About

The Varikon Box 3×3×3 puzzle superficially looks like a normal 3×3×3 sliding cube puzzle, similar to Peter's Black Hole, IQube, and Magic Jack. It has a transparent box, apparently containing 26 cubes and a space, so that the cubes can slide around. It differs however in that the cubes at the face centres are fixed onto the central cube, so that there are only 19 moving cubes, arranged along the corners and edges of the box. The box also doesn't have (nor need to have) holes for you to slide the cubes, as simply tilting the box suffices. The cubes are red, and each side has a white or blue spot. When solved, all the blue spots are on the outside, with only the space showing three white spots. There is a tiny hole near one corner of the box, into which you can insert a small rubber pin. This prevents the puzzle from getting mixed up accidentally. Inversion is an equivalent puzzle which does not have a transparent box. Instead the face centres have rims that keep the cubes contained. Its colour scheme is also different - every small cube looks the same, with three red faces around one corner and three blue faces around another. This means that there are many identical pieces, and also that the puzzle can be made all red or all blue, including the parts visible at the space. The Varikon Box was invented by Csaba Postasy, Gabor Eszes, and Miklos Zagoni. The German version of its patent, DE 3,027,556, was published on 19 June 1981. Inversion was invented by Patrick A. Roberts. Its patent, US 4,511,144, was published on 16 April 1985. If your browser supports it, you can click on the link below to play with a Javascript version of the Varikon 3×3×3.