Eye give: a Rubik's Cube

Guess which 1980s playground icon could be appearing in your Christmas stocking this year? Clue: it doesn't need batteries, it's completely silent and it's made an unexpected comeback.

In concept, the Rubik's Cube sounds like some awful "Maths Made Easy!" device, but 15 years ago this infernal contraption (guess who never figured it out) was the precocious eight-year-old's playground puzzle of choice. Dr Rubik's cube itself looked like nothing on earth: a multi-coloured 3D crossword puzzle designed by a pop-art trained MC Escher.

Should the cube appear at the dinner table this Christmas, no doubt the two opposing camps in which people found themselves in the early 1980s will again muster - those who can't solve the puzzle will settle for making pretty patterns with the colours, and those who can will ostentatiously declare that sometimes it takes them as long as five whole minutes to align all the colours. Bastards.

Rubik's Cube, pounds 8.99, Toys R Us