Things you might not know about the Legendary Rubik's Cube

The Rubik's Cube was invented in 1974 by Hungarian Professor Erno Rubik. Its worldwide launch took place in 1980.

The Cube is the world's biggest-selling toy EVER. Over 300 million of them have been sold, throughout the world.

The Cube has 43 quintillion different possible configurations (or 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 to be precise) and only ONE solution.

If you made a single turn of one of the Cube's faces every second, it would take you 1,400 million million years to go through all the possible configurations. (In comparison, the universe itself is only 14 thousand million years old.)

The first official World Rubik's Championship was held on 5 June 1982 in Budapest, Hungary. The winner was American Minh Thai, who solved a standard (3x3x3) Rubik's Cube in 22.95 seconds.

At the World Championships, held every two years, there are also other official records to be fought for, including solving the Cube one-handed, blindfold; even using only bare feet!

Jean Pons of France was crowned 2005 World Champion at Disney World, Florida last November, with an average solving time of 15.1 secondsThe current World Record holder (for performance in an 'official' World Cubing Association event) is 17-year-old Toby Mao, who set a time of 10.48 seconds at the US National Championships in August 2006.

The youngest person ever to solve a Rubik's Cube is thought to be 3-year-old En-Xi-Xie from China, who was born on 21st March 2003.

On 28 December 2004, John Ismael Ugelstad from Norway solved three standard Rubik's Cubes in succession - aged just 5 years 117 days.

The most expensive Rubik's Cube ever was the Masterpiece Cube, produced by Diamond Cutters International in 1995. This actual size, fully-functional cube features 22.5 carats of amethyst, 34 carats of rubies, and 34 carats of emeralds, all set in 18-carat gold, has been valued at over 1.5 million US dollars.

Compulsive Cube solving has given rise to two brand new medical conditions amongst some hardcore enthusiasts - Cubist's thumb and Rubik's wrist.

At the Edinburgh Conference of European leaders in 1992, the then UK Prime Minister John Major used the Cube to demonstrate to his TV audience the virtually insoluble complexities of the Maastricht Treaty.