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When anything character-based becomes popular, whether it’s a game, a toy, a movie, a comic strip, a TV show, or something else, there is usually an attempt to cross over into other forms of media. For example, recently the TV Show The Simpsons made an appearance on the big screen. There have been numerous Simpsons video games made over the years. The characters have been featured on music CDs and so on (anyone remember ‘Do the Bartman?’)

In some instances, this “crossing over” works well; Garfield, who originated in the comics was a reasonably successful TV show. Peanuts, featuring Charlie Brown and Snoopy, worked out as well. Game crossovers, however, have proven to be tricky, especially when an attempt is made to make a series out of a video game (in the 1980s, there was Pac-Man, Q*Bert, Super Mario Bros, etc.)

As traversing media boundaries is common in the entertainment world, it can occasionally produce some bizarre results. Quite possibly the best example in the history of animation is “Rubik the Amazing Cube.” Only in the 1980s could a Rubik’s Cube be granted life, consciousness, the ability to talk, the ability to FLY and MAGIC POWERS! And here, for your viewing pleasure, is the show’s introduction, in all its incomprehensible weirdness.

Rubik lost his powers and became a regular Rubik’s Cube when his colors became misaligned. He could only be brought back to life by “solving the puzzle” (realigning the colors). I don’t know about you, but personally, I like Rubik a lot better in his unsolved manifestation.