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. Tin and train car colors may vary. You add a "AA" battery and you're the engineer. 

The Gidget Widget stress and anxiety relief gadget picks up where fidget spinners left off. It’s a handsome plastic cube, about an 1-1/4" per side, with calming colored buttons and dials for your fidgeting pleasure. This is the 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+.

Does anyone need to be told what a Slinky(tm) toy is?? Okay, it is a very slack spring, 2-7/8" dia x 2-1/2" long, compressed. It will stretch out to about 5 or 6 feet long without deforming. That's the boring part. The interesting part is that it "follows" itself. Slosh it from hand to hand. Put in on the top step of stairs, flip the end down a step, and watch it walk down stairs, or down an incline. Believe us, no childhood (or adulthood) is complete without an original steel Slinky(tm). It was hard for us to find it, but we are glad we did. You should be too.

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.

You're buying the drinks and this wacky, yet debonair, bird with a top hat and plastic base (7" tall OA) can't get his fill of water. Get him started, and he dips his beak into your glass repeatedly. How? Fluid inside his glass body condenses from the evaporative cooling of the water off the bird's beak, making it top heavy and dunking it back into the water. The condensate rejoins the liquid pool in the bird's bulb, and he tips up again. Process continues indefinitely. It works, but it's not any more than moderately well made, and not any more than moderately priced. WARNING! The fluid and dye inside the bird can permanently stain, and the bird's glass body can easily be broken. Children are fascinated by the bobbing bird, and the educational possibilities are great. But they should watch him, not fondle him!! Manufacturer warning states this item is not intended for children 8 and under. 

We love Kikkerland® because they come up with surreal stuff like this 8-1/2" tall DIY Critter, a mechanical stickperson kit for the ages. You assemble the wire-frame shaking toy with a wind-up gearbox and offset cam that allows it to “walk.” Critter legs are roughly the thickness of a heavy paper clip. This kit is not for little kids! Ages 16+.

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.

Meet mini floppy! (AKA wacky waver) You know floppy. You see his larger family members all over the place, promoting sales and events of all kinds. Floppy measures a mini 12" tall, has a battery operated fan in the base, and operates on a single 9-volt battery that you supply. (Available here) Floppy is a great attention grabber and gets giggles from Grandma or the baby sitter. Get yours today!

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. 

Look! Up in the sky! It's a screeching flying monkey to the rescue! And at a screechingly low price. Our hero is an 11" long stuffed monkey superhero togs (a mask and cape). Put two fingers in the little pockets on his paws, pull his bungee arms back, and let him go. He'll fly a good 25 feet or more, issuing hideous monkey screeches all the while, faster than a flying nun and able to brighten up a day in the office in a single bound.