Remember when DianSheng released their Galaxy 8x8? The world’s first factory magnetic 8x8 on the market?
People were initially skeptical of a product like this. Wondering who wants magnets in their 8x8, wondering who speed solves 8x8.
Yet it was INCREDIBLY popular! Obviously DianSheng continued! We got the Galaxy 9x9, Galaxy 10x10, Galaxy 11x11, Galaxy 12x12, Galaxy 13x13, Galaxy 15x15 and Galaxy 14x14. (I have no idea why the 15x15 came before the 14x14).
It wasn’t JUST big cubes. We got the Galaxy Gigaminx! Galaxy Teraminx! Galaxy Petaminx!
It wasn’t just larger scale puzzles either, Galaxy Kilominx! Galaxy Cluster Face Turning Octahedron! Galaxy mirror 5x5 (pink’s the best colour).
All of these were the first time any of these puzzles were released factory magnetic! Some even having Core-Magnets. Things we’ve struggled to get mass produced in WCA puzzles for a long time!
A lot of people asked why DianSheng felt the need to release these puzzles! But they were so happy with the releases!
It’s no surprise that other companies jumped on the train and started making factory magnetic Non-WCA puzzles!
I feel things like magnetic big cubes have very clearly proven themselves to be worth it! We’ve had some incredible performance big cubes like the QiYi Magnetic 8x8, MoYu Meilong 10x10 V3.
We’ve even had some not so great magnetic big cube releases like ShengShou MoSheng 11x11 M. ShengShou’s MoSheng series has unfortunately been quite underwhelming however they’ve had releases from as small as 5x5 all the way up to 15x15 (only the 10x10 and 11x11 have been stocked)
It shows how popular magnetic big cubes have been.
YuXin’s even jumped on this trend, previously having some of the greatest Non-Magnetic big cubes they’ve recently went back and released magnetic versions of all their big cubes.
Not only that, even taking some records of the first mass produced Magnetic Even-Layered Dodecahedrons.
Like the YuXin Elite kilominx (magnetic). Something DianSheng had recently teased.
Yet they even have a magnetic 8x8 Kilominx (should really get better naming systems)
This is all great! I love seeing new releases and great cubing innovation. Unfortunately most of YuXin’s new magnetic releases have seemed to fall under the radar. Daniel hasn't stocked these and almost no videos showcase these.
However some releases have become VERY questionable and truly makes me wonder “who asked?”. More than ever!
And I don’t feel these releases have proven themselves in the market.
MoYu and DianSheng have felt like the biggest examples of this! Which is a real shame as DianSheng started this trend off really well! MoYu just does whatever and has way too many releases.
While I could be wrong, I believed this started with the MoYu RediCube. An expensive speedcube variant of the RediCube. That’s cool I suppose, it didn’t come across as very popular. I don’t think many were demanding a RediCube to be released. I also have no clue what a ball-core does in this puzzle?
MoYu kept going however. We got the MoYu ivy cube. One of the strangest releases in my opinion! We got a Non-magnetic variant, a magnetic variant, a core magnetic variant and even a UV coated core magnetic version! Not even that, we got a £100+ UI Ivy cube! (not stocked but feel free to message daniel if you're that desperate) That’s 5 versions! That’s more versions than the stock MoYu AoFu V5.
MoYu became a bit crazy with releases like a MoYu Pyraminx Duo (non-magnetic variant + magnetic ball core variant)! Why?!
I do believe there’s been some good ‘unique’ Non-WCA puzzle releases that have clearly proven themselves!
QiYi Magnetic Void cube for example! Previously the best void cube we had was a Rubik’s Brand! This release was so popular!
Though admittedly they did have 5 variants (non magnetic, magnetic, magnetic UV, transparent magnetic - not stocked, transparent magnetic UV)
And then there’s whatever DianSheng have been up to as of late-
Just a LOT of 2x2 shape mods for the most part! Don’t worry though! They’re magnetic with ball cores!
DianSheng X2 Cube, DianSheng Galaxy Barrel 2x2, DianSheng House 2x2, DianSheng Penrose 2x2.
I think even Daniel knows how questionable some of these releases can be. If we look at the Instagram post DianSheng made for their 2x2 Barrel. There’s four colour variants! Normal colour scheme, transparent colours, pastel colours and some ‘morandi’ scheme m? Daniel’s only ever stocked one of these! The normal colour scheme.
And four colour variants aren’t exclusive to their barrels or even the X2 cube. The DianSheng Corner turning 3x3 had the same four variant treatment!
Thankfully it seems with the DianSheng Carnation tetrahedron they’ve calmed down and given us two variants. Transparent and normal colours.
The same seems to also be said for the DianSheng Dual Octahedron.
I just can’t understand most of these releases. We were asking ‘why?’ back when this started, and while those previous releases have proven themselves. We’re still asking ‘why?’ With less hope of these releases proving themselves.
Written by css41
