and compare it to my Rubiks,... and yeah it's better.

I have a problem with wanting one or two of everything because they all feel and sound different. Sometimes very different...

View attachment 15390

that MoYu bag is one of four,.. (all filled),.. plus the backpack has a bunch... I have a problem

View attachment 15391

then there's the shelves,.. the desk... hahaha. I have a problem with collecting things I'm interested in.

View attachment 15392
(the Rubiks Impossible photographs surprisingly well? It looks solved on the shelf and scrambled in the pic. Neat! )

It started with a Rubiks shelf and then it snowballed once I bought a Meilong GTS3 and discovered how much better new cubes were than the old Rubiks ones.

Though my favorite of the past few weeks has been the MGC and the Qiyi MS Magnetic. I really like how the Qiyi feels and how 'clacky' it sounds.
You gotta get these cubes out of the bags and on to a shelf! Eye candy.
 

qwr

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wow. all of my 30 cubes are in 1 moyu bag and 1 small container.
BTW I didnt know you can get the v1 off of amazon!
(is this legit?) https://www.amazon.com/Dayan-GuHong...ywords=dayan+guhong+v1&qid=1618323135&sr=8-31

it's probably legit. the guhong and zhanchi are still widely available despite being a decade old because they were so popular and sold everywhere.
gosh, tempting me with another cube. :D

30 cubes? that's cool. I actually have no idea how many I have. One day I should take a group picture or something to get an idea.

my latest new cube that came in is a custom Gan. I wanted purple interior with green magnets...

View attachment 15399

and yesterday the MGC Megaminx I ordered from China finally arrived. Took like 5 weeks. Always seems to take such a long time when I order from China. It's why eBay, Amazon, and The Cubicle are so tempting. The price difference is huge sometimes though. Like from China I can get the MoYu 15x15 for like $175. but The Cubicle wants $300. .. that's a pretty substantial price difference. To save $125. I wouldn't mind waiting 4-5 weeks.

the purple internals are so unique looking!

I looked up the 15x15 on ziicube which is the price you're referencing because they're having a sale. yeah zcube pricing is really great value.
 

Tabe

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Like from China I can get the MoYu 15x15 for like $175. but The Cubicle wants $300. .. that's a pretty substantial price difference. To save $125. I wouldn't mind waiting 4-5 weeks.
Look on Aliexpress for the 15x15. I got mine from there for about $169 (maybe less?). I found a listing that guaranteed delivery in 2 weeks or the cube would be free. Man, I have never been so disappointed to have a cube arrive faster than promised...
 
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