I've recently bought a Tornado V2 and a WRM V9. I've had the Tornado for a couple of months and treated myself to the WRM V9 just after Christmas.
After watching videos about both cubes everyone raves about the Tornado and it's adjustment system. Did you know its the cube Max Park uses? Yes, yes I heard it a bunch already.
So I got it and the first disappointment was finding one of the corner magnets was missing out of the box. Like I spent £35 on a fucking cube and it's missing a magnet!
Upon closer inspection the magnet was in the corner piece, I could hear it rattling around. So I had to take the corner to bits and refit the magnet. These things are held in place by a TINY bit of plastic.
It was fine for a few days, then I could feel the cube was a little wonky and sure enough the magnet has popped out again, so it's time to take the corner apart, again.
This time I tried to bend the tiny bit of plastic a little to make the hold better, and SNAP, it's broken off.
Wtf?
I got a dab of superglue and glued the magnet in place.
Put it back together and did a couple solves and it still feels wonky. Wtf? The magnet has popped out again, I guess I didn't wait long enough for the glue to set.
Take it apart and find it's actually the magnet in the other side of the piece that's dislodged and stuck to my glued magnet. So I glue THAT magnet in place too.
A week or so later I decided to make my own lube following a YouTube tutorial. 1 part hair conditioner and 2 parts Vegetable Glycerin I have left over from making my own vape juice.
I went to take an edge out of the Tornado to lube it and it just crumbled in my fingers as I pull it out.
Wtf?
That lead me to another frantic glue session, I was about to go to work and wanted to take my cube with me, and putting these pieces together is hard work, I broke the fixings that hold it and had to glue it instead.
So now I have a badly glued edge piece on my shiny expensive maglev cube.
Now I've got the WRM V9. Cube head says it's adjustment system is dogshit and it's a travesty that you can't adjust the magnets.
But I just don't agree. How often do you honestly adjust a cube, once or twice? Who cares that you need a screwdriver to do this? The magnets on my Tornado seem to adjust themselves so the fact that they're adjustable is moot anyway.
But the build quality on a Moyu cube just seems to be way better. The magnets are still where they should be and I haven't broken an edge piece just taking it out for a lubing.
The cube itself just feels more solid. It doesn't feel like the plastic is cheap and it will shatter if I drop it from waist height like the Tornado does.
And that's why the WRM is my new main, and the Tornado has become the cube that lives in my leather jacket pocket for when I'm out and about.
When it comes to turning and whatnot they feel pretty similar if you turn the magnet adjustment up to full on the Tornado, so there's not much difference in performance, but the WRM just feels like a better quality cube.
So yeah, I wanna hear about how quickly my cubes will break on YouTube reviews. I don't wanna be dropping cash on a cube that will be broken out of the box.
I think build quality can be really inconsistent, especially when considering the brand you're buying from. I can't speak much about QiYi, since I only have a Square-1 from them (soon I'll be getting their clock, which I've heard is the only one worth getting right now), but I've had my fair share of frustrations with other brands. For instance, earlier this year I got the MGC 6x6, and, after opening it up to lube the core, it [the core] just kind of… collapsed, which made the cube unusable.
It was all ok, in the end. The store I bought the cube from provided me a replacement 6x6, which is awesome and hasn't given me any problems (yet). But this is just to show that we're buying mass produced plastic puzzles and quality tends to vary a lot.
Take, for example, the WRM V9, which you praise in your post. I won't deny that it is a high quality puzzle, and it's my main 3x3 ever since I got it last October (I think). But the corner magnets (I got the ballcore version) have fallen out of three corners. I solved that with superglue, and I'm thankful that it all happened when I was at home, as losing the magnets on the bus would've been nothing short of tragic. But, again, this only goes to show that even flagship cubes can have their shortcomings, regarding build quality, as you yourself can attest with the Tornado V2.
I say all this because I like to keep in mind, and advise you to do as well, that reviewers generally only have access to one puzzle and have to give their impressions based only on that one puzzle, which may or may not be defective. So, unless the model itself is prone to defects (as was the case with a DaYan puzzle a few years back, though I can't recall what model), I don't really think reviewers should have the responsibility or even have the possibility to talk about build quality beyond the quality of the plastic and how sturdy the puzzle and its pieces are/feel.
Well, I also think the MoYu dual adjustment system is fine, but I believe that it's in the best interest of cubing, for the future, that we demand better technologies in that respect. I've been dealing with screws for a decade now, so I don't speak for lack of experience, but something like the GAN adjustment system, although a bit restrictive, can make it far easier for the consumer to set consistent screw distances from the core (I forget the proper name for this setting), and that is without having to touch a screwdriver. Which, of course, should only be done a few times in the lifespan of the puzzle, but making it easier to adjust allows for easier experimentation and an overall better time with the puzzle.
So I get why CubeHead disparages the screw adjustment system. Not because it is bad, but because demanding for better systems may push companies to a better direction, which I certainly agree with.
I agree with everything you've said and I guess I'm lucky to have a (touch wood) good WRM V9 because your experience sounds like a nightmare. I guess I just have to suck it up and admit I'm having a rant about the build quality of a toy as a 40 year old man, which I get enough flack for IRL lol.
I'm a Yorkshire Man, and we have a reputation for having "Short arms and long pockets" when it comes to spending money. So when I buy a toy that costs as much as 2 bottles of Jack Daniels it irks me that it can fall to bits through it's intended use.
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I don't get to talk about my cubes in the real world so it's nice to be able to have an adult discussion about it with someone.
I also bought a Square-1 recently, it's bloody frustrating that it's the only puzzle I have that I can't seem to wrap my head around and solve, but also nice that I have a mountain to climb. I might spend some time getting it solved this weekend.
I bought a "Horror Cube" off Ali Express that was supposed to be my mountain. It's a Mirror cube with colours on, so it can be solved by shape and by colour. But I managed to solve that both ways within the first hour of unboxing it.
That wasn't my first mirror cube though. I've got my Kids interested in cubes (although they won't spend the time to learn to solve them) and my youngest (10) made me buy a cheap cube set which includes one.
My eldest son's boyfriend is a cuber (I haven't met him yet but I'm excited to meet another cuber!) so he took that mirror cube in to school for him to try and solve, which he couldn't. But when he got home from school it had broken into pieces in his bag, and parts were missing so it got launched into the nearest bin.
See, I tried to include build quality in this reply too.