Megaminx
The Megaminx or Mégaminx (/ˈmɛɡəmɪŋks/, /ˈmeɪ-/) is a dodecahedron-shaped puzzle similar to the Rubik's Cube.
Uwe Mèffert eventually bought the rights to some of the patents and continues to sell it in his puzzle shop under the Megaminx moniker.
Speed-solving the Megaminx became an official World Cube Association event in 2003, with the first official single-solve record set by American Grant Tregay with a time of 2 minutes 12.82 seconds during the World Rubik's Games Championship in Canada.
The first sub-minute solve in official competition was achieved by Japanese solver Takumi Yoshida with a time of 59.33s at the January 2009 Amagasaki Open, and the first sub-30-second single solve was achieved by Peruvian solver Juan Pablo Huanqui at a 2017 Santiago event with a time of 29.93 seconds.
Black is a common alternate face color, either replacing gray which improves color contrast on what is typically the last layer solved, or replacing beige, which typically shares two neighbors (red and green) with the white face which can make piece identification challenging in certain lighting conditions.
The solution begins with one face (most often white), where the solver will reconstruct the "star" formed by the edge pieces adjacent to that face, each one properly paired with the neighboring center color (analogous to the "white cross" of the beginner and CFOP methods for a Rubik's Cube).
From here, the solver will typically proceed to the "second two layers", which involves a similar process of joining and positioning corner and edge pieces around the equator of the puzzle, and then the corners and edges in the hemisphere opposite the starting face.
This leaves the solver with the "last face", most commonly grey (opposite the white starting face), which will require a series of more complicated move sequences to orient (flip/rotate) and permute (rearrange) the pieces of the last layer in predefined ways without disturbing the solved lower layers.
These "algorithms" are similar to those used on a Rubik's Cube and thus familiar to those experienced in solving one, with the obvious allowance made for the extra side of each face and thus the extra turn possible as part of a full revolution of the face.
These differences require minor changes in notation of the algorithms compared to those commonly used for a cube-shaped puzzle.
More complicated algorithm sets require memorization of a wider variety of distinct sequences of longer length, which nevertheless are more efficient solutions for each of a more specific set of possible permutations of the latest layer's pieces, performing orientation and permutation of both edges and corners in fewer sequences (and total moves) than the shorter but more repetitive beginner algorithms.
The 6-color Megaminx comes with an additional challenge which is not immediately obvious (and which does not occur on the 12-color puzzle).
Its edge pieces come in visually identical pairs, because of the duplicated colors of opposite faces.
In any legal position (reachable from the solved state without disassembling the puzzle), there is always an even number of swapped pairs of edges.
However, since swaps may be between visually identical edges, one may find that having solved almost the entire puzzle, one is left with a pair of swapped (distinct) edges that seems to defy all attempts to exchange them.
The solution is to swap a single pair of 'identical' edges to resolve the parity issue, and then restore the rest of the puzzle.
The most common is a "corner twist", an often-necessary side effect of puzzles designed to allow some misalignment of a face when beginning rotation of an adjacent face (so-called "corner-cutting").
Among the most common areas of variation in construction are puzzle/piece size and weight, specific shades of the face colors, the presence and prominence of tactile aids such as ridges or dimples to aid grip and rotation, the ability and method of adjusting the puzzle's tolerance and tension between pieces and, as has become common in rotating puzzles of this type, the presence and strength of magnets within the pieces, which aid in keeping the various faces of the puzzle aligned to reduce lock-ups due to multiple faces being partially rotated.
Color variations of the Megaminx are common, to the extent that WCA rules for scrambling the Megaminx detail how to proceed if the default starting orientation (white on top, green in front) is not possible due to color replacement or rearrangement.
This is a trivial modification for traditional "stickered" puzzles with a black base color for pieces (simply remove the stickers and, if each face must have stickers for competition use, replace them with a set of black stickers cut to fit); for "stickerless" puzzles using multiple colored plastics, most manufacturers produce a set of the required pieces in black plastic, and the puzzle can be partially disassembled to replace the pieces of any face.
This color change increases the contrast between this face, which usually forms the last unsolved layer, and the colors of adjacent faces, which aids in pattern recognition and thus the correct selection of algorithms to solve the last layer.
[5][6][7] The highest order variant of the Megaminx ever made to date is the Minx of Madness, created by Corenpuzzle using 3D printing.
[8] Alexander's Star is equivalent to solving only the edges of a six-color Megaminx.
The Impossiball and Kilominx are equivalent to solving only the corners of a Megaminx, but are very different mechanically.
The Pyraminx Crystal is a modified Megaminx with deeper turning planes.
Tony Fisher has produced a shape modification of the Megaminx into a cube form which he called the Hexaminx.
[9] Another variant is the Holey Megaminx, which has no center pieces, like the Void Cube.
It would not be possible to swap all 15 pairs, since this would be an odd permutation of the edges, so a reducing factor of 214 is applied to the preceding figure.
The world record single solve is 23.18 seconds, set by Leandro Martín López of Argentina at Di Tella Inspira 2024.
[11] The world record average of five solves (excluding fastest and slowest) is 25.36 seconds, set by Timofei Tarasenko of Russia at Central Asian Tour Astana 2025, with times of 24.61, (23.39), (30.66), 24.49 and 26.98 seconds.
