I am interested in finding out anything I can about these early blue boxed cubes. I have a number of variations carrying the Politechnika label, the Politoys label, two that don't carry a label on the box but do have a Politechnika leaflet inside and one unidentified one.
I am aware that Georges has a few here: http://www.helm.lu/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=7074
and Ton has some here: http://www.speedcubing.com/ton/indexRubik3x3x3.htm
but information about them is scant.
How many variations are there (I have some in English, German, Hungarian and French I think)?
When were they produced? A timeline?
Are they all 'official' productions?
etc.
I would be grateful for any information.
Here are mine (further pictures can be seen here http://getmoodling.com/puzzling/main.php?g2_itemId=51:

Great topic idea, Richard!

In my opinion the Russian one on the last picture (Termoplast) is way from being an official one.

The others are original Hungarian ones, where the ones marked Politechnika are earlier productions than those marked Politoys. These were all made in Hungary.
David Singmaster lists these as Magic Cubes, early Hungarian production, blue cardboard box and new blue cardboard box. He lists Hungarian, English and German editions.
The Politechnika packagings all had Magic Cube as inscription (in the corresponding languages (below German, English, French, Hungarian)



whereas the Politoys packagings have Magic cube in the beginning (same languages as above)



and later on E. Rubik Kocka (Rubik's Cube). So far I was only able to find one in Hungarian (Trial). The ones destined for countries outside Hungary always had Konsumex on them, Konsumex having been the official Export (firm?).



Within the batch of Politechnika boxed cubes, there are those from very early production with square stickers



painted facelets



and of course the rounded stickers (all in this order of appearance).

The first ones to appear in the western world (without counting the aforementioned that were brought, sent, exchanged on mathematical conventions via people from the eastern bloc) were still manufactured in Hungary, but sold by Pentangle. They came in sealed Plastic bags before they were inserted in the well-known Pentangle packaging.
Here is a picture of one of these (without a blue box of course) that I got from the attic of Edward Hordern.

Pentangle had two packagings before Ideal Toy Corporation got the worldwide rights from the Hungarians, without considering that Pentangle had got the distribution rights for several countries.

Packaging 1 and 2

All these very early cubes, be they sold by Politechnika, Politoys or Pentangle, have the specific seam in the midst of the cubies.

In the beginning the Politoys white center didn't have the Rubik's logo (Politechnika cubes don't have it as a rule).

There were even promotional cubes at that time.

Thank you for all the nice photos (blue is my favourite color).

If only they printed a valid scrambled picture of the puzzle.
The one used in all those packages is impossible for at least two reasons.




Pantazis

I'm quite sure they even faked this one (the pattern is possible, but not just with U/D moves like they probably intended it to look like):

Thank you Georges for sharing these pictures.
I believe no-one else in the world has such as detailed knowledge about these slight differences
and even collected all the derivates.

There are a lot of books about stamps and all the variants. But so far nobody wrote a book about this!
Your database should contain enough material to fill at least one .

Very true. It seems to be a colorful vs logic thing. Colorful won in this case.




Pantazis

Thank you all for your replies and thoughts. Georges thank you for sharing what you know about these puzzles, I now have a better understanding of the cubes I have collected.

Does anyone know anything about the Russian Termoplast cube?


It is one of my smoothest cubes and has very thick stickers:


It also has a dark green side: