Flying Orb Ball, Hand Controlled LED Boomerang Spinner

You throw it, it comes back. That is the whole afternoon, right there.

It is a light-up orb about the size of a grapefruit. Switch it on, give it a spin, and let go: it lifts, it curves, and it drops back into an open hand like a boomerang. Nothing to pair, nothing to learn, no app on your phone.

The trick is that it is genuinely hard to get good at. The first throws go sideways. By the tenth they are curving it round the yard on purpose, and that is the part that holds a nine-year-old for an hour instead of ten minutes.

Coloured lights run right through the shell, so it works after dinner, in the back yard, in the hallway. It charges over USB from anything you already own.