(pictured: Allan Robert Miller, Allan Raymond Miller, Jay Horowitz, Cecelia Gritz.  The Millers are the founders of the museum and Cecelia is one of the museum's employees

Fifty years ago, in January of 1975, architect and inventor Erno Rubik filed for a patent in his native Hungary for the now world-famous puzzle cube which bears his name.  Surprisingly, it was originally meant as an instructional aid and not a toy!  It instantly became a hit in his native land, and when he eventually exhibited it at the Nuremberg Toy Fair, Ideal Toys saw the potential and eagerly negotiated the rights to produce and sell this new marvel worldwide.

The Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum in Wheeling, West Virginia, thanks to the generosity of Jay Horowitz and American Classic Toys, Inc. (the current holders of the Ideal Toys tooling and rights), is now giving the public a rare opportunity to actually see those original molds, used by Ideal to produce millions upon millions of Rubik’s Cubes, helping to turn the toy into a worldwide sensation, and one of the most recognizable toys ever!  By January of 2024, Rubik’s Cube had sold over 500 million copies worldwide!

The Toy Museum unveiled its new exhibit on the Rubik’s Cube.  For a limited time, you can see the original Ideal Toys tooling used to create this blockbuster and cultural phenomenon!  Rarely does the public have an opportunity to get even a glimpse of production tooling, let alone ones related to such a well-known product.  But you can see and experience them in Wheeling for a limited time!

The event kicked off on Sunday, August 3, 2025 with a day devoted to the Cube!  Attendees met Jay Horowitz and heard his captivating stories of how he ended up with the Ideal tooling, and how the Rubik's Cube helped inspire his own toy invention, the Sudoku Cube!  Guests saw the original tooling, the patents, and vintage Cubes, along with promotional literature related to Rubik's Cube!  Check the museum's website at www.ToyAndTrain.com for our up to the minute schedule of events, hours, and more, and experience this historic exhibit for yourself!

As a part of our limited time exhibit of the ORIGINAL MOLDS from Ideal Toys for the Rubik's Cube, we caught up with Stewart Sims, who was the VP of Marketing for Ideal's Toy Division at the time, and who was instrumental in Ideal becoming the one to introduce Rubik's incredible invention to the world!