My Cube Collection - Bottom Shelf Misc. (Part 3)

Read Part 2 here!

To finish off the tour of my cubeshelf, I will now be showcasing the eleven miscellaneous cubes that I have on the right side of my bottom shelf. These are all Non-WCA puzzles that I like to keep handy and often solve just for fun. Although they are organized, I wouldn't say it's as much of a definite order as the 3x3s, but the order does make sense in my mind.

Firstly, though, I want to share a puzzle that I was considering sharing last time, but that I ultimately decided belonged here instead, since it is on this side of the shelf and differs a bit too much from a standard 3x3: my Siamese Cubes.

This is one of the simplest and most famous 3x3 modifications and the only one I have done myself. I followed Z3Cubing's tutorial for it, and it just consists of two 3x3 cubes super-glued together into this shape. It isn't that hard of a solve, as both cubes are very much separate, so it's pretty much just a subset solve where you can only use specific moves. I find it very fun, with the coolest thing about it definitely being how you can spin the opposite layers like a crank.

For the rest of the cubes I will be going in the order of the shelf to keep it simple.

The four cubes on the top row are all very different Non-WCA puzzles that I really like. On the left are the two smaller ones: the QiYi Ivy Cube and ShengShou Dino Cube, and on the right the two larger ones: the QiYi Pentacle Cube and Clover Cube.

The Ivy Cube and Dino Cube are famous for being some of the easiest puzzles out there. They are super easy to solve intuitively, even by non-cubers, but I still find them extremely fun to just use!

The Clover Cube has the capacity to be jumbled which would make it very hard, but I don't really like to do that, so I just keep it in its standard edge-turning state which is quite easy to solve. Fun fact about this puzzle: one time I dropped it and it completely exploded, and I did not reassemble it for like three years. I don't know why I took so long ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Last of these is the Pentacle Cube, which is the only one of these I'd consider relatively hard, and it's also definitely my favourite. All of the sides have rotating stars that you can spin around, but if you align them up properly you can actually turn the cube and really scramble it up. This is a cube that I sometimes forget exactly how to solve, but I always find it extremely fun to figure out every time!

The next three cubes are all cuboids, meaning that they are in some way cubic, but their sides aren't all the same so they aren't actual cubes. I only have three of these and they are amongst the simplest cuboids, since I was never really that interested in the harder ones to be honest. The ones I have are the LanLan 3x3x2, QiYi 2x2x3, and the infamous 1x1x2 "Boob Cube".

The Boob Cube is without a doubt the easiest cube in my collection, as I think is fairly obvious. The two other cubes are very fun though! The 3x3x2 I find to be a relatively challenging, as it does actually require some algorithms that aren't found in any of my other puzzles, and because of that it stands out a lot in my mind. The 2x2x3 is much simpler, as it is like a Square-1 but without the edges and shapeshifting — in fact, mechanically it's essentially the same as a popular variant of the Square-1 known as the Square-0, which is exactly what I described — however I still find it a very fun puzzle.

Next up, this puzzle doesn't exactly fit in with the others in its row, however I keep it this close simply because it is definitely my favourite non-WCA puzzle, and that is the MoYu Redi Cube. It is a corner-turning puzzle which is relatively easy and very quick to solve, but not too easy that it becomes basically trivial, and it flows extremely well due to how it turns.

Despite it being on the same row as some other cubes on the spice rack, I am giving it this small section to itself simply due to its uniqueness and how much I love it!

And lastly, there are the two puzzles which I refer to as the alternate versions of other non-WCA puzzles. These are the Kilominx and the Master Pyraminx.

The Kilominx (or Kibiminx as some like to call it) is like a 2x2 version of a Megaminx. The Megaminx is already very similar to a standard 3x3, and the Kilominx is solved in a very similar way to how the 2x2 is, with it being like a Megaminx without the edges. Mine is the original ShengShou Kilominx, which does not have coloured centres unlike a lot of newer ones do.

Meanwhile, the Master Pyraminx is like a 4x4 version of a Pyraminx. Despite the standard Pyraminx being probably the easiest WCA puzzle, this is one of the puzzles that I often struggle with the most, as I sometimes forget the final algorithms to arrange all the centres properly. Regardless, I do find it a very fun puzzle, and a very nice contrast to the Kilominx, which as opposed to this is an easier version of a previously harder puzzle!

And that is it for my cubeshelf! I absolutely adore all of the puzzles in this shelf, which makes sense as I specifically hand-picked them to be there, of course. I feel lucky to have every single one of these, and I am so happy that I've been able to share all of these with you!

Perhaps one day I will share all of the other cubes on my collection, but that will be for another time.

Also OMG I just realized I talked about 36 cubes here (if you count all the force cubes as a collective) OMG OMG