Why would i want six cheap knock-off fidget cubes? I only have two genuine hands.
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In this world, $$ comes before common sense or moral issues. A lot of people “admire” Martin Shkreli for what he did…because it made lots of $$$. Unfortunately, some classes of people only look to how much is saved/earned over moral decency.
The device in the story is a direct rip-off of an invented device via Kickstarter. $$$ over morals win every time.
TQQdles™
Seriously? Shame on Boingboing. You do know that many of your readers are makers and artists? It’s one thing to point out that there are shameless knock-offs of someone’s creation, it’s a whole other thing to decide to link out to it with a referral link so you will get a kickback. Like others here I understand the need for Boingboing to make a profit but not like this. How did common sense not stop you from pressing the publish button?
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I have the genuine Antsy Labs Fidget Cube, and rather like it. It’s completely unnecessary to life, but fun to have and… well, to fidget with.
Interestingly, I saw a clone on a knockoff market stall recently. It was visually identical (well, in a different colour scheme, but aside from that and a couple of nasty sharp moulding leftovers, it was the same) but it felt significantly inferior.
The Fidget Cube has a number of undocumented nice touches. For example, the rocker switch can be balanced reliably in a middle position, the rotator goes in notched steps, the roller ball clicks, the 5-button face has two loud-ish stiff buttons, one quiet easy button, and two silent very easy buttons, and so on. The clone had none of these. The knurled triple wheels were even joined together, rather than independent like the real Fidget Cube, and had no notched action, just spun without resistance.
I realise these differences will seem trivial and irrelevant if you’re not the kind of person who likes the Fidget Cube in the first place, but when the whole purpose of the product is tactile pleasure, the difference between a well-judged tactile sensation and the nasty feel of cheap plastic junk becomes significant.
I may have paid more for the Fidget Cube, but I’m quite happy that I did if this is typical of the cheaper clones. There is nothing which would have made me want to buy the market clone, but I enjoy my genuine Fidget Cube immensely.
And for the record, I’m not getting any payment or other benefit from saying this, nor is it (as far as I can judge) a post-justification of the money I spent. Also, I have no idea what other clones are like - I can speak only of the one I tried.
(edited for typos, no meaningful changes to content)
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I updated the post with a link to the real thing. I neglected to check to make sure it was still on offer and I’m sorry I assumed it wasn’t.
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Nice review.
I have what I think was the Kickstarter Edition with green gizmos on matte black; the ball is shiny black.
My preferences would be for a tilting joystick rather than the slidey one, and an easier to roll ball. A couple of the clicky buttons could have opposed each other – push one in and the opposite pops out – but it’s no big deal (mostly I prefer the silent buttons on that face).
I agree! these horrible people are STEALING IP from the original designers!
I bought a bunch of these cubes from antsy, and I WILL NOT BE purchasing anything from these clone thieves… Boingboing should be thinking twice before giving them free ad space!
IMHO
Dan
[quote=“Dan_Braun, post:31, topic:95430, full:true”]Boingboing should be thinking twice before giving them free ad space!
[/quote]
Fortunately, they did. And Rob updated the post to show that.
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More like banal. This is standard operating procedure for chinese knockoffs. Copy literally everything.
They even make knockoffs of pistols.
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