Architect, designer and university professor, Ernõ Rubik from Budapest, Hungary, created his first working prototype version of the cube in 1974. In 1977 the first ‘Magic Cube’ was sold in a Budapest toy store. By 1980 the Ideal Toy Corporation was exporting the cube worldwide and had rebranded it the ‘Rubik’s Cube’. What followed was a phenomenon that ingrained itself  in popular culture with cube variants, books, merchandise, championships and clubs, and even an entry into the Oxford English dictionary!

I was rubbish at trying to solve the cube and slightly envious of those kids at school that could complete it in less than two minutes. I once finished a whole side – but mostly my cube ended up being employed as a psychedelic field table for my Action Man figures. Below is a selection of French promotional adverts for the cube.

30 Rubik’s Cube prizes to be won in Placid et Muzo Poche. France. Pif Gadget. 1981.

Disney’s Picsou comic Rubik’s Cube prize competition.

Rubik’s Cube Junior Championship of France organised by Pif Gadget. 1981.

Rubik’s Cube swag. Le Cercle Française du Cube. France. Pif Gadget. 1981.

Rubik’s Magic. Speelboom Club Journal. 1986. Netherlands.

Cube Lube. US. 1982.

Post updated with new image Aug 2019