Rubik's Cube inventor creates new puzzle

LONDON, July 6 (UPI) -- The inventor of the Rubik's Cube is about to confound the world with a new puzzle called The 360, an executive at Rubik brand said in England.

"It doesn't need batteries and looks as though it should be quite easy," said David Hedley, the brand's vice president. "But it is incredibly complicated. There are some really cunning tricks to it."

The 360, which goes on sale next week, was invented by Erno Rubik, 64, the reclusive Hungarian professor who has sold an estimated 350 million Rubik Cubes since 1980, The Daily Telegraph reported Monday.

With Rubik's new game, players must get six colored balls from an inner sphere into matching slots on an outer sphere by moving them through a middle sphere with just two holes.

The London toy store Hamleys already has had thousands of inquiries about The 360, Nigel Wheatley, the store's head of sales, said.

"I expect thousands to be sold in days," Wheatley told the newspaper.