What the hell is this? A Transformers toy that doesn’t transform? Alright then, let’s give it a shot. This will definitely be a first.
Oh, wait, it’s supposed to be a mash-up with the All Spark Cube. It all makes sense now. Sorta. Come on, we need some transformation power, baby!
I’m not sure which would be more impressive to solve, the 1,212 piece Petaminx puzzle we saw a few months back or this awesome twelved-sided Rubik’s Cube puzzle. The Petaminx definitly seems more challenging, though this Brando toy is slightly sexier and might be your last chance to impress that geeky puzzle girl you’ve been trying to get in the sack.
The Petaminx always seemed a little clumsy to me. This puzzle seems to just, I don’t know, make more sense. If a puzzle could have grace and beauty, this one has it.
It seems whatever your retro gaming poison might be there’s a Rubik’s Cube for you. I don’t care if you’re a general Nintendo fan or a hardcore Mega Man fan, there is something for everyone. Even Pac-Man fans have their own cube puzzle to drool over.
Featuring Packy and all of his ghosty friends, the Pac-Man Rubik’s Cube is a must for Pac-Man fans and ghost hunters. Get yours from Etsy for only $7.
Alright, that’s IT! I could live with the destruction of all hope for intelligent life caused by the Hello Kitty Laptop, and I could deal with them ruining my work place with the Hello Kitty Water Cooler, but nobody, and I mean NOBODY, fucks with the sanctity of my Rubik’s Cube… unless it’s Nintendo.
It’s pretty much everything you would expect. Very colorful, featuring tons of pastels and more than enough Hello Kitty logos. The only cool thing about this cube is that the intestinal cramps it causes will make you vomit rainbows and shit cupcakes.
Created by Professor George W. Hart of SUNY Stony Brook, this is a papercraft work of art/puzzle that’s guaranteed to blow your mind. It’s called Frabjous and it’s made of 30 pieces of cardboard interwoven together. George was nice enough to make a PDF file for the rest of us who want to make one and solve it. Putting it together will be a challenge and one only the most bored of people will undertake.
Have $26? Want to get your kid a present that’s both educational and incredibly badass? Pick up this anatomically correct model of a shark. I believe it’s a Great White. It has 20 removable body parts that you can remove and put back similar to a puzzle. Cheesy violin sounds not included.
While I applaud the concept of mashing together the classic design of Rubik’s Cube and the iconic gadgetry of alarm clocks, I’ve got to admit a slight disappointment that turning off the alarm doesn’t entail actually solving the puzzle. Would the complete and utter frustration be worth the ultimate geek cred you’d obtain with one of these things at your bedside?
Despite the lacking of actual Rubik’s-like movement, the alarm clock brings the thunder with the added functionality of temperature, letting you know whether it’s chilly enough out to wear your Mega Man knit cap. To slide between settings, just turn the top layer of the cube. Available for $24 from Chocosho.
Congratulations asshole. You can solve a Rubik’s Cube in negative .802934 seconds. Now go choke or something. And by “or something” we of course mean you should move onto something a little more challenging so we can point and laugh at your frustration. The insanely and overly difficult Petaminx, created by Andrew Cormier, was designed using 975 individual parts and 1,212 stickers. The whole production process took around 75 hours, which happens to be the amount of time it’ll probably take you to solve the damn thing.
And sure enough, the whole creation process is documented, so if you were so inclined, and nerdy enough, you could create your very own Rubik’s-inspired puzzle of death. In fact, I think the word Petaminx is French for “don’t even fucking bother.”
Holy shit. Apparently Miyamoto still has some ideas lodged in that adolescent skull of his. Nintendo has recently filed a patent application in the US for a system that will potentially aid gamers via computer controlled characters in sections too difficult for the player to overcome. This idea comes straight from Miyamoto who is worried that some games are too difficult for players to proceed through and the gamer’s ambition to play ends prematurely because of this.
This new patent should help prevent such situations and assist newbies too novice enough to pass tricky puzzles in Nintendo games aimed at five-year-olds. So, if you find yourself lost, having no idea where the next dungeon is, allow the computer to take control of your character to show you the correct route. It beats playing through the game yourself and accomplishing success all on your own. In the immortal words of Homer J. Simpson: “Can’t someone else do it?”
I’m crazy for mosaics. Who would’ve thought you could compound various unrelated colors together and display a picture of Spock. It’s mind boggling. Do you know what’s even more mind boggling? Mosaics made up of scrambled Rubik’s cubes.
No new Rubik’s cubes here, this mosaic is made up completely of the classic Rubik’s cube you know and hate. It’s less frustrating and much more appealing.
