SengSo Mirror Column

SengSo Mirror Column

SengSo Mirror Column by ShengShou is a column-shaped mirror puzzle. All the pieces are the same color (blue in this version), so you can't solve it by looking at colors. Instead, the pieces differ in shape and size. The puzzle is solved only when it returns to an even, smooth shape. Once scrambled, it takes on an irregular, stepped shape that looks nothing like its original form.

How to solve a mirror puzzle

On a regular cube you look for colors, but here you have to watch the height and thickness of the pieces. This can be confusing at first, because a single move changes the shape of the whole puzzle and the pieces are easy to mix up. The hardest part isn't positioning the layers but placing the pieces so that their edges line up again. Even someone who solves a regular cube quickly has to change the way they think here. That's why mirror puzzles work well as a break from standard solving and as an exercise for spatial imagination.

This is a puzzle for relaxed solving and for your collection, not a tool for setting fast times. Don't judge it by speedcubing criteria such as TPS or corner cutting.

Who is it for?

Mirror Column is best suited to people who can already solve a regular cube and are looking for a new challenge, as well as collectors of different shapes. It also makes a great gift for anyone who enjoys logic puzzles. For complete beginners, a regular 3x3 cube is a better start, because with a mirror puzzle it's harder to see what a given move actually changed.

Mirror Column vs. other SengSo columns

ShengShou also offers multicolored puzzles from the Magic Column series, known as "Platypus". These are separate designs, so their descriptions and specifications don't apply to this model. Mirror Column is single-colored and is solved by shape only.

Specifications

• Manufacturer: ShengShou (SengSo)
• Type: column-shaped mirror puzzle
• Color: blue, solid
• Size: approx. 80 mm
• Dimensions: approx. 8 x 8 x 6.6 cm
• Weight: approx. 88 g