I’m a person who has to stay busy. As a consequence, I’m a world-class fidgeter. I’m not proud of it, but many a productive workweek has been disrupted by my desktop drumming! Six or seven years ago, I bought a pair of fidget cubes to help address the annoyance. I just recently found them after several years of disuse, so I brought them to work with me. They were the hit of the office!
No one knows why we do it, but scientists have hypothesized that fidgeting -making small, restless movements with our bodies- may help prepare our thoughts for speech or free up mental resources for thinking through complicated concepts1. Other studies have shown that object manipulation can help manage stress2. Those findings compelled Matthew and Mark McLachlan of Antsy Labs to create the fidget cube in 20163.
Fidget cubes are small devices, measuring about an inch, that feature different mechanisms on their six faces. Things like switches, buttons, and joysticks provide a variety of tactile sensations to a fidgeter like me.
My fidget cube story starts with Shark Tank. The TV show highlights entrepreneurs presenting ideas to millionaire investors, and I used to binge-watch it. I thought I provided a hilarious and insightful running commentary that was more entertaining than the actual show! I craved to be a shark, but supporting crowdfunded projects on Kickstarter was more attainable. That’s where I discovered the fidget cube, which debuted on the platform on August 30, 2016.
Nearly 155,000 backers pledged almost $6.5 million to bring the fidget cube to life4, but I was late to the game and missed my chance to fund the project. Fortunately, that was a good thing: we all appreciate well-designed products, but it seems like the McLachlan brothers were perfectionists. After the company placed an enormous order with a Chinese manufacturer to satisfy their Kickstarter campaign, the brothers visited the manufacturing plant in person and discovered a flaw.
That problem led Antsy Labs to miss the delivery dates advertised by its Kickstarter campaign, and it appears that the factory unloaded the inferior models to a distributor5. Knockoff fidget cubes that cost eight bucks flooded the market before the real, $25 one was delivered to backers6.
As a result, Antsy Labs sort of faded into obscurity. Although I wasn’t a backer of the Kickstater campaign, I found a legitimate Antsy Labs Fidget Cube at Toys R’ Us in 2017. I bought it and played with it constantly until I lost it somewhere. A month later, I saw a knockoff cube at a mall kiosk and picked it up as a replacement.
I eventually misplaced the second one too, but I recently discovered that I’d somehow stuffed both of them into the same backpack! Over the past week, my coworkers and I have noticed some significant difference between the original and the phony fidget cubes. I’ll explain the variants and rank my favorite faces.
6. Roll
I’ve used Antsy Labs’ descriptions to characterize each face of the cube. The “Roll” side is the most complicated- it features a metal roller ball and some scrolling plastic gears. In addition to rolling, the ball on the original cube also clicks down.
Roll would be one of my favorite faces if it subtracted the gears. It’s so full of things to do that it’s hard to actually fidget! Although the motions and mechanisms are sound on their own, Roll is my least-utilized side of the cube. That said, the production manager at work loves the gears and the ball. Roll is his favorite face.
5. Click
On first glance, the “Click” face of the fidget cube is perhaps the least compelling since it’s just five buttons that replicate clicking a pen or something. Actually fidgeting with the Click side of the original fidget cube reveals Antsy Labs’ attention to detail: three buttons audibly click with a satisfying crispiness, while the other two are silent and spongy.
All the nubs on the knockoff cube click with the same indiscriminate feedback, which is something I’d be good with if I hadn’t started with the official Antsy Labs cube. It may have cost a lot more than the ripoff, but this world-class fidgeter appreciated Antsy’s attention to detail.
4. Glide
Fidget cube hero shots often feature its “Glide” face prominently; it resembles a joystick. This face represents the biggest difference between Antsy Labs’ cube and the competition! Phony models utilize a real joystick that stupidly juts out from the cube and operates like you would expect. It even presses down like the control sticks on a Playstation controller!
Glide on the original Fidget Cube is a lot different, more like the Circle Pad on a Nintendo 3DS in that it doesn’t tilt. Whatever mechanism it uses makes the compact pad slide across the cube face more smoothly than a joystick. I prefer the differences, but it’s awkward to maneuver the small pad across a tiny area. In theory, Glide is my favorite of the fidget cube sides, but in practice, it’s only good enough for a fourth-place showing.
3. Flip
The flip face of the rip-off cube is like a crisp light switch. It provides a satisfying click each time you flick it on or off!. Unfortunately, the action has always been a little grainy, like a pinch of sand is stuck somewhere underneath the mechanism.
Just like its Roll and Click sides, the Flip face of the real cube is multi-talented. It can loudly mirror the crispiness of the knockoff if you flick it hard, but it also flips into position quietly if you’re gentle. Whether you fidget at FedEx Field or an anechoic chamber, Antsy Labs has you covered! At work, the quality manager likes the Flip side the most.
2. Breathe
It might be surprising, but the breathe side of the fidget cube was my favorite for years until this past week. Instead of something active, it features a thumb-sized impression that mimics a worry stone. To use it, I hold the cube Breathe side up and move my thumb back and forth over the indentation.
I haven’t measured my heart rate while doing it, but moving my thumb feels like rubbing the back of Zulu’s neck right where she likes it. Whether or not it has legitimate physiological benefits, the calming sensation does have history since worry stones were used by the Greeks, Irish, and Tibetans since ancient days7. All I know is that I like it. It’d be my favorite face of the fidget cube if I hadn’t finally figured out the side that achieved the top spot this week.
1. Spin
The Spin side of the Antsy Labs fidget cube took the top spot this week since I finally figured out how to work it properly! I’m embarrassed to admit my struggle since it consists of nothing more than a dial with a little nub to keep your finger anchored, but hear me out: in my experience, the Spin face was awkward to maneuver. I wished my thumb could stay moored!
After spending a week at work with the Antsy Labs model, I realized that my problems with the competing cube came down to a design flaw: the dial on the knockoff stutters although it was designed to spin freely. My thumb jumps up when I hit those speed bumps! The official version rolls on to the end of time because it ratchets as it turns. That’s a game-changer. I spun it for eighty percent of a two-hour cybersecurity meeting on Thursday. Your results may vary, but Spin -on the original Antsy Labs fidget cube- is my absolute favorite face of either version.
Epilogue
It’s been seven years since the world started fidgeting with a cube. Today, a variety of competing products with increasing numbers of sides and gimmicks have bullied their way into the marketplace. I don’t have any interest in a fidget decahedron, but as far as the originals go, knockoffs flood Amazon for $7.98, while official Antsy Labs cubes run about $13.
The original Antsy Labs model is worth the extra cash for the discerning fidgeter. It’s packed with hidden features like the clicking roller ball, and it won’t fall apart under routine use. Back when it debuted, the fidget cube gained widespread attention for its ability to provide a discreet and calming outlet for restless hands like mine. I’m happy to report that it still does.
Sources Cited
1 Melnick, M. (2013, October 30). Why Do We Fidget? HuffPost [New York]. Web. Retrieved September 14, 2023.
2 Cohen, E.J., Bravi, R. & Minciacchi, D. The effect of fidget spinners on fine motor control. Sci Rep 8, 3144 (2018).
3. McLachlan & MCLachlan (2016, August 30). Fidget Cube: A Vinyl Desk Toy. Kickstarter. Web. Retrieved September 14, 2023.
4 (See footnote 3).
5 Fairbain, J. (2017, May 17). Fidget Cube: How a $6.5 million Kickstarter campaign fucked up. Linkedin. Web. Retrieved September 14, 2023.
6 Lee, J. (2017, February 9). Real vs. Fake: The Infamous Case of the Quickly Copied Fidget Cube. Medium. Web. Retrieved September 14, 2023.
7 Beauchesne, M. (2018, February 9). The History and Benefits of Worry Stones. Kheops International. Web. Retrieved September 15, 2023.
These are new to me. I have long made do with a series of gears mounted to a wooden base – you crank one of them and all of them turn. But these look like a great idea, and fun.