MOTU fan club 1985 | The Vintage Toy Advertiser

With what is possibly the most strangest statement I’ve ever seen on a print advert, I present you, dear frantic ones, with a 1982 Marvel Comics ad for Hungarian Rings – just one of the many puzzles that followed the worldwide popularity trail of Rubik’s Cube. Indeed, Hungarian professor Ernõ Rubik made his own version too; his has 34 balls, the traditional ‘Hungarian’ has 38.

Hungarian Rings Marvel Comics offer. Rampage Magazine N°54. 1982. UK.

Left; Hungarian rings. Right; Rubik’s rings. Pics courtesy of Jaap’s Puzzle Page.

Quote-tastic quotations

Let’s do quotes. It might be interesting to quote from Jaap’s Puzzle Page who did so quote: It might be interesting to quote from the afterword of the Rubik’s Cubic Compendium [p212] here. It has a picture of the Hungarian rings and the following text by David Singmaster:
Closer to Rubik’s Magic Cube are ‘interlocking cycle’ puzzles where several rings of pieces cross each other. Endre Pap, a Hungarian engineer, invented a flat version with two rings which was marketed as the Hungarian Rings. The idea was not entirely new, as there is an 1893 patent for it.

That patent is US 507,215 by William Churchill, filed on May 28 1891, granted on October 24, 1893.