Hello!
I was contemplating this passage from "An Unexpected Party" in "The Hobbit"

So I thought I would post this and see what folks might come up with as far as items might be found in treasure hoards, or handed down as heirlooms, or that might start appearing in the markets of Dale again garnered from the treasure hoard of Smaug.

I am surmising that the "toys" are not weapons and armor per-se, but items of possibly intricate mechanical design, and/or maybe imbued with minor magics and used for entertainment or decorative purposes perhaps.

Maybe "marvellous " means there might be automatons or clockwork pieces such as cuckoo clocks, or Dwarvish mine "trains" that go in circles around tracks is a simulated dwarvish mine setting. (Lionel Trains) Or wind up toy soldiers, However...

These things seem too plain and a poor example taken from our modern world.

I will think on this a bit, and see if I can come up with something interesting that is more fitting to Middle Earth, and I would love to hear any ideas you may have!

Astound me!

Your train idea may work. Tolkien did say, "...like the whistling of an engine coming out of a tunnel." Maybe he was referring to the dwarven toy engines!

Some quick thoughts-

Cylinder of Long Sight- A telessoping series of 2 or 3 tubes with polished glass lenses mounted at the ends of the tubes, that when pointed at distant objects that magnifies a small area and allows the user to see details at a greater distance than with the naked eye. Originally built as an attempt for a dwarf to mimic the ability of an elf's vision.


AstronoMecha- (Astrolabe) An complex instrument of somewhat useless necessity but that of casual interest with numerous dials, needles, pointers, gimbals and precision inscriptions that allows the user to predict with a high degree of accuracy, the position of stars and the moon, and even predict solar and lunar eclipses. Now if it could only predict the weather...


Unknown Mechanical Device- A smallish box 1' x 1' x 18" made of brass and steel with glass side panels. Within can be seen an astounding number of densely packed cogs, wheels, gears of various types and sizes, as well as numerous springs and other intricate mechanics.
There is a keyhole on the back and If the key is found and it is wound up, it will click and tick and whirr and make other mechanical noises and periodically in some kind of undistinguishable pattern on the front panel there is a series of rows, of tiny "knobs" that will pop up and retract again in odd-seeming sequences with no apparant reason or function that anyone can determine.
(It is a mechanical computer, and is still computing the last problem the artisan cobbled it for... calculating the square root of PI or something)

How about a Holly Hobbit doll that glows at night for the little Hobbit-girls.

Okay, okay. I will come back to this thread later and give it a serious try...

heheh too funny.

I am just getting around to breezing through the Loremaster's Book, just giving it a once-over before diving in.... and lo and behold I see a Toy Market on page 99!

I has a couple of neat things in there too..