About

The official name of this puzzle is the OTTO WU 7-Color Magic Puzzle. It consists of a ball with six grooves running from pole to pole. In its solved position each track contains 5 sliding pieces of one colour, one of the poles has a single piece of a seventh colour, and the other pole has a gap. The pieces can slide into the gap, and so get mixed up. Unfortunately the sliding pieces are hexagonal instead of round, so they can be difficult to move as they often get caught when moving from a pole into one of the six tracks. The leaflet that comes with the puzzle maintains that because each tile has little bumps on them and thus massages the palms of your hands, it will stimulate their meridian points and therefore be good for the health of your whole body. It also claims that the rainbow colours and in particular the single green tile symbolise nature and so promotes the importance of environmentalism awareness. Apparently there is also a magnet inside the puzzle. It was patented by Otto Wu from Taiwan on 14 February 1995, US 5,389,063. There is also a different type of massage ball which has square pieces and no gap. That version has its own Massage Ball 2 page. If your browser supports JavaScript, then you can play the Massage Ball by clicking the link below: