Reaction of in situ prepared acylhydrazone ligand with Ln(NO3)(3)center dot 6H(2)O and Cu(OAc)(2)center dot H2O resulted in the formation of novel isostructural octanuclear Cu(6)Ln(2) compounds (Ln = Dy (1), Tb (2), Gd (3), Y (4)) with an unprecedented octametallic structure, which can be described as an oblate wheel built up from two structurally similar Cu-3 fragments linked together by two nodelike mononuclear lanthanide units. A detailed magnetic analysis reveals that the strong antiferromagnetic Cu center dot center dot center dot Cu interactions via the Cu-N- N-Cu-N-N-Cu linkage and the anticipated ferromagnetic Cu center dot center dot center dot Gd coupling makes an overall high-spin ground state in favor of the observation of significant magnetic caloric and SMM-like properties in the isotropic and anisotropic derivatives.