As you know I have a rather extensive collection of wind-up toys.   I love the cheap and colorful toys that are aimed at children (or at their parents, as parents have more money).   But I found these ones recently, and I think they fall into the category of ‘art toys’.   I don’t remember encountering such things before, and it is always good to have new experiences at my advanced age.

This one wobbles along and has a mechanism to make sparks as the center platter rotates.   Not exactly the sort of thing one might give a child, it would be broken in mere moments of use.   It is not the only sparky wind-up in my collection, I also have a sparky King Kong and a sparky Godzilla.

This one is called ‘the pea’, presumably because it is small.   It has a rotating walking mechanism.

This one is a tall, skinny walker.   In the background is my knitting basket, perched atop some of the new books that have come into my house (I know that I say I am trying to cut back on books, but I’m not too successful).

This one is sort of as described, but it’s more of a fluttering heart.   And why do I describe these as ‘art toys’?   Well they were about twice as expensive as ordinary wind-ups, and probably twice as fragile.   And I bought the first two at an art supply store, and the last two at our local art museum.   I really have no sales resistance to this sort of thing.