Every now and again, an item or idea turns up that is just brilliant, very simple with a small twist that makes lots of people buy it.

Mini remote controlled helicopter

It’s a remote controlled helicopter made out of expanded polystyrene that’s small enough to use indoors. It’s a 2-axis controller, throttle and yaw, no pitch, so it’s easy to ‘fly’. It weighs 14g so doesn’t object to being dropped 6′ onto concrete, which is lucky because there are 3 control channels so that you can use the built in infrared blaster to shoot 2 of your friends out of the sky. I think I had £13 worth of fun within the first 20 seconds of flying it around. I’m not on commission for selling them, more’s the pity, but our office got ours from here:

http://www.ukdvdr.co.uk/shop/Mini-Combat-R-C-Helicopter-pr-20507.html
An illustration of them in action can be found here:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=i8N2pC8qVuE

Pan splash guard

This one’s even simpler. It’s a circle of wire mesh with a handle on it. Comes in different sizes such that it sits on top of your favourite pan and stops it going ‘Gloop’ all over your kitchen.
If you were feeling particularly stingy, I suspect that an old wire sieve, a wire coat hanger and a mallet would do the job. I find it remarkably useful for the final simmering of chutney, as the majority of the water evaporates away, the remaining chutney is (hopefully) quite viscous so is at significant risk of bubbles bursting all all over the shop.