The Cubes – Harmless Fun or a Sobering Parody?

If you’re an office worker these toys, referred to as Cubes and aimed at adults, could be seen in one of two ways, with the first being that these figures are merely fun conversational pieces. The second way in which these figures could be perceived is as a somewhat damning and wholly depressive parody of our own office lives.

If you have ever played The Sims computer game, you may well have experienced a comparable feeling. I remember thinking how little time the in-game characters have to themselves in a day and just how much of their time is taken up with working and general life maintenance. Then it suddenly dawned on me that my life was directly comparable, except that my body doesn’t get censored whenever I take a shower or go to the toilet (oh, how I wish it did) and that, ultimately, their virtual lives and my own were alarmingly similar – and I have never loaded The Sims again.

These Cubes inspire exactly the same feelings and I cannot help but wonder whether or not I am missing the point.

The Cubes are plastic figures measuring two and three quarters of an inch in height and are available in various characters - namely Bob, Joe, Ted and Ann – as well as some additional characters via an expansion set.

Each of the characters come with their own plastic, self assembly office comprising of a work cubicle, a desk, a chair, a filing cabinet, a computer, and in/out tray and a phone. They also come with a sticker sheet featuring charts and graphs, screens for their computer and what are described as “pithy office posters”.

One day I aspire to have an office like this (and
this much hair).

To complete each set, you also get a job title sticker sheet which will enable you to create a “convoluted and meaningless” position for your figure and, by way of assistance in this matter, there is even a webpage that will make up such job positions for you.

The expansion set comes with a further four characters – seemingly unnamed – and a few differing accessories which includes a cell phone, a brief case, and extra hair piece for the ladies (?) and a coffee cup.

Now tell me, how am I supposed to find these funny when each of these characters have bigger and better equipped office spaces than I do and a company laptop?

I get the joke, naturally, its just that I’m wondering who the joke is on.

The Cubes cost $19.00 (Australian dollars) and can be purchased here. Alternatively you can link directly to the aforementioned Job Title Generator via this link (just don’t be suprized if your own real life job title appears).

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