Help with Cube + Dupliverts

Hello all, im quite new with blender, been using it for about 12months, ive seen an effect/video here (http://download.blender.org/demo/test/2.40/particles_unborn.avi) from the page http://www.blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-240/new-particle-options-and-guides/

Its the video for the unborn particles, everytime i try this using dupliverts i always get shadows from the particles which makes my cube not look so cube like!

Does anyone have a tutorial on this? Also, how can i get particles to go from one shape to another? So a cube starts left of screen then reforms on the right particle by particle, if the particles were emitted as little cubes? Any ideas are more than welcomed.

Thankyou

Eddy :o