Shashibo Cubes
Shashibo is a 2.4-inch magnetic puzzle that folds into more than 100 shapes. Thirty-six rare-earth magnets catch each new configuration and hold it, so a Star or a Ball keeps its form instead of falling open in your hand.
How a Shashibo Cube Opens and Folds
Shashibo opens on two of its eight corners. The other six stay shut no matter how hard anyone pulls, which is why a brand new cube so often feels broken. Find a corner that gives, then ease it apart the way you would open a pistachio.
Once that first corner separates, the puzzle stops behaving like a box. Twelve hinged sections fold through one another, and a surface that was sealed inside a second ago ends up facing out. The magnets are doing two jobs here. They hold the closed cube together, and they catch whichever faces meet as the structure moves. That catch is what lets a Star keep its points instead of sagging.
No solved state exists to reach. Learn a sequence, reverse it from memory, or keep folding until something you have never seen appears.
Cube
The starting position. Six printed faces, eight corners, and only two of those corners will ever come apart.
Crown
Ease one of the two working corners open. The cube splits into a ring of triangles standing on a flat base.
Star
Open the corner still closed at the other end. Both ends are now inverted and the outline reads as a six-pointed star.
Ball
Fold the points of the Star inward until the magnets take them. This is the form most people end up photographing.
Everything after that
Hive, UFO, Dome, Swan, Scorpion and Coiled Snake all sit within reach of the Ball. Fun In Motion Toys has named more than 70 shapes, and the count of workable configurations passes 100.
Getting it back to a cube
Stop trying to squeeze the whole thing shut at once. Look for a section that already resembles the Ball or the Star and work backward from there, following the hinges rather than the outside silhouette.
Magnets that refuse to meet mean a different section has to move first. Learning Cube to Crown to Star to Ball in both directions solves most of the panic, and the pattern printed on the closed cube tells you which corners belong together once you are close.
Shashibo Puzzle Cube Designs and Colors
Artist Series boxes carry the artist’s signature where a standard cube carries a design name.
Original · 100+ shapes
Elements
A green forest canopy covers the closed cube. Open it and the inside runs cold, with concentric blue and teal rings on one set of faces and a purple and orange burn on another.
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Original · 100+ shapes
Confetti
Cut-glass shards in pink, yellow and violet across the closed cube. The hidden faces do the opposite: soft rainbow spirals that line up into one continuous swirl when the puzzle folds flat.
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Original · 100+ shapes
Earth
A satellite relief map of the planet sits inside, coastlines and mountain shading intact. The closed cube shows the same imagery pushed through a kaleidoscope until the continents disappear.
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Original · 100+ shapes
Blue Planet
The quietest Original in the range. Rippled blue and white on every surface, closed or open, with no second color anywhere to break it up.
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Original · 100+ shapes
Optical Illusion
Fine printed line work that seems to drift while your hand stays still. The closed cube runs red and orange. Fold it open and whole faces turn blue and acid yellow.
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Original · 100+ shapes
Black & White
No color at all. Radiating black and white line work, which makes the fold lines easier to read than on any other design. Worth considering as a first cube if you plan to learn named shapes rather than just handle it.
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Original · 100+ shapes
Spaced Out
Marbled orange, blue and red on the outside, deep space and stars within. The box carries the STEAM accreditation seal and a code for the Fun In Motion app.
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Original · 100+ shapes
Wings
A peacock feather photographed close enough that the individual barbs show. Blues and greens dominate, with a copper eye landing at the center of each closed face.
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Artist Series · Laurence Gartel
Chaos
Laurence Gartel digital artwork in magenta, emerald and violet, layered until no two faces resolve the same way. The box is signed and marked Artist Series where a standard cube carries a design name.
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Artist Series · Laurence Gartel
Mystic Ocean
The second Gartel cube here and the calmer of the two. Turquoise and black poured together like oil on water, with thin yellow lines running through the swirl.
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Licensed · Avatar: The Last Airbender
Avatar Air
Aang holds a stance on the closed cube against the Air Nomad spiral. Appa turns up on the internal faces, so the character you are looking at changes with the shape you fold.
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Licensed · SpongeBob SquarePants
Beach Buddies
SpongeBob and Patrick at the beach, with surfboards and jellyfish across the hidden faces. The Bikini Bottom backgrounds shift from purple to teal as the cube turns itself inside out.
Check availabilityOriginal, ICOSA or OCTA?
Buy an Original first. Its 36-magnet mechanism is the one every tutorial and every printed shape guide is built around, and it connects to everything else in the line.
ICOSA carries 72 magnets and reaches more than 210 configurations in a larger, looser body. OCTA is the small one. Twenty-eight magnets, roughly 30 shapes, and an eight-sided geometry that folds nothing like the Original. Both still snap onto an Original, so a mixed collection behaves as one system rather than three separate toys.
| Original Shashibo | Shashibo ICOSA | Shashibo OCTA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Magnets inside | 36 rare-earth magnets | 72 rare-earth magnets | 28 rare-earth magnets |
| Shapes | More than 100 | More than 210 | More than 30 |
| Closed size | About 2.4 in (6.1 cm) | Larger than an Original | Smaller than an Original |
| Structure | Twelve hinged sections folding through a cube | Icosahedral body with looser, freer movement | Eight-sided body with a different folding path |
| Connects to other Shashibo | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Suits | A first cube, and every tutorial ever filmed | Anyone already fluent with the Original | Pockets, and new angles in an existing collection |
What one Original gives you
- More than 100 shapes from a single 2.4-inch cube
- Four art designs, three of them hidden until it opens
- Shapes that hold their form instead of collapsing
- No batteries, no screen, no setup
- A connection point for every other Shashibo you add
Collect and Connect Shashibo Cubes
Two cubes make shapes one cannot
The magnets that hold a single configuration together also join separate cubes. Two Originals reach structures that a lone cube has no way to build. Four produce large symmetrical objects with repeating geometry. Fun In Motion Toys has connected 30 at once, though the weight of the structure becomes the practical limit long before the magnets give up.
Four art designs per cube
The artwork is not simply printed across six outer faces. Every Original holds four designs: one visible on the closed cube and three more sealed inside it. A pattern that looks continuous in one configuration splits into mirrored triangles in the next, which is why a transformed Shashibo can look nothing like the cube it came from.
Artist and licensed runs
Licensed cubes have covered Hello Kitty, SpongeBob, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Grateful Dead, and they rotate out of stock as new ones arrive. Standard collections such as Jumbie and Holographic 2.0 come and go the same way. None of it touches the magnets, so the artwork is a free choice rather than a commitment to one series.
Telling a real one from a copy
Shine a UV light on a genuine Shashibo and a concealed mark appears, printed with the style name. An Original also measures about 2.4 inches closed and holds 36 magnets. Magnet strength and alignment matter more than they sound: a lookalike that will not connect to a real cube has failed the one test a collection actually depends on.
Matching artwork gives a connected build continuous surfaces. Contrasting designs make each module easy to pick out while you are still working out where it goes.
Buying a Shashibo Toy for a Child
Shashibo is marked ages 8 and up. Hand control sets that limit rather than reading level, because the sections have to be folded along their hinges without being forced.
Each Original holds 36 enclosed rare-earth magnets. They sit sealed inside the plastic and are not meant to come out. If a cube cracks badly enough that a magnet becomes reachable, take it away. A younger child should only handle one with an adult present.
Difficulty adjusts itself after that. A child can fold freely without knowing a single shape name. Rebuilding a Rhombic Dodecahedron from memory and then returning it to a cube is still hard at forty.
Looking After a Shashibo
Follow the hinges
Every section moves along a fixed path. When a fold resists, the answer is a different section, not more force. Extra leverage unlocks nothing and tears the printed surface at the joint.
Printed surfaces
The graphics are tear-resistant rather than indestructible. A dry microfiber cloth lifts dust. Solvents and household cleaners attack both the print and the plastic underneath, so keep them away from it.
Storage
Put it away as a cube. That form is the most compact and the least exposed, and it means the next session starts from the position every tutorial assumes you are in.
When to stop using one
A cube that has lost a hinge or split along a seam is finished. The magnets sit directly behind those surfaces, and a damaged unit is the one situation where a Shashibo turns into a hazard instead of a puzzle.
Shashibo Cube Reviews
Fun, challenging, relaxing. Strong build. I love it and so does my grandson at 4 years old. Appropriate for all ages.
ASH
This toy (?) is the best thing I've purchased in a very long time. I've been having so much fun with it and have a hard time putting it down. I've shown it to a few people and they will definitely be…
LinZ
I got this for my son, who's 7, and it's been a great purchase. He loves experimenting with all the different shapes he can create — it keeps him engaged and off screens for long stretches. On top of…
J. Pinkston
Fabulous blue cube , with inset colors of purple. It’s my fifth sheshito box and my favorite. Hours of fun ahead twisting and configuring into a variety of shapes and color patterns. Headed to my…
Claudiaf
I bought this for a grandchild for Christmas. She loves this kind of thing and I thought she would enjoy it. They are a little steep in price and I must say, I was a bit surprised when it arrived in…
Redman62
I bought the Shashibo Puzzle Cube for my husband who has Parkinson's Disease. He softly said, "It's challenging." It must also be intriguing to him because he's playing with it. It is hard to find…
PDX Art
Frequently Asked Questions About Shashibo
Shashibo is a magnetic shape-shifting puzzle that starts as a compact 2.4-inch cube and transforms into more than 100 geometric configurations. The Original Shashibo contains 36 internal magnets that hold different sections together as the puzzle folds, allowing each new form to stay in place instead of immediately collapsing. The name comes from "Shape Shifting Box." It can be used as a spatial puzzle, tactile fidget, geometric building toy or open-ended object for experimenting with shapes.
The Starting Cube Is Only One Configuration
Memorize a Star. Reverse a Ball. Build a Rhombic Dodecahedron without looking anything up. Then add a second cube and go find a structure neither one could reach alone.
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