MOYU WRM V9

It had to happen: The world record has been broken and was not set on a Moyu cube anymore. Plus, talking about ridges (or the lack thereof) doesn’t make sense anymore, so at some point the WR M moniker was not going to cut it anymore. Solution? Let’s add a “9-cylinder” label or something like it after that, people won’t notice. (Sadly they still won’t be able to put "3.47” on all their cube boxes anymore…)

The WRM 2023 (as we should rightly call it) is the newest iteration of a long series of cubes that went from the GTS all the way to the Purplev and this newest cube. These have historically been Moyu’s flagship cubes and have been the major contenders for “best cube around” almost constantly since the first GTS. In the midst of that, they released what many consider the best cube ever made, the Weilong Without Ridges, as if they were asking forgiveness for putting ridges on the GTS3 (a grippy gimmick which I and many others actually liked quite a bit). More commonly known as the WRM 2019 by modern audiences, it was a cube that brought all the things one expects in a modern cube (stellar corner cutting, incredibly smooth turning) in 55mm of solid bulk that was not as fast as the Tengy1 (another timeless piece of art) but was far more controllable and forgiving to bad turning.

But while you might be forgiven for thinking that I am sacrificing too many baby electrons to the altar of history, the reason for this temporal excursion is that the WRM v9 really takes up where the WRM 19 left off and tries to add some new things. Gone is the mushy softness of the WRM20/21, gone is the almost uncontrollable speed of the WRM21purplev, this is a newer version of the WRM19 with the strongest and clickiest magnets Moyu has ever put on a cube (including the “strong magnets” version of the GTS3M), and all the modern trappings of cube internals.

The result is a cube that feels as solid as the WRM19 in the hand, sounds a bit softer and deeper, is less elastic and mushy than the WRM20/21, and performs surprisingly well.

The cube comes in the 3 versions that Moyu has been providing us for the past several iterations of its cubes: “normal”, “a bit stripped down” and “all stripped down”. The normal version has a very strong magnetic click that is too much for what I expect from a Moyu cube, but I can imagine this being an added value for people who have eschewed Moyu until now because of it’s wimpy magnets. I find myself liking the Standard version (“all stripped down”) the most, and were it not for the frosted surface I would advise everyone to simply ignore all the other versions. But you can also purchase the 3x more expensive ball core version and simply remove the ball-core and you’ll have a less-clicky and more traditionally Moyu cube that is going to serve you very well. If you keep the ball-core with all its frills you’ll have something that goes in the direction of the MoreTry Tianma X3, which has some of the clickiest magnets since manufacturers started putting them in for us.

Corner cutting is not as snappy and fluid as the WRM19, but you don’t need it on the BallCore version: the auto-align will make sure you don’t lock up, ever. On the Standard this becomes a bit more relevant, but with a reasonable accuracy you should never encounter any issues. And the standard provides a very light magnetic pull that is exceedingly nice on Roux, while the ball-core version is annoyingly stiff on slices. The fact that you can get the WRM2023 Standard for the same price as the original RS3M on several stores is also somewhat magical.

With that said, be careful : the v9 Standard is not a forgiving cube, the absence of core magnets means that the cube overall doesn’t always hold shape if you’re turning too aggressively and you’ll end up screwing up your solves because of bad executions that move things that shouldn’t move. You don’t get any of that with the BallCore version, so it might be a much better suited cube for novices and brutal beasts… sorry, “younger cubers”.

Tensioning uses the standard Moyu dual adjustment system, which works just as well as always, but be careful with the tensioning out of the box, it tends to vary a lot from version to version, but might be too loose to the point that you get lockups on the Standard (less so on the ball core version), I ended up doing a full turn to tighten the screws to my satisfaction.

The looks are good, but not as great as the Purplev or the new RS3M Super v2 : the internals are coloured but only on the center pieces and inner stems, the inner part of edges and corners retain their normal colors, and on the Standard version they are a standard primary white that looks meh at best.

So what should you choose if you want to go Moyu, given the smorgasbord of versions and models that are currently available?

If you prefer weaker magnets : v9 Standard, but you’re probably better off with a maglev version of the original WRM19.
If you prefer stronger magnets : WRM v9 Ball-Core
If you want something in the middle : YS3M or Super2, both in Ball-Core versions