# YJ Guanlong



## peedoo72 (Dec 24, 2014)

How do you guys feel about the YJ GuanLong?


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## JasonDL13 (Dec 25, 2014)

I agree that's it's unnecessary.

But if you want to know it's really good for MBLD. Cheap and good. But I hate the colours because I have a colour blind issue with the orange and green. So I have to get new stickers.


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## Chrizz (Dec 26, 2014)

It feels really cheap and light, but it's very good, the turning is very smooth and cornercutting is almost as good as other speedcubes. I would recommend this cube if you don't have a lot of money or if want a lot of cubes.


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## Berd (Dec 26, 2014)

I've purchased 12, along with washer sets and stickers from the cubicle = ~$5 per cube - still cheaper than most :')


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## Leo123 (Dec 29, 2014)

Berd said:


> I've purchased 12, along with washer sets and stickers from the cubicle = ~$5 per cube - still cheaper than most :')



How do you get loads of cubes without using up loads of money


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## ~Adam~ (Dec 29, 2014)

Leo123 said:


> How do you get loads of cubes without using up loads of money



They are like £2 each.


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## Leo123 (Dec 30, 2014)

Berd said:


> I've purchased 12, along with washer sets and stickers from the cubicle = ~$5 per cube - still cheaper than most :')



Why do you need 12?


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## Berd (Dec 30, 2014)

Leo123 said:


> Why do you need 12?


Multiblind!


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## Leo123 (Dec 30, 2014)

Berd said:


> Multiblind!



I guessed that but wasn't 100 percent sure.


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## Chrizz (Dec 30, 2014)

cube-o-holic said:


> They are like £2 each.



More like €1 each or even €0.66 each if you buy 6.


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## ~Adam~ (Dec 30, 2014)

Chrizz said:


> More like €1 each or even €0.66 each if you buy 6.



Is that free shipping?


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## Berd (Dec 30, 2014)

cube-o-holic said:


> Is that free shipping?


No. Shipping sucks


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## tarandeep5 (Dec 30, 2014)

I got my Guanlong from here (Received it today!) : http://www.championscubestore.com/i...ucts_id=2308&zenid=djr9p51h78h41p527b1jh9a9j1

It cost me $2 but it has free registered shipping.


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## richardye1 (Dec 31, 2014)

Berd said:


> I've purchased 12, along with washer sets and stickers from the cubicle = ~$5 per cube - still cheaper than most :')



what hardware did you use


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## DeeDubb (Dec 31, 2014)

I ordered 80 from zcube.cn.... Cost me around $100 with shipping.


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## DeeDubb (Dec 31, 2014)

BTW, if you're intersted in making a mosaic, these are perfect because they can be black or white, and there's no logo on the white center.


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## guysensei1 (Dec 31, 2014)

DeeDubb said:


> BTW, if you're intersted in making a mosaic, these are perfect because they can be black or white, and there's no logo on the white center.


How do the fitted stickers look on the mosaic?


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## DeeDubb (Dec 31, 2014)

guysensei1 said:


> How do the fitted stickers look on the mosaic?



I didn't put one together. The stickers look a little small, so there's a lot of exposed plastic. I would probably use white cubes for a mosaic, so it doesn't stand out as much as the deep black.


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## Berd (Dec 31, 2014)

richardye1 said:


> what hardware did you use


The cubicle sells a moyu hardware set.


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## Myachii (Dec 31, 2014)

If you buy >6 GL's from Cubezz, they are ~50p each.
10 of these makes around £5.50.
For the cheapest UK Shipping (Royal Mail) it's ~£10
That's ~£15-16 for 10 GuanLongs.
Even if the postage is high, £15 for 10 cubes is amazing.


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## Berd (Dec 31, 2014)

Myachii said:


> If you buy >6 GL's from Cubezz, they are ~50p each.
> 10 of these makes around £5.50.
> For the cheapest UK Shipping (Royal Mail) it's ~£10
> That's ~£15-16 for 10 GuanLongs.
> Even if the postage is high, £15 for 10 cubes is amazing.


Cubezz shipping is free?


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## jms (Jan 6, 2015)

Myachii said:


> If you buy >6 GL's from Cubezz, they are ~50p each.
> 10 of these makes around £5.50.
> For the cheapest UK Shipping (Royal Mail) it's ~£10
> That's ~£15-16 for 10 GuanLongs.
> Even if the postage is high, £15 for 10 cubes is amazing.



Argh! I just bought ONE for £6.50 from Amazon!

It seems like a great cube though. Think I might go back and buy a dozen more....

Also for washers, I just bought 100 M2 washers for £1.79 from ebay.

I haven't tried to fit them yet, but they look about the right size.


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## jms (Jan 6, 2015)

While we're talking about Guanlongs. I'm trying to dissassemble mine and the egde piece doesn't seem to want to pop out. 

Is there any knack to this? Or just twist 45 degrees and pull it out?


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## DeeDubb (Jan 6, 2015)

jms said:


> While we're talking about Guanlongs. I'm trying to dissassemble mine and the egde piece doesn't seem to want to pop out.
> 
> Is there any knack to this? Or just twist 45 degrees and pull it out?



They come really tight. You might want to loosen it up a turn to help you out


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## jms (Jan 6, 2015)

DeeDubb said:


> They come really tight. You might want to loosen it up a turn to help you out



Thanks.


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## jms (Jan 6, 2015)

Myachii said:


> If you buy >6 GL's from Cubezz, they are ~50p each.
> 10 of these makes around £5.50.
> For the cheapest UK Shipping (Royal Mail) it's ~£10
> That's ~£15-16 for 10 GuanLongs.
> Even if the postage is high, £15 for 10 cubes is amazing.


I just checked cubezz and they are $2.80 each if you buy 6.

Was it definitely that site, or were they having a sale or something?


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## Berd (Jan 6, 2015)

jms said:


> I just checked cubezz and they are $2.80 each if you buy 6.
> 
> Was it definitely that site, or were they having a sale or something?



I think he was talking about ZCube.


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## Myachii (Jan 6, 2015)

Berd said:


> I think he was talking about ZCube.


I'll link it when I find it again


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## jms (Jan 7, 2015)

Thanks guys.


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## newtonbase (Jan 7, 2015)

£1.36 delivered from Champion's Cube Store.


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## AlexTheEmperor (Jan 7, 2015)

How can these be made so cheaply?
There seems to be no obvious compromise on quality, so what is causing a price drop of such proportions. I could only think of:

1)All other cubes in our history have had a HUGE markup and the Guanlong is priced to reflect it's production cost. The design cost may be high, but given the number of sales for a flagship MoYu product will be in the 10s if not 100s of 1000s.

To expand on 1):
What could cause reasonably the price of a speed cube to be in excess of £10?
We can reasonably presume that neither renting of factory space of the employ of labourers needed to assemble the parts and sticker present a problem in a market like China where this sort of work is what props up alot of the Chinese economy. Neither can it be presumed that the cost of 100g or so of plastic would be to hard to come by in any country. The only expensive part of the operation is the design and distribution of the stock. Like I said in my original point 1), the sheer volume of sales by market leaders like MoYu would surely offset that initial cost. Unless we have been paying massively inflated prices for years without realising it and we have simply gone aolong (pun 100% intended) with it, believing that none of what is debited from our bank accounts is going straight into the pockets of a profit-mongering industrialist, there has to be some other explanation. 

2) Alternatively, the raw stock is sold to online puzzle shops by MoYu for a low wholesale price and it is the cube stores who markup the prices to the levels that we are used to paying today. Meaning that they are the true profit-mongerers of today's puzzle market.


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## Berd (Jan 7, 2015)

AlexTheEmperor said:


> How can these be made so cheaply?
> There seems to be no obvious compromise on quality, so what is causing a price drop of such proportions. I could only think of:
> 
> 1)All other cubes in our history have had a HUGE markup and the Guanlong is priced to reflect it's production cost. The design cost may be high, but given the number of sales for a flagship MoYu product will be in the 10s if not 100s of 1000s.
> ...


Apparently this cube was designed to be profitless [emoji8]


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## ~Adam~ (Jan 7, 2015)

AlexTheEmperor said:


> How can these be made so cheaply?



You can buy cubes from £ and $ stores.
These are made by a large toy company to be as cheap as possible. The plastic is thin, they have no washers and presumably they have found other ways to keep the cost down possibly to get more cubes out to the public. YJ own MoYu who produce without question the best speed cubes so maybe it's a ploy to get more people into cubing which will result in MoYu making more money.

I have made assumptions but that makes a lot of sense to me.


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## Carbon (Jan 7, 2015)

Loosen each side bu 3/4 of a turn ootb and its really nice


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## Parity Case (Jan 8, 2015)

AlexTheEmperor said:


> How can these be made so cheaply?
> There seems to be no obvious compromise on quality, so what is causing a price drop of such proportions. I could only think of:
> 
> 1)All other cubes in our history have had a HUGE markup and the Guanlong is priced to reflect it's production cost. The design cost may be high, but given the number of sales for a flagship MoYu product will be in the 10s if not 100s of 1000s.
> ...



It's probably somewhere between 1 & 2. When you consider the cost of a cube, keep in mind that each business along the way has to cover its costs and make enough to make it worthwhile selling the cube(s). 

As nice as the whole line that's been repeated a few times about Moyu being super-kind and doing it to give cubers a good cheap option, that's more than likely PR spin. It's a terrible business case to make: "Let's make things cheaply to be nice to people, when they are already willing to fork out $10+ for a cube." I think that it's far more likely a smart business move. Moyu rose rapidly in the last couple of years from being YJ and producing cheap low-quality speedcubes (among other twisty puzzles) that weren't hugely popular with speedcubers. They did this by semi-rebranding and by developing a range of excellent cubes. They're at the top, and now need to hold on to that position. Who are their competition now? The other big labels (Dayan, Fangshi, etc.) and the cheapo brands. That Moyu was able to climb to dominance so quickly suggests a potential threat to them is the other cheapo cube makers, who could try to use or adapt the Moyu model for success. So it's better for Moyu to make a cube (the Guanlong) that is sold either at-cost to the wholesalers, or at a slight loss, made up for in profits from strong sales of their other cubes. By flooding the market with a good-quality cube that sells at very low price, they can take a lot of sales from the other cheapo manufacturers, potentially putting some out of business, or at least clipping their wings before they have a chance to grow. There's also the benefit that if a person gets a cheap cube from Moyu that works well, they'll be be more willing to try out other Moyu cubes in the future - the name and quality is already in their minds.

I'm interested to see where things will go - perhaps another of the big name brands will try something similar and try to stop Moyu claiming the good-but-cheap market?


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## pewpewrawr (Jan 8, 2015)

this is a really good cube


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## TraciAG (Jan 8, 2015)

pewpewrawr said:


> this is a really good cube



I like how this post got super deep about the real reason Yj/Moyu is making this cube, and you're just like "this cube rocks"


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## thema (Jan 8, 2015)

I've loving using it for OH. Thing is just so light making it easy to solve for longer sessions. 

Never knew that it didn't have washers, is it any better with them?


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## Parity Case (Jan 8, 2015)

I have to agree - I prefer it over my Aolong V2 "enhanced" version. ("Enhanced" because I have no idea whether I really got sent the enhanced one that I ordered). The Guanlong holds its shape better, is lighter on my wrists, no corner twists so far and sufficiently low pressure on the slices for good M movement.


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## Myachii (Jan 8, 2015)

If you're gonna buy it, buy it in bulk for MultiBLD. It's a decent cube, but not main material unless it's your first speedcube up from a store-bought.
Or just buy it to test it out. For the price, you can't go wrong


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## Makarov (Jan 8, 2015)

I also like it better than the aolong v2. Might corner twist a bit more but it's worth it for me because of the lighter turning. Definitely one of my favorites now


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## TraciAG (Jan 8, 2015)

The Aolong V2 was too heavy and felt really clunky and slow. I'm pretty sure it's not a first batch because I ordered it from the Cubicle a while after the second batch was made. I'm probably one of the few that prefer the YJ brand cubes to the Aolong, but the Aolong just has too much plastic to me.


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## Chree (Jan 8, 2015)

I just got mine and I really like it. I was surprised at how good it was. Fast, light... just an overall decent cube.

I can see how it's so cheap though. The plastic is likely a lower cost material... and the corners are 1 solid piece, rather than 3 separate pieces that require assembly. Take out the margins and there you have it.


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