Nifty magnetic construction toy

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By Gareth Branwyn
Posted 2009/07/28 @ 12:01 pm
Category Fun & Games, Science

While it doesn’t have anything to do with actual buckyballs, this set of 216 rare earth magnetic balls looks like a lot of fun. I just wish they didn’t cost $31 (with shipping).

BuckyBalls [via Laughing Squid]

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16 Responses to Nifty magnetic construction toy

Dax on July 28th, 2009 at 12:32 pm said:

Just wanted to let you know that Bucky-Balls ripped this idea/product off from the guy at http://www.theneocube.com/ who was selling them first.

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Cayton Jones on July 28th, 2009 at 12:41 pm said:

My wife purchased the Neocube for me for slightly cheaper:

http://theneocube.com/#2

It’s a whole lot of fun, but it takes practice and a steady hand to keep the magnets aligned like that. It took me a while to simply make the cube they show.

My Aunt saw it, and also bought a set. It’s really fun, and pretty addicting.

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Mister Zed on July 28th, 2009 at 1:49 pm said:

Cool related info including other suppliers of spherical magnets. Looks like the blogged page is a pretty good deal though. I want to try the ‘gravity motor’ trick!

http://amasci.com/amateur/beads.html

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ScottSEA on July 28th, 2009 at 2:15 pm said:

You can get 50 spherical 1/8″ neomags at unitednuclear.com for $14 + s/h.

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- flexo on July 28th, 2009 at 2:35 pm said:
  
  Well to get 216 of them you need 5 packs of 50, so $70 + shipping from united nuclear
  
  Reply ↓
justDIY on July 28th, 2009 at 3:33 pm said:

Is there something unique to the polarity of these magnets, which makes them behave like that?

Deal Extreme has a 100 pack of 5mm neo magnets for under $13, which I guess would put it on par with the cost of the neocube.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.23646

Some other website I ran across long ago was selling 1″ spherical neo’s, but they were several dollars each – could build some huge “bucky balls” with those!

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WildCard on July 28th, 2009 at 4:23 pm said:

What kind of magentic field would occur if you made a mobius strip?

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- Anonymous on July 28th, 2009 at 6:19 pm said:
  
  I have both the dealextreme and neocube ones, and can tell you the neocube ones are much stronger. The dealextreme ones are very weak. Fun none the less.
  
  Reply ↓
oskay on July 28th, 2009 at 7:09 pm said:

Merits of the toy aside, I find it 100% offensive that they would choose an existing word– change the meaning– and then trademark it.

Would it be fair to call this choice a cruel way to prey on the general public not knowing the meaning of the word?

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Gareth Branwyn on July 28th, 2009 at 7:17 pm said:

@oskay
Yeah, I agree completely. Poor form all around.

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amasci.com on July 29th, 2009 at 1:21 am said:

> Yeah, I agree completely. Poor form all around.

The meme catches fire! Invented around 2000, but too unsafe and expensive for the conventional toys trade. Placed in public domain in 2004, lifted from Youtube video in 2006, spreading widely as Neocube, Cybercube, QQmag, IQmag, Buckyballs, Amazing Magnet Balls.

I hope all these sellers are including a warning: UNSAFE FOR CHILDREN! LETHAL SWALLOWING HAZARD! (But that would be bad for sales, no.)

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da3v on July 29th, 2009 at 1:00 pm said:

I ordered 3 sets of the buckyballs, and all three were riddled with inconsistent beads. Some big, some small, some weak, many oblong (non-spherical). I spent days trying to get a 6x6x6 cube to go together, but with the mismatched sizes, it was not possible.

I ordered a NeoCube, the beads were very consistent. I got 6x6x6, 3x3x3, and 2x2x2 cubes to go together on the first try. For the triangle and hex based patterns, consistency is not as critical, but for anything with rows of parallel beads, it makes a huge difference.

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