Inspired – Tim Ashton, Antidote

I collect these things. It all started with this 1930s Schuco 3000 Telesteering car. It has four gears, reverse and neutral, steering and a handbrake. It comes boxed with wooden obstacle pegs and a ball.

I got to that dangerous place when my house started to look like a museum and I realised I had to stop.

Every year I go into my local infants’ school and take a boot full of toys to share with the kids.

I use them to talk about design, things like use of materials, clockwork versus battery power and how they’re all still in such good condition.

Their favourite is always the drunk cyclist that uses an amazing hidden gyroscope in the front wheel to stay upright.

There’s a wonderful aesthetic about toys from this period. The finish and graphics that companies like Schuco, Hornby and Bassett Lowke used were of a high standard and always beautifully executed.

I bought the new iPod Nano a few weeks ago and the experience of opening and unwrapping the box was the closest I’ve come to the feeling you get from one of my mint and boxed toy cars – an obsession with detail that fills your heart with joy.