Rubik's Cube celebrates its 30th Birthday
(07/05/2010)

More than 350 million Rubik’s Cubes have been sold worldwide, since 1980. The planet’s most iconic puzzle is again enjoying a huge popularity boost, thanks largely to the widescale availability of solution guidance, tips, opportunities to challenge other fans on the internet.

In the UK, Tuesday 25th May is the day when the iconic Cube celebrates its 30th Birthday. It is 30 years since Hungarian university lecturer Erno Rubik unleashed his mind-boggling coloured cube on an unsuspecting public. Within weeks of its launch in 1980, it went global - and today it remains the most popular puzzle in the world. If you are under 30, you will never have known a time without the Rubik’s Cube. There can be very few people in the world who have not heard of, seen or played with this amazing feat of toy engineering – a small (3x3x3) plastic cube with different coloured squares revolving around a central axis to produce around 43 quintillion different combinations but only one solution.

More than 350 million pieces have been sold during the Rubik’s Cube’s 30-year lifespan - around 100 million of those in the first two years following its launch, 1980 and 1981. In those heady days, The Cube was everywhere – people could be seen in the playground, on buses and trains, at home, at work twisting and twiddling the puzzle to find the correct solution - that restored the coloured squares to their original position with all the faces of the same hue.

After the initial explosion of popularity, when it became (and has remained) one of the most readily identifiable icons of the century, the Rubik’s Cube’s star waned, understandably. But, throughout the world, it remained steadfastly evident on the retail shelves. And now it’s back big-time - just as popular, just as intriguing, compulsive or frustrating (depending on your point of view!).

The new century has brought a whole new generation of ‘Cubers’ into the Rubik’s family. Whereas in the 1980s, the end-game was simply to solve the puzzle, now both solving and speed are the ultimate challenges. At national and international competitions, ‘Speedcubers’ (as they are now known) compete to solve the puzzle in the quickest possible time. At the first World Championship in 1982, the fastest average solve was 22.9 seconds. In 2008, the ‘single solve’ record was set at an incredible 7.08 seconds. And if that wasn’t challenging enough, Cubers also solve the puzzle with their feet, or blindfolded, or while riding a skateboard, under water or while abseiling or free-falling from an aircraft.

These days, for first timers looking for the solution, or those hooked on improving their solve time, there’s no shortage of help and encouragement – in the form of an in-box ‘How to’ leaflet, plus endless hints, tips and competitive opportunities on the internet, YouTube and in books. Quite different from the early days when you struggled to solve it yourself, or got a friend to show you how.

What is the secret of this enduring international phenomenon? The Cube’s inventor Erno Rubik, originally a designer and engineer by training – and now living and working in his home city of Budapest, sums up its infinite appeal: “It’s simple but it’s complex; it’s stable but it’s flexible; it’s easy to understand but it takes dedication and patience to work it out.”

We ask Professor Rubik if, after 30 successful years, can The Cube last forever? “Emphatically, yes” he says. “Each decade or so, a brand new generation of Cube fans emerges, pushing the boundaries of cubing and creating never-ending challenges.”

Since the turn of this century, the multitudes of cubing fans, situated on all five continents, have taken the multi- coloured plastic puzzle further than even Erno Rubik envisaged as he toiled in his studio to develop the original brain-teaser. No doubt the next 30 years – and beyond – will see The Cube’s star still shining brightly.

The Rubik’s Cube retails at £10.99 and is to be found in good stores everywhere.