After more than half a billion sales and five decades abroad, the Rubik's Cube is being built in Hungary again, in the same country where its inventor first brought it to life.
A fully automated production line opened Tuesday in the city of Jaszbereny, marking the puzzle's return to the land where it was conceived and setting a target of one million cubes a year.
Erno Rubik, the 82-year-old architect and design professor who created the cube in 1974, called Hungary 'the home of the cube' and said it 'was born here.'
He completed the first wooden prototype while teaching design in Budapest, crafting a six-sided object of 27 rotating blocks. Rubik prefers to describe the result not as an invention but as a 'discovery,' a transformable sculpture where art and engineering meet.
Production moved overseas decades ago after the puzzle was licensed to foreign toy companies, with demand so fierce that roughly 200 million units sold between 1980 and 1983 alone. Canadian toy maker Spin Master, which now owns the trademark, framed the homecoming with a simple theme: back to its roots.
At the new Hungarian plant, robotic arms assemble and test every cube for functionality and durability, a sharp departure from the hand-assembly of the early years. Even at 82, Rubik sees the enduring appeal plainly: the chance to create something both meaningful and beautiful.