Strange gadgets

A decent whiteboard but a bad wallet, since cards are hard to insert and remove.

Worked well, with breath smelling of nothing hours later, though the price is high and the ingredients are questionable.

Nicely made with a slick app, but firmly a toy.

The slider version of the Mind concept, which he found underwhelming compared with the sneaker.

Impressive and the most discreet execution of a powered exoskeleton idea he has tried, but not mind-blowing and unclear who it is for.

The pair that blew him away; addictive massaging nodes let you feel the ground, and the sneaker version works better than the slider.

Niche, but it reheats food evenly and he would rather have it than a cold sandwich if there is no microwave.

A smaller but smarter R2-D2 controlled by phone that reacts alongside the Star Wars movies.

A much bigger but half-sized R2-D2 with sound effects and a pop-up periscope, though you have to move it by hand.

The cheapest R2-D2, a basic Lego-style build that can be moved around.

The $1,000 petrol blower is enormously powerful, with a 216 mph top wind speed that made him feel like a superhuman.

The $70 model is a big jump in wind speed and is fairly quiet, though still far from the strongest.

The $120 axial blower pulls air straight through and knocked over 11 Jenga blocks.

The $10 leaf blower was so weak it could not knock over a single Jenga block.

Made his legs feel like they were moving on their own and lowered his heart rate in a short test, though it did little for his arms.

Fun and spontaneous to use, but not very comfortable and hard to justify at over $2,500.

A modular couch tray with a self-balancing cup holder that he finds clunky and overengineered.

Looks ridiculous but did about half the ironing, and he commends the innovation.

Adorable, but it barely cools anything and solves a problem that waiting 90 seconds fixes.

Uses compressed air instead of a spring to fire at 400 ft per second, and it is the only blaster that went right through the cardboard.

A spring-powered blaster rated at 200 ft per second that managed to get through three targets.

Faster than the weakest blaster at an claimed 75 ft per second, but it still pierced zero targets.

An exciting idea that he was nearly invested in, killed by funding problems and a price jump before it shipped.

Surprisingly fast and fun, but fiddly to build and quickly beaten by more exciting toys.