Rubik is one of the intellectual games loved by both adults and children. This toy is not only entertaining but also highly educational. However, not everyone understands what Rubik's toys are? What is the history of the birth of Rubik's toy? Or what types of Rubik's toys include? Let's learn everything about Rubik's toys with Mykingdom in the following article.
What is Rubik's Toy?
Rubik's toy or Rubik's cube, is a mechanical puzzle game. Each Rubik's cube usually includes 6 square faces with 9 squares of equal size and is painted with different colors, the most common colors are white, purple, yellow, orange, green, and blue.
The Rubik's game begins when the Rubik's cube is shuffled with all the square positions on each side with alternating colors. Players must find the answer to the rules to rotate the Rubik's faces most accurately. So that in the end all faces of the Rubik's cube are a uniform color.
Who invented the Rubik's toy?
In 1974, Hungarian architecture professor and sculptor Ernõ Rubik invented the Rubik. The name of this toy is named after its creator.
Erno Rubik was born in 1944 in Budapest, Hungary. His father was a glider design engineer, and his mother was a poet and literary artist. The perfect combination of art and engineering has created a talented sculptor and architect Ernõ Rubik.
He has a great passion for studying geometry and three-dimensional space. In early 1974, while working as a Professor of Architecture at Budapest University of Applied Arts, Erno Rubik came up with the idea of a small cube with faces consisting of movable squares. About half a year later, he and his friends created the first wooden Rubik's model.
At first, Rubik loved watching the squares move when he rotated the Rubik's cube. Later he encountered difficulty when trying to bring all the squares of the same color to the same side. And he spent a whole month restoring the Rubik's cube to its original shape.
After solving the Rubik's cube problem, he introduced this game to everyone around him and received an enthusiastic response. He decided to cooperate with a toy company and mass produce Rubik's Cube. This intellectual toy is sold in Budapest under the name Büvös Kocka, meaning magic cube.
Decoding Rubik's cubes
About color
Each Rubik's cube has a different shape and will have different colors. Usually the 3x3x3 Rubik's cube usually has colors such as red, yellow, orange, white, green and blue. In addition, besides the original Rubik's cubes, there are also other colors such as pink, purple, brown...
About shape
The shape of the first Rubik's cube is 3x3x3. To this day, Rubik toys have many more shapes such as 2x2x2, 4x4x4, 5x5x5. Besides, Rubik toys also have other special shapes such as triangles, circles, tetrahedrons, octahedrons or 12-sided cubes, 20-sided cubes...
Rubik's toy concepts
- Rubik's cube in the center: This cube has one color and is located in the center of the Rubik's cube. Surrounded by 8 other tablets.
- Edge tablet: This tablet includes 2 colors.
- Corner pieces: Corner pieces include 3 colors, located at the corners of the Rubik's cube.
Symbol of Rubik's cube 3x3x3
- Upper side: Symbol is U.
- Bottom side: Symbol is D.
- Front: Symbol is F.
- Back side: Symbol is B.
- Left side: Symbol is L.
- Right side: Symbol is R.
How to rotate the faces of a Rubik's cube
- The symbol faces F', B', U', D', R', L' will rotate 90 degrees counterclockwise.
- The symbol faces F, B, U, D, R, L will rotate 90 degrees clockwise.
- Faces labeled F2, B2, U2, D2, R2, L2 will rotate 180 degrees.
Popular Rubik's toys today
Universal Rubik's Cube
Rubik 3x3
A classic Rubik's toy invented by architecture professor and sculptor Erno Rubik. Each Rubik's cube consists of 26 small blocks combined. This Rubik's toy is considered easy to play. This is also a popular and best-selling Rubik's Cube today.
Rubik's cube 2x2x2
This is a pocket Rubik's toy, created in 1970 by Larry Nichols. Rubik's cube 2x2x2 has a simple structure with 8 corner blocks. The gameplay is much simpler and faster than Rubik's 3x3x3.
Big Cube (Rubik types from 4x4x4 and up)
This is an upgraded Rubik's toy from the version version. Includes Rubik's cubes of 4x4x4 and above such as 4x4x4, 5x5x5, 6x6x6 and 7x7x7. Although the number of floors of the Rubik's Cube has increased, the way to solve the puzzle is still similar to the classic Rubik's Cube.
Variant Rubik's Cube
With the purpose of stimulating thinking development and increasing the difficulty of puzzle games, Rubik toys have many unique variations:
Rubik's triangle
Also known as Rubik Pyraminx, it has a shape similar to a pyramid. This type of Rubik was invented by Uwe Meffert in the early 1970s. The Rubik Pyraminx toy has 3 floors, 4 triangular faces divided into 9 identical small triangles. This is also the second best-selling Rubik's toy in the world.
Rubik Skewb
The Rubik's Cube consists of 8 corners and 6 square pieces in the middle, invented by Tony Durham. The toy works on the same 4-axis mechanism, so it was initially called Pyraminx Cube.
Rubik's mirror
The toy was invented by Hidetoshi Takeji in 2006, originally called Bump Cube. The Rubik's type is quite special compared to other Rubik's toys. The mirror Rubik's cube has only one color on 6 sides and will be solved when it returns to the square state.
Rubik Megaminx
The first version of the Rubik Megaminx toy was called Hungarian Supernova and was created by Dr. Christoph Bandelow. Later, the toy was copyrighted by Uwe Meffert and continued to be sold under the name Megaminx.
Currently, Rubik Megaminx has two versions: 6 colors with 2 equal sides sharing 1 color and 12 colors with 1 color on each side. The way to solve Rubik Megaminx is similar to the classic Rubik 3x3x3 toy.
Rubik Square-1
This Rubik's toy is also known as Cube 21, or Back to Square One. This is a 3-layer puzzle similar to Rubik's 3x3x3 with a higher level of challenge because it can change shape when shuffled. Rubik Square-1 was invented by Karel Hrsel and Vojtech Kopsky in 1990.
Rubik Clock
The Rubik Clock was invented by Christopher C. Wiggle and Christophe J. Taylor in 1980. Erno Rubik later bought the patent from them and marketed it in 1988.
Rubik Clock has 2 sides, each side has 9 clocks, 4 buttons and 4 gears in the corners allowing players to easily interact.
Rubik Fisher
Rubik Fisher was invented by Mr. Tony Fisher in the 80s. The solution method of this Rubik toy is similar to Rubik 3x3 combined with the ability to change shape when disturbed.
Rubik Snake
Rubik Snake is also Mr. Ernõ Rubik's invention and was first launched in 1981. This Rubik's toy not only has one way to solve it but can create many interesting shapes. Thanks to that, you will better understand basic 3-dimensional geometry.
Rubik Mastermorphix
Rubik Mastermorphix has a similar shape to Rubik Pyraminx but the structure is similar to Rubik 3x3x3. Currently, this Rubik's toy has two versions: 4 colors and 1 color, but the more popular is the 4-color version.
Rubik Magic
Rubik Magic was patented by Mr. Erno Rubik. In the 1980s, Rubik Magic was first produced by Matchbox. At this time, Rubik Magic is the second most popular in the world, only behind Rubik 3x3x3.
Rubik Magic toy consists of 8 black squares arranged in a 2x4 rectangle, attached to 16 wires. Thanks to that, players can fold it in all directions, creating many shapes.
Rubik Dino
Rubik Dino is also called Rubik's Corner Rotation because the solution is just to rotate 8 corners. Rubik Dino was invented by Robert Webb in 1985 but it took 10 years to be mass produced. Originally, Rubik Dino was made of paper and had dinosaurs printed on each piece.
Rubik Ghost
Rubik Ghost was invented by designer Adam G Cowan in 2008. The purpose of this Rubik's game is to modify the 3x3 Rubik's shape to become extremely difficult. Rubik's Cube can only be solved when all the pieces match the original square state.
Rubik Helicopter
This Rubik's toy, also known as Helicopter Rubik's, was invented by Adam G. Cowan in 2005. This Rubik's cube includes 8 corners, 24 triangular center pieces with 4 center pieces on each face. Rubik Helicopter can only be shuffled by rotating 180 degrees. Each move will flip the 2 corner pieces and the 4 center pieces.
Rubik Void
The Rubik Void was invented by Katsuhiko Okamoto and has the same shape as the 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube, except there is no central piece. That means the Rubik's Cube only has 6 holes that players can see through. Therefore, Rubik Void often moves not as smoothly as other types.
Rubik Gear
A Rubik's toy invented by Oskar van Deventer in 2009 called Caution Cube. Although it looks complicated, the Rubik Gear has a simple solution because it does not have many permutations and can only rotate 180 degrees.
Rubik Redi
Oskar Van Deventer created the Rubik Redi in mid-2017. This is a corner-rotating variant of the Rubik's Cube, each corner moves 3 edges around it.
Rubik Ivy
Also known as Eye Skewb, invented by famous toy designer Eitan Cher. Currently, Rubik Ivy is produced by QiYi MoFangge - a famous Speedcube manufacturing company.
Rubik's Axis
Also known as Axel Cube has a complex looking variation when shuffled. The initial state of the Rubik Axis is square. But when moving the Rubik Axis, it will have different shapes due to the uneven division of pieces. However, Rubik Axis is still considered an easy Rubik's toy to play.
Rubik Windmill
Rubik Windmill is the invention of Mr. Katsuhiko Okamoto, a Japanese Rubik modding expert. This Rubik's toy has many shapes when mixed but has a simple solution.
The above article has shared basic information about Rubik's toys. Hope it will help you answer your questions about what is a Rubik's toy? Invented by whom? What types of Rubik's toys are there in the world? You can order Rubik's toys and many other attractive entertainment toys at the website https://www.mykingdom.com.vn/ to have fun in your free time or as gifts to help your child develop comprehensive skills. .
