My responses to questions posted on various news groups

John,

That version of the chronology is old. You can see the latest and greatest at Chronology or by clicking on main.

Of course the cube appeared first in Hungary as the Magic Cube or Buvos Kocka (sorry about the lack of accents, got to figure out the best way to do that in drupal).

If you look in the archives or the newest chronology you will see that Bela Szalai first saw the cube in 1978 and later produced cubes in the United States at LGI. I have one of the LGI cubes. They were white plastic and they predate the Ideal Toy cubes. You can find some references to them in the cube-lovers archives.

I have talked with several people who bought Hungarian cubes with them to the U.K. and the United States before Ideal Toy launched the cube in North America. Of course Ideal Toy manufacturered cubes both in the U.K. and the United States. I'm pretty sure but not positive the Rubik's Game cubes were made in New Jersey.

In my opinion the Berkshire cubes made in England were very good and also the Rubik's Deluxe/Game cubes made in the U.S. were very good.

I would hazard a guess that since the U.K. is much closer to Hungary that they may have got the Ideal Toy cubes a bit sooner than in North America. I can recall first seeing the cube in the fall of 1980 and Ideal Toy got exclusive rights in September of 1979. I can't say when exactly the LGI cubes appeared, but I know it was before the Ideal Toy launch. LGI cubes were made from the molds of the early Hungarian Cubes.... you can see little ridges on the edge cubies on both.

Mark

Resource for looking back at the beginning of the resurgence of the cube :)
The heart of the cube is the 8 corners because it's number can not change.
Pure system http://pages.videotron.com/toulou/gaetan/

The cube popularity took a dive after hungary budapest championship of the world in 1982. The return in competition after 21 years was the world championship in toronto canada in 2003. Exactly had the same place at the science fair my web page photo that I placed on my web site that I took on the national championship of 1982.

The name of my domain rubikscuberecord.com and I'm the only one to have solved the cube blindfolded. If you don't believe in the one that has brought back the cube you will have to answer to the irreversables evidence. Contrary to it's return in 2003 in the store where the cube sales were influenced by the championship wich was not the case in 1982.

The cube is'nt musical (method & math) partition exchange only but it's has competitive.

The cube is a puzzle where the genius of the teenager's suffice to reach world records. I never said that it was not for children or adults because human curiosity has no age.

The emails that I kept in my reception box before 2003 from hotmail speak for themselves. Journalists outside the province of quebec never heard from me because the cuber's of my generation present on the web before 2003 never told my name with my story. People are sold by popular culture.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iE1RH2S1fWQ

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rubik's pepsi canada montreal french commercial :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAMRPcICix4