More than 250,000 Bedlam Cubes have been sold across the country over the last few months after its inventor dreamt up the idea while looking for something to stump his mates in his local pub in Lancashire.

Now, with a slick marketing campaign, it has become the must-have toy for kids across the world and is described as Britain's answer to the Rubik's Cube.

Inventor Bruce Bedlam, 54, who lived in Welsby Road, Leyland, until 1985, came up with the idea during his time in South Ribble.

He said: "I have always been into puzzles and one day a friend from Mensa challenged me to make up a puzzle which no-one could crack. So I did. It took me two years of scratching my head at home in Leyland.

"What I came up with had 19,186 correct solutions, but 600 million wrong ways to do it."

The puzzle master then took his invention down his local pub, the Hare and Hounds on Bolton Road, Abbey Village, near Chorley, and offered £20 to anyone who could do it.

He said: "They were queuing up to do it for months and no-one could."