Editing Rubik's Cube (section)

===Rubik's invention===
In the mid-1970s, Ernő Rubik worked at the Department of Interior Design at the [[Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design|Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts]] in Budapest.<ref name="ampop">{{Cite book |last=Sagert |first=Kelly Boyer |url=https://archive.org/details/s00sage |title=The 1970s (American Popular Culture Through History) |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-313-33919-6 |location=Westport, Conn |page=[https://archive.org/details/s00sage/page/n150 130] |url-access=limited}}</ref> Although it is widely reported that the Cube was built as a teaching tool to help his students understand 3D objects, his actual purpose was solving the structural problem of moving the parts independently without the entire mechanism falling apart.  He did not realise that he had created a puzzle until the first time he scrambled his new Cube and then tried to restore it.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1 December 2006 |title=Rubik's Cube |url=http://www.puzzlesolver.com/puzzle.php?id=29;page=15 |access-date=20 June 2012 |publisher=PuzzleSolver}}</ref> Rubik applied for a [[patent]] in Hungary for his "Magic Cube" ({{langx|hu|bűvös kocka}}) on 30 January 1975,<ref name=":0">{{Cite magazine |date=30 January 2009 |title=Jan. 30, 1975: Rubik Applies for Patent on Magic Cube |url=https://www.wired.com/2009/01/dayintech-0130/ |magazine=Wired |access-date=24 January 2019 }}</ref> and HU170062 was granted later that year.

The first test batches of the Magic Cube were produced in late 1977 and released in toy shops in [[Budapest]]. Magic Cube was held together with interlocking plastic pieces that prevented the puzzle from being easily pulled apart, unlike the magnets in Nichols's design. With Ernő Rubik's permission, businessman Tibor Laczi took a Cube to Germany's [[Nuremberg]] Toy Fair in February 1979 in an attempt to popularise it.<ref name="holper">{{Cite book |last=Holper |first=Paul |title=Inventing Millions |publisher=Orient |year=2006 |isbn=8122204589 |pages=64–65}}</ref> It was noticed by Seven Towns founder Tom Kremer, and they signed a deal with Ideal Toys in September 1979 to release the Magic Cube worldwide.<ref name="holper" /> Ideal wanted at least a recognisable name to trademark; that arrangement put Rubik in the spotlight because the Magic Cube was renamed after its inventor in 1980. [[File:Original Rubik's cube from 1980.jpg|thumb|Original Rubik's Cube - Ideal Toy Corp., made in Hungary 1980|left]]The puzzle made its international debut at the toy fairs of London, Paris, Nuremberg, and New York in January and February 1980.<ref>{{Cite web |date=19 May 2008 |title=History |url=http://www.gyorgykata.hu/design/rubik/demo/cubehistory.html |access-date=25 January 2019 |publisher=Rubiks |archive-date=26 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190126055921/http://www.gyorgykata.hu/design/rubik/demo/cubehistory.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

After its international debut, the progress of the Cube towards the toy shop shelves of the West was briefly halted so that it could be manufactured to Western safety and packaging specifications. A lighter Cube was produced, and Ideal decided to rename it. "[[Gordian Knot|The Gordian Knot]]" and "Inca Gold" were considered, but the company finally decided on "Rubik's Cube", and the first batch was exported from Hungary in May 1980.<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 January 2019 |title=About |url=https://uk.rubiks.com/about/ |access-date=25 January 2019 |publisher=Rubiks |archive-date=14 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180814040226/https://uk.rubiks.com/about |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The packaging had a few variations depending on the country, most popular being a clear plastic cylinder but cardboard versions were also used. The cube itself had slightly different variations in the order of the colours (Western vs. Japanese colour scheme where blue/yellow are switched) and some of the cubes did not have a white piece logo.