I'm almost certain that in my childhood or perhaps in yours, you've probably held a Rubik's Cube at one point or another. That six-sided puzzle game that was an instant hand magnet for anyone who thought themselves smart enough to put the cube back together in it's original uniformed state of red, blue, orange, green, yellow and white. And while that might of turned into numerous failed attempts (oh believe me), the cubed puzzle toy was still a catchy piece of pop art; quite evident in these following video game masterpieces.

What you are viewing are Rubik’s pixel portraits by Irish artist John Quigley, an artist who specializes in creating pictures using the individual blocks from hundreds of Rubik's Cubes. As you might suspect, a lot of time goes into mapping out each portrait before they're affixed piece by piece in a certain order just to get the correct color scheme. But it's hard work that pays off visually in the end. The above Space Invaders scene, with aliens and attacking tank from below, used a behemoth amount of 1,330 blocks to create. That is a whole lot of Rubik's Cubes and also truly outstanding.

Quite impressive also, is this pixel portrait of Sonic the Hedgehog which is made up of 784 cubes. Such great detail for something that almost seems like a carbon copy of the virtual representation of our favorite blue spiky mammal.

The above two pictures also reveal that you don't need much in order to create something visually awe inspiring either. Quigley only used 102 blocks to create Pac-Man chasing after his two ghostly counterparts, while the self-portrait of 8-bit Mario only consumed 24 cubes. The two are simple and minimalist in form, yet are really fun to look at.

The artist John Quigley, not only produces video game inspired creations but other pieces of pixel art from real life subjects. You can check out a slew of other amazing Rubik’s Cube artworks from John, by visiting his flickr page below.

Neo-literal Cubist's Photostream [flickr]