Saw people like this puzzle so I picked one up. Surprised how often I pick it up to solve. Cube turns well for what it is.
I tried to take a picture that showed how it works. It's a normal 2x2, but the corners twist, and the edges twist. No shape shifting or anything funny.
The solve is pretty easy. Just find and pair pieces to build the corners, then solve it as a 2x2. Not really any special cases that need special algorithms or anything. It is a bit tedious and can be hard finding pieces that you need, but that can be mitigated a bit with methods I'll let you discover for yourself.
I like puzzles like this that don't feel like I have to learn a bunch of new information to be able to solve them. But that are also unique and interesting
I've never used a helicopter cube, but I could see there being some similarities. The turning is surprisingly good and bad at the same time. 2x2 turns are excellent, even if an edge isn't aligned well, it just snaps into place. But the corners all turn clockwise easily and struggle to turn counter-clockwise at all. The corners do seem to be breaking in though so maybe that'll improve. Overall, fairly high quality puzzle in my opinion
I don't think the solve would be that similar, as the two puzzles share no visible piece types. I guess the only way to know for sure is for one of us to get a copy of the other puzzle.
Thanks for the detailed report on turning quality. I might have to pick one up! :)