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Help! A [toddler / pet / washing machine] has peeled some of the stickers off my old off-brand Rubik's Cube. Can you still solve it and show me the result?

enter image description here

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2 Answers 2

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First, we tabulate all the adjacencies:

table 1

Then suppose that White and Orange are opposite:
table 2
This leaves G and R adjacent to everything: a contradiction.
So O is adjacent to W:
table 3

Now we need to look in a little more detail. We'll start with the corner pieces. I'm going to rotate the center pieces around to make it so that there are fewer moves. We also need to remember the parity rules for a rubik's cube:

Parity rules are: (1) Even number of swaps, (2) even number of edge pieces twisted, (3) clockwise twists of corners = 0 modulo 3.
Ignore the edge pieces for now. The top net is what we're given (plus a few center pieces I've colored for convenience). The table on the right is the transformation of the corners. And the bottom net is the result.
Also, I'm indexing the corner pieces as follows:
corner index
R on the right
In this scenario, corner 8 must be piece 6 (for the G and W). If Red and White goes to position 7, then Yellow and White will have to go to position 5. This establishes the colors of the faces. It also makes a contradiction, because the Blue and Red must go to position 4 and the Blue and Green must go to position 4 (shown in position 3 in the bottom net).
So this is impossible.
Similarly, if the Red face is opposite the Green face, there is a clash.
So, with the corners completed, the position is as follows:
corners completed
The sum of the rotations is 6, so that's good.
The number of swaps is odd, which means that the edge pieces will need an odd number of swaps also.

So now we need to work on the edges!

The indexing we'll use for the edges is:
edge index

Then we can easily slot the various 2 colored edges into their correct places:
edge 1
You'll notice that there are 6 edges to be allocated, each containing one of the colors. And there are two colors missing from each face. So guess that Edge 1 is Orange and Red, and chase from there:
edge 2
Checking this solution on an on-line solve demonstrates that it is impossible.
So we try the other option: Edge 1 is O & W. Then we get this:
edge3
This one can be solved with the online solver, so it is the correct answer.

Hence the final answer is the last diagram above. Or, with the OP's original diagram:

peeled cube fixed

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  • $\begingroup$ The picture clearly shows white on top and green on the back, so maybe the answer should be oriented that way too? $\endgroup$
    – Bass
    Oct 3, 2019 at 6:49
  • $\begingroup$ This is not a complete solution yet. I'd like to see the solved peeled cube (i.e. know which stickers are peeled off the Rubik's Cube in its unique solved state). $\endgroup$
    – Magma
    Oct 3, 2019 at 10:48
  • $\begingroup$ Okay, I see. I'll have to think some more about that. So I should fill in the diagram you posted? $\endgroup$
    – Dr Xorile
    Oct 3, 2019 at 12:02
  • $\begingroup$ @Bass, you mean the center pieces? I see what you mean. My logic involved "solving' the white corner pieces on the back and so I orientated from there. But I've got to add to the solution anyway it seems $\endgroup$
    – Dr Xorile
    Oct 3, 2019 at 12:13
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    $\begingroup$ Well done! I've also posted a solution in its originally intended form. $\endgroup$
    – Magma
    Oct 4, 2019 at 8:34
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The peeled cube looks like this in its solved state:

enter image description here

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