Weird & wonderful

Cleaned the shoes to about 97% and he would use them from now on.

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

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

The printed results are mind-blowing, but the machine is very expensive and he doesn't know what he'd use it for.

Manually tinted glasses that tint one lens at a time, and he felt misled by the ad.

Cleans screens well and sticks to the back of a phone, though they pick up grime and lose stickiness.

Shuffles imperfectly but deals neatly and understands the game, which impressed him.

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

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.

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

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

The maglev stand is impressive, but the price goes into a gold nib and the build feels not premium enough.

The $139,000 diamond set sounds superb and is one of the best wireless headphones he has used, though he would be terrified to wear them.

A $119,000 limited edition set that looks stunning with sapphire-set rings, he thinks looks better than any consumer headphones.

Powerful heat and compression that he would use around the house, a rare case where luxury buys convenience.

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

A life-size remote-controlled R2-D2 that impressed him with its momentum and feels like operating heavy machinery.

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

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

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

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