Rubik's Cube 25th Anniversary26 July 2005Tuesday 26 July 2005 was the 25th anniversary of the launch of the Rubik's Cube. I was lucky enough to be part of the official birthday celebrations - including the birthday party and speedcubing demonstrations at Hamley's Toy Store on Regent Street in London! I also did TV interviews for CNN, ITV News and ITV1's This Morning show, two radio interviews, a photo shoot at Hamleys and a magazine interview for TNT magazine. It was all so much fun - I loved being a celebrity for the day! :) Below are some photos from the Rubik's Cube birthday party at Hamleys. These photos were taken by my wonderful fiancé, Peter. ![]() Dan and I sitting on the enormous Rubik's Cube ![]() ![]() Dan and I posing in front of the enormous Rubik's Cube for the photographer ![]() ![]() Here's Dan and I cutting the very cool Rubik's Cube cake at Hamleys. I had a piece of this cake. It was yummy. ![]() ![]() Dan and I again with the cake ![]() ![]() Dan, Duncan, Dave and Chrisi and myself ![]() ![]() Dan, Duncan (former record holder for one-handed speedsolving), Duncan's kids and myself ![]() ![]() Dan and I with Jack. Jack won a contest for a trip to the Rubik's birthday party and a Hamleys gift voucher. ![]() ![]() There was a professional photographer at the Rubik's birthday party. ![]() ![]() Another pic of me and the giant Rubik's Cube. ![]() ![]() Isn't this giant cube awesome?? ![]() ![]() Here's one of the radio reporters interviewing Dan ![]() ![]() Not sure what the interviewer just said, but it was obviously pretty funny! ![]() ![]() Dan just after a solve for the radio interviewer. Believe it or not, 19.45 seconds is a bad time for Dan! He did a lot of solves much faster than that during the day. The radio interviewer was commentating in the background which I think distracted Dan during his solve, hence the "slow" time of 19.45 seconds ;) ![]() ![]() Here's me doing a solve for the radio guy. I'm 1.61 seconds into the solve so
![]() ![]() Now I'm 17.70 seconds into the solve. Looking at the cube in my hands I'd say that I'd just finished the F2L (first 2 layers) and had just started to orient the last layer edges. I was pretty happy with this solve since it's not terribly common for me to finish the F2L in under 20 seconds. I ended up getting 30.42 seconds for the complete solve. This is faster than my current average so I was happy. I'd love to do this time in my next competition! ![]() ![]() This guy is another Australian. He was from Adelaide. He could solve the cube, but his times were well over a minute. He showed me how he solves so I could offer tips about how to get faster. He method was cross, first layer corners, middle layer edges, then a 4-look last layer. Looking at how I'm holding the cube and the cubies I'm pointing to, I must have been explaining to him the benefits of moving to F2L pairs. |