Grand Illusions Christmas Pack - 2025 2026

Our annual festive goody bag, packed with items to puzzle, entertain and amuse! 1. CATAPULT Press the parts out from the pre-cut wooden sheet and follow the instructions in order to make your own working model catapult. 2. SPECTRE TESSELATION A tessellation or tiling is the covering of a surface, often a plane, using one or more geometric shapes, called tiles, with no overlaps and no gaps. This shape of tile, known as a Spectre, was only discovered in 2023. 3. BALLOON SIREN By squeezing each balloon in turn, you can force air through the siren in one direction and then the other – the siren works in both directions. 4. GIFT CARD MAZE PUZZLE Rather than a regular card, this year we have included the GIFT CARD MAZE PUZZLE. You can place gift cards or money inside and then seal it before presenting it to the lucky recipient. They have to solve the puzzle in order to get their present! 5. INTERMEDIATE AXIS SPINNING TOP This deceptively simple little spinning top exhibits some very unusual behaviour. 6. THE LEVITATOR Magnetic forces create an amazing visual spectacle, as the device appears to float and spin as if by magic. 7. TOWER OF HANOI A traditional puzzle of skill and dexterity for several players, or just for one person. The object is to move a 5-block pyramid from pole A to pole C in the least number of moves. 8. FIND THE ‘T’ Arrange the wooden pieces in such a way that you ‘Find The T’. 9. PENTAKIS KALEIDOSCOPE The Pentakis Dodecahedron Kaleidoscope is a three-sided mirror kaleidoscope – a simple but ingeniously formed sheet of metal that opens up an astonishing optical microcosm. This version has been specially made for our Christmas Pack, and as well as functioning as a kaleidoscope can also be suspended from a nylon thread as a decoration. 10. MIRROR IN THE MUG It is well known that if you hold up printed words to a mirror, they will be reversed in the reflection. Less well known is that the space-time continuum can be reversed in small circular spaces...!