During the 1980s the Rubik’s Cube was an amazingly popular pastime; so much so that the Rubik Cube quickly became a fad – nearly everyone you met either owned a Rubik Cube or had used one at one time or another. As fads go, the Rubik Cube was enjoyed by the young and old alike, and the Rubik Cube seemed to meld into almost every corner of the culture during the 80’s.

What’s a Rubik Cube?

Believe it or not, Rubik Cubes are still manufactured today, although the popularity of the cube has declined significantly since the eighties. The Rubik Cube is a, of course, a six sided cube puzzle with fifty-four colored, moveable squares in all. Each side of the Rubik Cube has nine cubes of the same color. The object of the Rubik Cube is to solve the puzzle: the cube is first scrambled so that all of the colors in the cube are mixed up—the player is then expected to get all of the same colors back together again.

Rubik Cube History

The Rubik Cube had its beginnings in 1974 when it was first invented by Erno Rubik, from the Department of Interior Design at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts. Erno Rubik was teaching a class at the academy and wanted to use three-dimensional objects to explain his lectures: hence the creation of the “Magic Cube”. When he found his students adored his teaching tool, he decided to patent it. Several years later, the tool became a puzzle toy, was marketed and proved to be instantly successful – Erno Rubik became a wealthy man and the Rubik Cube became one of the biggest fads in the 80’s. Selling millions, the Rubik Cube remained popular and is still sold today. The cube was such a sensation that cube solving books emerged on the market and various Rubik Cube Competitions were held: since the cube had 43 quintillion combinations, it proved an amazingly fun pastime!

Rubik’s Cube and the Holiday Season

It wasn’t long before imitation cubes emerged on the market. The imitation cubes did not of course, have the Rubik logo and while they did sell, the original Rubik cube remained in significant demand. Smaller versions of the cube were made and adored for their tiny size, and some were hung from keychains that possessed completely moveable parts. Christmas time proved a fantastic time for Rubik Cube sales: they fit perfectly in stockings and children were practically begging for the toy when it first emerged on the market. From ’80 to ’82, more than 100 million Rubik Cubes were sold. Yet, it didn’t end there: Children were finding innovative ways to dress up for Halloween as Rubik Cubes! Of course, the success of the Rubik Cube produced other fads: different shaped puzzles emerged, and puzzles with different symbols and colors were created, but none as popular as the original cube itself.