2026-09-19 · history
Pyraminx (1981) — Designed Before the Rubik's Cube, Released to Ride Its Boom
The Pyraminx is a tetrahedral twisty puzzle: each of its four faces is divided into nine triangles, and only the vertices and edges actually need to be solved. Its inventor, Uwe Mèffert, is said to have worked out the basic mechanism around 1971 — before Ernő Rubik even conceived the Cube in 1974. But Mèffert held off, securing patents in multiple countries, and only brought it to market in 1981 through Tomy, riding the Rubik's Cube boom he had arrived too early for. It reportedly sold over ten million units in its first year and roughly ninety million within three. Unlike the Cube, where every piece's move affects every other piece, the Pyraminx's four corner tips spin freely without touching the rest of the puzzle at all — a different design lesson about which parts of a mechanism actually need to be connected.
