Cube One

CUBE ONE

Dieter Junker, a German painter, draftsmen and graphic designer came up with a really cool mechanical puzzle called CUBE ONE which he entered into the IPP competition in 2006. I bought my copy at his online shop “FLYPING GAMES” and it is still available there for 80 Euros.

We are talking here about a really big puzzle which arrives as a cube in a plastic housing. At a closer look it consists out of 2 pairs of kaleidozykles (chains of triangles which are linked to each other partially in different positions). There are two different goals to achieve. First one is to build (fold) 2 octaeder out of the 2 smaller chains (kaleidozykles) and 2 tetraeder out of the 2 bigger kaleidoszykles. The second, much more difficult task is to re-build the cube out of the 4 kaleidozykles. For the first part challenge (2 octaeder) I just needed 2 minutes and the second part challenge took me already 5 – 10 minutes each (my cousin managed it in about a minute as well; by luck though). Now, on the second goal I tried a total of 3-4 hours to achieve it (every morning and evening around 15 minutes play) and that although you know from the outside colours how the parts have to sit. According to the inventor there are 3 different solutions to the second goal and I just found all of them. The difficulty rating for me is a 6 out of 10; if you would not know the outside colours then most probably a 8 out of 10.

CUBE ONE is easily one of my current favourites and I am playing with it on and off and am absolutely overwhelmed by the variety of shapes one can create. For me it is an absolute “must have” for everyone out there interested in puzzles. It is damn great!