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Record-breaking Rubik’s Cube isn’t a puzzle — it’s practically a torture device

Luke Dormehl
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How I Assembled the 33x33x33 Rubik's Cube !! :D
If you’re anything like 99.9 percent of the population, you’ve never looked at a Rubik’s cube and thought, “wow, I sure wish that thing was a whole lot harder to complete.” If, on the other hand, you’re one of the 0.01 percent of folks who like their Rubik’s cubes tougher than Chuck Norris’ steak, you may want to consider ordering the new world-record Rubik’s cube created by Greg’s Puzzles entrepreneur Grégoire Pfennig.

In contrast to your boring old 9 x 9 x 9 Rubik’s Cube, this 3D-printed monstrosity (and we mean that in the best possible way) measures in at an intimidating 33 x 33 x 33 of twisting cubiness. To put that figure in perspective, it’s significantly larger than the previous world records, which involved 22 x 22 x 22 cubes and, before that, a 17 x 17 x 17 version. As Pfennig points out, its 6,153 parts — which took him approximately 202 hours of work to build — represents the most parts of any puzzle ever made. It will take anyone who dares try and solve it, “multiple hundred hours” to do so.

“I’ve had a lot of fun in the past seven year designing twisty puzzles, because they’re always a nice challenge to solve,” Pfennig told Digital Trends. “Ever since Rubik’s cubes have become increasingly popular, with hundred of thousands of competitors, and millions of people who share this hobby throughout the world, there have been a lot of YouTube channels revolving around cubing as a hobby. Some has reached a hundred thousand subscribers, and one has even reached 1.2 million. I decided to make my channel more popular, because I love sharing my designs with people who have similar interests. What better way to do that than to break a world record? This is the idea that started it all.”

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Pfennig says that, as far as his puzzles go, this one isn’t the most difficult, although it takes the longest amount of time to complete. If you simply can’t live without having a go for yourself, you can place an order for a custom-built replica yourself from Olivier’s Sticker Shop — where the price is set at a not-insignificant 15,200 euros ($18,000). You’ll have to wait three months while Pfennig finishes building it and sends it off to you, though.

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Good luck! We’ll keep our fingers crossed that your efforts don’t end like this poor fellow’s! (Skip to the end of the video to see what we’re talking about.)

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Luke Dormehl
Luke Dormehl
Contributor
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
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