Every February, one of the world's big toy fairs is held in Nuremberg, Germany. Tim visits the fair every year, and chats to many friends there, some of whom he has known for over 30 years. The companies that exhibit there will be showing all their latest toys, but Tim also takes along some of the latest items he has found, so he has new things to show people as well! This video starts with a variety of spinning tops. First up is a spinning top that looks like a small globe showing the earth, that is suspended magnetically from a metal arm. The base of the top shows the sun. So not only do we see the earth spinning, we can even manually rotate the top to replicate the movement of the earth around the sun!
The next top comes from Japan. It is quite small and also quite heavy. It has an array of pink pieces of plastic that go all around it. When you spin the top, the pink pieces open up and the top becomes a kind of flower. When the top eventually slows down, the petals retract again, just before the top topples over.
Tim then demonstrates a top that looks a little bit like a propeller or maybe a fan. The top is placed on top of the plastic box it was packed in, and a small magnet inside the lid helps to hold the top in place. When you blow downwards onto the top, this causes it to spin. Very neat!
The next two tops contain lights, and work best when you lower the room lighting. The first one is a metal cylinder which will spin on the table due to a ball bearing race in the base. There is a spiral engraved into the side of the cylinder, so as you spin it, it appears to be rising out of the table or sinking into it, depending which direction you spin it. When you press the top of the cylinder, the internal LEDs light up. Push once and all three LEDs light up; press it again and the lights flash, and if you press the top a third time, the light from the LEDs seems to melt one into another. Then there were some simple looking tops made from black plastic. When you spin them, a light appears, but it is not very obvious since the light is on the underside of the top. The trick is that you are supposed to spin the tops in the air, but upside down. You then release them in the air, allowing them to land on the table, and continue to spin upside down. Now the light display is fully visible. It takes a bit of practice to get tops to spin this way...
Tim also brought back a collection of plastic puzzles. Some of them are based on the 'missing area paradox' theme, where the pieces all seem to fit into the base ok, but there is a piece left over. You have to rearrange all the pieces somehow, so that the extra piece fits in as well.
Then Tim shows some 'parity' puzzles, where you have to arrange a small number of pieces in order to create a symmetrical shape. Not easy!
Lastly, Tim shows a flexible cube which can be arranged into all kinds of different shapes.
Tim spent 4 days exploring the Nuremberg Toy Fair. He explains it is great fun, and is one of his best weeks in the year!
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