Uwe Mèffert

Uwe Mèffert (born 28 November 1939)[1] is a German puzzle designer and inventor. He has manufactured and sold mechanical puzzles in the style of Rubik's Cube since the original Cube craze. His first design was the Pyraminx(Created before the original Rubik's cube.) and others include the Megaminx, Skewb and Skewb Diamond. More recently he has licensed and re-released designs from other manufacturers, such as Dogic.

Uwe Mèffert's Pyraminx

In the 1970s Mèffert created some puzzles for his own amusement using pieces of balsa wood attached to a center ball by rubber bands. He did not think anyone else would be interested in them, and put them away and forgot about them until Ernő Rubik's Rubik's Cube became a worldwide sensation in the 1980s. In 1981 Mèffert took his puzzles to a Japanese toymaker who agreed to market them. One of them, Pyraminx, sold more than 10 million pieces that year, and 90 million within three years.[1] Since that time, Mèffert and his associates have created more than 100 3D rotating mechanical puzzles.[1]

Mèffert also created his own version of sudoku, the popular nine-number print puzzle. In addition to the standard sudoku rules, the two major diagonals must also contain the numerals from 1 to 9. Additionally, a Chinese magic square is hidden somewhere in the solution. He named this puzzle Kokonotsu, Japanese for nine.[2]

Mèffert has also produced puzzle designs by Tony Fisher, including the Golden Cube,[3] and Oskar van Deventer, including the Gear Cube.