The Twenty-four Locks is an assembly puzzle in the Kong Ming Lock series from QiYi, the Chinese brand best known for its speedcubes. It is made up of twenty-four pieces, in three different shapes, that cross and hold one another to form a single compact structure.

• BrandQiYi
• SeriesKong Ming Lock
• TypeBurr puzzle (Luban lock)
• MaterialPlastic
• Pieces24 (of three types)

What is a Luban lock?

Luban locks, also known as Kong Ming locks, are the Chinese version of burr puzzles: puzzles made of notched pieces that hold one another together without glue or screws. Tradition credits their origin to the carpenter Lu Ban or to the strategist Zhuge Liang, known as Kongming. Unlike a Rubik’s cube, nothing turns here: the pieces slide and come apart.

Skill level

With so many pieces, taking it apart already demands attention, because only a precise sequence of moves opens the structure. The real challenge comes when rebuilding it: you have to understand how the three types of piece are distributed and how they rest on one another. A good fit for anyone who has already solved smaller Luban locks and wants a long challenge.