mf8 Icosamate

I had previously purchased the Void Pentultimate and discovered it was almost unusable, it caught and locked up constantly, the centers caps would just fall out, and occasionally the rail system would just break and start to come apart. All in all I only managed to solve it once without it breaking on me and then I put it down because it was so frustrating. I went ahead and bought this puzzle even though I knew they are basically just shapemods of each other hoping they had managed to make a useable version this time. I was surprised to find this puzzle to be significantly better. I haven't taken it apart but it looks like thy did this one with a shells mech instead or rails and it it much improved, however I tried to find the fixed corner and none appeared to be fixed which concerned me. I wasn't wrong to be concerned a couple times the hidden Master Pentultimate pieces have gotten misaligned and getting them back is a real pain. All in all I have solved it several times and it seems pretty reliable it does catch some but not nearly as much as the Void Pentultimate, all of the pieces remain firmly attached, and the Master Pentulitimate pieces only very rarely get out of alignment. A couple additional cons are the size, it's huge, and the weight, it's heavy. For all my complaints I am still really happy to have a useable commercially manufactured Icosamate hence the four stars.

This is a deep cut corner turning icosahedron. It looks simple and cool but its solve is very tedious, practically requiring you to swap and cycle pieces until solved. This is made worse by the fact that it is so large and is very catchy, causing hand cramps. And there is a really annoying parity you have to deal with. As a result, it really isn't that much fun to play with. Sticker quality is decent though, and the box is pretty cool. If you want a much better icosahedron puzzle for your collection, check out the AJ Clover Icosahedron. That is much more fun, turns better, and is prettier.

First, the good:
The puzzle is wonderful, and I’m very glad to have finally gotten one! It turns wonderfully once you stop pulling the pieces in the other hemisphere away with your grip (better to gently push all towards the equator instead). The puzzle is essentially a 6-axis skewb with pentagonal faces having orientation, and triangular corners which do not. Also, if you have never handled or seen an icosahedral mf8 puzzle in person, this is huge! It measures in at 100mm face-to-face, but only 364g, so there is no problem getting a good grip on the puzzle itself. Like all mf8 large form puzzles, this is not a speed cube, it is just a long-solve puzzle that moves well.

Now, the weird:
The first and most annoying thing was how I could see through the bag and case that it was already stickered. Opening the ziplock bag showed the sealing sticker of the case had been opened on three sides, leaving the back as a makeshift hinge. Many of the stickers are offset well beyond my tolerances, just emphasizing how much I wanted to do it myself. The colour sequence itself seems fairly random too, neither following the common twizzle.net layout, nor any other mass produced icosahedral puzzle I could locate. Heck, I would have preferred to mimic Meffert’s 10 colour Dogic’s rainbow layout over this. I will say, the stickers are extremely well stuck on, and I think I would not end well if I tried to carefully peel them to realign, let alone reorder, so I will stick with this ad hoc choice. Side note: I’m surprised mf8 included two orange sides that look so much alike! Another reason to use a rainbow carousel colour scheme for this puzzle!

So, I know this puzzle is very hard to locate, but I rather wish I had had a heads up that this was an open box and I would not have a choice in the stickering. It didn’t appear to be lubed or broken in, so the person clearly just opened it, stickered it, played with it for a bit, then decided it would be a shelf piece and passed it on… but mostly I had no idea that The Cubicle would pass on previously owned items to customers, especially without telling us. I am glad to have finally got one of these, but I’m sad to not have had the full unboxing and stickering experience with the purchase. 🙋🏼‍♀️