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Stickerless vs Stickered

Which do you use?

  • Stickered

    Votes: 100 29.9%
  • Stickerless

    Votes: 235 70.1%

  • Total voters
    335
D

Deleted member 54663

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I got a stickered 4x4 and scraped my fingernair on the sticker, making It bleed. i ditched 4x4 as an event all together, very sad since i enjoyed it. It happened during a regrip, and my 4x4 is slow, so i had to turn aggressively. the sticker peeled too:(
 

xyzzy

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I got a stickered 4x4 and scraped my fingernair on the sticker, making It bleed. i ditched 4x4 as an event all together, very sad since i enjoyed it. It happened during a regrip, and my 4x4 is slow, so i had to turn aggressively. the sticker peeled too:(
Get rid of all the stickers currently on the cube, order some fresh stickers from Cubicle/SCS/etc. and apply those. Proper stickers are much more durable than the random crap some companies (ahem, Qiyi) use. They'll still wear out over time, but they generally don't peel (with normal use) so sticker bits won't get under your nails, etc.

(Or just get a better cube so you don't have to turn aggressively.)

My take is that as far as speedsolving is concerned, stickerless is a clear winner… as long as you have delegates who aren't super picky about those little white streaks that can show up when you accidentally drop your stickerless cube on a hard surface. (Unfortunately, the one delegate here is quite picky about that.) Not having to worry about sticker maintenance is such a huge win that it basically overrides the disadvantages.
Thinking about this some more, delegates who are picky about those defects in stickerless puzzles probably are also very pick about sticker wear and tear, so this isn't really an advantage or disadvantage of stickerless either way.
 

qwr

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as long as you have delegates who aren't super picky about those little white streaks that can show up when you accidentally drop your stickerless cube on a hard surface.
I don't own many stickerless cubes but the only one I have that have white stress marks is my 55mm stickerless zhanchi, and only on the orange side. It might've been that way from the factory All my other stickerless puzzles, including both glossy and frosted plastic, have never had this issue.
 

BenChristman1

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Honestly I think stickerless is kind of overrated. Yeah I get that a lot of people prefer it, but the problem is that a lot of cubes nowadays are only coming out in stickerless :(
Yeah, I prefer stickerless, but I do agree that stickered should still be an option.
 

zslane

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Companies are just following marketplace trends. Maybe stickered puzzles will make a come-back and sell equally as well as stickerless. But if they don't, stickered puzzles will just become vintage collectables.
 

qwr

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Companies are just following marketplace trends. Maybe stickered puzzles will make a come-back and sell equally as well as stickerless. But if they don't, stickered puzzles will just become vintage collectables.
Stickered puzzles won't ever fully go away just because people want to use custom shades. How many people actually do that idk.
 

Kaiju_cube

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I like tiled cubes but they're rare. I've only found Rubiks, a Gan (non magnet), and a Yuxin that was tiled, and none of them are very good or main worthy.
I don't mind stickerless at all but I do prefer the classic look of black outlined colors.
The bright fluorescent colored stickers these days are really nice though, And they hold up better than stickers used to.
Bright tiles would be cool; magnetic of course. Don't think anyone has made that.
 

RoundUpCubing

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i prefer stickerless, but i really like the feeling of having stickers. i think it looks sleeker, and frosted plastic has grown on me a lot (thanks gan) but its always a lot of fun to switch back to the gan air sm for a bit (which i have stickered).
i think stickerless is objectively better, but not by enough for it to outweigh personal preference. recognition is a bit easier and stickers dont scrape off, but its really not that big of a deal imo.
 

Zain_A24

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Stickered cubes are becoming a "limited edition" thing and it's likely that stickered WCA cubes will become a negligible part of the cubing market such that companies might not even make them any more.

There's no sign of a stickered WRM 2021, Tornado V2 or any other recent flagship cube (and even some budget cubes for that matter) so it seems like Qiyi will be steering away from stickered cubes and MoYu are still doing them as an afterthought. GAN are making stickers a limited edition item with their cool coloured cubes and it's only a matter of time before DaYan follow suit.

RIP stickered cubes.
 

Dan the Beginner

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Why can't we have the best of both worlds? We all know that stickerless cubes should function better, as it has less weight, and bigger colour areas, and smoother or more consistent feel (friction). Stickered ones look classy with its black lines and allow choice of colours, which besides aesthetics can help performance depending on one's eyesight. It should be more enjoyable not just because of having one's favourite colours but it is also less distracting to others, being slightly quieter. I wish stickerlesss cubes will be made with black lines to look stickerless, and with bright but more traditional colours. I am happy to pay more for such cubes, and not just pay more for the fancy cases with magnets, pretty bags, display stands, wipe cloth, useless cards and the nth screw driver (which does nothing more than screwdrivers we already have in every house. How many little screwdrivers do you have? :oops:;)
 
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Why can't we have the best of both worlds? We all know that stickerless cubes should function better, as it has less weight, and bigger colour areas, and smoother or more consistent feel (friction). Stickered ones look classy with its black lines and allow choice of colours, which besides aesthetics can help performance depending on one's eyesight. It should be more enjoyable not just because of having one's favourite colours but it is also less distracting to others, being slightly quieter. I wish stickerlesss cubes will be made with black lines to look stickerless, and with bright but more traditional colours. I am happy to pay more for such cubes, and not just pay more for the fancy cases with magnets, pretty bags, display stands, wipe cloth, useless cards and the nth screw driver (which does nothing more than screwdrivers we already have in every house. How many little screwdrivers do you have? :oops:;)
What you're talking about is known as a "tiled cube". They look like stickered cubes but they have removable tiles instead of stickers so no problem of sticker peeling. Unfortunately, the only tiled cubes that I know of that are in production are the Rubik's-GAN speedcube and the regular Rubik's Cube you get at toy stores.
 

Dan the Beginner

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I know about those tiled cubes, but they are pretty basic cubes. I wonder if it is possible to somehow bond plastic pieces with different colours together for a higher quality finish than what's in the existing products.
 

Kaiju_cube

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I would love a 'good' tiled cube. I have a few tiled cubes, none are very good. The Gan is probably the best, but it's not magnetic or fast.

I have the Rubiks tiled speedcube, but it's 'too' fast, it's borderline unstable.
 
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