LanLan Grid Skewb

I can't recommend AGAINST this product enough. The idea behind this puzzle is great, with tons of shapeshifting action as you scramble and solve it. The execution, however, is abysmal. Due to the narrow width of this puzzle, the core is extremely small, which means that the internals of the pieces are also extremely small. While that might not be a guaranteed death sentence, in this case, the puzzle simply isn't designed well enough to compensate, which means it pops incredibly easily.

I can't understate just how frequently this puzzle pops. Even knowing that it has the tendency, and turning carefully to try to prevent popping, I can't even get more than 3 or 4 turns into a scramble before something pops out and the whole thing falls apart. What's worse, unlike most puzzles, a pop isn't as simple as just having to put the piece back in. Frequently, multiple pieces will fall out when the pop inevitably happens, and even if you're lucky enough to have only one piece pop out, chances are high that you'll cause other pieces to pop when trying to replace the first piece. Putting the pieces back in this puzzle is harder than any other puzzle I've had to reassemble, to the point where "can I get everything back in place without it completely falling apart" is effectively what this puzzle now amounts to.

When I made the first turn on this puzzle and saw how it shapeshifted, I was excited about it. After the second turn though, I learned the truth, and now this puzzle is just going to sit forever in my collection, never having been solved, let alone even fully scrambled. Hopefully this review can help same some others from wasting $12 the same way I did.

It refuses to say together, and if it pops, and it will pop, it is a bother to put it back together. This is legitimately a dissapointing puzzle, as I always wanted this one to be mass-produced, but this effort is unacceptable. I wish this website allowed zero-star ratings.

Not sure what the other two reviewers did to manhandle their puzzle, but if you treat this puzzle like any other non-wca puzzle, it's a very pleasant solving experience. I've had this puzzle since June 26th, so a little over a month, and I also have way worse popping non-wca puzzles than this (think Master Pentultimate) and I still consider this to be average non-wca experience. Just make accurate turns.

I've popped it twice, but fixing was nothing that took longer than popping a piece back on a modern flagship 3x3.

I will say, if you do pop it, remove the center caps and then assemble the puzzle. This way, you can tighten the cube afterwards when assembled. I found that fixed the popping issue for me. Again, just be careful with this puzzle, it's not meant to be turned quickly.

Some pros about this puzzle:
- Smooth turns (every lanlan puzzle has this feeling)
- Shapeshifting is pretty cool
- Very portable, it's almost the size of a standard 57mmx57mm cube's top layer
- Can corner cut a bit

Some cons:
- Lanlan stickers are pretty meh, typical of lanlan products
- No clicking mechanism like other skewb mods that lanlan has done before (probably why the others popped theirs)
- They didn't contact Tony Fisher originally about making this puzzle

I'd say this puzzle is good enough for a shape mod that is portable compared to the original designs Tony Fisher made (those were huge, even his compact one). For the price, I think it's worth it. I just wish they contacted Tony Fisher about this earlier to have his sticker logo in place and he'd get royalties for his design.

Very neat lil puzzle. Smooth turning. Hasn’t popped on me yet. Reminds me a lot of the X Skewb.

The only issue I have is that one of my green small triangular stickers was peeling right out of the box but that might not matter to most people.

Completely exploded while finishing my first solve it. Can’t get it back together. I’ve put more puzzles back together than I can even count and this one seems to be the only one I can’t reassemble.