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Sunday, January 10, 2010

«Zen Magnets»

So my dad got me an interesting little gift for Christmas. It was a cube made of 216 chrome-coated spherical neodymium magnets. It may seem kinda odd, but let me tell you, these things are like Legos. Just like Legos, you always seem to want more. So I looked around the internet and found the Zen Magnets brand to be the best value. So I bought a mega-set that has 1,728 magnets and comes with 8 spares. Click an image to view full.

Here's my set of Zen Magnets, each magnet is 5mm in diameter. When they are strung end-to-end the resulting string measures over 28 feet long.
Zen Magnets mega set.
One of the first things I made with it was an over-sized D20 (20-sided shape). This took 1,692 magnets to build.
Zen Magnets large D20.
Seeing as I'm a nerd (as evidenced by the D20 above), I just had to try my hand at building the Star Trek starship Enterprise. Yes, the saucer section should have been a little bigger, but it was my first attempt. This took only 1,164 magnets.
USS Enterprise built from Zen Magnets.
While you can't quite build any shape you can imagine due to the polarity of the magnets, you can defiantly get creative. These seem to be the type of toy that everyone enjoys fiddling with. I'm certainly enjoying them.

Posted by Marf at 2:01 AM Email Post
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11 comments:

  1. how much did the set cost? i want one :D

    - Six Legions
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  2. @ Six Legions: The owner of the company also runs eBay auctions. That's how I bought mine, and I paid $134.50. It's worth it, and Zen Magnets has the lowest price per magnet of any of the brands out there.
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  3. I got my 1024 pc set for 79.99, that's the cheapest for all the ones I see on the market per piece! here's the site http://www.panicpot.com/servlet/the-Toys-%26-Hobbies/Categories
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  4. @ Anonymous (#3): My set is 1,728 not 1,024. If you figure out the price per magnet, it's nearly the same with mine just a tenth of a cent cheaper than yours per magnet.
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  5. that is so fricken cool.... bay would love these for his bday this month
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  6. @ Monique: I'm sure he would, they are cool.

    One thing to keep in mind with any magnets: If you swallow one you're fine. If two or more are swallowed, head for the hospital. They could stick together through the intestinal walls and cause blockage or even rupture.

    I'm not trying to scare you or anything. It's just that as a mom you should be aware of that.
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  7. To the guy who mentioned the 1024 neocube set. You should know that Zen Magnets are 20% larger in volume (5mm vs 4.7mm), and are noticeably stronger (n38 vs n35).
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  8. Where in Las Vegas can i buy the 216 zen magnets besides ebay or any other website. it has to be in real life face to face interaction. Where? Where? Where?
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  9. @ Anonymous (#7): I'm not sure. I live in Alaska, and I got them through ebay... Why do you need to only get them in person?
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  10. i want to to buy the regular 216 set because it is cheaper and buy a mini set which comes with 72 so that would give me 288 magnets for about $34 but i might get the 1024 piece set but i only have about $102 so i have no idea cause that is my money for the summer what should i do?
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  11. @ Anonymous (#10): Just get the regular 216 set. The number of magnets you get is not an arbitrary number. There's a reason there are 216 vs 250 or something else that seems more rounded. You can make a lot of geometric shapes without any extras left over with 216. If you added a mini set, there's a lot of shapes you'd try to make, but end up short or have extras.
    ReplyDelete

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