Mf8 Bauhinia ball

MF8 Bauhinia Ball

MF8 has taken its well-known Bauhinia Dodecahedron and turned it into a sphere. The MF8 Bauhinia Ball is a puzzle with a diameter of approx. 65.5 mm, so it is noticeably smaller than the 9 cm dodecahedron it is based on. The name refers to the bauhinia flower, because the pieces form a floral pattern. We offer it in the Primary colour variant.

How the Bauhinia Ball works

The original Bauhinia Dodecahedron (also called the Rex Dodecahedron) takes the idea of the Rex Cube and applies it to a dodecahedron. Instead of whole faces, the parts around the vertices turn. It is a corner-turning puzzle, mechanically equivalent to a face-turning icosahedron. The dodecahedral geometry also allows jumbling: after a partial turn, the cuts can line up so that you can turn a different axis. In the Bauhinia, however, the pieces move in groups, so jumbling is more of a curiosity than an extra challenge. In the Ball version, all of this happens on a spherical surface with no edges or flat faces.

How to solve it

The familiar 3x3 methods won't help you here. Solving corner-turning puzzles is mainly about commutators and setup moves. If you have already solved the Rex Cube, Dino Cube or other corner-turning puzzles, you will find your way around faster. Without that experience, expect your first solve to take a long time. The spherical shape makes orientation even harder, as there are no flat faces to help you tell which way you are holding the puzzle.

Who is it for?

For those who have already mastered the Skewb, Megaminx or Rex Cube and are looking for something less obvious, as well as for collectors of MF8 puzzles. This model isn't meant for setting record times, but for figuring it out at your own pace. For a child's first puzzle, a simpler cube is a better choice.

Specifications

• Manufacturer: MF8
• Type: spherical puzzle, Ball version of the Bauhinia Dodecahedron
• Diameter: approx. 65.5 mm
• Dimensions: approx. 63 x 61.6 x 61 mm
• Colour variant: Primary