Bored with looking at bicycles on the back of your playing cards? Sick of that one-eyed jack and the king with the ax? Add a little fun to your gin rummy with these full-tilt theme cards. Regular 52 decks, plus jokers, poker size, but with some of your favorites on both the backs and faces. You pick: Bigfoot; Marilyn Monroe in all her movies; Harry Potter and friends; Marvel superheroes; Bacon recipes galore; or a whole kennel of Dachshunds.

We just learned that. You’d think we’d have known. Now we do. They’re sort of like round dreidels, with a hollowed-out middle around the stem, which causes them to turn themselves upside down while they’re spinning. Great lesson in center-of-mass instruction for physics teachers. Includes an explanatory booklet with activities and discussion topics. You’ll get (3) wooden tops at 7/8”, 1-1/4” and 1-1/2” dia.

Glow-in-the-dark plastic skeleton, about 1 ft. tall. That is the end result. What you get is a box of bones that you snap together to create the final product. Which is kind of fun. Or of course you can leave some or all of them disassembled to create a sense of havoc. We're not going to claim it is anatomically correct, or educational. But you do need to figure out that feet don't grow from shoulders and thigh bones do not connect to jaw bones. Maybe 5 minutes of fun!! And the finished product is one of our better little Halloween guys.

Earth science rocks. Start your young scientists off  with one of these rock kits from GeoCentral®. The basic rock kit has (15) examples of metamorphic, sedimentary and igneous rock; the mineral kit has (15) samples of things beyond simple rockness, such as quartz, alabaster and talc; fluorescent rock kit has (9) examples of  (7) rocks that glow, including lapis lazuli and green fluorite, plus a UV penlight. All include an 11-page booklet, magnifier and a streak plate.

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.

They'll call you rainbow fingers when you have this pack of (4) LEDs attached to elastic rings with 3" long fiber optic bundles on the front. You get (1) LED/bundle for each finger--red, white,blue and green--and the fiber optics are removable. CJ, our Senior VP for Jazz Instrumentation, says you just might be able to use these as brushes on a snare drum with enough amplification, and the audience would love it. Irreplaceable batteries included. Order (2) sets, because you have (8) fingers.

It could have been called an Alabama Buzzer after Alabama Vest, the man who invented it. Or a Clegghorn, after Thaddeus Von Clegg, the clock master who fabricated the first one. But the hand-crafted 4-3/4" long steel instrument was a simple amusement, and the 1840s were a simple time. So it's simply a kazoo.

In another triumph of good taste, let us introduce our first squirting toilet bowl trick. Measures 3-1/2" tall x 3-3/4" deep and shoots over (5) feet when some unsuspecting person lifts the little lid. Perfect for mom's birthday. And no batteries required!

Start with our selection of punches from Paper Shapers®. We'll pick (5) different paper punches, with cutouts approx 3/8" to 1/2" across, from a staggering variety of shapes, including hammers, leaves, birds, state outlines, animals, fish, tools, geometric shapes and many others. The punches themselves are 2-1/2" x 1-1/4" ovals with a thumb press.

By popular demand from every 12-year-old in our database, our remote-control rat is back, this time in a new, improved model with an infrared sensor on his little rat back. Measures an alarming 7-1/2” long (almost 11” with the tail) and is powered by (5) “AAA” batteries, which you’ll have to add, because it’s your rat. Improved 25-foot range will reach well into your mother’s walk-in closet or the teachers’ lounge. In luxurious black velour (another first), it runs straight ahead and spins backwards. The red LED eyes just add to the rodential verisimilitude.

It’s called Thinking Putty® because while you do whatever you want with it, your brain relaxes and opens up to all kinds of creative thinking. Need it? Yes. And you can also knead it. Or bounce it, bend it, tear it, stretch it, snap it, pop it. Pick from the 3.2 oz of dark green magnetic Strange Attractor putty with iron filings infused in it, plus a 1/2” cubed rare earth magnet; the 3.2 oz glimmering light green Foxfire putty that you can draw on with the included blacklight keychain light; or the Super Scarab, 3.2 oz. of color-shifting blue/purple/copper/red putty reminesent of Egyptian scarabs. Comes in a 4” dia x 1-3/8” tin.

Geology for those with short attention spans? The original Magic Rocks®, of course! Mix the solution in a jar of water, drop in the pebbles, and watch them grow into a forest of multi-color stalagmites. Growth starts in 10 minutes, is impressive in 30 minutes, and complete (up to 4" tall) in 2 hours. Extra credit if you can make it grow stalactites by gluing the pebbles to the bottom of a jar, then pouring the solution in and turning it upside down. Who knows? Maybe it will work. Comes with a set of marine decals to decorate the jar. Definitely not for use with living fish. For ages 10 and up.

More goose-sized than chicken-sized at 3-3/4" tall x 2-3/4" max dia, this soft, translucent-rubber egg glows with color. It can be set to stay one hue, or to change very slowly from purple through blue, green, orange and red to purple…. Very Zen. Or very cute in an Easter basket. Runs on (3) replaceable button-cell batteries, included.

Get creative with a half-dozen soft, cuddly, 4" tall stuffed kitties, cute as the dickens and with heads held on with hook-and-loop patches. Devise your own creative game to play with them (Pin the head on the pussycat.) or just ingeniously stick them around to surprise your friends and family. The label calls them "Stress Kittens" because, of course, having the option of changing your mind is a relief, even for a cat. You get (6) in black with a white belly, purrfect for rubbing.

You never know when you might find yourself in a ramen noodle gang fight. This switchblade spork is 6-1/2" long and snaps open to 11". Has a pushbutton trigger switch and a sliding safety so you don't spork yourself by mistake. If Russ Tamblyn had had one of these, he might still be a Jet.

Think of it as a shortcut to learning perspective. This clever 50-sheet pad of white, 7" x 4-1/2" paper has a fine red and blue grid pattern that shows your drawing and doodling in 3-D when you wear the included 3-D glasses. It's our candidate for the why-didn't-I-think-of-that award this year.

Hold the bottom onion-shaped bulb of this 4" glass toy in your hand and watch the liquid (green, red, blue or purple, we'll pick) magically bubble up into the top chamber and keep on bubbling like the dickens, as your grandmother used to say. The magic is ethyl alcohol and physics. WARNING! The glass if fragile and the liquid is nasty. If you drop the thing in the kitchen it will eat the finish off the tile and permanently stain the floor, so don't let the kids handle this item unsupervised.

Very much a classic magic trick set, but in a little 5-1/2” x 4” x 2-1/4” tin. Hardly seems possible, but it contains more than (25) tricks, including vase and ball, mystery computer, floating hearts, balls and cup, disappearing coin, nail box and a buncha card tricks. Includes a 32-page instruction booklet, too.