Is This The World’s Biggest Rain Stick?

From Grand Illusions.

Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/
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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 with motion sensors, so every time you take a step, you get a giant noise – just as if you were a massive dinosaur.

A swanee whistle, also called a slide whistle, consists of a tube with a sliding piston inside it. The sound is produced by a ‘fipple’ – the same mechanism as a recorder. As the sliding piston is moved up and down the tube, the pitch of the note becomes higher or lower.

A drum containing a large number of small ball bearings enables the sounds of the sea to be created.

Now for the Giant Rain Stick! These are a percussion instruments that mimics the sound of falling rain. Often made from bamboo and filled with small pebbles, seeds, or beans, with an internal obstacle course made from thorns or small sticks. As the stick is tilted, the seeds or pebbles inside fall from one one of the tube to the other, hitting the internal thorns or sticks on the way, and producing this amazing sound. Rain sticks are believed to have originated with indigenous peoples of the Americas, particularly in Chile and Argentina, where they were used in ceremonies or rituals to invoke rain. Presumably the bigger the rain stick, the more rain you got? Given the size of this rain stick, presumably it was used to summon thunderstorms!

Tim also shows a modern toy version of a rain stick, although it is nothing like as impressive as the Giant Rain Stick. Tim has a number of rain sticks in his collection, but he has never seen one that is bigger than his Giant Rain Stick!

Finally, a keyboard for young children, where each note makes a whistle sound. The different notes span an octave.

Tim clearly has the makings of a small orchestra!!