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Qubami is one of the most amazing puzzles I had the pleasure to play and have in my collection. It was entered at the 2010 30th IPP Design Competition.
Invented and developed by the Swiss Kelvin Stott, the Qubami is more than just another 3x3 sticker variation. Starting by its great design, which is what caught my attention in the first place, it's composed by metallic stickers (they have a bubble effect and their rubber effect feels very good in the hands) and cubelets that resemble playing dice. It also turns very smoothly and can also cut corners. It gives a great challenge even to the most sharpest brain.
The cube is presented to you with the patern of three colors, one per two adjacent faces. The main goal is to have, in its six faces, one color and one symbol on every vertical and horizontal line (like a Sudoku). For the ones who know how to solve a normal Rubik's Cube, the hard part is trying to figure out the hidden pattern of the solution... Which is unique in every cube and has only one solution... When you have found the hidden color/symbol pattern, it may not be over yet, because you can come across parity errors, i.e. one edge piece is flipped upside down (it happened to me). To overcome this you have to find at least two identical pieces or one symmetrical and try to swap them to get the final solution.
There's other challenges as well, like to solve the cube only by color or by symbol, so there's a lot to keep one entertained for very long.
As I said to Kelvin after I solved the Qubami, I've never been so immersed with a puzzle since I got my Original Rubik's Cube. And that was the first puzzle in my collection. After your first try at solving the Qubami, you can't put it down until you have found the solution. It's that addictive!
The Qubami is not mass produced yet, so if you want one, you'll have to contact Kelvin directly. You can send him a message through the TwistyPuzzles.com forum (in case you aren't a member, you'll have to register in order to send messages to forum members and to get a puzzle). The current price is $35 USD.
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