The recent posting about cubes with photos has prompted me to post about my
favorite cube. I picked this one up around the end of the BIG cube craze and
have kept it in my desk every since. The cube looks like someone took a knife
to a normal solved cube and cut a diagonal 'x' through each face and folded the
flaps back down the sides. This leads to a cube where opposing centers have an
'x' that has four colors in a mirror image. (It is hard to describe, sorry.)
This cube has to be solved and then the centers oriented properly. The slick
thing about the cube is that part way through the solution (fairly early on),
you may have to swap top for bottom and start over. I like to fiddle with it
because at first glance it looks impossible to determine which cubelet is which
to a novice and to a semi-experienced cubist it is not as easy as it looks.
The cube was made by ULTRACO and is called ULTIMATE CUBE (copyrighted 1982).
Unfortunately, when I went back a few weeks later to buy a couple more cubes,
they were all gone and the sales people had no idea what I was talking about.
I think I got this cube at a Mall toy store. If anyone knows where I can get
a replacement, I would be interested as the printing on a few squares has faded
just like my youth.