V-Cube 6

Other such puzzles have since been introduced by a number of Chinese companies, most of which have mechanisms which improve on the original.

There are also 66 pieces (60 movable, 6 fixed, and a central "spider" frame) entirely hidden within the interior of the cube.

The V-Cube 7 uses essentially the same mechanism, except that on the latter these hidden pieces (corresponding to the center rows) are made visible.

The location of these cubes relative to one another can be altered by twisting the layers of the Cube 90°, 180° or 270°, but the location of the colored sides relative to one another in the completed state of the puzzle cannot be altered: it is fixed by the distribution of color combinations on the edge and corner pieces.

One center piece is branded with the letter V. Verdes also sells a version with black plastic and a white face, with the other colors remaining the same.

This subtle difference allows the use of a thicker stalk to hold the corner pieces to the internal mechanism, thus making the puzzle more durable.

Seven of the corners can be independently rotated, and the orientation of the eighth depends on the other seven, giving 8!×37 combinations.

Assuming that the four centers of each color in each set are indistinguishable, the number of permutations is reduced to 24!/(246) arrangements.

The method starts off by solving the 96 face centers, making sure that colors are properly placed relative to each other.

The final step entails moving the remaining center pieces to the proper faces.

The world record fastest 6×6×6 solve is 59.74 seconds, set by Max Park of United States on 31 July 2022 at CubingUSA Southeast Championship 2022 in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.