Rubik Ready to Release New Dizzying Puzzle

(CBS)  Prepare to drive yourself nuts once again.

Erno Rubik, of Budapest, Hungary, the inventor of the Rubik's Cube, is about to release another puzzle -- the "Rubik's 360" -- which promises to be every bit as irritating as the original.

The "Rubik's 360" -- the first puzzle released in nearly 20 years from Rubik, features six small balls inside three interlocking spheres. The object of the puzzle is to get the colored balls into their matching color receptacles.

Rubik's Cube speed-solver Tyson Mao said on "The Early Show" Thursday he didn't know how the new puzzle worked at first.

"After some time and I figured it out, it wasn't too bad," he said. "But, you know, at a first glance, it's not immediately obvious."

Mao, who is the champion of doing the Rubik's cube blind-folded, said the new puzzle is "very different."

" ... You can't really compare them," he said. "This is more of a physical puzzle. The ingenuity is in the design. You've got the two spheres inside, and they move on different axes. Trying to figure out how to get the holes aligned so they don't fall through is tricky."

Mao says the new puzzle requires more random chance than the mathematical and strategic Rubik's cube -- and has a physical component.

"I just have a little trick here," Mao told "The Early Show" anchors. "I kind of throw it up and hope the ball gets jammed into the hole."

Mao added that he can explain the "old" Rubik's puzzle better.

"The new one," he said, "I'm not exactly sure. I haven't figured it out."

The original Rubik's cube was released in 1974. Worldwide, 350 million Rubik's cubes have been sold. The fastest time for solving the Rubik's cube was set in 2008: 7.08 seconds.

[barbaram99]

i had the Rubik cube that came out in the 70s and I hated it as I tried to line the sides up and I gave it to a sighted person years ago that wanted it. Good luck. I like mazes.

[barbaram99]

i had the Rubik cube that came out in the 70s and I hated it as I tried to line the sides up and I gave it to a sighted person years ago that wanted it. Good luck. I like mazes.