Isn't this fun? It's a pen of course, but the play value is pretty high. This is actually supposed
to be a light bulb - look at it! When I hold it up to the camera you can see its a light bulb,
with the thread there, and that's supposed to be the bulb; but this is probably a pencil eraser;
hang on, it can't be an eraser as its a ballpoint pen... unless it is one of those ink erasers;
but there we are. It's a lot of fun, because you can play with it, and
hit things with it, and just play; but I like bouncing and then catching it; on a very hard
surface I can make it bounce up to about some two foot high, and catch it. So, this is 2008,
where I have found so many what I call 'second best' toys, I've had to have two briefcases full
of these second best; so there's quite an array of interesting things, which have had very little
exposure to the light! So we're going to explore them now I think... here's a sweet little thing;
it comes on a little pad, and it's one of those badges which has got some magnets on the back,
so that that's the actual catch - that's a magnet there,
and there's the battery, and there's the front, and now what I'm going to do is...
I'll bring it right up to the front so you can actually read it....
and if we put it somewhere up at the top of my shirt... oh, we've got to to turn it on first!
There's a tiny little switch on the back we have to push; there we are. Is it high enough?
About there...
so it's a bit of fun, it flashes away and just looks like a little bit of fun; I like the
idea very much. So a little item for wearing at parties. Then there's a very clever item here...
this is what we call this the Elusive 'E' - which we've had for years; we still sell it
on our website. I was delighted in 2008 to receive an origami version from Mick Guy,
who runs the origami society in Great Britain, making the Elusive 'E' but out of folded paper;
he's absolutely brilliant at folding paper; so let's have a go. It's only three pieces,
and we've got to do them in the usual way, that one at the bottom and that one in the middle; let
me just get it my way up first; that way, and then that goes like that, and the one at the top goes
something like that I think it is; let me turn it round and I'm going to set the angles at the
right positions and so on, something like that. A big 'E' all in white letters I think it is;
but it's a little bit tricky to see; I'm not sure I've got that bit right; let me just
check it this this way round; yeah, it's got to be that way around, that's right I think...
and that's still not working for me... that top one's okay;
I'm not sure how that one... oh I see... it goes like that; well, I think it does.
It's funny isn't it, when you haven't done the Elusive 'E' for some time, it becomes quite
tricky. Let's see if that's gonna be any better... it's very elusive isn't it! There's supposed to be
a white band coming up the back here, and then coming through here, and going through there;
it's something like that, but it's much stronger when you do it with black pieces;
but even so it's very adventurous to make it out of bits of paper, and that's what Mick has done;
he's got a very nice little version of the Elusive 'E', all done just for origami people,
and you can make your own version - no need to wait for the plastic one. So a jolly good item.
The last item is one of these little wind-ups which I just love; it's one of the cleverest ones
I've ever come across I think. He's quite fun - I'll get him up to the camera to show his face...
And now see what he does on the table here, look at this - this is beautiful!
Wind him up, and he really does a lovely action;
look at those legs doing the splits... beautiful... and he slowly moves to one side
as he's doing it. I'll just give him a few more winds, because he's such a brilliant performer;
That's a very, very nice, well thought out mechanism I think. I think it's
one of the most enjoyable little designs of these mini wind-ups I've ever come across.
So... a goodie! So a good start to 2008 - there's a lot of stuff
from those two cases of things I rarely look at; so... a treasury!