Tim Rowett on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Timothy Quiller Rowett (born 12 July 1942)
is a British
YouTube personality
A YouTuber is an online personality and/or influencer who produces videos on the video-sharing platform YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006.
Influence
Influent ...
and renowned toy collector, known for presenting videos about toys,
optical illusions
Within visual perception, an optical illusion (also called a visual illusion) is an illusion caused by the visual system and characterized by a visual percept that arguably appears to differ from reality. Illusions come in a wide variety; thei ...
,
novelties
A novelty item or simply novelty is an object which is specifically designed to serve no practical purpose, and is sold for its uniqueness, humor, or simply as something new (hence "novelty", or newness). The term also applies to practical items wi ...
and puzzles on the YouTube channel ''Grand Illusions''. Rowett, known affectionately as "''Tim the Toyman''",
[ (BBC documentary video on page, 00:03:52 runtime by Neil Meads)] is a former children's entertainer, and claims to have collected upwards of 20,000 to 25,000 toys over a 50-year period,
many of which are featured in his videos.
In 2014, the ''
Daily Mirror
The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...
'' described Rowett as a "huge viral hit" and a "web sensation",
while in the following year ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
'' published a piece naming him as one of "the best YouTubers over 50".
Career
Rowett worked as an entertainer at children's parties from his late 20s until retiring in 2007 when he was 65.
In a short
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
documentary, Rowett said that he considered the toys in his suitcases "dead" because they were no longer used, and that he took "great delight" in being able to bring them out and show them to people through his YouTube videos.
In the past he has also donated some of his old toys to children's hospitals.
He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Grand Illusions
Rowett has presented videos on the YouTube channel ''Grand Illusions'' since 2008. In each video, he lightheartedly demonstrates and reacts to at least one toy, puzzle, or optical illusion which is either part of his collection or will be stocked through an online toy store, run as part of the Grand Illusions brand (to which he is a director). There are now several hundred videos on the channel which are around 10 minutes in length each, and have collectively been viewed hundreds of millions of times.
The channel surpassed one million subscribers in June 2019 and was awarded a golden
YouTube Play Button
YouTube Creator Awards, commonly known as YouTube Play Buttons or YouTube Plaques, are a series of awards from YouTube that aim to recognize its most popular channels. They are based on a channel's subscriber count but are offered at the sole ...
, which Rowett unboxed in a video.
''Grand Illusions'' was started as an online community for science and games in 1996. It was developed by Hendrik Ball and
George Auckland (then BBC producers) who were exploring the role of the media and the
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet.
Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...
during the late 90s. Rowett became involved early on due to his large toy collection, and is a personal friend of Auckland and Ball. Grand Illusions became an online store for toys and novelties in 1998, stocking hard-to-source pieces. Since the success of the ''Grand Illusions'' YouTube channel, and the attention it has received on websites like
Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...
, the store has commissioned new toys and also stocks unique items that are handmade or produced in small quantities.
The videos for ''Grand Illusions'' are filmed in a 17th-century farm house in rural
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
. Each one is developed by Ball and Auckland (both now retired from the BBC).
The Grand Illusions online store is run from Oxfordshire although the items are now sent out by a fulfilment house in
Newbury.
Other work
Rowett appeared on the television science programme ''Take Nobody’s Word For It'' in 1989 alongside
Carol Vorderman
Carol Jean Vorderman, HonFIET (born 24 December 1960) is a Welsh media personality, best known for appearing on the game show ''Countdown'' for 26 years from 1982 until 2008, as a newspaper columnist and nominal author of educational and diet ...
, demonstrating optical illusions.
Rowett has been cited and thanked in a number of books as a toy collector and consultant.
Rowett has also contributed his own writing and poetry to books in the past, first publishing a piece in the 1999 edition of ''The Mathemagician and Pied Puzzler : a Collection in Tribute to Martin Gardner'', and again in 2001 with a piece in ''Puzzlers' Tribute: A Feast for the Mind''.
[ At timestamp 00:07:55]
Personal life
Rowett lives by himself at his
Twickenham
Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...
home in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
,
and claims to have not owned a television or computer since the 1970s
(however in January 2017 he acquired a model
Televisor
Mechanical television or mechanical scan television is a television system that relies on a mechanical scanning device, such as a rotating disk with holes in it or a rotating mirror drum, to scan the scene and generate the video signal, and a si ...
for his collection). He has been described as an "eccentric"
and "quirky"
collector and first became interested in toys while attending boarding school as a child, allegedly when a
matron
Matron is the job title of a very senior or the chief nurse in several countries, including the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and other Commonwealth countries and former colonies.
Etymology
The chief nurse, in other words the person ...
showed him a catalogue featuring a variety of toys. Aside from this, he also has an interest in engineering and mechanics.
In a 2014 interview with
Wired UK
''Wired UK'' is a bimonthly magazine that reports on the effects of science and technology. It covers a broad range of topics including design, architecture, culture, the economy, politics and philosophy. Owned by Condé Nast Publications, it is ...
, Rowett reflected on his age, stating "I see myself as an hourglass. A large part of me is 112, a small part is my physical age and the last part is a 12-year-old boy."
Rowett claimed that his home was burgled sometime around the 1980s, but the toy collection was untouched, leaving him feeling "obviously relieved" but "offended they hadn’t valued the toys enough to pinch them".
Toy collection
Among Rowett's first toys as a child included a novelty wheelbarrow and a squeaking panda teddy bear.
Journalists who visited Rowett's home noted that his collection, which spans over 50 years and contains an estimated 25,000 pieces,
takes up a large amount of space. It was reported there were over 180 suitcases
which are neatly ordered by year, and most of his walls and bookshelves are filled with items, including novelty clocks and display cabinets with optical illusions.
Hendrik Ball, a former
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
producer who works with Rowett to develop the ''Grand Illusions'' videos, said that Rowett will carry around toys and equipment with him and give demonstrations "whenever there is a lull". After a meal at a restaurant, he allegedly went outside and inflated a large balloon using a