There's just something cool about Rubik's Cubes. That simple shape, those bright colours, that fiendish puzzle solving. Invented in the 1970's it's still one of the most recognisable and enduring puzzle toys around. It works great as a puzzle toy but even if you never solve it, it's still a rather cool looking decoration. Which is pretty much exactly what it will be if you can't solve it. Now for most the standard 3x3x3 is already very difficult to solve, but can you imagine larger? Each new layer adds more variations. But how large can you go? Well, one company has just crafted their own 22x22x22 cube, and I can't even imagine how long it'd take to solve.

A Giant Puzzle for Big Brains and Bigger Hands

Custom created using a 3D printer, with 20cm long edges, featuring 2691 moving parts, and having taken up to 8 months to build, the 22x22x22 Puzzle works, but very very slowly. It takes quite a bit of effort to shift the puzzle, considering the size, the weight, and all the parts that need to be lined up just so.

I have to admit that I have never solved a standard 3x3 Rubik's Cube Puzzle. It's apparently not that difficult once you figure out the trick. It just needs some memorisation of patterns, of knowing exactly how things will result when you turn them, a bit of forward thinking, and some smart placement of your fingers. I recall a friend back in high school who could solve one in five minutes, which is pretty good, but nothing compared to the teenager who holds the world record for fastest solution at 5.25 seconds. Although, considering how unwieldy this custom rubiks cube is, I imagine the fastest record would be closer to a day than a few seconds. Which is still much much better than what I could achieve...

originally seen on: http://laughingsquid.com/a-200mm-3d-printed-22x22-sided-rubiks-cube/