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. 

It’s blue, soft and squishy—and it flies. Yet it’s not a Smurf that’s been shot out of a cannon. It’s a flying disc with an LED light that flashes blue and red. Measures approx 5" dia x 1/8" at the edge and 1-1/2” at the center, where the light is. And no—just because it flies doesn’t mean it’s an LED Zeppelin.

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.

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.

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.

Even if you're not a female flamingo yourself, you can still hatch an adorable hot pink flamingo. You’ll get an equally hot pink, 4-1/4" egg, which you immerse in water and wait a couple-three days while it hatches and grows to 8”+ tall. But the fun doesn’t stop there. Take Pinky out of the water and he or she will shrink back to egg-size and regrow endless times. (The egg, however, will be history.)

…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.

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.

From Insect Lore, these rubber band-powered, wind-up butterfly toys will delight any child of wonder, and probably some adults, too. Measure approx 5” x 5” each, and actually fly. For extra fun, wind one up and place it inside a greeting card. When the card opens, the butterfly escapes. You’ll get (2) different colors and/or designs, ranging from yellow to orange to blue. Ages 4+.

It's real name is the Rock Dove, and it ought to be the national bird. Doesn't fly south for the winter like those wimpy geese, never swoops out of the sky to eat unsuspecting bunnies like bald eagles, just minds its own business and eats whatever you drop on the El station platform. It's not even bald. This hard vinyl version is gray with a rosy breast, and it measures 5” beak to tail. Wind it up and watch it bounce and bob around. Take it home, and it's a homing pigeon.

Just like our famous cow popper, but this guy is a 5-1/4” tall rubber axolotl with a mouth big enough to take a 1-1/8” dia foam ball and spit it 20 feet when you squeeze it, as you will want to do. And if you’re axolotl-ignorant, they’re neotenic salamanders, the world’s cutest amphibians, and they also answer to “Mexican walking fish.” Ours come with (6) foam balls for your axolotl-squeezing convenience. For ages 4+.

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.

It’s Sandy the spinning seal! From Z Classic Wind Ups™, Sandy spins clockwise, bobs up and down and spins her ball on her nose. Arms and tail move, too. Measures approx 8" x 5" x 3", in teal and silver with a red ball adorned with a festive yellow star. All kids love wind-ups at some point in their lives. Great as kitschy adult decor, too.

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.

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. 

We don't know the folks at TSA, but we're hoping they won't let you on the plane with this remote-controlled rattler, for everyone's sake. Measures approx 16" long with (22) segments and creeps along quite quickly when you push the forward, left or right buttons on the snake-eggish infrared remote. Remote runs on (3) button-cell batteries, included, and the snake is rechargeable via the included USB charge cord. Range is about 20 feet. We'll pick a snake in serpauthentic speckled gray, speckled white, or green or orange, all with a nice retractable tongue. Ages 8+.

If Werner Von Braun had used these, Londonwould have just gotten wet. Have somegood clean fun with this Hydrotech"Aquazone" rocket set. You get (2) 5-3/4" tall water rockets and (1) 8-3/4" rocket, plus (2) filling funnelsand a piston pump for power. Includes a 6-page pamphlet on rocketry. For ages 8+, for good clean outside fun.

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 assorted colors, along with a lesson plan and suggested activities.