A lifelong fascination with the Rubik’s Cube puzzle has seen Ipswich man Tony Fisher win back a place in the record books.
He has made what has been recognised by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest cube in the world.
Measuring in at 2.022 metres high (6ft 7ins), it weighs 160kg (25 stone) and took the former archaeologist around 330 hours to make in the garage of his home.
Tony finished it last November but he has only just received the certificate from Guinness stating that it is the world’s biggest.
He said: “As a child I loved the Guinness Book of Records and was fascinating by extremes like the fastest runner, highest mountain etc. It was my dream to get in the book one day.
“Another interest of mine was the Rubik’s Cube and the many similar twisty puzzles you can purchase.
“In the 80s I started to modify them and made my own versions. This eventually lead to selling my creations and a successful YouTube channel in recent years. These two interests came together when I realised there was no official record for the largest Rubik’s Cube.”
Tony originally held the world record in 2016 with his first giant version of the cube, which became a popular craze when first launched in the 1980s.
Measuring 1.57m in height, it was twice beaten and Tony was determined to win the record back.
He made his new version with plastic pipe and reinforced boxes.
“The cube moves exactly like an original though you have to flip the whole thing 90 degrees in order to move the vertical sides,” he said.
Tony worked as an archaeologist with Suffolk County Council for more than 20 years before being made redundant in 2010.
He now makes puzzles and puzzle-related videos for a living and has 168,000 YouTube followers.
His original giant Rubik’s Cube eventually broke, but was still bought by the US franchise Ripley’s (Believe it or Not) and is now on static display in America.
However Tony said he has no plans for the new record-breaker.
“I often get companies wanting to hire it or for me to make another giant Rubik’s Cube for them,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s for team building or just to stand at the entrance of their company.
“I even got a request from a company associated with the Hungarian F1 Grand Prix who were featuring Rubik’s Cubes since the Rubik’s Cube inventor (Erno Rubik) is Hungarian.
“But I have turned them all down since my giant puzzles are very fragile and would most likely break during transportation or at the venue.”
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