Here's a funny thing - it's a miniature 'Mirage' toy I call it; when I bring up to camera you'll
see the creature that's already fixed inside is actually a Pokémon, it says it on it there;
and I'll bring it into view. When you tilt your angle of viewing he appears there,
as a reflection, the right way up and enlarged; oh look - looking quite dangerous too! Pokémon.
What's odd about this particular version though is it's got a
point at the top which is supposed to rotate it, so you're supposed to put it on the table
and rotate like that, for some reason or other. I can't get much else from the picture though,
but the idea is anyway the kid has two bits of fun - they can spin it, and they can enjoy the
mirage effect of seeing the real thing on the bottom, and a marvellous picture reproduction
as it were, coming almost above the surface; if you look at it from certain angles this lifts
up and appears to be above the surface, which is brilliant. So a nice piece. Here's a strange
thing - it's a Prankster, but it doesn't quite work for me because it's one of a dog barking;
this is one of these jokes things you put in the guest bedroom, and when they go to turn out the
light to have a night's sleep, something happens like the tap drips or a mosquito makes a funny noise;
well this one here has got a dog barking which is bizarre; I'm going to turn it on... so
I'll put my hand over it as if this is the night time and make it dark... [SOUND OF DOG BARKING]
Not very convincing... as soon as you turn on the light it... shuts up. That's fair enough,
but it should leave a little bit of a gap say nine or ten seconds, there should be a pause
(well it's got four paws I know!) - but it should pause between when the light
switches out and the dog starts misbehaving or making a noise; instead it starts immediately,
which is a shame. There's something wrong with the delay mechanism. But the idea is a very nice one,
to fool your guests into thinking they've got intruders in the bedroom!
Here's something else very strange; you're probably very familiar with this stuff,
bubble wrap, and when it first came out I had great fun going snap snap snap; I gave
it to some of my nephews and nieces when they were kids, just to go pop pop pop; in fact
they put it on a birthday card once; but here's electronic versions of them - two of them, one
from Japan and one from the west; extraordinary idea, and they've got batteries inside and
they've got little loudspeakers; so here's the first one, this is a Japanese one, and when you
push these like that, just push and push and push, and put it near the microphone, it makes a
noise; push click, get my fingers underneath, click click click click, you've got to work hard!
That's better - it's clicking nicely; but most of the sound there is coming from the loudspeaker,
would you believe; Extraordinary. It's almost everlasting, well not quite - you're going to
change the battery eventually, when you've done a few thousand clicks; while this one here,
which had slightly more full instructions on it than they were in English so at least i could read
them, it sort of makes a funny noise sometimes to start with, no it hasn't - it's already done that;
and it goes click click click click and according to the blurb you're supposed to do that 200 times,
and then it makes a 'wee har' noise or something. I never reached that stage - would you?
So click click click; you can't do the same button twice with this one, you've got to keep moving
to a new one; and it's to entertain your fingers, some exercise to do with the fingers, your thumbs,
just to keep you interested, and keep your muscles going. Very strange idea - oh well. The last item
is my favourite by a long way - this is one of the best items from this '2009 second best' case;
it's a very fine lithophane, which looks so unpretentious - it's just a bit of plastic, and
we'll get it into focus and see the girl itself - it's not bad picture but it's just a little bit
rough around the edges to say the least, and on the back you can hardly make her out at all, it's
like a ghost image; but when you light it from the back - oh my goodness me! Suddenly it works;
I've got a good torch here, I'll shine it straight in and we'll see if we can get it to perform...
Isn't that amazing? It's got all the grey scales down to the finest detail, to make a very very
convincing face of a very pretty lady; my goodness me! And then turn [the light] off, and all that's
all you get. Suddenly it appears... so that's a brilliant piece, and it looks so unpretentious,
just a little bit of old boring plastic; but hold it up the sunlight or whatever the light source is,
and you have a real moment of sudden surprise, when you find out just what a well depicted
picture it is of the person's face; so that's my favourite for that case I think, by a long way!