Giant Rubik's cube even puzzles its inventor

The world's most complex Rubik's cube - with over 1,500 segments - has left even its inventor baffled.

Oskar van Deventer spent 60 hours and £1,500 designing the puzzle, which has 1,539 segments.

And, while the 45-year-old can solve a regular 3x3x3 cube in about two minutes, he admits his 17x17x17 colossus has him beaten.

He said: "The puzzle has never been solved, although people have solved virtual versions of it on the internet. If you can solve a regular Rubik's cube you could work out how to solve my version but it would take a lot of work. It's quite nice to make pictures from all the colours on the cube."

The Dutch scientist had the puzzle's movable pieces cut by laser, then spent 15 hours colouring them.

Mr van Deventer said: "I've been designing puzzles since I was about 12 and I thought it would be nice to go over the top and build an even larger Rubik's cube."

"I presented the puzzle at the New York Puzzle Party Symposium this month and the crowd went wild – everybody wanted to touch and try."

He said it was fun making the item but he had no desire to work on a follow-up.

"I won't be making a bigger one in the future but in theory someone could take my design and use it to make something larger." he said.