MF8 Sun Stickerless Cube

The Sun Cube was a very daunting and formidable challenge that is now one of my favorite puzzles. I actually think it was more difficult than Eitan’s Star. If you stick to non-shape-shifting scrambles, it’s a good challenge just trying to regroup all the edge pieces. But once you shape-shift and jumble, it appears impossible to solve. I bandaged mine so bad that I gave up, took it apart and put it back together, which took me over two hours. (I don’t advise it.)

I got the stickerless, so no problems with stickers. The puzzle turns very well for the number of pieces it has (122, not including internal pieces). Sometimes it will catch or you will accidentally activate a 45 degree angle turn, but it really is surprisingly stable for such a complicated mechanism. It has never popped on me. Care should be taken when the puzzle is jumbled so you don’t force a face to turn where it is bandaged.

The Sun Cube can steal your moment of victory at the end of your solve with a surprise PLL edge piece parity, which is impossible on a regular 3x3. Without giving any spoilers, I will tell you that it can be solved using only 3x3 algorithms, a couple basic cuboid algorithms, one center piece orientation algorithm, conjugates and lots of strategy. Comparing the ratio of difficulty versus size, it’s a very challenging puzzle in a very small package. The Sun Cube will scare both you and your ghost cube. I highly recommend it.