Here's a smart looking gun isn't it? I picked it up in Tokyo in 1986, my first trip to Japan.
Very nice gun - it's got a nice mechanism too which I'm liking. Perhaps I should fire it? Well you better
back away just in case it's dangerous... well, it's a toy one so it won't be too dangerous; I'll aim it
and then... wow! Look at that. Isn't that amazing? So the front of it, if it hits a small child, it's
very soft, because that's a little one of those, and if it hits your chin, it's very soft;
and then the others all fit inside each other; well this was something that intrigued me because it's
actually a telescopic effect, and I thought hello, I've got several other telescopic effects I need
to look at; and then I thought further - hang on what about looking at toys which grow longer
or bigger but only in one dimension; so let's have a look at the whole range. The first ones will be
telescopic toys, with about two or three samples, and then the others will be other mechanisms, for
making things grow longer. Here's the second of the telescopic ones - this is a very nice smart pen;
but it's telescopic! It is a ballpoint pen that I'll show by taking the top off,
there we are, a biro point, but it's telescopic - look at this! Oh my goodness me, it feels beautiful;
it's really well made from steel this, there's one more section, that is some ballpoint pen isn't it?
So either you can write distantly like this, or you hold it in your hand and feel it wiggling
away behind you like that; it's whatever so it's a bit of fun but it does look so smart it'd be a
very nice thing for magicians to have in their breast pocket because it looks so nice;
Then a little time later I think I found two more telescopic
things these are just pure fun, because they're cutlery; there's a telescopic spoon would you
believe, and a telescopic fork; they don't go that far but it's a bit of fun;
I fancy the idea of being at a party and having a chat with your neighbour opposite you
on the other side of the table, saying can I try a bit of your... and then do that! Well, either with or
without their permission! Just a bit of fun; and the same thing with the spoon. Oh, that's come apart...
So these are a bit of fun for people to play with, to play jokes with, because they're both telescopic
you wouldn't actually use in normal circumstance; you're just using it for a bit of fun.
And the last one is actually a very sensible thing, which I have used very occasionally, because
there's a magnet on the end - that's a little round magnet; it picks up things like that...
and it's telescopic; that means if you've got something dropped down between two
bits of furniture you can't easily shift you just have to reach down with this and
pick it up, and say there we are, and you've managed to catch it on the bottom, providing
it's of course a magnetizable bit of metal, like a little paper clip or knife or something like
that; so that's a very useful one; that could be useful it's a bit of fun; then these are just pure...
well... jokes; and of course an excellent little toy. All telescopic, all growing longer in one dimension.
What else? What other methods are there for doing this? Well there's some here which I've had for
many many years, which are ones that unfurl; this is a very short piece of plastic but it
unfurls like that into a long piece of plastic, all in the one direction; it's one dimensional, and
of course it's a blowout, so I'm not going to do it with the fingers, I'm going to do it by [TIM BLOWS]
one of those... but if you like a longer one, well I like longer things, so this one here
is more like 10 foot long!
Oh wow! It comes back in a very old mess. That certainly grows longer. And then there's several
toys in my collection which are also unfurling, but they're cute little animals. This one
here is a little snake, and that tongue there if look carefully at it, is a little bit of
balloon rubber, and when it inflates it comes uncurled; so this is the body here
which contains air; when I squeeze it it's just like animals do... I've got frogs which do
the same thing with tongues that come out and I see frogs in ponds reaching out to catch insects
flying above the water; they go ... with a long long tongue, and do that. So uncurling, unfurling,
one-dimensional growing things is a nice one. I like that. There's another way of making things
longer, it's not quite the same; I used to call these paper yoyos at one time; I haven't
got a satisfactory name for it, but never mind; and it's a toy which I've got three
different versions of it here, it grows longer by having a coil of slightly elasticated paper,
which is curled up; it wants to stay like that, but when it's pulled out like that it tolerates
it but it wants to go back again; but it'll
do an action like a yo-yo almost, which is why they call these at one time paper yo-yos;
and I've got three different versions of it; that one which I picked up in Tokyo was a baseball
bat, this one is an ice cream, I thought once it might pop up but this one doesn't pop up, they said you have
to pop it up like that to make it work, it's got a one of these paper yoyo things; but that gets
longer in that one dimension just by unfurling it; and the last one of course is one of the joke
fists for punching you in the face!
Very nicely done; so that's another method for making things longer and growing. Then there's
probably the most traditional of the lot which I am aware of, which is the spring which opens up when
when it's released. There's two springs in here; it's the old 'nuts in a tin' joke that
jumps out open it up and the springs are going to pop out in a hurry, and make a squeak tool
So you've got a short spring when it's compressed like that, and when it's released because it's got
energy it gets longer and longer and longer, all in the one direction; I'll put this just one back for
now to show the effect; and the tin of nuts is one of those jokey ones, because it's got a
separate compartment at the bottom, which has little nuts in it or something like that,
which rattle like that, and make you think it's really going to be candy or pops or something.
It's always occurred to me that balloons, if they are those long balloons, they are widening at the
beginning, but after the first little blow they just go one direction only, here's two examples of
it; they're both what they call modelling balloons. This is a 260E which I used a great deal when I
was doing children's parties and having to blow up balloons to make dogs and birds and other things;
you put it over the nozzle and when you blow it up it will grow slightly fatter to start with
and then it's all length length length growing longer and longer
and longer and longer, all in the one dimension; goodness, it is not very straight!
Well it'll go on and on; and then of course you can release it and
it goes away. Have you come across a version like this which they only sell
in specialist shops for balloon artists; it's called a spaghetti balloon. It's exactly the same
as the other one, except it's much much smaller, and so you can make much smaller little dogs and birds
and things with it; so let's see if I can make this one blow up as well; there we go...
and so on. And then you make models by twisting like that.
They're also growing in the direction way only. So another one. I must put that in as another mechanism.
Here's one which is very bizarre and unique; it's a Japanese folk toy which I picked up about 20 years
ago; it gets longer due to a very extraordinary system of ropes. They're pieces of bamboo
possibly, I don't know exactly what they are, but they've got string in that peculiar form so they're
captive and they grow like this; each time each one is able to grow just a certain amount and
then it stops growing and reaches the end stop; to make it so what you do to actually
operate is you just fling it out this way like this, and it gets very long... whoa look at that!
That has got extraordinary long and just about straight in one dimension, due to the most peculiar
form of joins; some genius Japanese guy invented this, and they sell them in
Tokyo as a folk toy, as something with a bit of magic to it;
Very nice effect that; the only time I've ever come across that type of
thing. Then there's these Popoids as I call them, which are these corrugated tubes; this is
an American one; this is a very large one, and then you whirl it in the air to make it sound like...
this... but they also made about the same time other versions of these, very small ones;
Tomy did this, which is the same thing but it's just very small; and then they join them together
so you can put two or three together and make little robots; and this one was an even smaller one.
So each of these starts small like that, and grows in one direction... longer and longer and longer;
and this is I think my favourite version because there's so much you can do with this; as well as
making a sound pipe with that static wave with it; it's delightful, but it will actually join together
like this, you can join the two together like that, so a lot of fun! Anyway it's
a one-dimensional 'grower' as I call it. Now there's a set over here, I'm just going to reach for it,
a very strange idea this' I hadn't thought of it recently as a one-dimensional grower, but it is
really. These I got way back in the beginning of my toy collecting days, in the 1970s. They're joke ketchup and
joke salad creams; and all you do is you squeeze it; well, you do it over a person's shirt
as if you're actually squirting them with ketchup, but it's not - it's a bit of string,
and the string is being pushed out by the air current; I'll see if i can push it back in a bit quicker;
there's a bit of string inside, you put it in and when you squeeze it, I'll squeeze it over my
shirt and give me a splash of spaghetti, no, of of ketchup all over me, there we are;
Well it's not ketchup, but it's that's the idea. Something that's growing long;
and here's another one - that goes out; and then there's things close to the frog which unfurl,
but this one's working with a string; it's a frog which you could do with the uncurling thing, but it's
not; it's a piece of string that pops out, and if I can get it in the right position I can get it
to pull back again; just about yes; it's got a bulb of
rubber here, when you squeeze it, out comes a tongue and a long squeezy effect like that.
So a very nice effect that. The last item is I think probably my favourite, it's a magic wand which is
absolutely extraordinary! You can get a piece of paper and you fold it this way
or that way, and this is what this thing is working on; its an extraordinary mechanism. We do
sell the magic wand actually on the website, but I'll show you two giant versions of it. This is
the one we're selling, but not this particular design. This is an Israeli invention. You've got
a bit of plastic, take the ring off, you release it - you see how short it is, it's only it's only
about an inch and a half long - it suddenly pops up into something like that; isn't that beautiful?
So what's happening is it's unrolling in this long direction
like that, it's being rolled like that; but when you start making it again in the original form,
you've got to open up one end, and then roll it up in this direction like this with your fingers,
roll here, roll here, like this; it's very tricky to do actually; I do it by another method, but you
roll like that, and it gradually goes back into a small roll. I'll do it the other way which is a
bit of a bit of fun this... you just squeeze like this, and then in a minute you squeeze it together;
so these are very very popular, and have been done for I think the last 20 years or so, since
the Israelis played with the plastic and found it has this wonderful
sort of two states; so you want to put a retaining ring around it otherwise
it misbehaves; so you put a little ring of stuff around it like that, and then it's
restored; this is another one, a white one, there we are...
it's a proper wand. Now
here's two very special ones that they make for magicians; this is a serious bit of magic,
but it's the same principle. It's short like that, when the top is taken off
from each end it suddenly opens up into... a giant one like that! Isn't that extraordinary?
And the best of them by a long way is this one here, which is again a magician's trick. It starts like
that; I've got to take this tube out actually, take the elastic bands off, and this is a serious prop
for magicians to do something remarkable with. What they usually do is keep this secret,
put it into a bag like that, and then when it opens up - are you ready for a big surprise? -
this is quite an extraordinary one; as it comes out, it's going to start coming out at this end here,
and longer and longer and longer, and I'll take it out of the bag now I think, but it's going to
get longer and longer and finally that, and it looks like a seven foot pole;
it's actually made of plastic but it sounds like wood, and it makes the most astonishing sight!
Considering it is only that long to start with, it had opened up to that size...
Extraordinary! So that's looking at some
things that grow, but in one dimension only, and with ten completely different principles
for producing it. I think there'll be more I should turn up with, but I just love the idea of something
starting off with the telescope, the obvious one, and finishing with something like this; each of them
is growing longer and longer in 1 dimension only, and there's so much fun in them, so much fun with these things!