Tiger wind me up!

Tiger wind me up! is the sort of toy that lives on a simple winding mechanism and a bit of motion rather than on electronics or complexity. By our assessment, that old-fashioned setup is its charm: it is easy to understand, easy to start, and usually more fun in a small burst than as a long-session toy. The limit is equally plain, because wind-up toys are brief by nature and depend on a spring, gears, or a similar mechanism that only lasts so long. In practice, the pleasure is in the start-up moment and the little unpredictable movement that follows. It sits in the classic mechanical toy lane, somewhere between a novelty figure and a cheap action toy. The name suggests energy and motion more than depth, and that is exactly the kind of thing it tends to be.