Magic Snake

Introduction · Size Variants · Length Variants · Mechanical Variants · Color Variants · Instagram Posts

Introduction to the Magic Snake

The Magic Snake was released during the Rubik's Cube Craze, and is one of the very few "Rubik's" branded toys actually invented by Ernő Rubik.

The Original Magic Snake had 24 elements, each being a cube cut in half perpendicular along a face diagonal. The elements are connected with a spring loaded joint at the center points of their square faces, where small bumps and dimples snap in every 90° of rotation.

Originally, the Magic Snake was delivered in a Rhombicuboctahedral shape, packed inside a clear plastic Sphere. Later, the Snake was sold in a cuboid shape, one unit high, and a rectangular base of 3×2 diagonals.


Vintage Magic Snakes, Left: Politoys, Right: Tomy

When the Magic Snake was originally released, the suggested challenge was to get it back into the "Ball Shape". Later during the Speedcube Craze, there was a challenge to get the Magic Snake from fully stretched out state "back" to the ball shape as speed contest. However, this contest would be similar to a Checkerboard contest in terms of cubing.

Actually, the Magic Snake is a Creativity Toy, but only few poeple do realize this. Some sample shapes have been repeated over and over again in different leaflets, and there were even a few books about the Magic Snake. However, the best way is to just play on.

Size Variants of the Magic Snake

There were two vintage models that can be considered as reference: The lime green and blue from Tomy, and a little larger brown and cream colored by Politoys / Action GT.

Below are a few examples for 24-segments snakes with dimensions in mm.

Model Width Height Diagonal Ball Length

Politoys Action GT 35.6 25.2 50.0 106 636

Original Tomy 25.0 17.7 35.2 75 444

Standard 23.7 16.8 33.6 71 418

Miniature 13.1 9.2 18.3 40 230

Googol 56.5 39.4 79.4 168 990

Model	Width	Height	Diagonal	Ball	Length
Politoys Action GT	35.6	25.2	50.0	106	636
Original Tomy	25.0	17.7	35.2	75	444
Standard	23.7	16.8	33.6	71	418
Miniature	13.1	9.2	18.3	40	230
Googol	56.5	39.4	79.4	168	990

Length Variants of the Magic Snake

The mechanical build allows creating Snakes of any length. Variants from 24 to 72 segments in increments of 12 are very common. With 24 segments being the initial length, the variants can also be expressed as multipliers of that. Longer variants use increments of 12 (½) up to 120 segments (5×), plus counts of 144 (6×), 192 (8×) and 240 (10×) segments.

Multiplier ½× 1× 1½× 2× 2½× 3× 3½× 4× 4½× 5× 6× 8× 10×

Segments 12 24 36 48 60 72 84 96 108 120 144 192 240

Mechanical Variants of the Magic Snake

Some variants of the Magic Snake use a single rubber, nylon or plastic thread running through a section of segments. However, depending on the bends, this can create excess stress on that string. If the string breaks, the whole section falls apart and is lost.

Later, Magic Snakes with detacheable joints in every segment where introduced. These allow creating Magic Snakes of any count of segments at any time at the press of a button.

One company tried to replace the spring loaded snap-in mechanism with magnets. However, the magnets are not strong enough to keep the structures in shape.

Color Variants

The Original Magic Snakes used an alternating sequence of two colors for the elements.

Later models took advantage of the two-part mold of the elements: Usually there is a body piece of two square and two triangular faces, and a rectangular insert closes the shape. The body and cap pieces are then mixed into a body of one color and a cap of the other color in alternating sequence.

When the Twisty Puzzles manufacturers entered the Magic Snake market, they introduced single-color elements of different colors. The standard bright color theme is named "Rainbow", the pastel colors set is called "Macaron", less common is a set of dull colors named "Morandi". Among these color themes, there are different color schemes, meaning the choice and sequence of colors. Some special color variants use body pieces of two alternating colors with a sequence of colored caps.

With the marketing experience of the Twisty Puzzle manufacturers, different variants of clear or frosted translucent elements were introduced. Another style are elements with a pierced "openwork" surface, usually by the strange term "hollow".