The Cube was only one of many ideas Erno Rubik was working on. This collection was selected with care to give the public the 'best' of Rubik's puzzles. This collection of 5 puzzles was produced in 1993 by Hasbro International and The Parker Brothers. All five are in my collection. All rights reserved.

This (of course) is the Rubik's cube. The flyer, included in the box of this puzzle states that in the past 13 years, about 120 million cube's were sold. All with 43.252.003.274.489.856.000 possible combinations. This is almost 10 years ago. I wonder how many cubes are sold up until now? According to www.rubiks.com at least 200 million.

So, lets take all the cubes and twist them simultaneously. If we could get a different combination on every cube, every second. We still need more than 6.852 years to get all possible combinations.

This puzzle is called Rubik's Rabbits. Often mistakenly called Rubik's Hat, because of it's spectacular shape. This puzzle has a very special way, to use it. You should hold it against a light or window. this way, rabbits appear and disappear when one or more of the six rings are turned. Because every ring can be set in 9 different positions, there are 531.441 possible combinations. Not that much if you look at the cube, but you would still need more than 147 hours, to see every possible combination. It was in the first week, after I bought it, that I solved this puzzle.

even more magical is Rubik's Magic puzzle. This puzzle, based on the Jacob's ladder is a technical wonder. Eight plastic tiles are diagonally connected by nylon wires. This way two connected tiles can hinge on four sides. Not only 2 dimensional but also three dimensional figures are possible with this puzzle.

Warning: Do not try to force tiles to hinge. Several Magic puzzles were killed in action this way.

The object of this puzzle is simple. The three rings on the first side aren't connected. Your goal is to connect the three rings on the back. Good luck.

Another mechanical wonder is Rubik's Maze. 6 yellow cubes with black lines on them are connected in a special way. every cube can turn around it's adjacent cube, without getting disconnected. This way, a total of 143.327.232 combination are possible to form a 2x3 brick. the goal is to make one black continuous line, over every visible side of the brick.

Although it's one a very difficult puzzle to solve, the enjoyment isn't less. Maybe because of this, the puzzle is very popular. Too bad, not very much were made, in comparison with other Rubik's puzzles. Maybe one day it will be produced again. Luckily, I've got a spare one for trade.

The fifth and last puzzle of this selection was in the '90 collection too.: Rubik's Triamid. This is the only mechanical Rubik's puzzle that can be 'reset'. The puzzle can be dismantled into 10 colored elements and four black connection blocks. The object is to unscramble the puzzle. But there is one very strict rule, that comes along with this puzzle: The only action allowed is to take the top of the tetraeader (4 colored elements, connected by a black connection block) and put it back on the base again. There are 12 ways to do this. If you play the puzzle this way, you can stumble into 1.870.000.000.000 different combinations.  A nice way to scramble the puzzle is to change one or two of the top elements. Sometimes the puzzle can fall apart. So get a good grip when you play it.