We collect unusual toys, and with a collection of over 20,000 (and rising!) that have been bought over the last 30 years, there is a wide variety of amazing things to share with you!
We don’t do dolls! Our toys might have a fun or unusual mechanism, can be used to amaze or puzzle people, are a bit magical or maybe a bit scientific. Whatever the angle, they have to have something a bit ‘special’ about them.
Nearly all the toys you see here are from Tim’s Toy Collection, and are no longer available in the shops. Many were bought 20 or even 30 years ago!
However we do have a small range of items that can be bought on-line. You can visit the Grand Illusions Toy Shop, www.grand-illusions.com
Hendrik Ball
www.grand-illusions.com
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ A novel and very flexible plastic from the mid 1990s… ‘Half a lemon’ bouncing ball… A strange ball with 8 segments that is something of a fidget toy. Something for long train journeys, Tim reckons… A very unusual ball – a…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ Some of the toys Tim collected back in the year 2000. First, a kind of basket ball toy that you strap to your waist and then try and get the ball into one of the three baskets without using your hands. A good ice breaker…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ What a laugh, says Tim. He is wearing his Red Nose Day nose (a UK charity fundraising event). A purple ball that has two metal contacts. If you slightly wet your fingers and then touch the two contacts to complete the…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ A hollow face illusion with Vincent Van Gogh, in full colour. Tim bought this around the year 1999/2000. Vincent is certainly looking at you! A clever spinning top from the NAEF company. The base is a plastic hemisphere containing plastic balls. These normally sit at…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ The ‘thumb twiddler’ – is actually a thing. Who knew? The toys in this video are from a 1993 case, the second year Tim went to the New York Toy Fair. A strange toy that has batteries, but no obvious way…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ More items that normally sit on Tim’s mantelpiece, for him to admire every day! From the AHA gallery in Zurich, this three dimensional card means the eyes follow you as you walk around the room! Another of Tim’s unusual clocks. The ring with the hours…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ This deceptively simple little spinning top exhibits some very unusual behaviour. A rectangular wooden block forms the main part of the top, and each of the three sides is of a different length. This fact is important and is the key…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ Tim welcomes Gerard Darby again, who brings an array of items with him that are all made from items that are often discarded. A peacock made from old chewing gum wrappers. Normally these would just end up in the bin, but here someone has collected…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ Most of Tim’s toy collection is tucked away in suitcases. However in this video Tim shows some of the toys that live on his mantelpiece, and which he sees and uses every day. First up, a very unusual clock. A central…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ Panda toys, including a panda umbrella. These toys are mostly wind-ups. A ladder climbing panda – towards the top of the ladder is a much thicker step, and this causes the panda to miss their step and slide down to the bottom of the ladder…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ Amazing landscape images, created mostly with vegetables! A pen from Australia. It has a kangaroo at the top, which lights up… A folk art house, from the USA Rubber balls that either bounce or not, and a rubber ball that is…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ Here is a little engine that demonstrates a magnetic property known as the Curie Effect. Normal magnets and also materials which are attracted to magnets (such as iron and nickel) are referred to as ferro-magnetic. The French scientist Pierre Curie discovered that ferro-magnetic materials have…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ This ‘green pill’ is not one you swallow, instead you drop it into hot water. The exterior is made of gelatine, which gradually dissolves in the hot water, and once the gelatine is gone, it allows the creature inside to emerge.…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ Tim explores some of his ‘posing toys’, toys that you can bend and manipulate in order to make them adopt any pose you want. Tim shows a couple of small toys that can be made to attach to your lapel. Then a toy with wire…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ Already half way out of his shell, this chick is ready for action. Pull the string, let go and he becomes very animated indeed! Batteries power the next egg, and it will waltz across the table. The next egg is also…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ A Venus Fly Trap hand puppet from Folkmanis. Every house should have one – keep the flies under control! This is from Tim’s 1996 case. A can full of rattlesnakes. Battery operated, which shakes and rattles. A pen from Belgium. Made of rigid plastic, but…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ Tim is not the sort of person to stick his neck out too often, but he can make an exception when it comes to giraffes! Someone once said that widescreen at the cinema was really only good for showing funerals and…