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Panagiotis Verdes is a Greek inventor and is known for being the first person to mass produce 6x6x6 puzzles and 7x7x7 twisty puzzles. He is also known for founding the company V-Cube. He has also worked on new designs of every Twisty Puzzle from 2x2x2 to 11x11x11. [1]
Verdes was born in Chiliomodi, Korinthos, a province in southern Greece, where he graduated from high school. He followed his passion for constructions and studied at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki from 1965 until 1970. During his career, he was primarily involved in building, road and public network constructions until his retirement in 2003. [2]
V-Cube is a brand name owned by Verdes Innovations, a company owned by Panagiotis. The V-Cube brand is used to sell puzzles that are similar to the original Rubik's Cube. The brand is known for being the first to mass-produce the first ever 6x6x6 and 7x7x7 puzzles, [2] and for being the first to create a design that would allow for puzzles up to the 11x11x11. [1] Prior to Verdes' invention, the 6x6x6 cube was thought to be impossible due to geometry constraints. Verdes's invention uses a completely different mechanism than the smaller Rubik's cubes; his mechanism is based on concentric, right-angle conical surfaces whose axes of rotation coincide with the semi-axes of the cube. [1] The patents for the cubes were awarded in 2004, and mass-production began in 2008.
The Rubik's Cube is a 3-D combination puzzle originally invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube, the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Pentangle Puzzles in the UK in 1978, and then by Ideal Toy Corp in 1980 via businessman Tibor Laczi and Seven Towns founder Tom Kremer. The cube was released internationally in 1980 and became one of the most recognized icons in popular culture. It won the 1980 German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle. As of March 2021, over 450 million cubes had been sold worldwide, making it the world's bestselling puzzle game and bestselling toy. The Rubik's Cube was inducted into the US National Toy Hall of Fame in 2014.
Ernő Rubik is a Hungarian inventor, architect, and professor of architecture. He is best known for the invention of mechanical puzzles including the Rubik's Cube (1974), Rubik's Magic, Rubik's Magic: Master Edition, and Rubik's Snake.
The Professor's Cube is a 5×5×5 version of the original Rubik's Cube. It has qualities in common with both the 3×3×3 Rubik's Cube and the 4×4×4 Rubik's Revenge, and solution strategies for both can be applied.
The Pyraminx is a regular tetrahedron puzzle in the style of Rubik's Cube. It was made and patented by Uwe Mèffert after the original 3 layered Rubik's Cube by Ernő Rubik, and introduced by Tomy Toys of Japan in 1981.
Chiliomodi is a village in eastern Corinthia, Peloponnese, Greece. It was the seat of the municipality of Tenea. Chiliomodi is situated in a valley, 3 km southeast of Koutalas, 5 km west of Athikia, 21 km southwest of Corinth and 43 km northeast of Argos. It is on the Greek National Road 7 and on the railway from Corinth to Kalamata. Chiliomodi has several schools, shops and a church. Chiliomodi suffered damage from the 2007 Greek forest fires.
Uwe Mèffert was a German puzzle designer and inventor. He manufactured and sold mechanical puzzles in the style of Rubik's Cube since the Cube craze of the 1980s. His first design was the Pyraminx – which he had developed before the original Rubik's Cube was invented. He created his own puzzle company and helped bring to market the Megaminx, Skewb, Skewb Diamond and many other puzzles.
The Skewb is a combination puzzle and a mechanical puzzle in the style of the Rubik's Cube. It was invented by Tony Durham and marketed by Uwe Mèffert. Although it is cubical in shape, it differs from Rubik's construction in that its axes of rotation pass through the corners of the cube rather than the centres of the faces. There are four such axes, one for each space diagonal of the cube. As a result, it is a deep-cut puzzle in which each twist affects all six faces.
The Pyramorphix, also called Pyramorphinx, is a tetrahedral puzzle similar to the Rubik's Cube. It has a total of 8 movable pieces to rearrange, compared to the 20 of the Rubik's Cube. Although it looks like a trivially simple version of the Pyraminx, it is an edge-turning puzzle with the mechanism identical to that of the Pocket Cube.
The V-Cube 6 is a 6×6×6 version of the original Rubik's Cube. The first mass-produced 6×6×6 was invented by Panagiotis Verdes and is produced by the Greek company Verdes Innovations SA. Other such puzzles have since been introduced by a number of Chinese companies, most of which have mechanisms which improve on the original. Unlike the original puzzle, it has no fixed facets: the center facets are free to move to different positions.
The V-Cube 7 is a combination puzzle in the form of a 7×7×7 cube. The first mass-produced 7×7×7 was invented by Panagiotis Verdes and is produced by the Greek company Verdes Innovations SA. Other such puzzles have since been introduced by a number of Chinese companies, some of which have mechanisms which improve on the original. Like the 5×5×5, the V-Cube 7 has both fixed and movable center facets.
The Void Cube is a 3-D mechanical puzzle similar to a Rubik's Cube, with the notable difference being that the center pieces are missing, which causes the puzzle to resemble a level 1 Menger sponge. The core used on the Rubik's Cube is also absent, creating holes straight through the cube on all three axes. Due to the restricted volume of the puzzle it employs an entirely different structural mechanism from a regular Rubik's Cube, though the possible moves are the same. The Void Cube was invented by Katsuhiko Okamoto. Gentosha Education, in Japan, holds the license to manufacture official Void Cubes. These official designs are also sold under the Rubik's brand, owned by Spin Master Ltd., and workalikes are available from a variety of manufacturers. Speed-solving the Void Cube is common in exhibition but is not an official World Cube Association competition event.
Katsuhiko Okamoto is a Japanese inventor who specializes in modifications of the Rubik's Cube. Since 2001 he has created 31 such puzzles.
Tony Fisher is a British puzzle designer who specialises in creating custom rotational puzzles. He is acknowledged by cubing enthusiasts as a pioneer in the creation of new puzzle designs and new manufacturing techniques. In 2017 the Guinness Book of World Records acknowledged Fisher as the creator of the world's largest Rubik's cube.
Oskar van Deventer is a Dutch puzzle maker. He prototypes puzzles using 3D printing. His work combines mathematics, physics, and design, and he collaborates at academic institutions. Many of his combination puzzles are in mass production by Uwe Mèffert and WitEden. Oskar van Deventer has also designed puzzles for Hanayama.
The Pyraminx Duo is a tetrahedral twisty puzzle in the style of the Rubik's Cube. It was suggested by Rob Stegmann, invented by Oskar van Deventer, and has now been mass-produced by Meffert's.
The Nine-Colour Cube is a cubic twisty puzzle. It was invented in 2005 by Milan Vodicka and mass-produced by Meffert's seven years later. Mechanically, the puzzle is identical to the Rubik's Cube; however, unlike the Rubik's Cube, which only has 6 different colours, the Nine-Colour Cube has 9 colours, with the individual pieces having one colour each.
Larry D. Nichols, born 1939 in the United States, is a puzzle designer. He grew up in Xenia, Ohio, and studied chemistry at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, before moving to Massachusetts to attend Harvard Graduate School. He is best known for the invention of mechanical puzzles including 'The Nichols Cube Puzzle' (1974), patent US365520. He has lived with his wife Karen in Arlington, Massachusetts since 1959.
The V-Cube 8 is an 8×8×8 version of the Rubik's Cube. Unlike the original puzzle, it has no fixed facets: the center facets are free to move to different positions. The design was covered by Panagiotis Verdes' patent from 2007 but Verdes Innovations SA did not produce it for sale until 2014. Other 8×8×8 cubes are produced by various Chinese companies.
The Mirror Blocks, also known as the Mirror Cube and Bump Cube, is a type of combination puzzle and shape modification of the standard 3×3×3 Rubik's Cube and was invented in 2006. The puzzle's internal mechanism is nearly identical to that of the Rubik's Cube, although it differs from normal 3×3 cubes in that all pieces are the same color and are identified by shape since each one is also a distinct rectangular prism. Like the Ghost Cube and Mastermorphix, the mirror cube has a 3×3×3 shape, meaning that it can be solved the same way as the 3×3×3 Rubik's Cube. The fastest time to solve a mirror cube is 13.66 seconds and was achieved by Lim Kai Yi (Malaysia) in Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia, on 1 December 2022..
The Dino Cube is a cubic twisty puzzle in the style of the Rubik's Cube. It was invented in 1985 by Robert Webb, though it was not mass-produced until ten years later. It has a total of 12 external movable pieces to rearrange, compared to 20 movable pieces on the Rubik's Cube.
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