Anyone who plays a lot of tabletop RPG like Dungeons and Dragons probably own a standard set of polyhedral dice. This set of seven different dice of various shapes make it possible to calculate all the complex possibilities and outcomes in a typical RPG story. The Nexus Cube puts all those seven different polyhedral dice functions in a single fidget toy.
That’s right, this fidget toy can replace your standard polyhedral dice set, allowing you to roll a d20, a d8, or a d100 pairing using the same accessory you’ve been twisting, spinning, and folding all day. Obviously, this one is for TTRPG fans who are looking for an alternative to traditional dice sets, giving you a perfectly usable polyhedral dice set that won’t be as easy to misplace or roll out of sight as your standard individual pieces.
The Nexus Cube is a set of eight tiles connected to each other via the corners using what looks like multi-joint hinges, so it can be folded and twisted in a variety of ways like a puzzle of sorts. At the center of each tile sits a rolling wheel that you can spin whenever you feel like, with each of the wheels employing micro-sized, high-precision bearings that ensure it spins in a smooth and stable manner. As you can imagine, all that folding, twisting, and spinning makes this quite the busy fidget toy that you can use to keep your hands occupied (and your brain distracted) throughout the day.
The wheels are meant to replace the dice in the polyhedral sets. As such, each one gets etched labels corresponding to each dice in a standard TTRPG set. That means, you get one d20, one d12, one d10, one d8, one d6, one d4, and one d100 for a total of seven dice functions. What about the eight wheel? Well, the eight wheel is just a dummy to keep things balanced, although we do wish they just turned it into another d20, since that one tends to get used a lot.
The Nexus Cube is cut in precision-machined titanium, ensuring this thing will hold up to decades of tabletop RPG play. According to the outfit, each one is cut using high-precision CNC machining before being hand-finished to ensure any rough edges are smoothed out. They offer four finishes, namely standard (gray), brass, and spectrum. That last one, by the way, covers it in a gradient-like purple shade that makes it look like an artifact straight out of your favorite RPG.
All the numbers on each wheel are covered in a photoluminescent ink layer that allows it to glow in the dark. That means, you can use this to play out games even with the lights out. They even offer four colors of ink, namely black, red, purple, and blue. When folded in half, the whole thing measures 2.2 x 2.2 x 0.73 inches (height x width x thickness), making it compact enough to stash in most pockets for easily taking to your next D&D meetup.
A Kickstarter campaign is currently running for the Nexus Cube. You can reserve a unit for pledges starting at $45.