People: Sep. 29, 1986

His most famous invention drove millions to distraction and him to the bank. Now Erno Rubik is beyond cubic. His latest brain twister, unveiled last week in Budapest, consists of eight thin 2-in. plastic squares joined by a cunning latticework of plastic threads: "Fishing line pretty much," he says. The key to Rubik's Magic Puzzle, which he has been working on for two years, is the thread and a special hinge allowing the linked squares to be rearranged in a countless array of three-dimensional configurations. "I haven't been able to calculate it," says Rubik with a trace of mischief. "No one has so far." The Hungarian entrepreneur, however, has had no trouble calculating the commercial potential of his new gizmo, which is about to go on sale in the U.S. for $10. "All the people who liked the Cube will like Magic," predicts Rubik. "And there's a whole generation of young people who didn't get the Cube, who are now old enough to try Magic." Mathematical progressions are a wonderful thing.