What's this? Oh no, better not do this; you know what's inside? I'd better just try it out and
see... okay? I've got a cup of hot water here, and I'm going to drop it in, and then all i need to do
is stir it. The hot water will dissolve that funny sort of gelatine there, and see what happens.
Round and round.. oh something's happening at the end there... yes, oh look, we're getting something
coming out.. look look.. something's coming out, something's coming out of the end there;
keep doing it... it erupts from the ends to start with... I'm going to keep stirring it until it's
all fully out from all that gelatine, which is what they cover food capsules with, if
you're having medicine; oh look at that, it just starts erupting very quickly in hot water into
something.... it's pretty well out now, it hasn't got a shape yet, it's just elongated mass...
it's got a band around the middle I think of gelatine...
Oh now it's starting to expand in different directions... oh look at that... this is
something that's growing - I call it growing in three dimensions; it's a growing toy but a
very unusual one; it came out about 20 years ago these little capsules, little bits of foam rubber
which had some pre-shapes in them... it's almost there now... yes I think we got... it looks like a
fish or whale or a seal ... oh it's got a mouth as well look at that! I can see a little mouth to it;
let's see if I can make out what it is... not sure about that, it looks aquatic, it looks as though
it could be a kind of fish or porpoise from the Nile...! well anyway, there's something there
which looks as though it's a creature; it's a little bit hot to do, but it's
grown enormously from that little capsule; and if you put it out on a saucer and just let it
dry, you'll find you've got a little animal. I think it might even be a penguin actually,
the way it's shaped. In which case it ought to be black and white! It's a creature anyway,
a critter. I think they're all supposed to be sea creatures in this particular batch of capsules,
each of which needs to be put into water, and when the gelatine is dissolved, out comes a critter;
bigger than the original capsule by quite some way too. So I've been looking at things
which grow but in all directions, what I call 'three-dimensional growth'. It occurred to me,
when I was a small child, the first time I came across this was of course the balloon,
the balloon is an obvious thing which grows in all three directions; so I'll blow this up...
I think that's magic... it's suddenly grown from something that small to that big... wow! When I
did children's parties I was a bit more ambitious, and started having balloons like this, for which
I needed to have a Hoover which worked backwards as it were, and blew air in; and that was really
quite spectacular, because when this is blown up fully - it takes me about 20 minutes to do
like this, I won't do that - but that's going to get really seriously big as you can see,
and it's also very tough rubber too; so that would be a large balloon. An even larger one was this
extraordinary neoprene balloon, which I think is absolutely fabulous material, because it's very
very hardy, very long lasting, and these ones grow up to about six foot diameter... I'll just
start the beginning of it, it's got a lovely feel to it too this one, and a nice noise...
I think some of these are almost meteorological balloons, you put helium inside them and they
float up into the sky, taking scientific instruments for them to measure the atmosphere and
so on; that is a lovely type of special non-latex rubber, I think it's neoprene or something.
Very very beautiful, and my first introduction really to the magic of things that grow bigger,
just in this case by air inflation; and they get large large large! Now we can show you
something which grows bigger by water inflation. Water inflation? Well yes, these things here;
and these have only become popular in the last 20 years or so; these tiny little balls
are made of a special chemical which attracts the water into it, and over a period of
not a few seconds but a few days I'm afraid, they start growing really big,
containing almost 100% water. Look at the size of this one - that is a clear
sphere, and the original size is down there - so look at the two together; one's about 20 times the
size of the other one. That's over about 48 hours of growth, so it gets quite a bit bigger still;
and then what's nice about it, just like balloons, these will also get smaller in the air as the
water evaporates; it goes all the way down to that size again. I've done it several times.
So very very nice idea of air inflation and water inflation; two things that get bigger and bigger.
And here's some more mechanical ones which I like because they have unusual mechanisms to them.
This one for instance is a kite which I picked up in Amsterdam a few years ago;
when you hold it like that and twist it, it pops up into a cylindrical kite it's called;
and that's got aerodynamics which allows it to fly in the air; that's the kite string - I'll take it
out and show you - and then it collapses just by folding it like that; very very
nice, going suddenly from a two-dimensional into a three-dimensional object with a quick twist and
it's done. And here's another one - well you know this one don't you! I used this for so many years
when I was doing children's parties and had to do magic. It's one of those, yes, a magician's hat.
But it grows like that; it starts flat and grows up to that size when it's open; it's little levers
inside, which allows you to do that. So another magical effect! Here's another one which again I
used at many parties; it's a deck of cards which will grow like that, with a little touch like
that, all little flaps fall down inside which lock it together, and now it's completely stable,
but it will shrink from that size to something much much smaller. So growing things in three
dimensions is a wonderful pursuit. I've just got one more lot to show you, and that's these growing
balls that were I think originally created by Chuck Hoberman, who I used to meet at New York
Toy Fair. This is the one he started with ; they open up like that. It's got very very clear clever
leverage systems like lazy tongs, but in all three dimensions like that; and he made that one there,
he made I think this one here which is a very nice action swinging around and making a large piece,
each of the pieces swivels and then locks up into a tighter position; and this one was a little
more remarkable because it did open up like that, but the idea was you tossed it in the air and it
changed colour, because it went from that stage through the the point which is at its maximum,
and it flipped down the other way; well I'll have to do it like this - it's orange and then it's
orange and then it's green and then it's orange... it changes colour. But the thing
he's best known for and which he produced for New York Toy Fair in about the mid 90s
was the Hoberman Sphere, and I still got a version of this which I think is absolutely fabulous.
This is something that was a great hit, and it's still being made incidentally; it opens up to an
enormous size from something very quite small, and it's very dramatic. I found with kids, they wanted
to play with it in other ways; one of the kids put it on their head like that, and then closed it up,
and look what you get - it's like a helmet isn't it? I'm a robot with a robotic helmet!
Do you like it? Does it improve me? Well, it's funny to wear though, a bit spiky but okay...