It’s a sweater in England, but here it’s a 4" double cord with a molded female 1/8” standard headphone jack at one end, and molded left-right (white-red) male RCA jacks on the other.

Like a switchblade, but optical. Push the button on this 2” x 1” x 1/14” black plastic case and watch a 3/4” dia approx 10X acrylic loupe pop out, ready to rumble. If the Sharks or Jets squared off against the West Side Antique Dealers or Stamp Collectors….

This insulated/padded back pouch measures 20" x 10-1/4", and closes at the top with both (2) snaps and a hook-and-loop strip. Has (8) rows of double straps on one side, (8) rows of 6-slot straps on the other, plus a pair of rings on each shoulder strap. A second set of snap-down straps is tucked on the side opposite the shoulder straps.

The Red Baron would have killed for these flex-frame tactical goggles. Measure 5-3/4” across with padded eyepieces, adjustable 1” wide elastic bands and impact-resistant lenses with UV400 protection. You pick the black frames with smoked lenses, the black frames with yellow lenses, or the coyote brown frames with yellow lenses.

Two-tone, that is. Our each is a 1.5-oz tube of slime in two tones, and like those Chevrolets, it will come in an assortment of colors. We’ll pick the colors because, while the Bel Air was two grand and change, our two-tone is under two bucks, and you’re not going to drive it to the prom.

What mom wouldn’t appreciate walking into the kitchen and seeing these 1-3/4" authentic-looking brown-banded cockroaches scurrying across the linoleum. They move via an internal vibrating motor powered by an included AG-13 battery. While good scurriers, they’re a tad easier to catch than the real thing.

The problem with mobiles is that you have to wait to inherit the wind before they do anything interesting. Until now. This devilishly clever mobile has an 8” wide single prop plane with a solar cell up top mounted on a crossbar with a coin holder at the opposite end for ballast. The whole shebang is approx 18” long. Can be hung on the included 5” ball chain or set on top of an empty plastic pop bottle. In white plastic, which you could paint if you tend to paint things.

The box says it’s a Kray-zee Bell, but to us it just has a nice tinkling sound, the sort of thing you’d use to call the garden fairies to lunch with. In green enameled steel, it has “Ring for Luck” printed on it, although we don’t know why, and what do you care? Bell is 3" dia x 1-7/8" on a 3-1/4" plastic handle with a clapper on a spring, ting-a-ling.

This dipped, nominally 10K Ohm thermistor is on a heatshrunk and tubed 27” lead with a 6mm 2-pin Molex connector. Resistance drops as heat increases (NTC). Comes encased in a 1” x 1-1/8” plastic housing with a clip. AC takeout.

Got boring throw pillows? We feel your boredom. Try these 18” square (a common throw-pillow size) nylon pillow covers to bring a touch of whimsy to your couch. You pick: the pug dressed as Henry VIII, as they will if left to their own devices; the cat dressed as Henry's daughter, Elizabeth I; or the corgi with top hat, bow-tie and monocle, which they wear when the queen’s not around.

Great balls of air! The mighty AIRZOOKA is back--and as cool as ever! Looking like a plastic bucket with a handle and a flip-up gun sight, it blasts a puff of air up to 50 feet. Blow out candles from across the room (and avoid spitting on birthday cakes), spook the cat, disperse bugs, take target practice at styrofoam cups or buy a pair and play air-tag. Measures roughly 11” tall x 11” dia in bright blue plastic and is, frankly, much more fun than you would imagine.

Yes, you can now take all those hours, days, months and years you spent playing Pac-Man® and convert them to a table lamp that your spouse will hate. The Pac-Man® lamp measures 8-1/4” dia with a remote control (15-foot range) to pick one of (7) brightness levels and (12) authentic sounds from the original game. Includes a wall adapter and battery for the remote.

This political globe (i.e. with country boundaries) measures 11” dia, a tad larger than a standard basketball (which is 9.55” dia), and comes on a 7-1/2” base with latitude marked on its bracket. Shipped in two halves--all you have to do it push them together, although you should also feel free to use the halves as stylish bowls.

Sometimes there’s nothing for it but having your own plasma ball. This is the travel- or office-size, a manageable 3-1/8" dia acrylic ball standing on concentric blue disks, 5-1/4” tall altogether. Lay hands upon it and watch the soothing red and blue streamers wave and undulate your troubles away. Great for disco or psychedelic raves in your car or cubicle; you supply the soundtrack. Also great for just strapping to your head to make sure people look at you at music festivals. Get creative with it--take it everywhere you go. You bring (4) “AAA” batteries.

Our each is tub of glitter putty, born at the confluence of silly putty and Ziggy Stardust, with (3) distinct layers of glittery gloop, which Paul, our VP for Gloop Nomenclatura, assures us are heliotrope, apple green and public swimming pool blue. Also smells like Dippity Do, but don’t put it in your hair. You’ll get 4-1/2 ounces, which is more than your mother would like you to have.

Take the (32) pieces in this motorized robot kit and you can make a 6-legged cricket, a gear-driven trailer, a two-legged rolling beastie or a grandfather. And all of them are as cute as robot buttons, especially the bobble-headed grampa. From OWI, the robot people. Sizes vary, but he’ll stand 10-1/2” tall. You add (1) “AA” battery for power. Solderless, but bring a screwdriver and side cutters.

Well, dimmable. Also instant on. And suitable for damp conditions. This 120V LED bulb draws 9.5W and is equivalent to a 60W incandescent. Has a GU24 base, the one with the two little twist-and-lock metal stubs on it. Rated for 800 lumens in a 3000K warm-white color temperature, with a 25K-hour lifespan. UL.

This 50-page book has the materials and plans for making a total of (11) Harry Potter fliers, including the above-mentioned plus the Chinese Fireball, Harry and Draco Quidditch, the Golden Snitch, Norbert the Norwegian Ridgeback, Hedwig the Snowy Owl, Fawkes the Phoenix and Gringotts Dragon. Includes lavish illustrations and a flight log.

Inflatable air loungers are all the rage, and we’ve got ’em! Ours weighs just a smidge over 2 lbs, and when it’s folded and stuffed into its bag with shoulder strap, it measures a mere 14” x 8” x 6”. No pump required! Just swing it around to fill the pockets with air (or use the wind), snap it shut and plop down. Great for the pool, beach, concert, game, picnic, campsite or living room. Hey, it’s your life. When inflated it’ll look like a 20” high x 30” wide x 70” long hot dog bun. Sit in it longways, for a hammock pose, or the other way, where it becomes a single lounge chair--or a love seat if you’re willing to share. Your choose what color but at this price they won’t sit around here for long.

Not just your average coloring set. A set so incredible it is has Premier right in its name. 29 Piece coloring kit that includes 24 coloring pencils, colorless blender, black illustration marker, kneaded eraser, double headed sharpener and coloring booklet. A must for every budding artist.

How to shoot an azimuth for fun and profit: Get the ultimate direction finder, a lensatic compass. It has a 2-1/8" dia face marked in 5-degree increments, a 1/4" dia sight lens, 9/16" dia bubble level, and a 1-1/2" sight with crosshairs. Measures 3-1/4" x 2-1/2" x 1-1/8" when folded and comes with an 18" long cord and an olive drab belt pouch. For instructions, go to www.armystudyguide.com, click on "prep for basic" then "land navigation," then click on "determine a magnetic azimuth using a lensatic compass." Piece o' cake.

The last set of hole saws you'll ever need. This 10-piece set of diamond-encrusted core drill bits comes in a wooden presentation case (Hey, they've got diamonds on them!) and includes 1/4", 3/8", 1/2", 3/4", 1", 1-1/4", 1-3/8", 1-1/2", 2", and 2-3/8" outer dia. Shanks are 1/4" except the (2) largest, which are 3/8", and all the bits are slotted to blow out dust. Each bit is 1-1/4" deep. Designed for cutting glass, ceramics, porcelain, ceramic and porcelain tile, limestone, slate, marble, granite, stone, fiberglass and other tough stuff. Don't forget to add water (not included) for lubrication.

Stick to it with (2) 0.07 oz (4g total) tubes of cyanoacrylate super glue. Best on ceramics, glass, metal, rubber, leather, wood, many plastics and artificial nails (the one on your fingers, we assume). Tubes have applicator tips. You will get (2) packs of (2) tubes with each order. Say that ten times fast!

Our mini-coffin, in unfinished pine with brassish hinges and a clasp, is 6" long x 1-3/4" deep x 3" at the shoulders. You definitely want to think outside of this box, but it's perfect for gerbils, mice (just because you killed them doesn't mean you can't give them a nice send-off), Halloween and Day of the Dead displays, and tiny vampires. We use ours to store doornails.

The Survival Bottle itself is an acrylic, 27-ounce water bottle with a screwcap and keeper. Inside is a compressed towel that magically expands to 23" x 11-1/2", a 52" x 82" Mylar blanket, a 3" x 1" magnesium fire-starting block with a 3" saw blade, a 5-function pen-knife/tool, and a whistle/thermometer/compass/mirror/magnifier/LED flashlight combo (phew!) powered by a couple of included coin cell batteries.

When your basic prom-dress, pants-repairing, pipe-wrapping duct tape isn’t enough, it’s time to grab 3M’s super-heavy duct tape. Rated for use in shipbuilding, steel fabrication and nuclear power plants (no joke!), it comes in 60-yard rolls of deep red tape, 2” wide x .012” thick. UV and weather resistant for up to a year, we’ll admit it’s past the U.S. Gummint’s expiration date, so please don’t use it on your home nuclear reactor. Everything else is fine, though.

Nice little chunky 12VDC 1.5A wall adapter. Has a 6-foot cord, and a right-angle 5.5mm (2.5mm) center-positive female plug. UL.

From iZoom®, our light source of choice, comes this tiny flood that lights way above its weight. Hard to believe (but true) that such a small package is rated for a staggering 500 lumens with (21) white LEDs that have a 30,000-hour life. It’s also indoor/outdoor weatherproof! Measures just 5” x 3-1/8” x approx 1-1/4” with a booted power switch and gasketed battery compartment for the (3) included “AA”s. Includes an adjustable C-bracket for hanging, standing or mounting to the included 4” x 5” base. Should run for a steady 2-1/2 hours on fresh batteries.

Made for your home darkroom, but loaded with dozens of uses for you creative types, this is a set of (5) 3/4" alligator clips, each on a 2" length of fine steel cable and strung on another 12" cable. Mount the 12" length, using the small ring or the removable 1-5/8" suction cup at each end. Hang pix to dry, multiple phone messages on a glass door, holiday/birthday cards on a mirror, freshly washed socks on a motel bathroom wall. Or buy several and accessorize any room in the house. It's a look that will drive that Crockery Barn bunch crazy with envy.

You need this. Anybody who's ever made a third trip to the hardware store on the same day needs this. The (100) -- count 'em, (100) -- chrome vanadium driver and bit attachments include slotted, Phillips, square (Robertson) head, torx, hex and 12-point bits, plus security Phillips, torx and hex, and (4) different driver adapters (one of which, a super-cute cup-hook driver, has us oddly excited). They're all in a flip-top plastic case. How come it's surplus? If you turn it upside down and shake it, some of the bits fall out of their little size-marked slots. So don't do that. Or stick a thin sheet of foam inside it and all will be well.

No autoclave machine? Worry not. Like syringes and half of the medical equipment in the world, scalpels are now disposable. This one is 5-3/4" long and has a green plastic handle with a textured grip (with a 60mm rule on it) and a #11 (that’s pointy, for you non-surgeons) stainless steel blade. Perfect for all your hobbyist needs. Please replace the blade guard before disposal.

Newtonian demonstrator for science teachers. Mindless play for the rest of us. These are shiny, nicely balanced, high-performance examples of the classic Newton's Cradle - a ball on one end of a row of (5) suspended, barely touching balls swings into the others, and the ball at the opposite end reacts to the collision. The 11/16" dia balls in the small version (all-metal frame 6-1/2" high x 4" x 4-1/4") will collide about 30 times. The 7/8" dia balls in the large version (metal frame 5-1/4" high x 4" x 6", with a wooden base) will collide about 100 times. Awesome. Even more awesome that we paid someone to count the bounces just for you! (Unpacking note: Less awesome if you just yank it out by the suspension lines and pull a couple of balls loose. Be gentle.)

Tiny but perfectly accurate, and the only pocket postal scale most folks will ever need. Stick your envelope in its alligator jaws, hold or hang it up and read the weight in grams (0 to 100) or ounces (up to 4) in increasing increments. Handy in the US, and very handy for travel to metric lands. Pretty much flat and approx 3" long in its vinyl pouch, it takes up virtually no room, costs next to nothing, and has no batteries. Nice little teaching tool for kiddies, too.

You supply the pot, we'll supply a dozen Venus Fly Trap seeds and a little sack of soil in a 4-3/8" x 2" dia plastic growing tube, plus an instruction sheet on the care and feeding of everyone's favorite meat-eating foliage. Gestation is about (14) weeks, so order early if you're planning a birthday surprise for someone.

The kids need presents for all the grandmas and great-aunts? You volunteer at the nursing home and need token gifts for your L-O-Ls? And your eyes aren't so good, either? Our each is really half a dozen pretty little magnifiers with round, glass lenses and fancy handles. The handles are silver-bright (hard to believe they're aluminum) and all different. Each has a discreet hole in the tip for a jump ring so it could be worn on a necklace -- but it would look just as pretty on a desk. The overall length of the (6) magnifiers varies from about 3-3/4" to 5", the lenses from 1-1/4" to 1-3/4" dia. All are approx 2X magnification. Mary Ann's pick of the month.

A great hand held rotary tool and an excellent buy. The plastic carrying case at 12" x 8-1/2" x 3-1/2" contains not only the 120VAC-powered variable speed (8,000-30,000 rpm) mini drill/grinder, but a 3-ft flexible extension shaft that allows you to operate in even the tightest spots and a good assortment of bits, grinding stones, cut-off wheels, etc, including collets to fit 1/8" and 1/16" bits. A nice package, and a very nice gift for yourself, or for anyone who enjoys working with hobby tools. UL listed, just like the big boys. Check out all our rotary tools and accessories. Click! 

Now kids can have a belt-mounted coin changer like the ones bus conductors wore when there were bus conductors. And when you didn't need exact change. And when people still used money. Never mind, just tell them it's like the ones ball-park vendors and ice-cream truck drivers use. In red and blue plastic with spring-loaded steel dispensers for pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.

Call it pocket microscopy. Our teensiest tiniest double-lens microscope is just 1-1/2” long x 19/32” dia with a barrel that will pull out another 1/2” for coarse focus. Rated at 16X, and comes with a teensy tiny carrying pouch.

The manufacturer calls it the Thunder Tube". We call it indispensable for the amateur Foley operator. It's a 7" long x 2-1/2" dia PVC tube with a resonant head at one end attached to a 17" long x 3/16" dia extension spring. Shake it, scrape it, wiggle it, use your palm to muffle it and you generate creaks, deep warbles, rumbles, weird heterodyne-ish gong effects, wa-wa's, rude noises, and, yes, realistic thunder. A perfect musical companion to your cuica and rain stick--and good, clean fun around the house. Don't make a sound-track without it.

Whip any number of small things into shape with our set of (30) assorted diamond burs and bits-cylinders, ball-tips, cones and points in graduated sizes. All with 1/8" shanks and all 180 grit, in a black-plastic case with a clear top. Not the super-expensive grade 3 quality, but these are definitely grade 2 and-are you ready for this?-better than the average bur!