PuzzleMaster

2x2x4 ShengShou - God of Freedom

Posted on Jul 10, 2010 by Gabriel | 0 comments
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This is a 2x2x4 ShengShou - God of Freedom or simply a Super 2x2x4.

Well, this puzzle is a breath of fresh air. Looks a bit unusual, not that there's anything wrong with that, but very original. For some reason, it resembles LEGO. The wheels in the middle add it a deeper challenge than a regular 2x2x4, assuming all kinds of forms. Now, besides solving for the original cubic form, you also have to bear in mind the wheels, which may look a bit scary at first, but a nice touch on an otherwise simple cuboid. You can also see my video showing some movements of the puzzle.

The stickers are all made of plastic so, no problem with peeled stickers (see photo below of the internal mechanism with stickers out of cubies and a wheel piece). 

The internal mechanism, with screws inside, shows that the tension of the puzzle can be adjustable, although it turns rather good as it is. The wheels can be a bit tricky to turn when there's not a cubie (or more) attached to them, but if it's well aligned you shouldn't have any problems. 

The puzzle is very fun to play with and solving wise, although I didn't try to make a full solve yet, it's a bit more difficult than a 3x3x3, but perhaps not more than a 4x4x4. You'll probably want to try and solve the original cubic form first and then, rearrange the wheels as the last step. If you're too scared to mess with the wheels, you can just solve it by cubic form, which could also be a bit challenging when you have it all scrambled up.

Edit: I just made a full solve and I loved it. It looks harder than it actually is. It's not so hard that just makes you frustrated, but also not so easy that just takes the fun of it after a while. You're gonna enjoy it very much. 
The method I used to solve it was simple and it's like I said above: First, you have to rearrange the top and bottom faces (red and orange). After that's done, you just have to think about it as a 2x2x2 cube. When you have it returned to a cubic form, you just have to worry about the four wheels in the middle, and those are easy to solve.

It would be a cool way to make a 2x2x2 with six wheels if the cube came with a set of two extra wheel pieces (the red and the orange). If you take the small cubies apart, you can see that it could be very easy to put wheels on the upper and bottom faces. Maybe a suggestion for the manufacter, to just sell these two extra wheel pieces separately at a small cost, like they do with sticker sheets.

You can purchase a 2x2x4 ShengShou at Lightake. Possibly, the cheapest you'll find at online stores around.

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