From Grand Illusions.

Visit Tim’s Toy Shop, at https://www.grand-illusions.com/
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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 at parties apparently. The toy is called WallaBalla, and Tim’s version is entirely analogue. More recently a digital version has been created, with a timer, sound, and game options.

The next item was made by a friend of Tim, Professor Neil A Downie, who is a physicist and an engineer. When you start it up, the electric motor in the base causes the metal rod to vibrate and three little rings whizz up and down the wire.

A nice optical illusion, with a green plastic ball trapped inside an orange helical spring. There used to be a motor that would make the spring rotate, but here Tim turns the string by hand to make it turn. It appears as if the green ball is rising up (or down if you turn it the other way), although this is just an illusion.

A giant sunflower in a pot. Turn it on and it plays ‘You Are My Sunshine’ and the sunflower sings long, with the mouth moving and the eyes blinking.

Finally a toy designed by Kurt Naef. He was Swiss and lived from 1926 to 2006. Famous for designing a wide range of wooden toys, this is an exception in that it is not made of wood. ‘Via’ consists of two sheets of clear acrylic plastic, and when you place a marble at the top, it will roll down to the bottom. However the mechanism of travel is very unusual. Initially, the marble rattles along the track, created by the edges of the two pieces of plastic. After a while though, as the two sheets gradually veer apart, the marble drops down and falls silently, spinning all the while, until it drops into the track below, and the process repeats. Mesmerising!