Oh, there you are! Welcome back. It's been 15 long months since we were here. I've escaped from my
kitchen, and I must have been very busy there; but you've been very busy too - we seem to have passed
2 million subscribers now! So here we are back in the studio at last, and I thought you might
look around... so it's a bit dark, but never mind. There's my umbrella collection,
the best in the world. 60 umbrellas in that great big box there, my goodness.
A little bit further around, oh yes, and there's a giant jack-in-the-box with about six
nestling inside each other, that's a favourite of mine; stacks and stacks of toys over there;
in the top one, perhaps you can see it or perhaps you can't, I don't know;
anyway, it's got some of the small toys in the briefcases, as you know, and the larger toys in
big cases, and the very biggest unfortunately - like the giant jack in a box - I can't put that
in a case, but there we are; Flowers? Yes, joke flowers; there's a daffodil there which
is absolutely charming; do you remember that? That's the flower that opens and closes as if
it's blowing kisses at you - wonderful stuff! Around here we've got, oh goodness me, we've got
some of the boxed toys which I don't use so much nowadays; I used to use them at kids parties, but
it's one of those things that passes a bit. And around there, oh goodness me yes,
I've got some of the very small little wind-ups, which I absolutely adore; that's part of my
favourite collection I think; but then over here, oh yes look, we've got whistles; I always have to
keep the whistles in one place; and optical toys I think are probably the all-time favourite of my
toys; I've got them in three cases over there, the red ones; starting off with Terry Pope's wonderful
Pseudoscope; yes the optical toys are particularly good. I've got a few musical toys, and oh goodness
me sitting there is one of those Rubik Cubes which turns into a box, and then changes, and then
solves itself - do you remember it? And so we go round and round, we've got more around there;
wheeled toys of course, I think we've got plenty of those, I sit them over there;
and most of the rest I would say is not in alphabetical order, but in chronological order;
so the cases will say something like '1987 Part One - Second Best - January to July' ... that
sort of thing. There's lots and lots of cases... well there's 91 of those of course.
And we sometimes open them up, sometimes I keep them closed; but there we are,
it keeps the dust off and it's brilliant for taking them to parties... like this one! So we're
going round and round, we've got here some of the giant kites I used to use, pity we can't use them
now, but we might, later on perhaps in summertime; I will find some of those extraordinary fishes
which do wonderful things in the air; outdoor toys... a big collection of frisbees I've never
really shown; there's a big bag over there full of frisbees... weird ones too, which play tunes
and have sails on them, and all sorts of bizarre things; so there's definitely something there for
me to explore. So lots and lots to show you but we had better get started I think, don't you?
So I better sit myself down and see if we can run through a few toys, just to interest you!
There you go... did you enjoy the tour? Well now, we better get started hadn't we! Many hands
make [light work] ... well never mind that... but I don't want so many hands on the table;
and also I thought in order not to fool you I'd better show you there's nothing up my sleeves,
so I'm going to take the gloves off, and the hat as well, and we'll get started. The first one is a
magic trick I got many years ago from Davenports, it's one of the first tricks I ever bought.
It's a kind of colourful thing, because it's red feathers... let's put it in the
sleeve and do some magic with it. I had a magic wand once, but never mind; ah...
some of those flying around here, I'm in a busy zone here! Now let's make a magic gesture,
and then take out the red and it's suddenly oh... changed to orange - how wonderful!
How does that work? I don't know... you want to shout [the answer] out? No... I think we're
going to push it in there somewhere... there we are. Now we've got wave the
magic wand and tap it, and then we'll see if we can do something else...
Wow! Let's see if I can make another colour now...
put it in... this was always tremendous fun for me to do when I was first learning to do magic;
nowadays there's lots and lots of feathers all flying around; oh that's nice, look at
that, a different colour! How did that happen? Oh go in there, you're supposed to change over...
this is the amateur magician in me saying after 50 years doing this, I must do a bit of rehearsing
sometimes! Oh well, there we are; and you can tell me exactly how it works, because it's so obvious;
yeah well, there we are. I think you can guess from that what it does; so that was a very early
magic trick that I did, almost before I started doing the toys; well that's how it starts, that's
how it begins. Oh... another chicken's coming through... goodness, it's a flying zone here!
This by contrast is a very very recent toy, which I absolutely love; I've had so much fun with this
at parties, and they produced it at Nuremberg oh only about two years ago I think it was. It's a
hat which you've got to put in your head, and then become a king; this is a clown's or a
fool's hat for the royal court's fool, and to make a crown you just have to blow it up...
It's almost come off my head; what a wonderful gag that is, one of my favourites. Then there's loads
of umbrellas but I just wanted to show three of them, which I think are particularly nice ones.
This is a big big surprise when I saw it it - looks like an ordinary umbrella for small kids,
probably girls because it's pink; but look at this, this is brilliant, an absolutely lovely
idea; because there's a dancer and it's actually supposed to be her ballerina skirt reaching out,
that's very nicely done; I think it's a beautiful idea for small kids to have as their umbrella,
don't you think? Then there's another one here which is just a silly one, it's only made of
paper, so it won't work very well; but it's got cardboard struts in it, underneath there;
and of course it's got a silly thing on top... and
that's all it does; good stuff! The last one is a bit of fun I had, oh this was about 40 years ago,
with a full-size umbrella and a model one, which was from somewhere else; so this is
now keeping my wristwatch dry because that's all it is, it's to cover my wrists to stop the
watch from getting damaged by the rain; it's too small for my head, yes I know! There we are...
oh well. Oh and they're still flying in, and it's half squeaking! This is a favourite item, which I
picked up via an American friend, of dollar bills. Look at this - I think it is extraordinary...
Yes, you can get this from Washington DC, from the treasury department, and it's real,
they're real notes; they make them in stacks of twenty thousand, I worked out,
and then they get a guillotine and go chop chop chop, so those aren't in consecutive order,
but they are if you're looking down on the stack of twenty thousand pieces. One dollar notes,
take them into the shop and when the guy behind the counter says that'll be 3 dollars 75 cents
please sir, you say fine - can I borrow a pair of scissors! Wonderful. The last item to show is
I think the very first version of these spring things, which I've made
a long time ago; this is spectacular - you want something big, this is it! Here we go...
Oh my goodness... look the last one is one of those... amazing stuff!
So I'm starting off with a bang, well with a whoosh anyway!