Here's a delightful thing I was given at the Nuremberg Toy Fair about 18 or 19 years ago, 2002;
this item is using the old coinage, by then it was old because the Euros had come in;
this is using old 2 Pfennig coins. I don't know whether you ever remember seeing these
old German coins. I certainly do because I lived in Germany for a while; a 2 Pfennig coin,
and on the back it actually gives the value but it's all been obscured by the top; but it should
be a 2 there for 2 Pfennigs. He's mounted it, the guy who's making a load of these and gave
them to me, on a very nice plastic spindle, which makes a beautiful effect; he gave me two of them,
one works better than the other, and then just for fun he showed me his first prototype,
which was just using the Pfennig, drilling a hole very nice and central - it has to be very
very central that hole otherwise when it's going around it wobbles too much; and all he's done
is put a little bolt through it with a screw thread, with a nut either side to hold it. So
this is how they perform actually on a plate; the prototype only does a rather rough and ready spin;
if I can get it to go a little more upright it'll last a bit longer than that; but it hasn't got a
proper point it's spinning on, so it goes all over the place - oh, that's not so bad. One of
the other ones is a little bit off-centre at the very top of the spindle, and wobbles a bit from
side to side; that's the one that's perfect - look at that that; that actually goes on for a heck of
a long time. I actually timed it, it went on and on and on; the other one by contrast not quite as
long because the top of the spindle is a little bit distorted, and you can see it's whirring a
bit there, I can see little ghosting effect there, whereas this is absolutely perfect, this one here,
and that just goes on and on. I won't keep going because it's extraordinary how well balanced they
are. So a delightful thing, and actually from the inventor too, at the time. So that was great.
Then there's an extraordinary thing - I'm not sure where this came from at the time - but this is the
most extraordinary thing; it's a heavy desk weight for stopping papers blowing around in the wind,
and it's got some blank sides, it's got a blank bottom there, it's got a blank side there; but
the interesting bit is round on the front where, if I get it in the right position, there we are;
we've got a blue cylinder with a nice sort of wavy background; and then round here we've got a red
or pink cylinder; and if we look half way, we'll get half of one and a half of the other. And if
we look over the top, we see it's all done by the graphics on the base there, very nicely done; so,
it makes a very nice little optical effect; I'm switching from one to the other, morphing from one
to the other, and then looking over the top to see how it's been done. Very heavy.
I don't know, it's plastic not glass, but it really is very heavy, and that will stop a lot of
papers being blown around the office if someone left the window open. The last item
is just one of these little can things which I like, and this particular year they had two
extraordinary mechanisms for opening the can. One is very popular, and was invented in the 1930s;
this one here is just a quirky idea. I'll show you this one first because it's ridiculous!
To actually open this you unzip it. Have you ever thought of unzipping a can? Well you do
for this one, and inside are probably some sweets if I've left some there;
yeah, there's a bag of sweets there I can have; and it's a perfectly good little can, but to have
zippers is quite crazy; it's never been copied, it's very tongue in the cheek really. Whereas
this one here is a lovely idea from the1930s; it's bi-stable. This thing here at the top is rather
like a 'frog click' - at the moment it's grasping the thing, when I push it like [click noise] that
you hardly notice but that actually springs open, and again there are sweets inside; now I'll show
this... just click click click click click click and then click the side of this, and then click
the top; but when you put it on you have to spread it out, you push it like that, and to close it
what I'm going to do is squeeze it, I'm going to have to squeeze those little
pieces; when I squeeze like that they have all clicked together, and that is quite
firmly holding now; that's a brilliant idea. That has had a big, big relaunch since it was
first produced in the 1930s, I think. I've started to see these on lots and lots of different tins,
because it's such a neat one; just that... to open, that... to close, that... to open,
that... to close; it couldn't be simpler. Very, very nice. Whereas that was unique and I think
it was just a tongue in the cheek thing. So it was a good year though, five nice things.