Top Toy for Christmas 2009

As expected by many, the Rubik’s 360 has been included in the list of top toy for Christmas 2009 released today by the Toy Retailers association. Since the launch way back in the summer, the Rubik’s 360 has been selling at a huge rate with UK distributors Drummond Park doing a great job in maintaining UK stock levels throughout the retailers who chose to stock the latest from the Rubik’s stable.

With Christmas around the corner, and the inclusion in the top games for Christmas list, the 360 is expected to sell out before the big day on the 25th.

Our advice to you is simple. If you are looking to buy a Rubik’s 360 for someone this year then do it sooner rather than later.

You have been warned!

Rubik’s 360 Launched Today

The long awaited launch of the Rubik’s 360 finally arrived today at midday in Hamleys Regent Street shop.  With online pre-orders already reducing stock levels, the official launch gave people the chance to try and buy the most anticipated toy, not just in the Rubik’s range to become available for many years. A full write up of the launch with loads of pictures will be posted soon.

So, at last the Rubik’s 360 is here, and here to stay!

Watch this space.

Play Rubiks 360

Drummond Park the UK Distributors or the Rubik’s 360 have launched the official Rubik’s 360 site a few days before the launch of the toy itself at Hamleys on Wednesday 15th July. The www.playrubiks360.com site is launched with the revealing of Rubik’s 360 Man and the jingle Twisted Thinking. See Rubik’s 360 Man Twisting, Spinning, Rocking & Strutting his stuff to the tunes of the Rubik’s 360.

Rubik’s Cube inventor’s new Rubik’s 360 puzzle goes on sale next week

News of the Rubik’s 360 and its official launch at Hamleys as written in The Telegraph.

The Rubik’s 360, a new game by Professor Erno Rubik, inventor of the Rubik’s Cube, is set to go on sale next week.

The 64-year-old reclusive Hungarian professor, who has seen his cube achieve 350 million sales since 1980, was heavily involved in creating the new brain-teaser.

The 360 is a clear plastic ball holding six small balls of different colours. Players must get the coloured balls from an inner sphere into matching slots on the outer sphere by shaking them through a middle sphere that has only two holes.

Using the original principles applied to the Rubik’s Cub, it will be available next week, costing £18.

David Hedley Jones, senior vice president of the Rubik brand, said: “It doesn’t need batteries and looks as though it should be quite easy.

“But it is incredibly complicated. There are some really cunning tricks to it.”

Hamleys, the London toy store, has already had thousands of inquiries for the 360. It’s head of sales Nigel Wheatley said: “It is our biggest item on the web. I expect thousands to be sold in days.”

Invented in 1974, the Rubik’s Cube was an instant success when it was first exported from Hungary in 1980, becoming the world’s fastest-selling toy.

Still obtaining a cult following, almost 40,000 entries on YouTube feature tutorials and video clips of quick solutions.

Original Source:

Rubik’s new brain teaser is on the ball

The new spherical puzzle from Erno Rubik is going to keep us on the ball according to the Daily Express this week.

THE inventor of the Rubik’s Cube has come up with a new brain-teaser that could prove even more ­frustrating to solve.

The tricky Rubik’s 360 dreamed up by Hungarian Professor Erno Rubik is a clear plastic ball holding six small balls of different colours. Players have to lock the balls into place to crack the puzzle.

“It doesn’t need batteries and looks as though it should be quite easy,” said David Hedley Jones, senior vice president of the Rubik brand. “But it is incredibly complicated. There are some really cunning tricks to it.”

He said Professor Rubik, 64, whose Cube craze has notched 350 million sales since 1980, was heavily involved in creating the 360.

It uses the original principles applied to the Cube and bright children as young as eight as well as adults will be able to tackle it. The 360 goes on sale next week costing £18. Toy store Hamleys has already had 3,500 inquiries. Head of sales Nigel Wheatley said: “It is our biggest item on the web. I expect thousands to be sold in days.”

Original Source: Daily Express

Rubik Cube inventor devises new puzzle to drive us all to distraction

Here is the latest article on the Rubik’s 360 as written in The Times on the 7th July 2009.

His cube was one of the most popular and infuriating toys of all time. Now Professor Ernö Rubik is hoping that the sphere will bring sleepless nights to the world’s obsessive puzzlers.

The creator of Rubik’s Cube is back with his first new puzzle for almost 20 years and early indications are that it is going to be every bit as irritating as the original.

Rubik’s 360, which goes on sale next week, features six small balls inside three interlocking spheres. The task is to lock each ball into colour-coded capsules on the outermost sphere. Professor Rubik said of his cube that it was “easy to understand the task, but hard to work out the solution”. It is just as aggravating to crack the 360.

In The Times newsroom yesterday, the angry rattles of plastic pellets signified dozens of journalists failing to coax so much as one ball from the centre of the sphere.

“You look at it and think, ‘It can’t be that hard’,” said David Hedley Jones, the senior vice-president of the Rubik brand. “But it is incredibly complicated — there are some really cunning tricks to it.”

Dan Harris, twice the British cube champion, is enthusiastic: “It looks pretty cool, is very tactile, and takes the same kind of physical dexterity and ‘touch’ as the cube,” he said.

“In terms of a mental challenge, it doesn’t compare, because there is only one configuration at the start, and one at the end.” But he added: “I think it has a much broader appeal. Most people who try the cube give up within a matter of days, but this is much easier, and more likely to keep people interested until they can solve it.”

Professor Rubik said that the 360 needed more manual dexterity than the original cube. “It’s a more kinetic challenge, more physical, because gravity is involved.”

Mr Hedley Jones acknowledged the task was initially very frustrating, but said: “Once you’ve learnt a few little tricks it becomes slightly easier.” Under conditions of strict secrecy, The Times was talked through the most basic of these tricks. All six balls remained resolutely in the middle.

Toy retailers anticipate that Britain is once again about to be gripped by Rubik’s fever. “It’s a great product. It’s going to be a strong seller for Christmas,” said Stuart Grant, buying director for The Entertainer shop chain.

Professor Rubik was a 30-year-old lecturer in the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in Budapest when he devised the cube in 1974 to teach his students about 3-D design. It took six years for it to leave the Eastern bloc, when it became an instant hit, selling in the tens of millions and permeating almost every home in Britain.

In The Times’s attempt to crack the 360, the first ball rolled into place after a mere five hours. This is unlikely to win a place at the first Rubik 360 tournament, in Düsseldorf in October. Mr Hedley Jones said that competition is likely to be fierce: “I’ve already seen someone do it in under a minute.”

Box of tricks

1974 invented by Erno Rubik in Budapest, Hungary

350m sold worldwide, enough to reach from pole to pole

7.08 seconds, the world record for completing the cube set in 2008

500kg weight of largest cube, three metres tall, on display in Tennessee

God’s algorithm name given to a 25-move solution, the shortest

Original Source: The Times