MOVERS, SHAKERS & GROWERS

More fun than a canned ham, this flip-top storage tin has a train set inside, with a plastic steam engine, tender, boxcar and caboose, as well as a 12-piece track that forms a 10" x 22" oval. You add a "AA" battery and you're the engineer. 

…in your pocket, or are you just itching to see us? Pure surplus—these small extension back-scratchers were promo items—"Elect Jim Flummer!” or “Nevada Financial Concepts,” among many, many others—with ball points at the other end and caps with pocket clips. Don't know what happened to Jim, or in Nevada, but we've got 'em now. Some pen inserts might be gone, they could be any color in the rainbow, and some could use a drop of glue to keep from over-extending when you pull them out. But let's not look a gift (practically) scratcher in the tines. Also dandy for raking the sand in your desktop Japanese garden.

Spin the ribbed 7" handle of this hand-powered prop between your palms, and watch it take off. (If it lands instead of flying off into the wild blue yonder, reverse the spin!) Neon handle, bright, metallic-flaked 8" propeller, and a lift so high we imprinted it with our logo - the airborne Jarvis. It's all plastic, and won't decapitate anyone, but it's still for 10-year-olds and up.

Go fly a kite. We highly recommend this rainbow-colored nylon parafoil version, measures 20" x 23" at its widest with a 14-foot tail (over three times longer than a tiger's) on a spindle with a couple hundred feet of string. Includes a carrying pouch, too, making it a very practical, portable parafoil.

Sometimes fun is like anything else—if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself. The Magic Hatchlings are chicken-sized eggs that you put in a glass of water and wait a couple days for them to hatch a baby flamingo, dinosaur or sloth. Ages 4+.

…in a box. This set of flying models comprises the history of flight from Kitty Hawk to the Space Shuttle Discovery. You’ll get the Wright Brothers' flier at approx 10" x 9" x 3", Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis at approx 12" x 11" x 6", the Blue Angels F/A-18 Hornet at approx 11" x 10” x 4", and the Space Shuttle at approx 12" x 8" x 4". All are fliers, with the Spirit of St. Louis powered by a rubber-band prop. Includes flight instructions. No glue or tools needed.

THE American classic novelty item (even ahead of the whoopee cushion and rubber vomit, we think) is a set of chattering choppers. Auto-dentures. Invented by Eddy Goldfarb in 1949, a man who made the Toy Industry Hall of Fame ahead of Milton Bradley, these are, not to put too fine a point on it, the sine qua non of gagdom, the ne plus ultra of spring-driven frivolity. Ours are 2-1/2" dia, with a wind-up key.

Good clean fun for trips to the beach or pool. This 4-3/4” rubber shark has a small human foot sticking out of its maw. Give him a good squeeze and the leg pops out up to the shin. Quickly repeated squeezes make it look like the shark is having lunch.

Cutest drone ever. Shaped, and sized, like a chicken egg, just over 2-1/2” tall . Opens up to a 5” wide quad-rotor drone with a range of approx 100 feet, and it’ll fly for approx 6 minutes on a 45-minute charge. Features auto-hover and 360-degree roll, headless remote and (3) speeds. Includes charging cord, spare blades and a small screwdriver. Has a 2.4 GHz transmitter that uses (2) “AAA” batteries.

Shoot one of these little plastic arrow-helicopter-rotor gismos straight up with the included rubber band launcher and watch it soar as far as 300 feet! A fun outdoor toy that grows in sophistication as you learn how to adjust the arrowcopter for wind conditions and flight patterns: distance, return, circular descent etc. Our "each" contains a package of two (2). Recommended for kids over the age of 9.

AKA hand boiler. An exotic bit of hand blown glass with a bulb at top and bottom connected by some zippy tubing that spirals, loops, and/or jogs. In the closed system is some colored liquid (methylene chloride) that is very light. Hold the lower bulb in your hand and as the liquid is warmed it pushes through the loops to the upper chamber. When all the liquid is pushed out of the lower bulb, expanding air will bubble through the tubing making it appear that the liquid is boiling. WARNING! The glass is fragile and the liquid is nasty. If you drop the thing on the kitchen tile, it will eat the finish off the tile and the stain in the liquid will permanently stain the floor, so don't let kids handle this item unsupervised. About 7" tall, it is a favorite in our stores.

The Gidget Widget stress and anxiety relief gadget picks up where fidget spinners left off. It’s a handsome gray plastic cube, about an inch per side, with calming green buttons and dials for your fidgeting pleasure. This is the Series 2 model with all new fidget functions, including dial, scroll, slide, click, flip and jump. Sounds like a junior high on a Friday afternoon, but it’s all at your fingertips anytime you need or want it. Ages 6+.

Rattlebacks are plastic semi-elliptical shapes, 3-7/8" long, that illustrate Newton's laws of motion, while mystifying kids. Set them down (the rattlebacks, not the kids) and their offset center of gravity makes them spin. Spin them in one direction and they stop and reverse themselves. You get a package of (10) in blue, along with a lesson plan and suggested activities.

Bigfoot fans will be beside themselves with this triple Yeti collection of big hairy fun. You pick: the 5-1/4” tall big fella himself in authentic chocolate brown flexible rubber with, yes, big feet (approx 1-1/2” x 1”) and an equally big, embarrassed-looking grin (for ages 3+); or the Grow-Your-Own Bigfoot that sprouts from a tree stump when submerged in a container of water, and keeps growing as you increase the container size (for ages 5+); or the 2.4-oz tin of gooey Bigfoot scat, because no home is complete without a tin of abominable poop. For ages 3+ and marked “Do not ingest,” which is good advice for this or the real thing. Mfr says it's “play putty,” and we won't argue with that.

From Sky Racers®, the foam-flier folks. Their NASA shuttle measures 10" x 8" x 4" and flies over 100 feet after you launch it with the included rubber-band finger catapult. Simple assembly with (2) pieces that slide together. Adult guidance recommended, just like at Cape Canaveral.

From France comes this fun mechanical plastic bird that really flies by flapping its wings. It is about 8" long and has a wingspan of 16" tip to tip. Snap the wings in place, wind up the rubberband drive and toss it gently into the air on its maiden flight. It flies up to fifty yards with a satisfying fluttering sound. 

Introducing the Aeromax 2000. This update of the classic parachute toy has mesh under the canopy instead of lines, so it's tangle-free. Big 20" chute floats the little 3-1/2" tall trooper gently to the ground. In assorted colors, which we'll pick because we have really good color sense.

Dirt-cheap fun for the kids--at home and at school. Attach the (3) 5-1/2" long plastic blades to the whistling nozzle, blow up the little balloon and watch the world's cheapest helicopter fly away. Paul says it demonstrates Newton's third law, but he says a lot things. Great for classroom demos. Paul not included.