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Tim continues the exploration of his varied collection of frog toys!

Clips - Tim has all sorts in his toy collection!

Here is a little item that Tim picked up on his recent trip to New York. Made by 3D printing, it is in the shape of... well, it is kind of like... umm.. well if you look at it from this angle...

The world’s first sound-activated, self-rolling, motorized dice. Clap your hands and Boogie Dice will start to roll by themselves like magic! Dancing dice - whatever next?

The dice can be recharged via a USB socket.

Even though the dice are filled with electronics, they are still perfectly balanced for truly random rolls and results.

Every Spring, when Tim travels to the Nuremberg and New York toy fairs, he also drops in on local toy shops, and often comes back with some new toys which were not actually at the toy fair, but which were acquired on the same trip. Here are some of the new toys Tim added to his collection in Spring 2019!

This paper engineering kit will allow you to construct the 'Monster from the Deep'. As you turn the handle, the ship rises and falls on the waves. But wait... what is that? Out of the deep appears the monster, jaws agape. Will the monster gobble up the ship? Luckily the ship appears to survive.

Spin Flux comes from the same small company in Hungary that created the Flux Original and the Skill Flux. It is both a tactile and a visual toy. The mirror finish outer aluminum ring or torus contains in the middle a neodymium magnetic ball that can rotate but is otherwise held in place.

As you start rotating the ball you notice a magnetic interaction between the components caused by a phenomenon called Lenz’s law. Depending on the direction you turn the ball, it will behave differently. Turn the ball one way and it will move very easily, turn it in the other direction and you will feel a great amount of resistance.

Tim has a lot of frog toys! Here is the fourth, and final, frog video. A least until he acquires more!

SHORTY AWARDS

For those of you who have been kind enough to ask, we didn't win the Shorty Award, although we were pleased to be a finalist. Here is the video segment in which we are mentioned - https://youtu.be/EmoWz5JGHkg

The winner was Captain Disillusion. Here is one of his videos, which deals with the Escherian Stairwell Illusion - https://youtu.be/eLAwG7CjF_k

The makers say that it is literally impossible to be unhappy whilst wearing one of these Happy Hats!

The clever paper design can be transformed into four different hats. Comes folded flat and when you open it out it transforms into a handy (and happy!) paper hat.

See https://www.grand-illusions.com/happy...

This action paper craft kit is designed by the Japanese paper engineer Haruki Nakamura. It allows you to build a card model of an Adelie Penguin. The penguin can be locked in the flat position. When you then drop it onto the table, it pops up!

Tim pays tribute to a friend of his, Lynn Lewis, who died in September 2018.

He founded a company in 1974 called Nauticalia (which is still in business) selling all sorts of nautical replicas and boating accessories.

Tim and Lynn exchanged ideas on various items over the years, and Tim particularly liked the more whimsical items in their catalogue.

In this video, Tim shows some of the items that he got from Nauticalia over the years.

A very elegant pop up card - beautiful paper engineering!

The Galton Board is a 7.5” by 4.5” desktop probability machine. This device brings to life the statistical concept of normal distribution.

As you rotate the Galton Board on its axis, you set into motion a flow of steel beads that bounce with equal probability to the left or right through several rows of pegs. As the beads accumulate in the bins, they approximate the bell curve, as shown by the yellow line on the front of the Galton board. This hands-on Galton Board allows you to visualize the order embedded in the chaos of randomness!

See https://www.grand-illusions.com/galto...

Read the booklet here - http://galtonboard.com/Content/Instru...

The humble cork. But for Tim... endless possibilities! From simple bar tricks, to unusual craft toys, cork sharpeners and corks that are not corks, Tim has them all!!

Spinning tops are very familiar toys. But these tops are unusual - they don't spin around a central axis. Instead they rotate around 2 axes, and can often show quite unusual behaviour.

Every year Tim visits the Nuremberg Toy Fair in Germany, in search of new and novel items. Here are some of the samples that he brought back from his 2019 trip...

Only 3 days left to vote.... we recently found out Grand Illusions has been nominated for a Shorty Award 🙌🎉! Voting closes on February 21st 2019, so head to https://shortyawards.com/11th/hendrik... to help us win!

Chinese Magic Mirrors are made of bronze. On the back will be a design in relief - in this case the Chinese Signs of the Zodiac. The front of the mirror is smooth and polished, and works well as a mirror.

If you didn't know, you might just think it was a metal mirror. However if you shine a light onto the front surface of the mirror, and project the reflected light onto a blank surface, you will see an image. Normally the image is the same as the design on the back of the mirror, although not always.

Every two years, Tim attends Gathering for Gardner - http://www.gathering4gardner.org/ - in Atlanta, USA. This is the second of two videos where he shows some of the items he brought back from the 13th Gathering (hence G4G13) in 2018. Puzzles, magic tricks, illusions and mathematical diversions...

Here is a fabulous optical illusion that you can download for free, print out and make yourself!

These little paper dragons are an example of what is called the 'hollow face illusion.' The head or face of the dragon is folded the opposite way you would expect - it is hollow or concave. However, our brains expect faces to stick out, to be convex. And so our brains 'flip' the face of the dragon, and we see it as being convex.
But... when we move, or if we move the dragon, the perspective of the face does not behave in the way our brain expects. And instead of seeing the face as it really is, the brain comes up with an alternative reality - it thinks the face is moving in a way that it is not!

We have got three PDF files, for a blue dragon, a green dragon or a red dragon. Just download the one(s) you want, and print the PDF out onto a sheet of A4 paper. 80gsm or 100gsm. Note that page sizes in the UK are not always the same in other countries, so look for the print option 'fit to page' or 'scale to fit'. Then cut out the dragon, fold it as instructed, and assemble it. A paper glue is best, although you can use sticky tape. Then stand by to be amazed. And then amaze all your friends too!

It sometimes helps if you close one eye when viewing the dragon...

BLUE DRAGON
https://www.grand-illusions.com/Files...

GREEN DRAGON
https://www.grand-illusions.com/Files...

RED DRAGON
https://www.grand-illusions.com/Files...

Visit the Grand Illusions Toy Shop if you would like to purchase one of Tim's hand crafted Nile Mugs - See https://www.grand-illusions.com/tim-s...

Made here in the UK, this bone china mug showcases Tim, with quite a few references to the Nile!

Tim made a video some years ago, where a vase mysteriously kept re-filling with water. See https://youtu.be/KPKzGagdvNc His phrase 'Water from the Nile' has passed into folklore on this YouTube channel!

Our motion graphics designer David Chaudoir, the man who creates our titles, came up with such a lovely 'Water from the Nile' themed title sequence for our 2019 videos that we decided to create mug as well, featuring the same design. It also shows Tim in his 'Suit of Arms'.

Inside the rim of the mug, if you hold it in your right hand, you will see the words COFFEE FROM THE NILE. Hold it in your left hand, i.e. with the mug the other way around, and the words inside the mug read TEA FROM THE NILE.

Made in Staffordshire, in the north of England, which has been a centre of ceramic production since the 18th century. We have had a limited run of 360 mugs made. There are no plans for any more.