Rubiks Cube & Twisty

The Rubik’s Cube is so well known, so famous, such an icon, that anything in the Twisty Puzzle category is often referred to as a Rubik’s Cube. In fact many people use the Rubik’s Cube to describe any brainteaser or mechanical puzzle to ensure others know what they’re talking about. But not every Twisty Puzzle is a Rubik’s Cube!

A Twisty Puzzle is a type of sequential move puzzle getting its name because usually to solve the puzzle you need to rearrange the shape by rotating or twisting the puzzle.
In its general form the puzzle pieces have a series of colours and the solved state is when each face of the puzzle has a single colour. Just like the six colours of the original Rubik’s Cube. But puzzle designers have move way past a standard set of colours to include other patterns, animals, letter and number sets and much more. They have also advanced way beyond the cube to many different and interesting shapes like those you’ll see on this page.

While it can be said that all Twisty or Rotational puzzles are descended from the Rubik’s Cube there are now countless variations, amazing new mechanism’s that Enro Rubik probably never envisaged, and lots and lots of different shapes, many of which morph into even stranger shapes when turned!

This history of the Rubik’s Cube’s invention is a great story in itself.

Enro Rubik from Hungary wanted to create an object that seemed to defy the laws of possibility; he wanted a structure which, whilst staying held together, had movable independent parts that could be manipulated and have their positions changed. He wasn’t inventing a puzzle. He was looking for a model to help explain three-dimensional objects to his students at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in Budapest. So, the first types of cubes he created were simple wooden blocks that were held together with rubber bands and paperclips.

In fact, another man by the name of Larry Nichols had already invented a 2×2 puzzle which had a much simpler design; magnets were used instead of rubber bands and paperclips. This meant that the puzzle could be separated into its 8 blocks quite easily, making it fairly unstable. The patent for this original 2×2 cube was filed in 1972, two years before Rubik invented his own 3×3.

The progression from 2×2 to 3×3 cube may not seem like that much of an advance but the 2×2 didn’t need a central core to control the movements of the separate pieces. To make the 3×3 cube Enro Rubik took another two years and a 3×3 Rubik’s Cube prototype was finalised in 1974. This then led to patents and after signing with toy company Ideal it was sold in Hungary and then eventually became a worldwide sensation in 1980 and is still recognised today as an icon of the 1980’s.

The Rubik’s Cube is so well known, so famous, such an icon, that anything in the Twisty Puzzle category is often referred to as a Rubik’s Cube. In fact many people use the Rubik’s Cube to describe any brainteaser or mechanical puzzle to ensure others know what they’re talking about. But not every Twisty Puzzle is a Rubik’s Cube!

A Twisty Puzzle is a type of sequential move puzzle getting its name because usually to solve the puzzle you need to rearrange the shape by rotating or twisting the puzzle.

The basic Rubiks Cube or Magic Cube or similar has a series of colours and it is solved when each face of the cube is returned to a single colour. Just like the six colours of the original Rubik’s Cube. But puzzle designers have move way past a basic set of colours and puzzles can now be seen with other patterns, animals, letters and numbers, sudoku sets and much more. They have also advanced way beyond the cube to many different and interesting shapes like those you’ll see on this page.

While it can be said that all Twisty or Rotational puzzles are descended from the Rubik’s Cube there are now countless variations, amazing new mechanism’s that Enro Rubik probably never envisaged, and lots and lots of different shapes, many of which morph into even stranger shapes when turned!

This history of the Rubik’s Cube’s invention is a great story in itself.

Rubik Erno from Hungary wanted to create an object that seemed to defy the laws of possibility; he wanted a structure which, whilst staying held together, had movable independent parts that could be manipulated and have their positions changed. He wasn’t inventing a puzzle. He was looking for a model to help explain three-dimensional objects to his students at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in Budapest. So, the first types of cubes he created were simple wooden blocks that were held together with rubber bands and paperclips.

In fact, another man by the name of Larry Nichols had already invented a 2×2 puzzle which had a much simpler design; magnets were used instead of rubber bands and paperclips. This meant that the puzzle could be separated into its 8 blocks quite easily, making it fairly unstable. The patent for this original 2×2 cube was filed in 1972, two years before Rubik invented his own 3×3.

The progression from 2×2 to 3×3 cube may not seem like that much of an advance but the 2×2 didn’t need a central core to control the movements of the separate pieces. To make the 3×3 cube Enro Rubik took another two years and a 3×3 Rubik’s Cube prototype was finalised in 1974. This then led to patents and after signing with toy company Ideal it was sold in Hungary and then eventually became a worldwide sensation in 1980 and is still recognised today as an icon of the 1980’s.

Updated 15th April 2021. The largest functional Rubik’s Cube was recognised by the Guiness Book of World Records on 28th March 2021. It was build in a shopping Mall in Hong Kong on 28th March 2021. The cube measures 2.503 m x 2.505 m x 2.502 m.
Read about it here: https://dailyamazingthings.com/2021/04/13/video-hong-kong-mall-unveils-the-worlds-largest-rubiks-cube/

The previous record was held by a Rubik’s Cube measuring 1.57meter. The Guinness Book of Records added it in April 2016 as the Biggest Rubik’s Cube in the World and still not beaten. See Tony Fisher solving his working cube in his backyard in Suffolk in England. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsk8LSdUTUo