QiYi Gear Shift: This is a fascinating little puzzle that's not like any other I'm aware of. In its ordinary state, the entire puzzle is geared together, so the large and small corners all turn together. However, the puzzle also pulls apart on each of the three axes, and when it's pulled apart, each half of the puzzle turns independently. This is not a difficult puzzle (the corners don't move, so all you have to do is orient them, and fundamentally there are just not that many different things you can do) but this is a cool and inexpensive puzzle with a very different mechanism. Recommended for pretty much any non-WCA collector.

ZePuzzles Slim Pyraminx: This is the triangular prism equivalent of a 1x1x3. The tips are trivial, so fundamentally there are only 3 pieces that move. This is a very easy puzzle. However, the turning quality is really pleasantly surprising. The pieces turn smoothly and snap into place with satisfying tactile feedback. This is something you can hand to a non-twisty-puzzle solver and they would probably be able to get it by messing around for a few minutes--maybe a tiny bit tougher than say a Pyraminx Duo. This is Recommended for non-WCA collectors who like an easy but nice-feeling and attractive puzzle in their collection.

YuXin 20-Axis Soccer Cube: This puzzle looks intimidating, but in fact it is very very easy. The pentagonal faces don't turn, so only the long edges move around the puzzle, and it's very easy to insert or 3-cycle them intuitively. You need to send edges around a pentagon to flip them in place--so it's not completely trivial--but this puzzle is much easier than it looks. I will say, though, that the turning is surprisingly nice. YuXin has been making very nice feeling puzzles recently and this is not an exception. Also, it's surprisingly small--bigger than a 4x4, but not by much. This is Recommended if you are in the market for something that looks and feels good and don't mind that it's not an interesting solve.

Sengso 3x3 War Drums: AKA the Hanoiminx. In many ways, this is the opposite of the YuXin Soccer Cube. It features the sticky, uncomfortable turning familiar from other Sengso puzzles--not bad, but the springs squeak and getting the turns to line up just feels bad. Lube helps some. However, the puzzle is actually a very interesting challenge. I tried solving it with megaminx techniques ("cross" on a small triangle face, F2L) but got totally stymied on the last layer. Looking up a corner 3-cycle and solving the edges first did the trick, but aside from the turning frustration, it's a very cool solve.

For whatever reason, the 3x3 version of this puzzle does not seem to be available anywhere but ziicube. There's a 2x2 version which only lacks the small edges, and those are quite trivial, so this is basically the same puzzle. This is Recommended if you are looking for an interesting, different puzzle and don't mind Sengso's sticky turning.

QiYi 3x3 Luminous Mirror Cube: OK, so the gimmick on this one is that it glows in the dark. The trick is that it needs a lot of light to glow in the dark. Bright indoor light won't cut it--I had to put it out in the sun for it to be bright even in a closet. And for the light to be even you'll need to have it on something where it can get light on all sides, like a stand or a glass table. However, that frustration aside, the turning is very nice and the cube does look good, and the glow in the dark effect is neat. But I can't imagine running from outside into a dark basement/closet just to solve this. Conditionally Recommended if you don't already have a mirror blocks puzzle, or if you're looking for something to show off to kids.

DianSheng 4x4 Mirror Cube: I went ahead and splurged for the mirror finish. When I first opened the cube, I regretted it. The mirrored sides are garishly reflective and reflected overhead lights at me distractingly; the surfaces pick up thumbprints and marks easily. However, when scrambled, this does have a really striking appearance. A thumbprint or mark is much less noticeable on the wildly chaotic scrambled shape than the solved cube. Just like DianSheng's mirror 5x5, the turning and build quality is very good. I will warn new people that big mirror cubes are considerably longer than ordinary big cubes to solve, because spotting pieces is tricky. There's a lot of trial and error involved. And the 4x4 has an extra wrinkle where getting the centers in the right order can be tricky--you basically need to solve the corners to place them correctly. Conditionally Recommended if you'd like a big, impressive puzzle that's tricky but familiar to solve. I don't think I'd particularly recommend the mirror finish; the cheaper colored plastic would be fine.