Cube puzzle

An educational cube puzzle game comprising sixteen cubes, eight of one color combination and eight of a second color combination. The first set of cubes has a first arrangement of colors having six different colors, one on each face. The second set of eight cubes also has a different color on each face and also contains the same six colors but the arrangement of the colors is different from the first set of cubes.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE 
The field of the invention is puzzles or games and the invention relates 
more specifically to games which utilize sets of colored cubes. 
Over the years, numerous games have been developed which utilize blocks or 
cubes having different colors. The object of the game is to arrange the 
colors in some desired orientation. One such game which was popular some 
years ago was called "Instant Insanity." As the name implies, this puzzle 
was very difficult to solve and the users often became frustrated by their 
inability to arrive at the correct solution. Another cube puzzle is 
disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,788,645. Unlike "Instant Insanity" each 
cube face has more than one color and the object of the game is to arrange 
the cubes so that adjacent cubes define a particular arrangement or 
combination of colors on the surface of the combined cubes. Another color 
association game is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,690,671 where colored 
panels are used. A game utilizing hexagonal blocks is disclosed in U.S. 
Pat. No. 2,247,250 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 854,547 and 487,798 utilize cards or 
tablets also having indicia or colors on the face thereof. Cubes having 
the markings of the suits in a deck of playing cards are shown in U.S. 
Pat. No. 2,024,541. 
The essence of a successful puzzle is to arrive at a degree of difficulty 
which neither frustrates the user by being too difficult nor bores the 
user by being too easy to solve. Another shortcoming of several of the 
prior art puzzles is the difficulty in manufacturing the finished product. 
This is particularly true where there are numerous different colors on the 
same face of each cube such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,788,645. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention is for an educational color association puzzle 
comprising a plurality of cubes of equal size. The cubes may be arranged 
to form a square wherein no two colors are repeated in any six adjacent 
surfaces either horizontally or vertically.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
The object of the puzzle of the present invention is to arrange sixteen 
cubes in a manner so that there are no two colors along any line or row 
which are the same. For purposes of discussion, the directions of the 
cubes in FIG. 1 will be indicated by North, South, East and West as shown 
in the left of FIG. 1. 
The colors are indicated by the first letter of the color as follows: 
Y=yellow, R=red, B=blue, G=green, W=white and O=orange. For instance if 
one follows the westerly row of colors from south to north, the colors 
would read yellow, red, blue, green, white and orange. The next row in an 
easterly direction again reading north, is arranged in the order of 
orange, blue, red, white, yellow and green. The next most easterly row is 
green, yellow, white, red, orange and blue. The furtherest easterly row is 
blue, white, green, orange, red and yellow. Next reading in easterly 
direction, beginning with the southern most row, the colors are green, 
red, blue, yellow, white and orange. The second row again reading easterly 
is orange, blue, red, white, green and yellow. The next row is yellow, 
green, white, red, orange and blue and the northern most row is blue, 
white, yellow, orange, red and green. In addition to being a different 
color along the rows comprising two sides and four surfaces, the four 
surfaces on each side are also different from each other. For instance, 
the southernmost sides read yellow, orange, green and blue. The 
easternmost sides are orange, yellow, blue and green. The northernmost 
sides are yellow, blue, green and orange and the westernmost sides are 
blue, yellow, orange and green. 
The above described colors shown in FIG. 1 represent but one of the 
configurations that can be obtained with the two color combinations of 
blocks shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. The arrangement of FIG. 1 contains eight of 
the blocks of FIG. 2 and eight of the blocks of FIG. 3. The blocks of FIG. 
2 are indicated by reference character 12 and the blocks of FIG. 3 are 
marked with reference character 13. The color configuration shown in FIG. 
2 indicated that each face of cube 12 has a different colored surface. The 
underside of the combination of blocks of FIG. 1 is shown in FIG. 4. It 
can be seen that there are repetive colors on the underside of this 
configuration and one need only satisfy the color differences along the 
sides and top to complete the puzzle. 
In addition to the square configuration of FIGS. 1 and 4 a smaller number 
of blocks may also be arranged to yield different colors running along 
each of the sides and over the combination of top and sides. For instance, 
in FIG. 5, again using the north, south, east and west directions 
indicated all colors are different in a northerly direction along the four 
block portion of the cross namely green, blue, yellow, red, white and 
orange. Along the shorter length of the cross in an easterly direction the 
colors are green, yellow, red, blue and white; reading along the west 
side, in a northerly direction, the colors are orange, white, red, green, 
blue and yellow. Lastly, reading in a northerly direction, but this time 
along the eastern surface, the colors are yellow, red, orange, white, 
green, and blue. 
The resulting puzzle may be solved in other configurations than those shown 
in FIGS. 1 and 5. The degree of difficulty is such that the game is not 
frustrating because of the availability of different solutions other than 
those shown. 
Another advantage of the present invention is the ease of manufacture of 
the blocks. The blocks may be formed of any material of construction such 
as wood or plastic. For example, all blocks of the type shown in FIG. 2 
may be placed together and one surface of all blocks is painted as by 
spray painting a single color. After this surface is dry, the blocks are 
all reversed and the opposite side is painted a different color. After 
drying all blocks are turned one turn in the same direction and the 
procedure is continued until all six surfaces have been painted. The same 
procedure is carried out for the second block type. The game or puzzle is 
then assembled by placing eight blocks of each type in a package. 
Instructions may also be provided to show possible correct solutions if 
desired. In place of colors, other indicia such as circles, crosses, stars 
and the like may be used. 
The present embodiments of this invention are thus to be considered in all 
respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention 
being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing 
description. All changes which come within the meaning and range of 
equivalency of the claims therefore are intended to be embraced therein.