What's this? Oh no, better not do this; you know
what's inside? I'd better just try it out and see... okay? I've got a cup of hot water here, and
I'm going to drop it in, and then all i need to do is stir it. The hot water will dissolve that funny
sort of gelatine there, and see what happens. Round and round.. oh something's happening at the
end there... yes, oh look, we're getting something coming out.. look look.. something's coming
out, something's coming out of the end there; keep doing it... it erupts from the ends to start
with... I'm going to keep stirring it until it's all fully out from all that gelatine, which
is what they cover food capsules with, if you're having medicine; oh look at that, it just
starts erupting very quickly in hot water into something.... it's pretty well out now, it hasn't
got a shape yet, it's just elongated mass... it's got a band around the
middle I think of gelatine... Oh now it's starting to expand in different
directions... oh look at that... this is something that's growing - I call it growing
in three dimensions; it's a growing toy but a very unusual one; it came out about 20 years ago
these little capsules, little bits of foam rubber which had some pre-shapes in them... it's almost
there now... yes I think we got... it looks like a fish or whale or a seal ... oh it's got a mouth as
well look at that! I can see a little mouth to it; let's see if I can make out what it is... not sure
about that, it looks aquatic, it looks as though it could be a kind of fish or porpoise from the
Nile...! well anyway, there's something there which looks as though it's a creature;
it's a little bit hot to do, but it's grown enormously from that little capsule; and
if you put it out on a saucer and just let it dry, you'll find you've got a little animal.
I think it might even be a penguin actually, the way it's shaped. In which case it ought
to be black and white! It's a creature anyway, a critter. I think they're all supposed to be sea
creatures in this particular batch of capsules, each of which needs to be put into water, and when
the gelatine is dissolved, out comes a critter; bigger than the original capsule by quite
some way too. So I've been looking at things which grow but in all directions, what I call
'three-dimensional growth'. It occurred to me, when I was a small child, the first time I
came across this was of course the balloon, the balloon is an obvious thing which grows in
all three directions; so I'll blow this up... I think that's magic... it's suddenly grown from
something that small to that big... wow! When I did children's parties I was a bit more ambitious,
and started having balloons like this, for which I needed to have a Hoover which worked backwards
as it were, and blew air in; and that was really quite spectacular, because when this is blown
up fully - it takes me about 20 minutes to do like this, I won't do that - but that's going
to get really seriously big as you can see, and it's also very tough rubber too; so that would
be a large balloon. An even larger one was this extraordinary neoprene balloon, which I think is
absolutely fabulous material, because it's very very hardy, very long lasting, and these ones
grow up to about six foot diameter... I'll just start the beginning of it, it's got a lovely
feel to it too this one, and a nice noise... I think some of these are almost meteorological
balloons, you put helium inside them and they float up into the sky, taking scientific
instruments for them to measure the atmosphere and so on; that is a lovely type of special non-latex
rubber, I think it's neoprene or something. Very very beautiful, and my first introduction
really to the magic of things that grow bigger, just in this case by air inflation; and they
get large large large! Now we can show you something which grows bigger by water inflation.
Water inflation? Well yes, these things here; and these have only become popular in the
last 20 years or so; these tiny little balls are made of a special chemical which attracts
the water into it, and over a period of not a few seconds but a few days I'm
afraid, they start growing really big, containing almost 100% water. Look at
the size of this one - that is a clear sphere, and the original size is down there - so
look at the two together; one's about 20 times the size of the other one. That's over about 48 hours
of growth, so it gets quite a bit bigger still; and then what's nice about it, just like balloons,
these will also get smaller in the air as the water evaporates; it goes all the way down to
that size again. I've done it several times. So very very nice idea of air inflation and water
inflation; two things that get bigger and bigger. And here's some more mechanical ones which I like
because they have unusual mechanisms to them. This one for instance is a kite which I
picked up in Amsterdam a few years ago; when you hold it like that and twist it, it
pops up into a cylindrical kite it's called; and that's got aerodynamics which allows it to fly
in the air; that's the kite string - I'll take it out and show you - and then it collapses
just by folding it like that; very very nice, going suddenly from a two-dimensional into
a three-dimensional object with a quick twist and it's done. And here's another one - well you know
this one don't you! I used this for so many years when I was doing children's parties and had to do
magic. It's one of those, yes, a magician's hat. But it grows like that; it starts flat and grows
up to that size when it's open; it's little levers inside, which allows you to do that. So another
magical effect! Here's another one which again I used at many parties; it's a deck of cards which
will grow like that, with a little touch like that, all little flaps fall down inside which
lock it together, and now it's completely stable, but it will shrink from that size to something
much much smaller. So growing things in three dimensions is a wonderful pursuit. I've just got
one more lot to show you, and that's these growing balls that were I think originally created by
Chuck Hoberman, who I used to meet at New York Toy Fair. This is the one he started with ; they
open up like that. It's got very very clear clever leverage systems like lazy tongs, but in all three
dimensions like that; and he made that one there, he made I think this one here which is a very nice
action swinging around and making a large piece, each of the pieces swivels and then locks up into
a tighter position; and this one was a little more remarkable because it did open up like that,
but the idea was you tossed it in the air and it changed colour, because it went from that stage
through the the point which is at its maximum, and it flipped down the other way; well I'll have
to do it like this - it's orange and then it's orange and then it's green and then it's
orange... it changes colour. But the thing he's best known for and which he produced
for New York Toy Fair in about the mid 90s was the Hoberman Sphere, and I still got a version
of this which I think is absolutely fabulous. This is something that was a great hit, and it's
still being made incidentally; it opens up to an enormous size from something very quite small, and
it's very dramatic. I found with kids, they wanted to play with it in other ways; one of the kids put
it on their head like that, and then closed it up, and look what you get - it's like a helmet
isn't it? I'm a robot with a robotic helmet! Do you like it? Does it improve me? Well, it's
funny to wear though, a bit spiky but okay...
