Knowing what sort of presents to get your friends and relatives for Christmas can often be difficult and if your friend or relative really loves cubes then it can be even more difficult if you have no knowledge of speedcubing whatsoever. If you think that they would like a high-end speedcube then I have various guides for the best options for each event but here are some more unique and unusual puzzles to consider, especially if they already have lots of different cubes.
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FTO stands for Face Turning Octahedron, I am not sure why early cubers couldn't have come up with a better name but the FTO is a puzzle that has gained massively in popularity over the past year as cube brands have released their own versions, previously everyone had to make do with the Lanlan which was terrible but now there are multiple options at various price points. The FTO is a unique puzzle that requires some techniques from Skewb and 4x4 to solve, there are also seemingly constant rumours that it will become a WCA event soon. |
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Yes, Yes, it actually is. The meme have gone around for years of non-cubers asking if a 4x4 is a 10x10 but big cubes are a great gift, they take a long time to solve and are more quiet so if you want to keep them quiet at Christmas then a big cube may do the trick. The best big cubes are from the DianSheng Galaxy line as those are magnetic but if you would prefer something cheaper then the QiYi and YuXin Little Magic lines are also great.
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There is definitely no benefit in terms of speedcubing performance for using a bigger 3x3 like this but they do look cool and they can also work well in cubing clubs and activities where children can learn to solve cubes, they also look good in cubing collections. A few brands have released decent 9CM 3x3s, DianSheng have also released a load of 9CM versions of other popular puzzles.
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A professional speedcubing timer These are the timers that are used in official competitions, they require both hands to be placed on it before starting and both hands to stop, this ensures you can't be touching the cube when starting or stopping. The Speedstacks G5 is the latest version used in official competitions but there are cheaper versions from QiYi and FanXin which function pretty much the same.
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