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Is there anything more frustrating - and rewarding - in the world of toys than a Rubik's Cube? No, I didn't think so... Created by Erno Rubik, a Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture, this timewaster of a 3D toy measuring 2.25inches on each side, consists of a 3x3x3 assortment of 26 coloured squares. The puzzling bit comes when you attempt to unscramble them by twisting the rows of squares around, so you eventually end up with only one colour on each side. The original Rubik's cube (the called a Magic Cube) first came onto the scene in the mid-70s, but it only became a craze once Ideal released it into American culture. In 1980 it was won the German Game Of The Year award for Best Puzzle. From then on, brows were uniformally furrowed as kids (and big kids) all over spent hours, days, even months trying to crack the code... until they realised the coloured stickers could be peeled off and reassigned by their own fair - if a bit blistered - hands. Cheats! For those who didn't stoop this low, there were competitions to enter to see who could solve the Rubik's cube the fastest. The Rubik's Cube World Championship was held in 1982 in Budapest, where crowds witnessed a boy of only 16 years' worth of cube cracking under his belt solve the cube in under 23 seconds! Since then, the record has been broken over and over again, currently standing at 7.08 seconds, set in 2008 at the Czech Open. Other crazy cube competitions have featured contestants solving their's underwater, blindfolded and even using only their feet! The year 2008 also saw the Guinness record being set for the most people solving a Rubik's cube at one time - 96 people. Continuing on from the success of the original Rubik's cube - well there had to be more for those who'd completed it - there were the 2x2x2 Pocket Cube, 4x4x4 Rubik's Revenge, Rubik's snake, Rubik's clock, Rubik's Magic, pocket chains for the hardcore addicts, and more recently Soduku-theme cubes. Other legacy's include a cartoon, an addict's support group and no doubt a fair few cases of RSI (repetitive strain injury). But so worth it, so say the 350 million people who've bought a Rubik's cube to date. In February 2009 the most exciting update yet was unveiled at the American Toy Fair in New York - The TouchCube. The cube works on the same principle as the original, but is an electronic. light-up, touchscreen version, sure to excite fans of the toy. This time around, moves can be undone and the cube even gives you handy hints, See, things were always harder years ago. Kids don't know how good they've got it today.
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