My Cube Collection - Bottom Shelf 3x3s (Part 2)
Read Part 1 here!
To follow up the top shelf of my cube collection, today I will share some of the cubes on the bottom shelf! Originally I was going to write about all of the cubes in it, but that is 23 cubes and that's too much for one post. So instead I've decided to just talk about the cube on its left side, which consists of some 3x3s and 3x3-adjacent puzzles.
All of these cubes are on spice racks which my mom provided, and this specific rack is separated in four sections.
The three cubes on the left of the top row are completely standard 3x3s, the three on the middle row are 3x3s that have a special appearance but are otherwise standard, all four on the bottom row are 3x3 shape modifications (mods), and the two cubes in the right of the top and middle rows are some sticker mods that I made myself.
Firstly, I want to share the three standard 3x3s I keep here. They are Tymon's GAN 11 M Pro, a Cubicle Labs Valk M, and a MoYu WeiLong GTS 2 M. All of these cubes are now discontinued, unfortunately.
The GAN 11 M Pro was part of TheCubicle's signature series, meaning it was set up in a specific professional speedcuber's preference (in this case Tymon Kolasinski). This was my previous main before I upgraded to the X-Man Tornado V3, so I keep it there as a back-up. It's also the cube I achieved my current personal best with! (9.11 seconds. Yes, really.)
The other two cubes in comparison are some of my older cubes, and they both have some level of sentimental value to me. Around the time I started cubing these were the two best cubes out there, and ones I really wanted. Also that Valk 3 is especially special to me, as it was both my first professionally set up cube, and my first ever standard magnetic 3x3!
Secondly, I will now show my more special 3x3s. As I mentioned previously these are pretty much standard 3x3s, but they have a different look to their pieces that makes them special. These are the transparent YJ Yulong, the Jelly QiYi Warrior W, and the QiYi Dimension 3x3.
The YJ Yulong is a classic that I absolutely adore, as it is very clear and I've always love how some of the colours mixin certain angles, though it makes it hard to solve sometimes. The QiYi Warrior W is very similar but with a frosted texture and with lighter and more pastel colours, which I really love, especially with the pinkish red and light green.
And the QiYi Dimension 3x3 is a cube that my grandfather got me on my first ever cubing competition, so aside from looking extremely cool with its hollow tiles for colours, it also has a lot of sentimental value to me because of that!
Thirdly, there's my 3x3 shape mods! These work exactly the same as 3x3s, but have different shapes which make stuff much more interesting. I have four of these and they are some of my favourite puzzles of my entire collection! These are the YJ V2 Fisher Cube, Windmill Cube, and Axis Cube, and the ShengShou Mirror Blocks.
The Mirror Blocks is probably one of the most famous shape mods out there. It's a standard 3x3 cube, except that all the sides are the same colour, and instead the pieces differ in size. Because of that when you scramble the cube its size gets all jumbled, and the goal is to make it a perfect cube again! This is also one of my oldest cubes in my collection (and definitely on the shelf), being the eight cube I ever got.
The others are more standard shape mods made by YJ, which are also 3x3s. The Axis Cube, despite being the most complicated of these, was the first one I got. It has a very interesting shape, but it's still the same one in every side so it is relatively easy to keep track of what is a corner, edge, or centre. It is by far the one that takes me the longest to solve, but probably the one I have the most fun with due to its uniqueness!
The Fisher Cube is probably the most famous of these, though it was actually the last of these I got and the newest cube of this entire bottom shelf. It's like a 3x3 but offset 45º, and it's probably the most similar solve of the three to it, but it is still quite fun.
And the Windmill Cube was the second one I got, and it was a gift from one of my closest friends! This one is quite similar to the Fisher Cube but offset at a slightly different angle, so it has a slightly more skewed shape. It is very fun to solve, but my favourite part of it is that you can turn it into a sawblade shape if you make the standard checkerboard pattern!
Lastly, there are the two sticker mods that I have made myself. The 3-colour cube, and the 12-colour cube, which are both re-stickered versions of the original MF3RS 3x3.
The 3-colour cube was directly based on one that Cary Huang made and showed off in a video. It's like a standard cube but every opposite side has the same colour, so there are only three colours total. Despite being easier than a 3x3 in theory, I find it somewhat easy to mess up a bit and confuse pieces for others, at least in F2L.
And the last cube of this post, my own 12-colour cube which was inspired by that previous one. Instead of two faces having the same colour, I made it so that every face has two colours each! Although it is a good idea, I do feel like my execution could've been much better, as I made it so the edges and corners of each face were different colours. This probably would have been a much more interesting cube if I used another pattern, but regardless I still find it very neat!
Before I end this, I do want to use this post as an opportunity to pay tribute to SpeedCubeShop's cosmic stickers. They recently announced that they'd be discontinuing the service due to the general lack of stickered cubes lately. A lot of my cubes, including that 12-colour cube, were created with their stickers, and I have them in a lot of my older cubes and they have still stayed on perfectly. I wanted to share my appreciation for them, and celebrate that I've had the opportunity to use them for a lot of my years of cubing. <3
But that's it! Tomorrow will be a special post for Valentine's Day, but the day after that I will be sharing the third and final part of my cubeshelf, which are the completely unique puzzles!
