Delicious difficulty added to the classic puzzle.

Of all the puzzles that I constantly get about 80 percent through and then give up, my favorite has to be the Rubik’s Cube. A timeless marriage of elegant design and mental exercise, these cubes have kept hands busy for generations, and now, they come with pictures of potato chips!

MegaHouse, Japan’s official licensee of Rubik’s Cube, has partnered with the country’s leading potato chip brand Calbee for a line of cubes bearing their most famous flavors. All your favorites are here, such as the Calbee Light Salt Flavor potato chips.

And even though they’re technically not “chips” in the traditional sense of the word, the extremely popular Jagariko Salad Flavor sticks and Kappa Ebisen shrimp-flavored sticks are also represented here.

▼ Jagariko Salad

▼ Kappa Ebisen

There’s also the heartier, kettle-fried Kata-age Potato Light Salt Flavor chips, and the legendary Pizza Potato chips that are so beloved a shortage caused resale prices to surge to tens of thousands of yen (hundreds of dollars) per bag.

▼ Kata-age Potato Light Salt Flavor

▼ Pizza Potato

And for those who really like a challenge, there’s one on which every side has pictures of piles of potato chips. Even the most seasoned cuber might struggle to keep track of the very subtle differences in each square to line them up correctly.

Although these are official Rubik’s Cube products, they are mini versions of the standard cube, measuring only 3.4 centimeters (1.3 inches) in height. They also come with key chains, so you can take them everywhere you go.

Die-hard fans of Jagariko might demand their game be in cup form, true to the product it’s based on. Luckily, MegaHouse has that covered with the Jagariko Shock!!! Mini. This is based on the currently available Jagariko Shock!!! game by the same company.

It works on a similar principle to Pop-Up Pirate, in that players take turns flipping up the lid and removing a stick. However, one unfortunate turn will result in all the sticks flying out at once. 

▼ In this version, it looks like you don’t remove sticks each time, considering the size. It’s just opening and closing the lid until it pops.

These games come in a range of flavors, including the Salad pictured above.

▼ Cheese

▼ Potato Butter

▼ Pollock Roe Butter

▼ Bacon Butter Soy Sauce Flavor

As the name suggests, these are also miniaturized versions of the real thing, only four centimeters tall. But they can also be clipped to bags and played anywhere, though I don’t recommend it anywhere since there’s a bit of cleanup involved.

Both mini toys are set to go on sale around the end of February, with the cubes going for 1,100 yen (US$7) each and the Jagariko Shock!!! Mini for 715 yen. If you can’t wait until then, you can always pick up a Calbee Snack Mahjong game for 2,178 yen from MegaHouse right now.

Anyone can enjoy these chips off the old block puzzle, proving that great things can come in small packages. Aside from mini four-player Othello, that is. We wouldn’t wish that on our worst enemy.

Source, images: PR Times
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