Tops from Tim Rowett's collection

[ta0]

Here is Part I of a selection of spintops from Tim Rowett's (of Grand Illusions) very unusual and large toy collection.
Click on Watch Video on this page.

[SpinQueen]

Nice, now I have another reason to get Lynne to add two more diamonds to my ring

[Neff]

It's been a while since i've seen a store - online or in person - where I wanted everything in it.

[jim in paris]

yeah very nice video

i ' ll forward the link to cyril just in case

[Ketzaltlipoka]

An excellent website! I like that "Spiraculum" Do you know if they are available for sale, ta0?

[ta0]

Grand Illusions has been one of my all-time favorite sites for at least a decade. It started just as an optical illusions and curiosities site, branched into unusual toys with Tim's collection and much later added the shop. I like to read it and look at it, no so much to buy because it is somewhat expensive.

Both the Spiraculum and the Radiaculum (the one I have) are available from Grand Illusions.
In the US, Educational Innovations (www.teachersource.com) has offered several of their things (not a coincidence, they used to sell Tim's toy CD). I got the Radiaculum from them, but I did not find them with a search right now.

[ta0]

The second part in the series is here:

http://www.grand-illusions.com/toycollection/spinning_tops_2/

(click on watch video on that page). I think Don will enjoy it.

Philippe D. made me, while I was watching, a trapped-rings top very similar to the German one Tim shows second. I don't know if Philippe created his version independently but his spins much longer: after the rings find their stable positions the top spins as well as a regular top. He also makes tops with more trapped rings and they will distribute evenly around the axle (he used a stroboscope to show me). However, a 1 ring top cannot be made stable.

Now, the training top is hilarious!

[silvertop]

I met Tim Rowett at the New York Toy Fair many years ago - though it may have been at the New York Gift Show. Naturally we had a lot to talk about, and we had a wonderful time. I mostly remember him giving me a "bikini" pen. It was NOT one of those pens that reveals the naked lady when it is turned upside down. Tim's bikini pen had a definite break between the tip and the upper part of the pen. The only connection between the upper and lower end was 3 very tiny wires evenly spaced around the pen. There was a definite gap between the top and bottom of the pen, and yet when you clicked the button on the end, the writing point moved in and out exactly like a regular pen. Totally fascinating and fun. The only possible explanation is that those tiny wires connecting the top and bottom of the pen were indeed tiny tubes with even more tiny stiff wires inside them that could move and push the tip in and out?

[Jeromy K.]

I think I spent an hour and a half looking around the site and watching videos. Why didn't they have the cool toys when I was a kid

[the Earl of Whirl]

A bikini pen for top spinner? What do you think about that, Ta0?

[ta0]

Well, I actually have one that I bought from Grand Illusions itself! (it was one of the few items under $10 But they may have ran out of them. I would have posted a picture of the pen with a top but I just looked for mine and could not find it

[SpinQueen]

Perhaps your eldest son has taken it

[ta0]

Here it is :

[SpinQueen]

Oh, that's a bikini pen? I thought it was one of those pens that you flip over to see a woman in her bikini. I guess your son didn't take it after all.

[silvertop]

TaO - that's the pen!

Spinqueen - My original post about the Bikini Pen said "It was NOT one of those pens that reveals the naked lady when it is turned upside down." I'm definitely a dirty old man - somewhat less so since the surgery , but I try not to admit it in public! Especially with Mike, Byron and Walter around!