June 2015 - My main speedcubes

This month’s blog will be very straightforward. Literally every day I get asked what cubes I use, so I thought I’d write it up in detail, with some additional thoughts on each puzzle. 

50mm Dayan Zhanchi 2x2, white plastic. I’ve used this same cube for about 3 years, and it hasn’t deteriorated one bit. Perhaps that’s because I don’t really practice 2x2, and so it mostly just gets solved at competitions. Generally I prefer black plastic, but the turning quality of my cube is good enough that I’m happy to use it over a black 2x2 – I don’t think plastic colour makes much of a difference to me, it’s just personal preference. The stickers are cubesmith standard stickers, normal colour scheme.

Gans 356, 'advanced' edition, black plastic. I only switched over to using this cube as my main about a month ago – I switched very gradually from the Gans 357. I’m very happy with this cube at the moment. The stickers are the stock half-bright stickers that come with the master and advanced edition.

For one-handed solving, I switch between my old Moyu Aolong v1 (black plastic), and the Gans 356, I haven’t really settled on a main for the World Championships at this stage.

I didn’t do this myself, but my Gans 356 is slightly modified. The center pieces are rounded on their corners - some plastic has been removed. 

Moyu Aosu 62mm, black plastic. The Aosu is certainly the most popular cube amongst fast solvers, and it’s been my main ever since I got it. Regarding the mini 60mm 4x4 – I have used it and practiced with it, but I haven’t put in serious time or effort into breaking in the cube and getting used to it. It’s definitely a very good cube, but I think I’ll stick with the original size Aosu for now. My stickers are the stock moyu shades.

Moyu Huachuang, black plastic. For some reason I’ve never been fully satisfied with this cube, despite my times with it, which is weird, because it’s a very good cube. I wasn’t sold on it initially, but after breaking it in a little bit, it became my main. I still find myself sometimes solving on my old shengshou, but the Huachuang is definitely my main cube. Stickers are stock moyu shades (probably to be changed before worlds).

Moyu Aoshi, black plastic. Ok so in my review many months ago, I said this cube wasn’t particularly great. I had 2 Aoshis, and that review was only after using one of them. The one I reviewed felt pretty bumpy and unstable.

However, after seeing how good Jay McNeill’s 6x6 was in Canberra, I was determined to break in the Aoshi. I started to break in the cube I had barely used, and it loosened up pretty quickly and developed a great feeling, and my average dropped by 10 seconds compared to the shengshou. That number probably isn’t reflective of the quality gap between the two, as my particular SS 6x6 was terrible, and I was too lazy to modify it or attempt to improve it. Stickers are stock moyu shades (also to be changed before worlds)

Mini Shengshou 7x7 (69mm), black plastic. I've been using this one for the last 2 years or so, I bought it at worlds 2013. It's very good aside from a few lockups here and there, but for the most part has been reliable (And very durable considering it's still great after 2 years of use). The stickers are the standard shengshou shades, but I plan on changing them before the world championships as well.

Dayan megaminx, no ridges, black plastic. Like my 7x7, I've had this puzzle for ages. It does the job very nicely. Stickers are stock.

For the other WCA events I do, I use the following

Pyraminx: Moyu, white plastic

Skewb: Moyu, black plastic.

Square-1: Some old puzzle I got like 7 years ago, don't know the brand.

In terms of lubricant, I literally just use anything and everything at random. Sometimes I use silicone spray, other times, differential oil. I would probably lube each of my mains about once a month.