I recently had a silly idea, but I don't have enough stuff to try it out. You need 6 siamese cubes for this (or rather 6 cubes and 6 connectors)

It is possible to link these cubes up in a hexagonal ring. I think this would look weird. It's a work of art but does it work?

At first sight only one middle layer of each cube can still turn, but just maybe it is possible that the whole can sort of twist inside out, allowing for other mixings of the cubes as well (like a kaleidocycle if you know of those). I don't know if this is the case, so if anyone out there with 6 cubes and connectors can try it, I'd like to know.

If it doesn't work, you could use 8, 10 or 12 cubes instead which certainly will give enough freedom of movement for proper scramblings of the cubes.

Jaap

Looking at this thing, it won't matter if you added any more cubes per side. None of the corners will ever move. It's an even worse case than the middle cube on a Triamese (or whatever that's called). All three axis are eliminated for each of LR,FB,UD.

Any extra cubes you added to each side would be able to function like the middle cube on the Triamese (center slices only).

And I can't imagine how the heck it could turn inside out. It would have to be made of rubber!

Still a great idea. Even better now than I understand it!

Sandy

Intriguing idea.

How did you imagine six? The only way I can see it is adding two cubes into the 4 cube ring below, but that would result in a rectangle and two cubes on each of the two long sides would be glued face to face.



This idea, and it's many obvious (but trivial) extensions was the only thing I could come up with. Although, I didn't consider the corner-only attachment for very long. The geometry in that is a little hard without a cube in hand.

At any rate, I think it's a great idea. The puzzles above are an interesting variation. An edges-only Rubik.

Sandy

Yep, that's it! I don't really think it can turn inside out either. Looks neat though. Maybe if you add 3 more cubes making more of a triangular ring, it does work. I don't know.
J

They arent doomed to a life of just centre twists!! In fact, apart from the corner pieces which are a little restricted, you can do just about anything on one of these. you can even flip edges! if you havent tried it you should.