To Have And To Have Not Grand Illusions 2023-06-16 | Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com _______________________________________________________________________There are toys that Tim has, and toys that he wishes he had!First, Lithophanes. Tim has quite a few of these optical devices in his collection. However he has seen one in a catalogue the wishes he had! It is a lithophane that has been made as a key ring, and - unusually - it has its own light source inside. Push the button, and the Lithophane lights up, and you can see the image. Many toys are quite ephemeral - they appear for a year or two, and then they are gone. Tim saw this one about 20 years ago in a catalogue, so the chances of finding one today are quite slim. Tim fancies a cigar. He does not smoke, but these cigars contain cognac! Again, Tim has a picture of it in a catalogue, but that is all! A morphing torch from Japan that Tim bought in 1986. However there are other designs which Tim didn't get at the time. and now wishes he had! The Newton's Cradle is a well known physics toy. However there was a version that was made that was based on magnets, so the weights didn't actually hit each other, they just repelled. Tim does admit though that the clickety clack sound of the original is one of its attractions.Finally, Tim demonstrates a couple of thumb toys from his collection. However the one he wishes he had shows the Leaning Tower of Pisa and a character holding it up. Push the button underneath, and the tower collapses, but when you release the button, the character manages to push the tower back upright again!
Tim Plays His Cards Right! Grand Illusions 2023-09-29 | Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________Tim has another delve into his collection of unusual playing cards. 'What's Wrong with these Cards?' is a set of playing cards that has many deliberate mistakes. A good test of observation Tim reckons!Some transparent cards - except you cannot see the value of the card from the back.Tim recalls being told back in the 1950s about a set of cards with 5 suits - the fifth suit was called 'Royals'. But here Tim demonstrates a set of playing cards with 6 suits! 'Wheels' and 'Rackets' were the two extra suits. 'Indiscretion' is a very unusual deck - first of all the diamonds are blue rather than red, and the clubs are green. The really unusual thing about them though is the back of the cards - they show the suit of the card, but not the value. A deck of cards that initially appears to be normal, but these are also braille cards. In the top corner, the raised bumps tell you the suit and value of the card.Finally, the 'Dragon Deck'. Normal on the face of the cards, but when you fan the cards while looking at the back of the cards, and an enormous dragon appears!
Tensegrity Phone Holder Grand Illusions 2023-09-26 | Tensegrity is short for tensional integrity, a phrase which was coined by Buckminster Fuller in the 1960s. It is sometimes known as a floating compression structure. The really fun thing about this phone holder is that at the initial glance it appears to be floating in mid-air. Place your phone on the tensegrity table and it appears just to be floating in mid-air!Quite mesmerizing to see. How does it work? Well a conventional table is under compression, increasing the weight on the table increases compression on the legs. A tensegrity table works differently. Although it has some components under compression, they are in a network of parts in tension. In our Tensegrity Phone Holder there is a central cable that is holding the top half up. The cable is under tension. The cables around the periphery keep the table surface central. Cutting any of the cables would result in the top part of the table falling over.grand-illusions.com/tensegrity-phone-holder-kit-red-c2x40283783
Pick A Card... Any Card! Grand Illusions 2023-09-22 | Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com _______________________________________________________________________Tim has a lot of different playing cards in his collection. So many in fact that they get their own special case! Here he shares just some of them...A set of cards where every card has a different optical illusion on the back...Transparent cards, although you cannot see the card value from the back...Cards with fingers on the back...Cards that can be assembled into houses and castles... a house of cards!A deck where every card has 2 values printed on it; various games can be played with these!Tim attended a meeting of the English Playing Card Society (epcs.org) some years ago, and showed them some of his quirky playing cards!
Leaning Tower Of Pisa... Grand Illusions 2023-09-18 | The Leaning Tower of Pisa features in this video... First, a book from Tim's bookshelf called 'Tilt' which is actually a leaning book, that is all about the Leaning Tower of Pisa! Tim then mentions a famous optical illusion involving the tower. Finally, back in June 2023 Tim published a video called 'To Have And To Have Not' - see youtu.be/mVzXpEegLdk?si=3s_EFt_iyK_VnbRo - in which he showed a picture of a thumb toy that was available some years ago, but which he failed to buy at the time, and now wishes he had in his collection. It shows the Leaning Tower Of Pisa and a figure who is trying to hold the tower up. Well, Tim has some very kind people watching his videos, and Zara Johnson, who lives in the UK, wanted to see if she could locate this particular thumb toy for Tim. Online searches didn't come up with anything, so she contacted a maker of thumb toys called Jane Coakeley, to see if it was possible to have one made specially. Jane put her in touch with Bernard Louys in France, and he was commissioned by Zara to make the Leaning Tower thumb toy which you see here. Tim was delighted to be able to add this to his collection, and sends a big thank you to the 'thumb toy team' of Zara, Jane and Bernard!Jane's thumb toys can be seen here - www.pushpuppet.com and some of Barnard's creations can be seen here - youtube.com/@bernardlouys6779/videos
Tim The Puppet Master! Grand Illusions 2023-09-15 | Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________Tim dons his 'Puppet Master' hat again, and demonstrates some of his unusual puppets! A seagull that attaches to a white glove, and comes complete with a little plastic realistic looking 'bird mess' just to totally mess (sorry!) with people's minds!A small metal Punch and Judy show; a funky panda puppet; and two puppets on sticks that Tim has combined into a single toy. A more complicated puppet which has a fake hand attached, so it conceals the fact that you are operating the little figure! Arms and legs all operate independently.Folkmanis make the next toy, a box containing... three mice. Are they blind? A boxing Rambo; and finally a fabric dustbin with a teddy bear inside.
Gottle Of Geer! Grand Illusions 2023-09-08 | Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com _______________________________________________________________________Tim is dusting off more of his puppet toys...First up a very realistic baby - the arms can be controlled and the baby can appear to suck their thumb! Then a St Leger automaton, showing a ventriloquist manipulating his vent doll. Gottle of Geer! Then a clown that hangs up and when you pull alternately on the two strings, he climbs up, and as he does so, his trousers get longer and longer! Folkmanis, based in the USA, make amazing plush puppets. This one is a ladybird. Of course the ladybird has six legs, and Tim only has five fingers! Then a Venus Fly Trap with a fly for the plant to eat! Then a monkey glove puppet with an extending squeaker in his mouth. Then a boxing nun glove puppet, supposedly modelled on former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher...No Tim, that is not Kermit. Is it animal? Then a very small string puppet that comes in a small plastic pot. The strings attach to the lid, so as soon as you open the pot, the puppet is ready to go. It is called Cutie Bird!
For The Want Of A Nail... Grand Illusions 2023-09-05 | Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________To make the red cabbage water that Tim uses in this demonstration, you will need a red cabbage. Take the outer leaves, which normally you would probably discard, chop them up a bit and put them into water. Bring the water to the boil, and then reduce the heat to a simmer, for about an hour. You can then strain the water, to remove the pieces of cabbage, and then simmer it a bit more to reduce the volume and make it a bit more concentrated. Red cabbage water behaves a bit like litmus paper - it is red or pink when it is acid, and turns blue/green when it becomes alkali. Tim's demo involves a 12 volt battery, although it should work perfectly well with a 6 volt battery. When the tip of the nail touches the paper, electrolysis is occurring and the liquid becomes alkaline. This causes the red cabbage water to turn green. Magic!
Has Tim Met His Match? Grand Illusions 2023-09-01 | Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com _______________________________________________________________________Tim the puppet master! Two small puppets that you place your fingers inside, in order to bring their faces to life. Tim bought these in the 1960s, and they are among the earliest items in his collection. A 'puppet glove' which has a different puppet on each finger. It looks as if you could tell the whole 'Little Red Riding Hood' story with this one glove!A frog hand puppet, with a built in squeaker... From a US company called Folkmanis comes this plush puppet of an apple. You need one finger to operate ... the worm that pops out of the apple! QUESTION. What is worse than biting into an apple and finding a worm? ANSWER. Finding half a worm! An intriguing puppet that tells the story of Cinderella. She has a kind of bib or apron with the words of the first part of the story on it; once you have read that, you lift the apron and the face changes and more words appear. Very ingenious!Then finally a boxing Rambo puppet!
Alexander The Wind Up#SHORTS Grand Illusions 2023-08-30 | A 'Z Classic Wind-Up' from California Creations, who are famous for their wind-up gizmos. Alexander the Soldier waves his hands, bobs his head and also does the splits!grand-illusions.com/alexander-c2x36857208
Crushmetric Pen#SHORTS Grand Illusions 2023-08-30 | A Holographic ballpoint pen with an amazing shape-changing body! It morphs seamlessly between solid and crushed states.Also called the SwitchPen...grand-illusions.com/switchpen-holographic-from-crushmetric-c2x38665824
... And Not A Drop To Drink! Grand Illusions 2023-08-25 | Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com _______________________________________________________________________Here is the second instalment of items from Tim's collection that involve... water!An elegant wine glass that is also a 'greedy cup' - if you fill it too much, the siphon will then empty the whole glass. A water filled puzzle where you have to get the ring onto the hook. A tricky little dexterity puzzle.A snow dome that Tim bought in Paris. Inside there is not the usual Christmas scene. Instead - a half peeled banana! Another gadget for licking stamps. Slightly redundant today, since stamps mostly come with a self adhesive back to them. Another fish in a tank automaton. Finally a spinning top with a liquid - coloured water? - inside. The water starts at the bottom of the top, but when you spin the top the water rises up to the outer rim - centripetal force. Once the top slows down, then that water returns to the base of the top.
Water Water Everywhere... Grand Illusions 2023-08-18 | Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________Tim gets his feet wet again, with more of his water based toys! Instead of the drinking bird, we have a drinking dinosaur! This is a simple heat engine, and you can explore how it works here - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_bird A snow globe that has hair in it instead of snow, and a man with very little hair. Shake the globe and see how much hair you can deposit on his head! The toy is called 'Over the Hill & Losing It!'A handy gadget to like your stamps. Of course this was for older stamps that had glue on the back. Nowadays stamps are self adhesive. So sadly our handy gadget is now redundant...A glass spinning top with a conical shape and a coloured liquid inside. When you spin the top, the liquid rises up to the wider part of the top, due to the centrifugal force, and you can see that there is now no liquid at all at the bottom of the top.A column of water inside a Perspex tube. Inside the tube there is a buoyant ball, which floats to the surface every time you invert the tube. Because there is such a small gap between the ball and the side of the tube, the ascent of the ball is very chaotic. There is an air bubble beneath the ball, which is unable to get past the small gap! Finally a Japanese automaton. A fish bowl, sitting on top of a book with the title 'My Fish'. In fact the batteries and motor are all hidden inside the book! Switch it on and a rotating magnet inside the book causes a small magnet to rotate inside the bowl, and since this is tethered to a fish, the fish seems to be constantly swimming around.
Maxwells Amazing Spinning Top Grand Illusions 2023-08-17 | Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________This spinning top was originally designed by the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell over 100 years ago as a device to demonstrate the strange properties of rotating bodies to his physics students. Specifically, Professor Maxwell wanted to be able to show, as convincingly as possible, that a gyroscope will always react at 90 degrees to an applied force.When this massive brass bell-shaped top is spinning an interesting stability can occur - push on the stem with an object (like a pencil) and the top will push back, forcing the stem against that object, and friction will cause the stem to roll along and trace the edge of the object.In this design the stem will trace along the edge of a metal spiral, clinging to it like a magnet - but magnets are NOT involved here. The key to this design is to make the contact point/tip of the top at its own centre of mass, then any frictional force in contact with the stem will produce a torque about the contact point at right angle to the direction of friction that creates the stabilizing force (students of physics may recognize application of the right hand rule here). An extreme physics toy!Most items on this channel are from Tim's collection, and are not for sale. This spinning top is one of the exceptions, and you will find it on the Grand Illusions web site. See grand-illusions.com/maxwell-s-spinning-top-c2x40182988
More Of Tims Funny Money... Grand Illusions 2023-08-11 | Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________There are special tricks using chemistry that will allow you to shrink a US dollar bill - or even higher denominations if you have a mind to! Forget inflation - you can shrink your money yourself...You can buy genuine US dollars in sheets from the treasury department in Washington DC. I suppose you would need to cut them carefully to separate them!Ways to make your money go further - you need to make a whole series of very accurate cuts in a dollar bill, and then you can stretch it out to several times its normal length. At a special photo booth Tim discovered in Atlanta, they take your picture, and then print it onto a dollar bill. Look - you are famous! Tim shows the rare 2 dollar bill - perfectly legal tender, but somehow not much used in the USA. People use the $1, the $5 and the $10, but the $2 dollar bill... not so much. Tim acquired a $20 dollar bill some while ago that had been stamped with a little message in red ink. It suggested that you visited the 'Where's George' web site - wheresgeorge.com - and you could enter the serial number of the note and your ZIP code. The web site will show you all the previous locations that have been recorded for that particular banknote. Set up in 1998 by Hank Eskin, the idea is simply to track the natural circulation of American paper money. More information can be found on Wikipedia - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where's_George%3F - 'George' of course being George Washington! Some years ago, someone created a 'Zero' dollar bill. Tim missed getting one, although he has a photocopy. Maybe it was some kind of comment on a passing financial crisis?Tim has some stage money for a million dollars, and a trillion dollars. NOT accepted at any bank!
Pop Goes The Penguin#SHORTS Grand Illusions 2023-08-07 | Paper engineering with no glue needed - grand-illusions.com/kamikara-penguin-pop-c2x28525825
Just Add Water! Grand Illusions 2023-08-04 | Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com _______________________________________________________________________Tim demonstrates some of his water-based toys!Arachnophobes watch out - this spider climbs up the plastic stick! Sake cups sometimes have a hidden image in the bottom. A clear glass marble lens on top of the image causes it to distort. However when you pour sake - or water - into the cup, the image becomes visible. Of course after a few glasses of sake, the image might start to blur a little!A ceramic cup with a whistle as part of the handle. Just inside the cup is a small hole, and if you fill the cup with water so that the hole is covered, the whistle becomes a warbling whistle! A metal cup from Germany. One side of the cup has a thicker wall then the other, so when you place the empty cup on a flat surface, it leans over to one side. However when you fill it with water, the instability is cancelled out, and the cup becomes upright. Japanese balloons with very thick walls. You can fill it with water, and it can be used as a kind of yo yo. Finally, a toy which appears to be one thing, but ides something else. Called a Crap Shooter, you turn the handle to roll the dice. However when you turn the handle, you get squirted with water. Who saw that coming?
That Is Ace, Tim! Grand Illusions 2023-07-28 | Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________I think that 'variety' and 'magic' are probably the best description of the toys Tim has brought along this time! First, a transparent glass block that has had two different card values etched inside using a system of three lasers. Depending on your viewpoint, you will either see the Queen of Clubs or the Ace of Hearts. Staying with the playing card theme, Tim shows the Logic Specs Case (we used to sell these on the Grand Illusions web site). These are held closed by internal magnets. When you open them, you can keep going until they have turned inside out. This allows there to be one set of text visible initially, and after you have opened them all the way, different text will be revealed. A football that opens up to show different football pictures - a fiddle toy for your desk!A 'bear transformation' - from koala to panda. This toy is called Pair Pals! A pen that folds up into a neat little rocket. A paper character made from circles of paper, created by a Japanese designer. A pen that delivers... sushi! a metal sphere that spins on the desk. There is a spiral design on the outside, which seems to be going up or down, depending which way it is spinning.A 'Fish Eye Lens' - this little fish opens up to become a small magnifying lens. Toys can often be combined with sweets - in this case a yo yo combined with a lollipop!Finally, a Mr Timm's Toyshop tin. Tim bought a lot of these when they first came out, and gave them to his friends. Now he just keeps a springy snake inside, to make the unsuspecting person jump!
Amazing Optical Illusion - Cylinder in the Box! Grand Illusions 2023-07-24 | Available from the Grand Illusions Web Site - grand-illusions.com/cylinder-in-the-box-c2x40131381 Ambiguous Objects - it all depends on your point of view!A circle, in the centre of a square. But viewed from the other side - or in a mirror - and there are now four circles in the square! Rotate it back again, and it is just a single circle, in the centre of a square. However when you look around the edge, there are four half circles and four quarter circles. So in a way, if you add up all the fractions, it is still four circles...Created by Kokichi Sugihara, a Japanese mathematician and artist known for his three-dimensional optical illusions. His illusions, which often involve videos of three-dimensional objects shown from carefully chosen perspectives, have won a number of awards at the Best Illusion of the Year Contest. 62 x 62mmSign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1
Tim Gets A Birthday Present! Grand Illusions 2023-07-21 | Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________Tim turned 81 this week, and one of the toys he shows in this video was a birthday present. We will get to that in a moment.First up, a 'Wriggly Giggly' - a ball that makes all kinds of funny noises when you roll it across the floor or table. A small tin can. What can it be? Well, take off the plastic lid at one end, to reveal a permeable membrane. Stand it in water, which will allow the contents inside to become wet and sprout. After a few days, take off the lid at the other end, to allow the flowers to appear, Narcissus in this case. A tiny garden in a tin! Then Tim's birthday present. Made in India from nuts and bolts, this little character is a metal dog. Tim likes it because the nuts and bolts remind him of his engineering days.In around 2003, Tim went to Greenland, and found a bone carving made by the local people, showing two seals. Tim thinks it is really beautiful, and he thinks it is the only item in his collection from Greenland!An artist from Iceland made the next item, a small sculpture consists of two tiny chairs, joined at an odd angle. Conceptual art, we think this is called! Finally, two butlers who have just one job - to hold a bottle of wine!
What Can You See, Asks The Goose? Grand Illusions 2023-07-20 | See all the Grand Illusions Vintage Steampunk Flying Machines here - grand-illusions.com/flying-machines-c102x4235962___________________________________________________THE CANOE THAT GOES FOR UP! Perched in his flying canoe, our intrepid aviator is checking something through his telescope. Somewhere to land maybe? However the goose seems less sure. He seems to be checking if the telescope is working properly! Not just a canoe, this craft also has wings! Suspended from a long spring, as the model gently drifts in every passing breeze, the wings gently flap up and down. Suspended below the biplane is a wicker basket. What could it contain? Supplies for the journey? A picnic? Maybe the goose keeps their eggs there.... These flying machines were made in the Philippines about 20 years ago. Tim was at a toy fair the other year, and discovered that there was a consignment of these vintage flying machines that was available, and he snapped them up. They are not available anywhere else. Quantities of each item are limited, and once sold, there will be no more.Made of metal, with ceramic hand painted figures, there is no plastic involved. Hand made by skilled craftsmen, each one will be slightly different. We are offering them at rock bottom prices! This is a decorative item, and is fairly fragile. It is not a toy, and should not be handled by children.
Tims Lost And Found Department Grand Illusions 2023-07-14 | Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com _______________________________________________________________________Tim sometimes mourns the toys he should have bought, but for one reason or another didn't buy them at the time, and now it is too late. Well. There was a teapot with a ceramic lemon squeezer on the top, in place of the lid. An ideal piece of equipment for making lemon tea. Tim saw one in the past, failed to buy it at the time, and has been searching for one ever since. Luckily, one of the backroom staff at Grand Illusions spotted just such an item on eBay, and shortly afterwards it was in Tim's possession. Here he demonstrates his lemon tea technique!Another item he talked about recently, and even showed the advert for it in a magazine, was a cigar in a smart wooden case, that turned out to contain 20cl of fine cognac. This was available some 20 or more years ago. Having mentioned on this channel that he had missed the opportunity to buy this item, we were contacted a week or so later by a man called Quentin, who lives in Poitiers, France. He had one of these cognac-containing cigars, and was happy to donate it to Tim's collection! Thank you Quentin, or maybe that should be merci beaucoup! Tim is extremely happy to have acquired this rare item, although he is saving the cognac 'for later'. 'For later'? See youtu.be/ZZRP70zMHgo
Let It Snow, Let It Snow! Grand Illusions 2023-07-07 | Well, as Tim often says, it is a bit like Christmas every day at Grand Illusions! Sometimes Tim has a guest on the show, but one guest that has proved hard to get is Santa, since he is a very busy man. But eventually there was a little gap in Santa's schedule, and he popped in to the Grand Illusions studio to share some 'toy talk' with Tim...We have a bouncing, talking snowman, a boxing Santa and a singing Christmas tree, and a singing, dancing Santa hat!Santa demonstrates his 'naughty or nice' meter... has Tim been good? It also turns out that Santa has been collaborating with the Easter Bunny. Who knew? We also discover what Santa gets for Christmas!
Tim Makes A Spectacle Of Himself! Grand Illusions 2023-06-30 | Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com _______________________________________________________________________Tim has many crazy pairs of spectacles in his toy collection - here are just a few of them.Heart shaped one, spooky spirals, and a very strange pair with weird eyes! And sunglasses that let you see what is behind you. These all date from the 1960s and 1970s. More recent examples are from the 1990s and 2000s... upgraded rear viewing sunglasses; a cat that opens up and becomes sunglasses! Glasses from San Francisco that hide your eyes. Finally a pair of glasses with many folding options - lenses that you can swing in or out. The Swiss army penknife of spectacles!
The Snail Ball Grand Illusions 2023-06-26 | Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com _______________________________________________________________________The Snail Ball - a small, metallic gold coloured ball just over 2cm in diameter. Place it on the sloping plastic channel and you would expect it to roll down in the normal way. Well, this ball does roll, but it does so incredibly slowly. To an audience, it seems baffling why it should roll down a slope apparently in slow motion. You can pick the ball up, and it seems quite heavy. No clues if you shake it. What is happening?
Money Money Money! Grand Illusions 2023-06-23 | Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com _______________________________________________________________________You have heard of folding money? This money folds itself! Tim put a plastic Australian bank note into the oven, and caused it to shrink to a tiny version of itself...One dollar that is folded so that it looks like two...A wonderful way of folding a one dollar note into three tiny interlocking squares, with George Washington's face still in the centre. Another way of folding it shows the two $1 logos. Tim then demonstrates how you can 'weave' bank notes together.Old US bank notes get shredded and sold as paper filling, for example as a pillow. Finally, Tim shows his uncut sheet of US bank notes.
Tim Takes His Seat! Grand Illusions 2023-06-09 | Stools, chairs and seats are on the menu today...A joke item based hidden in a film cannister... A cardboard stool, or is it a table? All made from cardboard. Tim admires a metallic stool, that is out of his price range...A 40 year old rickshaw toy. Joke tickets, apparently for the theatre...A sofa that converts into bunk beds!Japanese rocking chairs - wind up toys - with an older couple taking it easy! Tim shows a picture of a 20 foot high deckchair, installed as an art installation. Finally, another set of rocking chairs; again these are wind up toys, but have a music box inside as well.
Tims Perpetual Puzzles Grand Illusions 2023-06-02 | Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com _______________________________________________________________________Another one that got away... a fish puzzle that simulates perpetual motion! However a friend of Tim's made a version of the toy for him. Spiraculum is a magnet toy, made by Joachim Vallet in Germany back in the 1980s. A door handle that is actually in the shape of a hand... Tim does not normally collect teapots - there are just too many! Although he does collect teapots that have an unusual function. There is a teapot that he saw at the Frankfurt Gift Fair that he wishes he had bought, which combines a teapot and a lemon squeezer! Finally, a 1987 toy that was only marketed for a very short time, and Tim wishes he had bought extra ones! A photoelectric panel drives a sound chip, and you get interesting and unusual effects when you move it around in front of a light source.
Water From An African River... Grand Illusions 2023-05-26 | Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com _______________________________________________________________________Next, Tim has quite a few vases in his toy collection, although as you might expect they are not exactly normal vases! First up, a metal magician's vase, which magically refills itself with water!One of the items commemorating the Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee in 1977 was the Royal Silhouette Vase; when you look closely at the side of the vase you can see the silhouette of the Queen, and on the other side, the silhouette of Prince Philip. Tim then shows a few more vases with a silhouette, before demonstrating a series of collapsible vases. Next, a vase that is also a jigsaw. Finally a pottery vase that appears to be a stack of coffee cups, but look a little more closely... Finally, a small metal vase with an unusual inhabitant - pass one end of a rope into the vase, and it gets trapped inside the vase. Is there some creature in there, holding on to the end of the rope?
Can Can Dancers#SHORTS Grand Illusions 2023-05-25 | Laurence and Angela St.Leger created a range of wonderful miniature automata. See laurenceandangelastleger.com This one shows three Can Can dancers, or maybe they are part of the line-up at the Folies Bergère?Tim made a video recently, showing many of the St. Leger automata - see youtu.be/G1hmwR3_6Dg Sadly, Laurence St.Leger passed away recently, but Angela is continuing to make these wonderful and playful miniatures.
The Worlds First Compass? Grand Illusions 2023-05-24 | Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com _______________________________________________________________________This is a working model of a Chinese compass that dates from the 4th century BC. It is believed to be the oldest instrument in the world which is known to be a compass. The square plate is made of bronze, and the spoon or ladle is made of lodestone. Lodestones are naturally magnetised pieces of the mineral magnetite, and they are naturally occurring magnets.This type of compass was not used for navigation, rather it was used for semi-magical purposes. The central circle on the bronze plate represents heaven; there are 8 Chinese characters around it for North, North-East, East, etc. Separately marked are the 24 compass points, and around the edge are the 28 lunar mansions. The handle of the ladle points towards the south, and this device was used for aligning houses and cities harmoniously with the breaths and currents of the earth's forces, a technique known as geomancy.
What Is In Tims Other Pocket? Grand Illusions 2023-05-19 | Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com _______________________________________________________________________Tim is always ready to share his puzzles and illusions in order to entertain people. For this reason he keeps a range of small items in his pocket at all times, ready for some impromptu fun at a moment's notice. So imagine if you will that you have just bumped into Tim at a party, and he reaches into his pocket to show you the following items, all of which involve playing cards. But there is nothing normal about these cards!
Tim Misses His Train Grand Illusions 2023-05-12 | Tim has a self reversing train in his collection - every time it hits an obstacle, it reverses direction. However it just consists of the engine. However there was a Japanese toy that was made around 1980, which Tim does not have, but wishes he did! This train has an engine and two carriages, and when it hits an obstacle the engine and the first carriage reverse inside the second carriage; then the train emerges from the other end of the carriage, now with the engine in front, and heading in the opposite direction. We reckon there are two engines inside the largest carriage, but a clever piece of engineering! A Victorian catalogue from around 1890 shows a range of spinning tops. One top in particular appeals to Tim - spin the top on a plate that has some water on it, and somehow the spinning action of the top pulls water up inside, and a small water fountain appears from out of the top. A friend of Tim's had a top that was a bit similar to this, but Tim does not have one of these in his collection - a 'fountain top'. Recently Tim came across an intriguing reversible glass. Place it one way up, and the smaller glass is at the top - ready for a sherry maybe. Then later one, when you have drunk that, you turn the glass upside down, and now the larger glass is at the top, ready maybe for a glass of wine. Tim saw it at a trade show, but didn't buy one at the time. A little bit later, when he tried to buy one, it was no longer available. Tim has a very large number of umbrellas, but there is always room for more! His eye was caught by a catalogue showing an umbrella that shows the dome of St Pauls Cathedral in London when you look at the underside of the umbrella. If Tim sees that design in the future, he will add it to his collection! Finally, a compact umbrella, with a wooden handle that looks a bit like a pistol grip. When you push the button, the umbrella springs open, and on the top of the umbrella it says BANG! Again, a toy that Tim wishes he had in his collection...
Tims Crazy Cutlery Grand Illusions 2023-05-05 | Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com __________________________________________________________Tim has many items in his collection which are based around cutlery. Starting with his 'Cutlery Clock'. From a trick fork and a trick knife, to forks that revolve in order to help you eat your spaghetti! A telescopic fork and spoon for otherwise out of reach items... and a spoon with a knot in the handle. How do they do that? A 'negative' fork and spoon, which are actually salad servers.A fork and spoon that are linked. You have to untangle them in order to be able to use them. 'Puzzleware' was the name of this product!A very unusual butter knife, which has a row of very small holes along the blade. Designed to prevent cold chunks of butter from ripping apart your sandwich! See store.moma.org/en-gb/products/butterup-knife A half spoon for people who just want 'just half a spoon of sugar'. And a very unusual spoon to remove eggs from boiling water.A nitinol spoon that changes shape when you put it in hot water. Finally two forks that have been bent and shaped, so that you can balance one fork on top of the other, and the top one will rotate. A 'fork mobile'.
The Pied Piper Automaton#SHORTS Grand Illusions 2023-05-04 | Laurence and Angela St.Leger created a range of wonderful miniature automata. See laurenceandangelastleger.com This one shows the Pied Piper of Hamelin, who legend has it was employed by the town of Hamelin in Germany to rid the town of a plague of rats back in the Middle Ages. He played his magic pipe, the rats followed him out of the town and into the Weser river, where they all drowned. However the town then refused to pay the piper the agreed fee, so while the townspeople were all in church the piper returned and played his magic pipe again. This time all the children from the town followed him and were never seen again. Tim made a video recently, showing many of the St. Leger automata - see youtu.be/G1hmwR3_6Dg Sadly, Laurence St.Leger passed away recently, but Angela is continuing to make these wonderful and playful miniatures.
Tims Magic Book Grand Illusions 2023-04-28 | Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com _______________________________________________________________________'The Magic Show' is a book that knows how to perform magic tricks! It was created some years ago by two of Tim's friends. You can still find second hand copies if you search online. Tim demonstrates two of the magic tricks! There are twelve in all. A book containing signs which are funny, but which didn't mean to be! Then a book that explores unusual patents. Where does Tim find these strange items? Then a book of poems that have been given a strange phonetic spelling!Finally a book showcasing the extraordinary work of Scott Kim.
Tims Easter Fun Grand Illusions 2023-04-21 | Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________Tim's collection continues to grow, and here are some of the items he acquired recently, a couple of which have a specifically Easter theme!A friend gave Tim an intriguing kaleidoscope, which has two rotating brass wheels at the front. 'Toys that get away' - there are a few toys which Tim has spotted over the years, but wasn't quick enough to buy one at the time, and subsequently discovered he had missed his chance. From www.bigatoys.com came a slinky with attitude - as it descended a flight of steps, it 'ate' a plastic ball that was positioned on each step. Tim didn't get one at the time, and now the company does not seem to exist any more. Their web site does not work anyway. So Tim missed his chance. 'The Hen House' was a product sold over Easter by Marks & Spencer, here in the UK. It is a tin of shortbread biscuits, with very good sound effects when you remove the lid. Tim gave some of these out as presents, at a family gathering over Easter. Then a the supermarket Waitrose, Tim found a famous optical illusion that has been recreated in chocolate! The Duck/Rabbit illusion is often presented as a drawing, although we have seen ceramic versions and even versions made as a lapel badge, where it appears to be a duck, but when you rotate it 90 degrees, it now looks like a rabbit. Sometimes called a 'Dabbit' (or should that be a 'Dubbit'?) it is a powerful illusion. But here the pleasure is two-fold - once you have enjoyed the illusion, you can eat it, since it is made of chocolate - and that is not an illusion! Again Tim gave some of these as presents for his family. Lastly, Tim demonstrates a set of 'wobblers' , which wobble their way across the table. Sometimes referred to as oloids.
Ladies And Gentlemen#SHORTS Grand Illusions 2023-04-19 | Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________This optical illusion is also known as an ambiguous object - an object that changes its appearance depending on the direction you view it from. 'Ladies and Gentlemen' from one angle looks like the figure of a woman. Turn it though about 45 degrees, and now it looks like a man! If you place the object on the table and position a mirror behind it, you can see both shapes at the same time!Created by Kokichi Sugihara, a Japanese mathematician and artist known for his three-dimensional optical illusions. His illusions, which often involve videos of three-dimensional objects shown from carefully chosen perspectives, have won a number of awards at the Best Illusion of the Year Contest.
Heart Metamorphosis#SHORTS Grand Illusions 2023-04-16 | Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________This optical illusion is also known as an ambiguous object - an object that changes its appearance depending on the direction you view it from. Viewed from one direction, this object shows the four card suits - diamonds, clubs, hearts and spades. However view it from the other direction - or turn it through 180 degrees - and now you only see four hearts! Note that the four hearts are the right way up when you view them, and when viewed from the other direction, the single heart is still upright! Created by Kokichi Sugihara, a Japanese mathematician and artist known for his three-dimensional optical illusions. His illusions, which often involve videos of three-dimensional objects shown from carefully chosen perspectives, have won a number of awards at the Best Illusion of the Year Contest.
Modular Playing Cards Grand Illusions 2023-04-14 | Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________'Modular origami or unit origami is a paperfolding technique which uses two or more sheets of paper to create a larger and more complex structure than would be possible using single-piece origami techniques. Each individual sheet of paper is folded into a module, or unit, and then modules are assembled into an integrated flat shape or three-dimensional structure, usually by inserting flaps into pockets created by the folding process.' WIKIPEDIAIn this video Tim talks about a related subject, called 'Modular Playing Cards' where multiple cards are cut and folded into 'modules' and then fitted together to create a larger structure. The first example involves making a specific series of identical cuts in six playing cards, and then slotting them all together into a shape sometimes known as a rebus. It is also possible to make a version of the rebus using nine playing cards, and an even more complex one that uses twelve cards all carefully slotted together. The cuts are different, depending on which version of the rebus you want to make. Tim then shows a couple of other versions.Then, using quite simple modules, Tim shows how you can make a box with a lid out of playing cards. Finally, playing cards that have been cut and now are impossibly linked.
Rounding Square#SHORTS Grand Illusions 2023-04-13 | Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________This optical illusion is also known as an ambiguous object - an object that changes its appearance depending on the direction you view it from. Rounding Square from one angle looks like four overlapping circles. Viewed from the opposite direction, it looks like four overlapping squares. If you place the object on the table and position a mirror behind it, you can see both shapes at the same time!Created by Kokichi Sugihara, a Japanese mathematician and artist known for his three-dimensional optical illusions. His illusions, which often involve videos of three-dimensional objects shown from carefully chosen perspectives, have won a number of awards at the Best Illusion of the Year Contest.
What The Butler (AKA Tim) Saw! Grand Illusions 2023-04-07 | Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________Optical toys and illusions are the theme of this video. First, a card that Tim received some years ago, which shows a vehicle that looks as if it is 3D, but is actually hollow. So when you turn the base one way, the vehicle looks as if it is turning in the opposite direction. Then a card from the artist Patrick Hughes - patrickhughes.co.uk - with one of his 'Reverse Perspective' images. Then some Thaumatropes, which Tim bought when he was in Germany. These were popular optical illusions in the 19th century. Sometimes the two parts of the image were on opposing sides of a piece of card; these are more solid, being made of wood. Finally a cardboard kit that Tim made. It is a Mutascope, and there are a large number of cards inside, each with a slightly different image. They are attached to an axle, and when you turn the handle on the outside of the box, the images flick quickly from one to the next, and you get the impression of continuous motion. The large versions were often found at the seaside as an amusement for tourists. You would put a coin in the slot, turn the handle, and you would get a little film sequence. They were sometimes known as 'What The Butler Saw' machines.
The Jolly Jug! Grand Illusions 2023-04-04 | Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________Jolly Jugs appear to be quite normal, but they have a rather unexpected trick to them. Fill the jug with water, and you can pour the water out from the spout in the normal way. However you can also make the water come out from a hole in the bottom of the jug. And then, at a word of command from you or from a spectator, you can make the water stop flowing from the bottom of the jug.
What Is In Tims Pocket? Grand Illusions 2023-03-31 | Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com _______________________________________________________________________Tim is always ready to share his puzzles and illusions in order to entertain people. For this reason he keeps a small pack of items in his pocket at all times, ready for some impromptu fun at a moment's notice. So imagine if you will that you have just bumped into Tim at a party, and he reaches into his pocket to show you the following items....Scott Kim can write your name on a piece of paper in such a way that it reads the same whichever way up you look at it!Tim then demonstrates some other intriguing business cards.Optical illusions, joke notices, mathematical puzzles and cartoons...
The First Ever Electric Motor! Grand Illusions 2023-03-24 | Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________In 1822 the British scientist Michael Faraday, working at the Royal Institution in London, created the first electric motor, where an electric current was used to produce motion. The story goes that he made his discovery over the Christmas period, possibly on Christmas day. His version involved a wire dangling in a glass vessel filled with mercury, and he is supposed to have said 'there they go' when the motor started working. Many years later, one of us (George Auckland) wanted to recreate this experiment for a television programme. Bill Coates, who was a 'science communicator, lecturer and technician' who worked at the Royal Institution, was given a mince pie by his wife on Christmas day in 1986, and he realised that an aluminium mince pie case together with a strong saline solution could replace the use of mercury in the original experiment. Tim demonstrates this modern version, and in the middle of the pie case he is using a neodymium magnet, which of course is stronger than the original magnet that Michael Faraday would have used. The battery is connected to both the pie case, which is sitting on a piece of aluminium foil, and the other terminal is connected to the wire that is holding the moving piece of wire that hangs down into the salt solution. The salt solution conducts electricity, which completes the circuit, and the wire revolves around the magnet. Reverse the direction of the current and the wire revolves in the other direction. Turning the magnet the other way up also reverse the direction that the wire revolves. This motor didn't generate any useful power, but it demonstrated a principle, and it was not long before more useful motors were developed.Fleming's left-hand rule, which Tim refers to, can be used to work out which direction the wire will move in. Michael Faraday's subsequent discoveries included the induction coil or transformer, and also the generator. He effectively laid the foundations for the modern discipline of electrical engineering.
Wink Magic Grand Illusions 2023-03-17 | Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________Not sure you could find all of Tim's amazing books at your local library...!Wink Magic has lots of optical illusions that need to be viewed with one eye closed. Then a book filled with images of amazing body art. Amazing images from the Dutch artist Teun Hocks. A Japanese book that catalogues a whole range of spinning tops. Tim has a few of them, and wishes he had more! Examples of extraordinary topiary. A book called ZOOM starts small, and zooms out and out... Finally, OPTICAL TRICKS has a collection of very unusual illusions.
CUMOS Box Grand Illusions 2023-03-13 | Visit Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com _______________________________________________________________________The CUMOS Box, or cubic cosmos scope, is a 3D cubic kaleidoscope. These are hand made by the Japanese inventor, Professor Minori Yamazaki. There is an 8mm viewing hole in the front of the box. “At first, I was trying to capture the vast cosmos within a tiny box that would fit neatly in my hand. Then, I became fascinated by the mystery of the finiteness and infinity of life.”While an ordinary kaleidoscope consists of anything from 2 to 4 mirrors, the CUMOS mirror box consists of three pairs of mirrors facing each other, creating an infinite three-dimensional space with depth. As well as the CUMOS box, you will receive a colour changing LED. Although the internal image does not move, and when you bring the LED close to the translucent walls of the box, you create ever changing colours in the miniature universe inside!
To Hold Infinity In The Palm Of Your Hand Grand Illusions 2023-03-10 | Visit the Tim's Toy Shop, at grand-illusions.com _______________________________________________________________________This simple little experiment shows something that we find quite profound. Create a random pattern of dots on an A4 sheet of paper, and then make an identical copy of the dots on a sheet of acetate. It is important to make sure you are using an acetate that is designed to work in a photocopier! Place the acetate on top of the sheet of paper, and align the two sets of dots. Then. move the top sheet slightly, giving it a slight rotation. Immediately a circular pattern appears, around the point of rotation. It works the other way, in that if the acetate sheet has been placed randomly on the top of paper in such a way that the dots are not aligned, and a circle of dots appears, place your finger tip in the centre of the circle and rotate the acetate sheet in order to move it into perfect alignment. Tim then goes on to show other experiments when the acetate size is made slightly bigger or slightly smaller than the paper sheet.
Tim The Bookworm! Grand Illusions 2023-03-03 | Tim shares a few more of his most unusual books.First up, a Swiss book he bought about 20 years ago. The title on the front cover is almost invisible, unless you shake the book up and down, and then you see the title which is SEE. The book explores all kinds of optical illusions and tricks. Tim demonstrates a couple of examples of conical anamorphism. A book with upside down pictures. Each image shows one picture, but when you rotate it either 90 degrees or 180 degrees, and you then see a completely different picture. The next book is called CRAZY ART. Tim shows a photo of a landscape. Look more closely and you see that the whole scene is made from food - jacket potatoes in the background look like giant rocks, heads of broccoli look like trees, and so on. HANIMALS is a book that contains pictures of the artists hands - hands which have been painted and decorated, so they resemble animals and other creatures! Then a catalogue from the left handed shop in London. CHOCOLATE NEWS is a magazine that contains nothing but stories about ... Chocolate. Sweet! Finally, a book called THE BEST DESK TOYS EVER. Lots of lovely toys, just the sort of thing Tim collects!
