More Amazing Rubik's Cube Facts
11. You Can Do the Cube
The You Can Do the Cube solution guide was written in 1981 by 13 year old schoolboy, Patrick Bossert and sold more than 1.5 million copies.
12. Rubik's Cube shaped museum
The Hungarian government announced the plans of a Rubik's Cube-shaped museum in Budapest in 2012. It was supposed to open in 2017, but unfortunately it was never built.
Instead, the cube's history travelled the world with the Beyond Rubik's Cube exhibition.
13. The most expensive cube
Diamond Cutters International crafted the most precious puzzle in 18 carat yellow gold, adding 25 precious stones as "stickers": diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds. The masterpiece is valued at 2.5 million USD.
14. Giant cube
The biggest Rubik's Cube recognized by Guinness was built by Nina Mall in Hong Kong in 2021: each side is 2.5 meters wide and its layers can be turned just like on the real toy. It was only on display for a month.
The title went through several giant cubes before that: British puzzle designer Tony Fisher built a 1.56m cube in 2016, followed by a 1.68m cube in Calgary, Canada in 2018.
The 1.68m cube at Telus Spark, Calgary
15. The Pyraminx
However this tetrahedron-shaped, 3-layered twisty puzzle was invented 3 years before the Rubik's Cube, it was only patented later in 1981 when Rubik's became popular. The Pyraminx is known to be the second best selling puzzle toy with more than 100 million pieces sold.
16. Other famous twisty puzzles
The most popular twisty puzzle models, which are all official WCA competition events are the dodecahedron-shaped Megaminx, the corner-turning Skewb, the shape-shifting Square-1, the 2x2 Pocket Cube, the 4x4 Rubik's Revenge and the 5x5 Professor's Cube.
17. 49x49x49 Rubik's Cube
Custom twisty puzzle designers are pushing the limits of big cubes. The largest NxNxN cube is the 49×49×49, 3D printed by American engineering student Preston Alden and recognized by Guinness in 2024. It took him about 9 months, and he had to put on 14,406 stickers one by one. Before that, the record went from the 33x33x33 to the 34x34x34.
18. Shape mods
Any other shape can be built on the Rubik's Cube core mechanism, not just a cube. Some brilliant puzzle designers and 3D printing gave birth to countless amazing 3x3 shape mods, such as the Fisher Cube, Mastermorphix, Mirror Cube, Ghost Cube, but there are heart-shaped, or Bart Simpson-shaped puzzles as well.
Puzzle modding is becoming more and more popular.
19. Sticker mods
Applying custom stickers on the puzzles can add an extra twist to the game. This way we can add a jigsaw puzzle, a Sudoku or a maze to the Magic Cube. The solution of such a puzzle is more difficult than the classic 6-colored version because it's hard to figure out which piece belongs where and for most picture cubes the orientation of the center pieces count as well.
20. Electronic Cubes
Even a retro game has to keep up with the 21st century. The first electronic Rubik's Cubes, like the Rubik's Touch and the Futuro Cube, had touchscreens instead of moving parts. Today's smart cubes, like the Rubik's Connected and GAN's smart cubes, look and turn like normal puzzles, but Bluetooth sensors track every move. They connect to a phone app for timing, step by step tutorials and online races against other cubers.
Rubik's Connected smart cube with its app