New Cubes!

So, it's been a while since I've updated, but it's been a little bit crazy lately. What with organizing school, my car dying, and getting a new one, I haven't had as much time to post things. Have no fear, though; there have been massive amounts of cubing going on. I have really improved my times. On CubeTimer, I've improved my best to 33.10 seconds, with 14 under 40 seconds. As far as 4x4 goes, I've got a best of 2:25.50, with more than half of them sub 3, and my average for the last five solves 2:35.83. Two and a half minutes for a 4x4. That's no where near competitive, but it feels pretty fast for me, considering I use the beginner reduction method. For the 5x5, my best is 4:21.37, with an average of 4:49.36.

However, in the last few days, I have done some other things. Over the past few nights, I've disassembled my 7x7, and sprayed it down with silicone (in stages). However, when I reassembled it, it felt really gunky and stiff. So, right now it's disassembled again and is sitting in front of a fan that's blasting it on full, and when I reassemble it I'm going to wipe it all out and hope that the excess lubricant is removed, because if I ruined my $40 puzzle I'mma be pissed.

In other news, I got my new cube order! It's pretty sweet, I'm really excited about the puzzles.

The first one I'll talk about is my LanLan Octahedron. This thing is beast. I thought that it would solve like a normal 4x4, and I guess it functions mechanically as one, but it's so much more difficult. To start, you have to know how to think about it. Looking straight at any vertex, the four cublets directly around that are the center 4 pieces per 'face'. The two trapezoidal  ones to the left, the right, above, and below those are the edge pairs (they are the edge pieces of the actual edges of the octahedron). Then, the little tiny triangles in the middle of each face are akin to corners. However, that's not that bad; that would just make it similar to my UFO octahedron. The thing is, as you can see, in it's solved state, each center 2x2 group is not one solid color, but in fact four. This is where the difficulty is. When solving a normal 4x4, you can clearly see which 2x2 center groups and which 2x1 edge groups are solved. This is not the case for this demonic puzzle. With enough thought, you can figure that it's 'solved', but when you see it it doesn't jump out as solved, and the thought that's involved to figure out when something is solved adds a considerable amount of time and frustration to solving it, with 6 center 2x2 groups and 12 edge 2x1 groups. Another problem is that any two layer turn on a solved puzzle, as you can see with a bit of mental effort, will change the orientation of the colors with each other without making the cube unsolved, so there's no real color scheme. So, when solving the puzzle, you have to come up with a color scheme, remember the relationship of the colors to each other, and then bear that in mind when solving the puzzle. And you have to make sure everything stays in these nearly unrecognizable relationships. And did I mention the odd parity you can get?

Suffice it to say that I have yet to figure out how to solve this puzzle, but I'm hoping I can get to it eventually.

Next, I received a Black LanLan 4x4. This was not for me, however. My brother and I both started with Rubik's Brand 4x4's. They both still work, but are vastly different in quality. It's kind of odd; we bought them both at about the same time, but we must have gotten different versions of them. Mine has these weird little track rails which are on the edge pieces and are missing from his. Mine, however, doesn't really have many problems, aside from that those rails can cause some misalignment problems if you turn it sloppily. Still, it's not a bad cube, just not a very good one either. His, however, is awful. It's super loose, yet still manages to lock up, over-turns, and all in all is just so frustrating to try to solve that it's honestly not fun.


Ages ago, he broke one of the center pieces on mine. The face-bit broke off from the anchor stalk (which I have since fixed). So, I bought a new 4x4, and decided to get a LanLan, because I figured that it would probably be better than the Rubik's ones we'd had. I was right. It uses the same ball core structure, does not have rails, but is better than either of our Rubik's ones by far. It's super smooth, no one can believe that I've not lubricated it, and its really nice. Lately I have been getting frustrated with it, because it tends to 'glide' and overturn a bit, getting itself misaligned, but it's still pretty good. I'd rank his Rubik's 4x4 a 3 of ten, mine a 5, and my LanLan a 7.

So, as I was ordering my cubes, I saw that LanLan 4x4's were on sale for about $6. So, I decided that I could spare that much and get him a new 4x4. Plus, I had the selfish motivation of knowing that it would allow us to be able to face off with 4x4's, which we hadn't been able to do for a while. With my Lanlan and his Rubik's, it just wasn't even close to fair.

He likes it a lot. Clearly, it's better than his Rubik's one, but it's a pretty good cube in general. It turns really well, and you can get some pretty fast solves on it.

The interesting thing about it is how it compares to my LanLan one. Mine's white, and the plastic feels hard and smooth when you're turning it. Like, it's got a very glossy shine to it, and it when it turns it feels like you'd expect something shiny like that to turn. His, however, has a more dry, lighter feel when it turns. The plastic has more of a matte finish on it, and there's this light, dry, almost scraping sound when you turn it. It doesn't sound bad, though; that's not what I mean. It's very similar to how my Cube4You 3x3x7 turns, if that helps. It also tends to have must less of that glidey feel to it, which is probably related. I don't know if these differences are because his is newer or because his is black, but I honestly like his a bit more than mine. I'd probably rank it a 7.5 of ten.

Next up is my, again a LanLan, new 3x3x3. I didn't buy this because I really needed another 3x3 (although it can never hurt), nor because I really expected it to be better than my F-II, but simply because I really tend to like LanLan puzzles (my 2x2, 4x4, new 4x4 Ocahedron, Void Cube, Master Skewb, and probably some others are all LanLan), and I was interested to see their take on a 3x3. I was hoping it would be similar in quality to my Master Skewb or Void Cube; solid construction, really smooth turning, and just a good feeling puzzle. In that regard, I'm slightly (but only slightly) disappointed. It's got a rough, dry feel to the turns, and while that will probably dissipate once it's broken in, it's kind of annoying now. It also feels like it's almost going to lock up sometimes, mostly during corner cutting. But, it definitely feels very solid when using it, and it does feel well constructed. It's just not as smooth as I'd have liked. Still, I am happy with it, and I would certainly recommend it, especially to a beginning cuber (I'm looking at you, bro), because you're definitely not going to pop this cube, ever, and it does turn as well as, if not better than, a Rubik's brand, which is what most people start with. After some lubrication, it'll certainly outperform store bought cubes. It also cuts corners better than Rubik's. It's just a very solid puzzle, and so would be a good stepping stone between inferior store bought cubes like the Rubik's and higher tech cubes that are more likely to pop, like my F-II (cubers who are working on trying to get better from just starting out would probably be a bit too rough with an F-II and pop it. I still do, when I don't focus on using less force with it). It's also a cube I wouldn't be afraid to hand to a kid or to a noncuber without fear that they'd damage it at all. While it's slightly worse than the high expectations that I had for it, it's a really good cube.

Lastly, onto my favorite of the bunch; my Cube4You 3x3x4. This puzzle is gorgeous. The stickers are bright, the white is white, and it just looks very eye-catching because of its non-cubic shape. It also just feels great to hold. I don't know what it is, but there's something about the odd shape of it that makes it so much fun to whip around and turn. It's just tons and tons of fun to play with. For real.

It was a little loose out of the box, which I'd heard from other cubers, so I was expecting it. It wasn't unsolvable, but it definitely popped quite a bit. I tightened up all the tensions, and it's a lot tighter now. I mean, it's still loose compared to other cubes, but it's a lot tighter than it was. I may still adjust the tensions a little more, just because it has popped a couple times since I tightened it. One benefit to it being so loose, though, is that it cuts corners like nobody's business. Holding it the way it is in the photo, it'll cut if you misalign either the top or the top two layers. If you hold it sideways (so that it's longest from left to right), it'll cut a one layer U turn with a one or two layer R turn. And it'll cut a lot; almost a full cublet no matter how you're doing it. I've never had a puzzle cut that well. It makes me super excited to get a Cube4You 3x3.

In any event, I absolutely love this puzzle. The construction's great, even though it's loose at first, because that's easily remediable. It cuts amazingly (duh), and its just so, so much fun to solve.

That about wraps up this (ridiculously long) post. I've got a few more queued up for the next couple days, though, along with at least two or three vids I'd like to get posted by this weekend. So, there'll be a blog for each of those, along with at least one other blog that wont have a video along with it. So I have a lot to do. :D. This post is super long, though, so I wanted to go ahead and wrap it up instead of tacking on other things.

Hopefully this was enjoyable, and if not, oh well.

P.S. This is the next cuboid I've got my eyes on. I'd like to get the C4Y Cubic 3x3x5 shown to the right, but I also want to make one that's fully proportional. This will be the first real, involved puzzle build/mod, so I hope it goes well.