Since 1988, the arrangement of colours has been standardised with white opposite yellow, blue opposite green, and orange opposite red, and the red, white, and blue arranged clockwise in that order. Some later versions of the cube have been updated to use coloured plastic panels instead, which prevents peeling and fading. On the original classic Rubik's Cube, each of the six faces was covered by nine stickers, each of one of six solid colours: white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow. The Rubik's Cube was inducted into the US National Toy Hall of Fame in 2014. As of March 2021, over 450 million cubes had been sold worldwide, making it the world's bestselling puzzle game and bestselling toy. It won the 1980 German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle. The cube was released internationally in 1980 and became one of the most recognized icons in popular culture. Originally called the Magic Cube, the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Pentangle Puzzles in the UK in 1978, and then by Ideal Toy Corp in 1980 via businessman Tibor Laczi and Seven Towns founder Tom Kremer. The Rubik's Cube is a 3-D combination puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik.
Magic Cube, Speed Cube, Puzzle Cube, Cubeġ977: as Hungarian Magic Cube, first test batches released in BudapestĪn illustration of an unsolved Rubik's Cube
