Horowitz with his Sudoku Cube. (AP)

Sebring (Ohio), Feb. 18 (AP): A rusted-out warehouse in middle-of-nowhere northeast Ohio has become the final resting site for hundreds of large metal moulds once used to make some long forgotten toys.

From time to time, toy industry veteran Jay Horowitz uses the moulds he has accumulated to resurrect a toy and reintroduces it to the collectibles market, cashing in on its nostalgic value.

But last year, in what he calls a moment of inspiration, Horowitz merged a classic ’80s toy with a recent puzzle fad.

He thinks he has got a major seller on his hands with the Sudoku Cube — a blend of Sudoku and the Rubik’s Cube.

Sudoku, the addictive puzzle craze that originated in Japan, is made up of number grids that require the numbers one through nine to be filled into squares arranged in rows of nine without repeating a number in any line.

The Rubik’s Cube is a block made of various coloured, movable squares that the user tries to line up into solid colours on each side.

Horowitz was peddling his hybrid of Rubik’s Cube and the popular puzzle Sudoku to a worldwide audience at the American International Toy Fair this past week in New York City.

The Sudoku Cube sells for about $10 and is more complicated than Rubik’s Cube. Horowitz’s cube challenges the player to align numbers one through nine on one or more sides or in rows.

The colourful cube is made in China by his newly formed company, American Classic Toy Inc. Retailers carrying the cube include Barnes & Noble, FAO Schwarz and backtobasicstoys.com.

Horowitz has already sold thousands, but he has some competition. There are several other Sudoku cubes on the market. A search on Amazon.com shows two other versions, named Sudokube.

Sudoku fans who feel like they have mastered the paper version of the puzzle found in most daily newspapers have shown interest in the cubed versions, said Adrienne Citrin, spokeswoman for the Toy Industry Association.

Horowitz first encountered Sudoku just last year — fairly late in its run of popularity. It got him thinking about a toy mould resting in his warehouse, 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Cleveland. He worked feverishly to find a way to combine the two, creating detailed diagrams of the cube. “When I got it, I didn’t sleep for three days,” he said.