Uwe Meffert - Twisty Puzzle Designer
Uwe Mèffert (1939 - 2022) was a German puzzle inventor and designer who created a multitude of amazing twisty puzzles. One of his first designs was the Pyraminx, a tetrahedron-shaped 2-layered twisty puzzle, in which there were four triangular faces divided into nine identical smaller triangles. This was invented in 1971.
During the 1970s, Meffert created puzzles for his own amusement. He created a similar puzzle to the widely known Rubik’s Cube using wood and rubber bands. During this time, according to Meffert, there was a big hype around Pyramid power (Wikipedia link), and Meffert himself thought it was a lot of nonsense. He wanted to prove that, so Meffert conducted research on how they affected mental stimulation. Not thinking anybody would take interest in his puzzles, he disregarded them until the widely popular Rubik’s Cube swept the world. He later took his puzzle designs to a Japanese toymaker to promote his puzzles. The toymaker created the first real prototype, which cost a huge $10,000 to make. Meffert then started producing his own puzzles under his own brand in late 1981. His Pyraminx sold over 10 million pieces in one year.
The Megaminx and Skewb
Since the Pyraminx, he created other puzzles such as the Megaminx, a dodecahedron twisty-puzzle, which was similar to the Rubik’s Cube, and was solved in a similar fashion to the Rubik’s Cube. There were 12 colors, each for each of the 12 faces.
A notable shape mod of Meffert’s Pyraminx was Tony Durnahm’s Skewb, a corner twisting puzzle. The Skewb worked using a 4-axis mechanism, the exact same as the Pyraminx. It was originally called the Pyraminx Cube. This puzzle turned very differently from a regular Rubik’s Cube, but was easier to solve than the 2x2x2 Pocket Cube.
Uwe Meffert’s contribution to the speedcubing community was immense, as in 2003 the first official Pyraminx solves were held under the World Cube Association, or the WCA. The best time at the World Championship 2003, which was the first competition to hold Pyraminx as an event, was set by Andy Bellenir with a time of 14.09. However, as of the 10th of February 2018, Tymon Kolasiński achieved a time of 1.20s. His other two big puzzles, the Skewb and the Megaminx, also became WCA events. The current best time for the Skewb was 1.10s, held by Jonatan Kłosko, and the Megaminx world record was held by Juan Pablo Huanqui with a time of 29.93s (as of February 2018).
Meffert had been working within a chain of Kindergartens in Shenzhen, China, trying to introduce his puzzles to children as mathematical teaching aids. He had been living in China. Although Meffert had sold millions of puzzles worldwide, his company had only just started to tap into the Chinese market, where there was a huge potential customer base with many avid cubers in China.
Meffert stated that the constant battle was with copycats, but even this roadblock didn’t slow him down. He continued creating new and exciting puzzles and looked to make puzzles for others to enjoy.
Uwe Mèffert