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Fiberboard and sturdy don't usually go in the same sentence.

Nothing you can buy for $25 will be very sturdy or long lasting.

There are some things you can do though.

Have Home Depot or someone handy cut a piece of half-inch plywood the size of all four cubes. You'll use this as a back board. Attach the back using glue and nails. Be careful that the nails don't split the sides of the cubes. You'll need to measure carefully. This will provide some added lateral stability.

But if you're going to go to all that trouble, you can get Home Depot to cut some nice stain grade birch plywood to your dimensions and make your own for about the same price. And since you'll make them out of plywood you can screw them together (pre-drill the holes to make it easier). I've seen sheets of birch plywood for around $25 and you should be able to get at least one cube per sheet.

Get some veneer to hide the plywood edges (about 5-6 bucks for an 8 foot strip, and you can apply it with an ordinary clothes iron).

Not as handy as buying something ready made, but they'd be sturdy enough to dance on, not just sit on, then.

Something hollow and that thin can't be that sturdy, epsecially for drunken friends. Take that $$ and peruse craigslist for a storage bench. I see them all the time!

Allison -

Speaking of Craigslist, this might be worth looking at :

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sby/fur/331911186.html