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The Gear Cube is another one of Oskar's masterpieces (which of his puzzles aren't one?...).
The story of the Gear Cube starts with the Caution Cube, designed by Oskar van Deventer in 2009. When it was first produced, the Caution Cube, as its name implies, required great care to handle, because of its razor sharp gears. It was then picked up by Uwe Meffert, as a partnership with Oskar, for mass-production and its sharp edges were rounded up for better maneuver and less dangerous handling.
The puzzle uses a unique 3x3x3 mechanism with gears and although being a bit different, you can use the same techniques used to solve a regular 3x3x3 cube and apply them to the Gear Cube.
The movement of the puzzle's achieved by its edge pieces that have gears and rotate when you twist any face. Unlike a regular 3x3x3 cube, here you're restricted with 180º turns, as a 90º turn would lock any other movement you'd make, because an edge would be in the place of a center, thus disallowing further turns.
The feel of the puzzle is excellent. Its movement is very smooth, which tells that it's already well lubed out of the box. It also feels stiff, meaning that its weight is pleasant to hold in the hand, hinting that the structure of the puzzle is not hollow like the cheap cubes.
The sticker color pattern used is comprised by yellow, orange, red, green, blue and purple. As of now, you can also apply other sticker variations on it that use other unstickered areas, making it an overall more challenging puzzle. You can order these sticker variations from here
The Gear cube is also available in a white body and you can purchase both versions at Meffert's for a discount. Now also available at Puzzle Master.
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