magna cube

The last puzzle of the weekend is called Magna Cube.  this version is made by Beverly.  I found it hiding under my bed with a bit of tape on it from a shop that is no longer in business so I guess I've had it for a while.  You know you have a puzzle problem when you have puzzles that you've never even opened.  Well I had to set that right so here it is for you folks.  All taken apart and everything.  

This one has 5 cubes that have 3 bits and 4 cubes with 4 bits.  Ok, so they aren't cubes but you get what I mean.  First impression as I took it out of the box?  Nice that they beveled the edges and did it uniformly too. But then when I started to take it apart, the magnets...yuck!  They have some kind of covering on them which had started to come off.  I took a long time just getting the metal shavings off.  Good thing I was in a hotel with a toothbrush!  You will also notice that each piece is formed in one of two ways.  Any straight edges of 2 or 3 pieces are made of one piece with a shallow groove carved in to it.  The bits that go around the corners are glued on and not always straight.  They aren't askew enough to cause problems with solving, but it's just noticeable.

So solving?  Well, this one took me the better part of Sunday afternoon and to be honest, I think I stumbled upon the solution when I was packing up to go home.  the magnets with all their coming apart still worked well enough to do their job and trying to come up with the solution was nerve wracking.  I managed to find a couple of different solutions throughout the day, but when I checked I almost always had a magnet or two exposed.

All in all, I would recommend this one. It was a tricky bugger, but loads of fun to play with!