(Warning: This post contains material which may only be of interest to people like Georges )

I recently acquired a white supernova and thought I would take this opportunity to share some pictures showing the subtle differences between different versions of the Hungarian Supernova.

My white supernova is a 6 colored version with painted colors instead of stickers. The paint has a nice glossy look, and the colors are blue, green, red, orange, yellow and black. There are also visible mold marks running across the pieces. I believe this indicates that the supernova is from an early production, as David Singmaster has a comment (in his list "Singmaster Cube and Puzzle Collection") about the mold marks being removed on later productions.



My white supernova is apparently different from the stickered version Milan got a few years ago, shown by Georges in this post. It also has other colors than the white Pentangle version shown in James Dalgety's Puzzle Museum (scroll down to the third picture). If anyone has more information about the white supernovas or the different production versions in general, please post here. (When were the mold marks removed? How many different versions of the white supernova exists? Was there also a 6-colored painted version in black?)

Here my white supernova is joined by some of its black cousins:



Front row, left to right: White supernova, French version (?), new reproduction from 2009
Back row: Pentangle UK version in plastic tube, French version (Le Diamant) in plastic case.

For a long time I thought all the supernovas produced in the 1980's had bright orange stickers, as shown in the beautiful pictures posted by Dave here. This was certainly true for all the supernovas I had seen on ebay, the UK version distributed in the plastic tube by Pentangle and the Hungarian version distributed in the cylindrical case with black base, as shown in Georges' gallery. So when I first received an old supernova where none of the stickers were bright orange, I suspected that someone might have restickered it. But then I received the French version (Le Diamant) sealed in its original case, and noticed that it had the same strange color scheme: instead of the bright orange and tan colors of the UK/Hungarian versions, it has dark green and gray colors not found on the others. The stickers of the French version also have a slightly different shape, as none of the corners are rounded:



More subtly the French version also has a warmer yellow and a brighter red than the Hungarian/UK version:




The color scheme of the French version is:
Gold opposite silver, dark green opposite green, gray opposite blue, light orange opposite red, black opposite brown, white opposite yellow.
With the gold side facing you, the surrounding colors going clock-wise are: dark green, gray, light orange, black, white.

The color scheme of the other Hungarian and UK versions are:
Gold opposite silver, blue opposite green, brown opposite black, red opposite tan, light orange opposite bright orange, white opposite yellow.
With the gold side facing you, the surrounding colors going clock-wise are: blue, brown, red, light orange, white.

The first Supernova I received with the "French" color scheme was sent to me from Hungary and seems to have smaller edge stickers than the sealed "Le Diamant", so it would be interesting to know whether these supernovas were also distributed outside of France. Again, any additional information would be appreciated.

As a small addendum to Dave's brilliant megaminx comparison thread, here is a picture of the internals of my white supernova in comparison to a regular black one:



The mechanisms are the same, but the white ball-shaped core of the white version is completely smooth as opposed to the gray core of the black version. Also, each corner and edge piece of the white version is not comprised of two interlocking halves as on the black version. There are also some minor differences in the dimensions of the feet, but this is hard to see from the pictures:




Finally I include another picture of the newest reproduction of the Hungarian Supernova, which is easily recognizable by its pastel colored stickers and black core:

Cool, thanks for the info. Btw, where could I get a Hungarian supernova remake?

They used to be easy to get on ebay and available directly from forum member Fifisflea, see this post. But according to his current ebay listing, he is selling the last few copies right now, so you may want to hurry if you would like to secure one...

link there is dead. I found some on ebay, but I just realized I don't like black puzzles : P lol I guess I'll stick with my PVC minx, or get an MF8

Dear Klara, this post is brilliant!
I enjoyed reading it from the first letter to the last and I will (with your permission) add it to the Supernova chapter in my appendix to my XXV volume treatise on the offspring of Rubik's Cube.

Thank you, Georges, I am glad to know that my post was appreciated by my somewhat narrow target audience . It would be an honor to be included in the appendix to your XXV volume treatise on the offspring of Rubik's Cube (to be published sometime after 2020 if I recall correctly?) And please don't forget to invite me to your 70th birthday celebration at Kefallonia in 2025. I might even be able to help you with some final proof-reading.

Klara,
I don't know if it is the same, but there was a set of megaminx type puzzles made in Singapore before. They too were white. I remember they came in a set of 3 or 4 with varying degrees of difficulty. Some were completely stickered on each face, some only had the middles missing, some had the corners unstickered.
I'm not sure of the name, and am kicking myself now for not buying them when I saw them. King cube or something like that.. I'm sure Georges knows a bit about them. I think I saw a picture of his once with one in it.
Wonderful write up! I'm jealous, Georges never said he enjoyed my posts from start to end

umm guys, i am still confused who did the megaminx first? this one or mefferts?

I guess you are speaking of these, Rox?

from this site

and



from Hendrik's site.

And then there is the white stickered one from my want list:



Rox, you got 9 points out of 10 for your reply.

Rox, thanks for bringing up the white IQ King puzzle. I had actually included a link to Hendrik's picture of this puzzle in my original write-up, but decided it didn't qualify as "Hungarian" just before I hit the submit button. But I guess it shouldn't matter where it was born if it looks like, acts like and has the heart of a Hungarian Supernova...

The IQ King Dodecahedron certainly has the same pointed edges as the supernova. But the true test would be to see if it shares the supernova mechanism. Perhaps someone owning a copy of the IQ King puzzle could tell us? I remember one being sold on ebay from Dieter Gebhardt's collection a few years ago (as mentioned by Geert in this thread), but I don't know whether it went to someone on this forum.

Oh, and there is certainly no need to be jealous, Rox. Georges is a wonderful "father" who knows that his youngest "adopted daughter" needs some extra encouragement to keep posting in a foreign language. He also knows that Rox is more mature and independent, and seems to be doing just fine on her own.

The Supernova megaminx and the IQ King megaminx are different types.
The Supernova height (measured between opposite planes) is slightly smaller (67 mm)
compared to the IQ King megaminx (69 mm), whereas the Tomy megaminx and Meffert
megaminx are somewhat in between (68 mm). These differences are very small,
only the Chinaminx is really a bit larger (74 mm).

Turning of the IQ King megaminxes is very poor. The puzzles are very tight and they are
impossible to open without breaking parts. The Supernova pieces are hollow 2-part pieces,
as was also already shown by Dave, whereas the IQ King pieces are 1-part pieces (slightly hollowed).

There are 3 types of IQ King megaminxes as can be observed from the packaging
- Elementary (no corner stickers)
- Intermediate (no edge stickers)
- Advance

Geert

Thanks for that photo Geert! Those are the one's I was talking about.

I'm still kicking myself for not buying them when they were available. Learned that lesson the hard way didn't I?