Rubik’s Cube top cultural icon

A whole generation may have passed between the craze for an irritating, twistable cube and an angst-filled teenage wizard, but both have secured their place among the world’s most popular items.

The Rubik’s Cube and Harry Potter have made it into the Wall Street Journal’s top 10 “Best Selling Products of All Time”. However, the relatively simple premise of both is a rarity in a list dominated by the technological.

Since Hungarian Erno Rubik created the prototype of the “Magic Cube” in 1974, 350m of them have been sold. The wizard has magicked up a bigger total, with JK Rowling’s seven installments selling a total of 450m copies.

It is probably not surprising that two of Apple’s most recent crowd-pleasers are among the best- sellers — the iPhone and iPad.

In the space of just five years, there have been 250m iPhones sold. Despite its even shorter existence, the iPad has still notched up a healthy 67m sales.

Sony’s Playstation was all the rage when it was first released in 1995 and while it has taken a bit of an X-Box from the competition, its subsequent reincarnations mean it makes it onto the list with more than 300m sold.

Perhaps the increasing move to a technological age and the sedentary lifestyle many say it has inspired, is why cholesterol-busting drug Lipitor also makes an appearance, generating $125bn (€101bn) in revenue for Pfizer.

The success of Star Wars and its spin-offs has netted $4.54bn in ticket sales since George Lucas’ first effort in 1977.

The Toyota Corolla does not have the bling appeal of an iPad, but its reliability has meant 39m of them have covered billions of miles since the first one was built in the 1960s.

Michael Jackson’s Thriller has sold 110m units since its release in 1984, while from a bit-part in Donkey Kong in 1981, Italian plumber Mario has managed to make quite a name for himself in his own right. His image adorns 262m games sold since his debut.