Sunday 19 March 2017

Twisties, again?

A quick review about 2 new twisties: a pyramix by DaYan and a 2x2 rubik's by MoYu.

I find the it's nice to have a 2x2 cube this one is a good one: it turns smoothly and you can even use corner cutting, but I don't think this will be really useful though.
I am still trying to look for a good and easy to understand method to solve it. Not sure if there is a method to make the first step which is to make a side of one color (usually white). I did it randomly and must admit that it took me a bit of time.

Then is a stickerless pyramid. I have not yet tried to solve it, but I can say that it turns again smoothly and the pieces don't pop-up

I will need to scramble it and solve it now!

All what I can say is that the quality is very good to satisfy you and make your solving process a joy rather than a pain! ;-)

These twisties come from this online shop. They have plenty of choices!

Friday 17 March 2017

Euro falle 05

5th puzzle in the series designed by Jurgen Reiche and produced by Siebenstein-Spiele, this one maybe be the easiest one  and the smallest one as well!



The goal is to free the coin that is trapped by the plexi, the coin on the backside is glued, so don't try to free it!

The precision is very good as it was cut by laser cutters, and the funny thing with laser cutters is that it's still smell burnt wood even after some time! Overall a nice looking puzzle.

About the difficulty, while a completely new puzzle may have some troubles, I do think that everybody will solve this puzzle very fast (maybe too fast in my mind). I wish it was a bit more difficult. Maybe it was to balance with the previous ones? I cannot comment because I have never played with them, so maybe they were very hard and this time the designer wanted to make something a bit easier? Just assumptions.



Anyway, I am sure you don't like not having all the puzzles in the same series, right?
This puzzle was bought at Brilliant puzzles webshop. They have great choice of puzzle, have a look!

Friday 10 March 2017

Amazing cubes

Here is a new kind of puzzles I saw in the market: you have a wooden cube with 2 holes, you have something like a metal key, and the goal is just to put the metal key inside the cube and to free it after.


As you see the "holes" are designed in such a way that you cannot just put the key and that's it. You have to fist find the good hole, then put the first part of the key in the right position and then make some moves with the key to put it completely inside.

It did not take long time before solving each cube, so I would not say that it's as challenging as they  mention (they are rated as 4/5) but they are pleasant to solve.

I do think this is a very great idea, it's like a one piece packing puzzle. I wish some more puzzles like these can be designed.

These puzzles are from this webshop, they have several interesting puzzles. Have a look!


Saturday 4 March 2017

Gan 356 air

A new quick review of a twisty puzzle: the Gan 356 air.

The Gan series is among the best twisties you can have in terms of quality: this is very suitable for speed cubing because the moves are smooths, the corners don't pop-up and corner cutting is very easy to apply.


The first thing you notice is that the stickers are not all squares, some are a bit rounded and the central sticker is even a round. In my mind, this is a cool design because it changes from the basic square you see too often.

The colors are bright and the stickers see to be a nice quality, let's see with time how it's going. ON the white side of the cube is the brandname of the cube, I do think they put the logo on this side as this is usually the side to be completed first and that you look at first :-)

The cube comes along a took and some extra pieces. You just need to open the central piece of the cube, unscrew with the tool. Each plastic piece make your cube smoother, or with more steadiness. It depends the way you like to play with your cube. A good balance should be chosen, but you can experiment. You are also provided with a paper sheet explaining how to solve the cube and how to change the GES (the small plastic things).

About playability, honestly this is super good. This is super quality and the price is not that expensive. If you're looking for a stickered cube, this is the one you should consider buying.

Mine is from this shop that I strongly advise. They have many quality products.