Twisty Puzzles (e.g. Rubik's cubes) have permeated pop culture for their perceived difficulty, bright colours and retro status.
Many designers chose to use depictions of twisty puzzles. Too often little thought is given to the feasibility of these representations resulting in impossible, technically unsolvable puzzles.
This irritates and amuses puzzlers considerably. Here is the wall of shame...
Bit of a Dog's dinner... Note the two orange centers and congruent perpendicular edge and corner face colours. If you'd want one of these, you can find them at Sainsbury's
No expense spared, each face has a blue center, there are double red edge cubelets and double yellow corner cubelets.Note (1)
Nice colour scheme, but sadly it has two blue centers, a double red edge and double gold/purple corners on show.
Someone needs to pull theirs up... Two white centers a double yellow corner and some awful perspective. Grab a pair from ASOS here if you fancy.
Never quit the impossible... Double white-ish edge, if the 'I-E' edge is actually white-grey that means there are 7 face colours which is also impossible.
You can have your cake and eat it but it ain't quite right (sorry Kimura!). Nice to see a 3x2 for a change, unfortunately there are 5 different short-edge colours on show and only 4 short edges.
A for effort, E for attainment. Sadly we have an impossible scramble of only 3 colours.
At least you'll have something to wipe away the tears as you cry over the double red corner and double yellow edge.
Sole destroying. At a glance the cubelets look legit, but the orientation of the red yellow centers is at odds with the orientation of the orange-white-blue corner.
A succulent error, nice idea, shame about the double white edge and double red corner cubelets.
While phone cases might offer some physical protection, they can't withstand the scrutiny of a twisty puzzler. The orientation of the yellow-white-blue corner cubelet is incompatible with the blue yellow centers assuming the white center must be opposite the visible green center.
This is a one of those squishy stress balls (or rather a stress cube). In this case, the errors (every face being the same) might be intentional and actually quite clever (stress inducing), probably not though.
I'll roll up my sleeves for this one... Double blue edge cubelet and two white centers. They do look snazzy though.
'Is your cube from outer space?' - the one on the album cover might be... It's no wonder the Barron Knights had so much trouble with it. Three blue centers and one whacky tune == one unsolvable cube.
This is an ugly pot I found on ebay. Interestingly it has the same incorrect design as the money box shown previously. Checkout that double red edge cubelet!Note (1)
I'm not going to pretend to understand this, all I know is that a double orange edge cubelet doesn't compute and for $56 OZ dollars this whacky lumbar pillow can be yours from Etsy.
Cool idea! Shame about the execution, check out that double yellow edge cubelet (there are also two green centers). If you fancy following the tutorial anyway here's the link.
Why the wrong face? To be fair to this makeup artist they realised their mistakes and noted them in their post 👍 (double blue edge cubelet). Check out their other work on their facebook page.
Think before you ink! Posters on Reddit were quick to point out the unsolvable double orange edge and doubled blue-green edges cubelets on this one. The OP took it well TBF.
'ALL PROBLEMS CAN BE SOLVED', just not this one unfortunately, check that double red edge cubelt! Nice idea though, head here if you want one.
Time to throw in the towel... Groovy concept, grab one here if you like, just a shame about that double green edge cubelet.
Might look doable when you've had a few, but the double green edge and double blue corner stipulates otherwise. This one got a proper grilling on Reddit.
This is possibly one of the most impressive ones so far. A+ for effort, E- for attainment with two orange centers. Up on the Roof of Ripley's Super Fun Zone in Tennessee, check it out on Google street view, do you think it's intentional? (P.S it used to be a fire tower)
Decoration desolation 🤦 no one wants to be the party-pooper pointing out the 2 blue centers of the top puzzle and the fact that each cube uses 7 colours for presumably 6 faces... Get your unsolvable confetti here.
Rubik, the Amazing Cube (a cheesy 80s kids TV character) appears in the DVD version of the "Peter-Assment" episode of Family Guy. The double green centers on this cameo character were so bad it had to rip off it's stickers. Checkout this writeup on ADVENTURES IN CUBING for more info.
This one is all smoke and mirrors... every face being the same, this is an impossible ashtray. PS smoking kills 🚭.Note (1)
💰 An Impossible Money Box 🏺 An Impossible Pot 🚭 An Impossible Ashtray
These 3 objects have almost the same pattern, it makes me wonder if this is just a quirky 70s design and not actually intended to represent a twisty puzzle...
This is 'The Cube of Ultimate Destruction' from the South Park game, more like 'The Cube of Ultimate Frustration'... Those two red-yellow corners have the same orientation, impossible!
Behold, the 'Nerd Cube Greeting Card', clearly not designed by a 'Nerd', just count those 2 double white edges and a double blue edge, not to mention 2 different shades of blue, what in the yee-haw?! Design also available as a tee-shirt and sticker if you'd like to annoy a puzzler.
It breaks my heart to see the double orange edges and centres, have to let the creators off though as they're young children who are yet to learn the ways of the twisty puzzles... Instructions here if you'd like to make one yourself.
Don't be stupid Cupid!... This one comes from Pintrest. Nice to see a 4x4 variation for a change, shame there are too many different face colours.
A stunning piece of art from Simply Creative Favours on Facebook. Unfortunately that double-white edge stands out like a sore thumb 😪.
Such artistic skill from RafaelRubik on Dveiant Art. Sadly, those two yellow-red corners are incongruent.
This one might be intentional if the pun is to be believed 😂. With that double blue corner cubelet it truly is 'impawsible'. Sadly this card is no longer for sale on Amazon.