About

This nice puzzle is consists of a ball which is sliced up like an orange into 8 segments, and the whole is also divided horizontally into 4 layers (two polar caps and two middle bands). In other words, it is like a globe with 8 lines of longitude and 3 lines of latitude. There are two types of move: A half turn of half the ball along any of the lines of longitude, called a slice move, or a 1/8 turn of one of the 4 layers. On the standard puzzle, the Rainbow Master (sometimes known as the 'geomaster'), each of the 8 segments has a different colour. Other designs have pictures on them. The Rainbow version is easier than a picture version because the pieces occur in identical pairs in opposite layers. The Masterball was invented by Geza Gyovai and patented on 15 August 1989, US 4,856,786. A different version is the Logi-Vip ball, made by Arxon. It has a much simpler mechanism since it is made of two hemispheres and therefore only allows one type of slice move. To do the other slice moves, you have to turn all four layers to bring the seam to the right place. Because each piece is different, it is similar in difficulty to picture masterballs. When solved, the four pieces of a segment have the same colour but in different shades ranging from a light colour at one pole to a darker shade at the other pole. The Logi Vip ball was invented by Hubert Petutschnig and patented on 11 June 1981, WO 81/01638. If your browser supports JavaScript, then you can play the rainbow Masterball by clicking the link below: