Rubik's Cube, the multicolored puzzle with 43,252,003,274, 489,856,000 possible combinations and only one solution, baffled many a partygoer in the early 1980s, when it briefly seized America's attention. The quintessential Reagan-era toy fad was actually a product of the 1970s, when Hungarian professor Erno Rubik came up with the idea as a way to stump his students. He was awarded a patent in 1976 and promptly licensed the product to the Ideal Toy Company. Cube fever soon began spreading across North America in the form of clubs, newsletters, and even a Saturday morning cartoon, Rubik the Amazing Cube. Once solved, however, a Rubik's Cube did not have many other uses, and in 1983 the market for the multicolored mind game suddenly disappeared.

Further Reading:

Rubik, Erno. Rubik's Cubic Compendium. New York, Oxford University Press, 1987.

Taylor, Don. Mastering Rubik's Cube. New York, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981.