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 _______________________________________________________________________ Tim’s collection has a number of small critters, little wiggly things, that lurk in small containers! You can see them as exotic pets, or maybe just a way to startle your friends… All of these have very delicate balancing mechanisms, so…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ Origami in leather? This purse, possibly made in Morocco, opens and closes simply by folding it. As Tim says, he used one of these as his regular coin purse for many years. Also a version made in China. Every item Tim opens seems to have…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ Spring is in the air, and Tim is exploring the butterflies and the bees! A solar powered butterfly that is really very realistic. Only while the sun shines of course! Tim’s lapel badge shows a bee and the quote ‘to be…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ From Rain Sticks to dinosaur feet, Tim makes more noise! The giant dinosaur feet are actually slippers – as Tim says, you could wear them to a fancy dress party ( or should that be a fancy dinosaur party?) They have sound effect technology together…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ Tim is making a racket again, and not the tennis kind! Auto tune can be used to make sure a singer hits exactly the right note, but here is an auto tune violin! Made by the Tomy toy company, there are…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ A swinging pendulum that swings though the focal point of a parabolic mirror – a toy from 1976! When the red ball is at the focal point, its reflection fills the whole mirror! A hook for your hat or maybe coat. Part of a wooden…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ Tim makes a noise! The ZUBE TUBE gives weird audio effects when you talk into one end. There are two cups inside, joined by a long spring, which vibrates when you talk into the tube. Next, a percussion instrument that creates…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ Tim demonstrates a bullroarer. This example is a ruler attached to a length of string. The bullroarer, rhombus, or turndun is an ancient ritual musical instrument and a device historically used for communicating over great distances. It consists of a piece of wood attached to…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ Balance a ruler using two fingers. It doesn’t matter whereabouts you place your fingers, so long as they can balance the ruler without it falling to the ground. Then move your two fingers slowly together. If your fingers are equidistant from…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ 1998 – the year that keeps on giving! An @ sign that has a metal blade which allows it to cut paper, open envelopes etc. Small clothes pegs that are painted to resemble small creatures. A key fob that is also a puzzle. Two rubber…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ Tim is still exploring his 1998 case of toys… Open the doors to reveal the sea… this optical illusion was a handout at an exhibition held by the British artist Patrick Hughes – https://www.patrickhughes.co.uk/ A lenticular skull – very gruesome. Just…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ More toys from Tim’s 1998 case… A wheel inside a disc. It seems that the wheel is rotating inside the disc, but it is a very convincing optical illusion, the small wheel is fastened firmly to the disc! A spinning top that is also a…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ Tim dives into a 1998 case of toys and novelties. Some luminous novelty glasses which came out at the end of 1997 to people could welcome in the new year… A coiled snake which uncoils its tongue when you squeeze it.…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ Wooden automata! Two little characters walk to the edge of the table. It is not a wind up, there is no motor, and the table is not sloping. Tim acquired this several decades ago at the Nuremberg Toy Fair in Germany. How does it work?…
From Grand Illusions. The other week Tim showed a Japanese toy that consisted of a plastic tube full of sweets, with a plastic hand at the end of the tube. Two little buttons meant you could animate the hand. Tim was not quite sure what the purpose of the animated hand was, but then we…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ Time travel Tim visits 1998, to demonstrate some of the items he bought that year. The ‘Dog Bone Book’ is a book in the shape of a bone – something every well read pooch should have! A plastic mechanical hand which…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ Tim lights up some of his more unusual candles. Actually all his candles are pretty unusual! First up, a banana that has been partly unpeeled, and seems to be ready to eat. But no – the banana is a candle. A metal chain where the…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ Tim starts with one of his treasures – a large automaton he bought in France many years ago. The little character is picking apples from the tree. The apples are actually marbles, and once you start it running it keeps going…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ A Japanese item – a piece of wire with a gold coloured object at each end. Pop it into warm water and the nitinol wire bends into a circle and brings the two gold coloured objects together to form – a heart! A wooden heart…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ We posted a video which featured some of Tim’s playing cards at the end of January 2025, and were intrigued to see this appear in the comments… ______________________________ I’ve been collecting playing cards ever since I saw your first episode on…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ Toys with a 14th February vibe to them… A Spanish toy (still working after all these years) with two little dogs sitting next to each other in a little car. Wind up up and the car whizzes around the table, with the two toy dogs…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ – And Write Myself a Letter… Of course, if Tim is going to write himself a letter he has a lot of varied writing implements to choose from! I ♡ U appears on the little optical device on the top of…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ Is Tim a gambler? He certainly has a lot of playing cards. However they are all rather unusual if not downright strange, so maybe they would not actually be all that good for gamblers! The ‘Zero’ of diamonds? A six of spades where the symbols…
From Grand Illusions. The Schröder Staircase is an amazing optical illusion. Created by Kokichi Sugihara, it won First Prize in the ‘Best Illusions of the Year Contest 2020’. You can download a free PDF file here – https://www.isc.meiji.ac.jp/~kokichis/contest/contest2020/3Dschroederstaircase.pdf – which when you print it out on a sheet of A4 paper, or even better very…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ Tim is still rolling his dice… A spinning top that has a built in die! Spin the top, then stop the top and let the internal mechanism slow down and stop… revealing the red line is now above one of the…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ Tim loves dice and he has many examples in his collection. A dice (or die) as a key fob, except the die is also a puzzle. Tim takes it apart, which is quick – but he will put it together later since that take a…
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ Tim has many balloon based toys in his collection. All these demonstrations involve something INSIDE the balloon. The first balloon sits quietly on the table, until it suddenly shoots up into the air! A small gadget inside, with a rubber sucker…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ Offer someone this teaspoon to stir their tea or coffee. As soon as they dip it into the hot liquid, the spoon bends through 90 degrees! It does this very quickly and will cause the person holding the spoon quite a surprise! Alternatively, you can…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ Skywriters involve lights that go on and off, and create an image in the air. Tim demonstrates a toy where the image is created in lights, and then he shows some ‘reverse’ versions, where the lights create the background, and the animated figure is dark.
From Grand Illusions. Sign up for the free Grand Illusions newsletter, at http://conta.cc/3dplns1 _______________________________________________________________________ Tim is all in a spin again – and not just because he has new titles!! There is something of a Bristol, England theme here. And who is that in the balloon? Could it be Isambard Timdom Brunel?? Simple little plastic…
From Grand Illusions. Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/ ________________________________________________________ Tim goes topological, with some of his best topology toys. HexiFlex was designed and made by the late Rick Flowerday, who Tim knew for over 20 years. A number of springs connect together to create a toy that you can manipulate into a variety of…
From Grand Illusions. Tim loves a good cracker, and so he was very intrigued to discover that a local shop was selling a completely redesigned style of cracker! You could just stand it on the table and pull the red ribbon yourself. However Tim found that he could tuck one under his elbow and offer…
From Grand Illusions. Puzzle Boxes from Switzerland! Towards the end of the 19th century, puzzle boxes became a popular souvenir in a number of tourist destinations around the world. Local woodworkers typically produced the same trick box, without change, for generations. At two locations, though, in an unusual outburst of creativity, a wide range of…
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…