The 23.16 project: Bringing old-style mods into the present.

[abunickabhi]

It's soon to be 2024, and cubing hardware is at an all-time high. Factory magnetization at stupidly low prices. Core magnets. Maglev rings. UV coating. Hand-adjustable tensions. More core magnets, but this time in the edges. Adjustable magnets. Adjustable core magnets. And for the most part, increasingly low prices for nearly all these things. Think about this: the DaYan GuHong Pro is maglev, core-magnetic, hand-adjustable, and factory magnetized, all for just $20.

But what about the past? When things were simpler? Just a decade ago, in 2013, magnets weren't a thing yet, only a pipe dream of a guy that owned a Zhanchi with a mismatched corner piece. (It's a really cool video, try and find it. I dare you.) The best cube was the Zhanchi and ONLY the Zhanchi, and there were countless mods to make it better, but none of them from the factory. Go figure.

Fast forward to 2016, and magnets are a thing now. For an exponentially larger price, you could buy a Gans Air UM with magnets, maybe a Valk M, maybe a GTS2M. But not from the factory. You want magnets? Glue 'em in yourself. You want smoothness? Buy some Maru. Or...

Boron treatment. Imagine dunking cube pieces into some acetone and roach killer (boric acid) just to make it turn smoother. Now that's an idea! Bring on the toxic fumes!

Now it's 2023, and none of that is relevant. Unless...

I'm buying a Cong's Design MeiYing from HKNowStore.com (yes, you still can buy really old cubes from there, basically back to V-Cube times. Still no MF3RS2, though), magnetizing it, boron treating it, lubing it, and re-stickering it, for the nostalgia. Then, I'm selecting my QiYi MS as my next victim mod selection, to see how modern cubes take to old mod procedures. Let me know about some other ideas of resurrecting some old mod traditions!

True that, cubing has evolved a lot

 

[Caleb Valenzuela]

how about an old Dayan zhanchi with piece to piece magnets with a magnetic with edge to core magnets maglev with chemical coated pieces (imagine cockroach killer coated pieces ew)

 

[Kami-Kun]

yo if you piece magnetize a cube and send it to me ill core mag mod it for you provided you can get me the money to buy the core and ship it back