Famous fads

Erno Rubik invented the Rubik´s Cube in Hungary in 1974. A Hungarian company made and sold the first “Magic Cubes” in 1977. In the same year, the Ideal Toy Corporation bought the cube. They named it “Rubik´s Cube”. It is the world´s best-selling toy of all time, with over 300 million sold since 1977. Today, there´s a World Cube Association that organizes many “speed cubic” contests around the world, and there are many websites for solving the puzzle. They also come in many shapes, colours and sizes.

Hula hoops are big rings made of plastic. People playing with the hoops twirl them around their waists, arms or neck. The hula hoop fad began in the late 1950s in Australia. There, children twirled bamboo hoops, but the toy was so popular that the  Tooltoys Company began making them from plastic. The American company, Wham-0, made the toy internationally famous when they began marketing their hula hoops in 1958. Wham-0 sold over 100 million hoops in less than two years. Today, hula hoops come in many colours and sizes, and some even light up.

Tamagotchi is a digital pet game created by Akihiro Yoi and Aki Maita. The Bandai Company sold the first Tamagotchis in 1996 in Japan. The name “tamagotchi” means “egg-watch” The story behind the game is that they are eggs from another planet, and their Earth “parents” must take care of them until they grow up. If players   don´t take care of the eggs, they can “get sick” or even “die”. Between 1996 and 2010, Bandai sold over 76 million Tamagotchis. Today, the characters appear on gaming systems such as Nintendo DS and the company´s Tama Town website.