MK.2 Loaded Chance Cube [LCCMK.2] (Available in Shop)

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Introduction

The loaded chance cube is a loaded die in the style of the chance cube that Watto uses in The Phantom Menace. My friend actually came up with this idea as a joke, but I thought it was really cool. So, I decided to make it.

While researching this project, I came across a theory that the cube Watto was using was actually loaded to land on red. Watto also shows Qui-Gon the cube in a very strange way that seems to conceal it. So, some people have theorized further that there’s only one blue to make the odds even more in his favor. This would explain why he was so upset when Qui-Gon won. However, I actually went frame by frame in the movie, and you can clearly see that there’s at least 2 blue sides. So, I decided to go with the normal 3 sides blue and 3 sides red. Then, I had to debate whether I should load it for red to be more accurate to the movie or load it to blue to achieve the result that we see in the movie. I decided to weight it to land on blue because I think people want the experience of what they see in the movie, and that way they can pretend to use the force to manipulate the chance cube.

Inspirations

MK.2 Updates

For the MK.2, I lowered the washer slot as low as I could to further lower the center of gravity. I printed it the same way as the MK.1 with the bottom piece in 100% infill and the top piece at 20% infill. I hammered 13 washers in with some leaded solder. This definitely increased the amount of times it landed on blue. However, it’s still only about 70% of the time. The friends that I’ve showed this to think that it should land on blue almost every time, but I’m not sure if that’s even possible for a cube. It’s much easier with something like a 20 sided die where it’s more spherical because then if it lands on the wrong side, the weight is sitting off to the side. Then it can pull itself down. With a cube, the sides are straight up and down. So, the physics just aren’t as forgiving. I guess you could install a magnet, but then you could only roll the die on metallic surfaces. I guess you could also carry around a small sheet to roll it on, but I was trying to keep this project as simple as possible.

Parts List

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