Each year I begin my tour of the Canadian Toy & Hobby Fair with a visit to Zibbers, not just because theirs is the first booth that greets you when you enter the show, but because they have walls loaded with, well, "stuff", novelties and knick-knacks both strange and useful. This year I'm delighted to discover that they have become the distributors of the "Lil' Vampire" baby pacifier which I posted about two Halloweens ago and having been trying to hunt down. They have the entire line of gag pacifiers and fake teeth including sets to turn your baby into a princess or a puck sucking hockey player.

Some of the stranger items on display include this rack of hanging fish. Each is a life-like inflatable pool toy. Just inflate the shark, alligator, killer whale, or dolphin and toss it into the pool for your guests to discover and chase each other around with.

Water Buds help you mark which open bottle of water is yours. Happens to me a lot, I go to a press conference or an event, place my bottle of water down for a moment on a table, go back to get it and there's three others. Which one is mine? Haven't got a clue. No one wants to claim any of them so they are all poured out or tossed away. A Water Bud is a charm attached an tiny elastic ring. You simply wrap it around the neck of the bottle and you'll always know which one is yours. They even have a speech bubble design that you can write little messages on.

Weird-Ohs are a throw-back to a popular series of model car kits from the 1960's that celebrated the crazed hot rod culture of the time. The toys have returned to offer a new take on the radical skateboard culture of today with a series of magnetic figures and trading cards of the classic images. Each figure magnetically grips its skateboard and using that connection you can fix them into many different poses.

Help! These googly-eyed ball-point pens wouldn't stop looking at me. Their eyes actually roll around in their sockets. No matter how you tip the pen, they're still looking at you.

These are a series of classic pull-back toys. Pull 'em back and let them go. instead of the usual race cars, these are insects and they come inside their own plastic holding chamber.

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