The date is 1974. The place? Budapest, Hungary. Erno Rubik, a passionate lecturer and admirer of geometry and 3D forms creates the world's most addictive and perfect puzzle - the Rubik's cube. It's now thirty years later and it's still the best selling puzzle in the Universe. If you grew up when the Rubik's cube made it's debut - you probably remember that every kid had one. Whether it was the full size or the keychain version they were as common in school as cell phones and GBAs are these days. Elementary school kids could be seen solving them with their feet on 'That's Incredible!' and conspiracists believed the puzzle was an Eastern block tactic to distract American youth from their educations. In 1980 Cubaholics Anonymous was formally established. The eighties simply enjoyed RubikMania! Here we are in the 21st century and it's still just as addictive as it was thirty years ago. Think you can solve it? Think you have what it takes to beat the reigning world record for solving the Rubik's cube? The first world champion was an American high school student who took the Budapest World Championship in 1982 by solving the puzzle in just 22.95 seconds! The latest 2003 winner was Dan Knights of San Francisco who used the 'Fridrich' system to beat the cube in just 20 seconds. Best of luck if you choose to delve into the realm of competitive speedcubing- you're gonna need it! How complex can it really be ThinkGeek? There are 43 quintillion possible combinations with your Rubik's cube. That's 43 million million millions. There are about 30 million seconds in a year. You would need over a thousand million years assuming you could look at a thousand patterns every second just to see all the possible combinations. So if you are interested, we recommend you get started now and hope that cryonics becomes true science. Ages 8 and up Dimensions: 3" cubed Comes complete with a hint and game suggestion book If you really want, you can easily find solutions on Google and Youtube