From cube-lovers-errors@mc.lcs.mit.edu Sat Jan 22 15:35:46 2000 Return-Path: Received: from sun28.aic.nrl.navy.mil (sun28.aic.nrl.navy.mil [132.250.84.38]) by mc.lcs.mit.edu (8.9.1a/8.9.1-mod) with SMTP id PAA02733 for ; Sat, 22 Jan 2000 15:35:46 -0500 (EST) Precedence: bulk Errors-To: cube-lovers-errors@mc.lcs.mit.edu Message-Id: <387C51CD.706ED535@ibm.net> Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2000 02:05:01 -0800 From: "Jin 'Time Traveler' Kim" To: Cube-Lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: Rubik's Revenge by Oddzon References: <000701bf442c$151f8420$ea023dd4@wschwi> Oddzon recently decided to manufacture a limited run of Rubik's Revenges. My understanding is that they originally made 250 for sale but the cubes were so popular that they made another 250. All 500 initial cubes are gone. Here's the URL to the Rubik's page about the status of the Revenge: It will return to production. http://www.rubiks.com/revenge.html I recently picked up a couple of these prototype Revenges to compare them to the original Ideal runs of the early 80's. As far as I can tell, Ideal had two different sets of Revenges made. The first set is from Macau. Its mechanism is initially quite stiff and squeaks a lot when turned. This can eventually loosen up to a pretty smooth turning mechanism. It's made of stiff plastic which leads me to believe that this would be the one more easily broken due to the potential brittleness of the pieces. The other Revenge is manufactured in Korea. This particular cube is made from a softer plastic and turns much more smoothly than the Macau cube when brand new. The drawback of the Korea cube IMHO is that the cubelets are hollow. Although both sets of cubes seem to be injection molded, the Korean cube has "cheaped out" and left the cubes hollow, which in my experience causes quite a bit of binding in teh cube unless the planes of rotation are perfectly aligned. Neither puzzle is what I would consider a pleasure to work with. Enter the Oddzon Cube. It didn't come in a fancy box at all; just in a simple plastic baggie and taped shut. While the turning itself is a bit rough feeling, the puzzle doesn't seem to bind at all and very little pressure is required. The plastic seems to be similar to the Korean cube's softness but the cubelets are not hollow, which means no binding and very forgiving about not having perfect alignment. Unfortunately it appears that the puzzle currently suffers from Oddzon's really cheap laminated paper stickers. According to their web site this puzzle is only a prototype, so maybe they will improve the mechanism as well as stick to using purely plastic stickers in their final production cubes. This will be THE Revenge I play with, not just because it will be in production, but because it is by far the best feeling. If anybody doubts my claim to the puzzle's smoothness, I will gladly send them one of my Oddzon Revenges. I am willing to part with two of them just so you can get a feel for the mechanism. I will choose two people to receive the cubes (chosen at my discretion) for an evaluation. If you don't think the puzzle is smooth, just mail it back to me and I'll cover the postage. However if you find the cube as good as I do, be so kind as to mail me the cost of the cube and postage (about 24 bucks). Please don't take this as an advertisement, but rather an endorsement from someone who has found the ultimately Revenge cube to date. -- Jin "Time Traveler" Kim chrono@ibm.net http://www.chrono.org '91/'95 PGT - SCPOC