Egyptian Camel ~ This camel was purchased in Cairo in 2002 in a shop just at closing time; I remember the blue-green fluorescent light on the shelves and the dark night sky. There were many camels but this was the cutest one! I had been earlier informed that your are supposed to haggle on prices, so when the shop keeper said the price I announced a much lower one and everyone laughed at me... Later in life it acquired a lot of mould...

Creepy Ship Hull ~ This ship hull lived on the windowsill and was sinister in its abandoned state looking much like a hull wrecked at the bottom of the sea. I once suggested it should be restored, but its better this way.

Bear ~ This is an articulated bear; it was not a very good hugging bear because its too hard, but its a very good sitting on a shelf bear and is generally a good bear.

Musical instrument made for me by Hugh Davies ~ Inscribed on the inside is “For Daniel - Hugh Davies”; Hugh Davies was a sound artist known for experiment sounds and instrument making in the 1960s.
It is played by holding the coffee tin with your foot on the ground and pulling the fishing line tight, you can then twang and squeak the string to produce sounds - instructors to create this instrument can be found in this book.
I remember that he treated me respectfully even though I was a kid. He died about 3 years after giving me this.

Milk steamer ~ This was used to steam hot milk on the electric stove in the upstairs kitchen. It was very fun to make steam with it and I remember the sound when you turned the knob very distinctly. In retrospect Im not really sure why having steamed milk is necessary, but life is not about necessity.

Oil lamp ~ This is an oil lamp from Barcelona following the design of a Roman oil lamp. It lived in my parents room and occasionally would be fuelled with olive oil by filling the central bowl. I remember watching the oil disappear into the lower compartment which seemed very magical, a kitchen towel twisted into a wick would be placed in the spout and lit to produce light.

Dog and Monkey ~ I don't trust the monkey, but I remember the dog was one of the “the crew”. The crew was a group of 4-5 primary teddies that were in rotation when I was little; mainly featuring, Bunny, Rabbit, Rat, Dog and Bear in frilly jumper. Dog was a less popular member of the group.

Spoon Catapult ~ Originally made by my dad in his mysterious tiny toy workshop that later tuned into a shower/laundry room when toys stopped being made. This was useful for catapulting marbles and various other objects across the room and was quite effective, although the wheels rolled poorly. Later in life its elastic abilities were significantly reduced.

Seed and figures ~ In the centre is a 2003-era seed figured made from Fimo, Seeds were the first generation of figures that later gave way to OOs and and finally to Zorbs that are still available on this site here! Beside the Seed is a fimo Lump character, possibly the last known existing one.

Pokemon Figure ~ This is a 2004 Ruby generation figure. It features in the Blue Fish production “Shop of Big Things” and also in the Blue Fish supercut available on this site! This is my favourite generation of Pokemon and I remember playing with this one on the table at boring dinner parties!

Assorted toys and Pez ~ This is a 1997-era Star Wars PEZ dispenser from Barcelona. It later initiated the 2005 PEZ bonanza when I discovered PEZ could still be purchased exclusively from a small sweet shop near my house and nowhere else. This allowed me to introduce PEZ as the primary currency on our schoolyard and ensure I would have a near-monopoly on its supply, allowing my school-yard district (Grumbletown) to hire gangs of 6th years kids and complete an imperial takeover of 80% of the yard, briefly known as the Grumble Empire. This period of peace and stability was eventually unsettled when the 6th years graduated and we forgot about that game.

Business Cards ~ These are my first business cards and appear to follow the “Circle Futurist” design standard; this was a design style that featured circles, stripes, grids, wires and futuristic vehicles. It can be dated to between 1998-2002; after that it was largely replaced by the “Fantasy Ocean” style that became more nautical and rustic.

Japanese Gameboy game and Glass objects ~ Late 80s Japanese game of unknown source - Plus an assortment of glass objects, the bottle top glass object used to sit on the shelf of interesting objects beside my bed and had a distinct worn quality.

Assorted vintage items ~ These are items mostly from the glass display case that could never be opened. The endless landscape cards were on the shelf of interesting items I kept beside my bed and allowed you to construct landscapes by connecting multiple seamless cards. The Kodak canister contains sand from below the Pyramid at Giza.

Pirate Hat ~ This pirate hat is not very old but it fits the collection well, it was worn by my dad at his exhibition of pirate paintings in 2017.

Submarine ~ This submarine is from Dave’s One Pound Shop. It allowed you to install a battery in the lower white casing and it would propel itself forwards in the bath using a small motor. Adjusting the fin at the front would cause it to dive and rise in the water very successfully. This submarine sailed many bubblebath seas and accomplish a number of important and historic missions!

Broken Plate ~ This is a broken plate, some of the pieces were also present in the box for possible gluing.

Door letters ~ These were the letters from my bedroom door. Apparently the I and the L from DANIEL are missing. I have begun the necessary paperwork to change my name to Dane to resole this issue.

Beer bottle plane ~ This is one of the many folk-craft planes that seemed to exist at one point in time. This one was made of old beer bottles and felt very fragile. I reattached its tail wing the last time I saw it although it was lightly to fall off again.