In a 2014 interview with Wired UK, Rowett reflected on his age, stating "I see myself as an hourglass. Aside from this, he also has an interest in engineering and mechanics. He has been described as an "eccentric" and "quirky" collector and first became interested in toys while attending boarding school as a child, allegedly when a matron showed him a catalogue featuring a variety of toys. Rowett lives by himself at his Twickenham home in England, and claims to have not owned a television or computer since the 1970s (however in January 2017 he acquired a model Televisor for his collection). Rowett has also contributed his own writing and poetry to books in the past, first publishing a piece in the 1999 edition of The Mathemagician and Pied Puzzler : a Collection in Tribute to Martin Gardner, and again in 2001 with a piece in Puzzlers' Tribute: A Feast for the Mind. Rowett has been cited and thanked in a number of books as a toy collector and consultant. Rowett appeared on the television science programme Take Nobody’s Word For It in 1989 alongside Carol Vorderman, demonstrating optical illusions. The Grand Illusions online store is run from Oxfordshire although the items are now sent out by a fulfilment house in Newbury. Each one is developed by Ball and Auckland (both now retired from the BBC). The videos for Grand Illusions are filmed in a 17th-century farm house in rural Oxfordshire. Since the success of the Grand Illusions YouTube channel, and the attention it has received on websites like Reddit, the store has commissioned new toys and also stocks unique items that are handmade or produced in small quantities. Grand Illusions became an online store for toys and novelties in 1998, stocking hard-to-source pieces. Rowett became involved early on due to his large toy collection, and is a personal friend of Auckland and Ball. It was developed by Hendrik Ball and George Auckland (then BBC producers) who were exploring the role of the media and the World Wide Web during the late 90s. Grand Illusions was started as an online community for science and games in 1996. The channel surpassed one million subscribers in June 2019 and was awarded a golden YouTube Play Button, which Rowett unboxed in a video. There are now several hundred videos on the channel which are around 10 minutes in length each, and have collectively been viewed hundreds of millions of times. In each video, he lightheartedly demonstrates and reacts to at least one toy, puzzle, or optical illusion which is either part of his collection or will be stocked through an online toy store, run as part of the Grand Illusions brand (to which he is a director). Rowett has presented videos on the YouTube channel Grand Illusions since 2008. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering. In the past he has also donated some of his old toys to children's hospitals. In a short BBC documentary, Rowett said that he considered the toys in his suitcases "dead" because they were no longer used, and that he took "great delight" in being able to bring them out and show them to people through his YouTube videos. Rowett worked as an entertainer at children's parties from his late 20s until retiring in 2007 when he was 65. In 2014, the Daily Mirror described Rowett as a "huge viral hit" and a "web sensation", while in the following year The Daily Telegraph published a piece naming him as one of "the best YouTubers over 50". Rowett, known affectionately as " Tim the Toyman", is a former children's entertainer, and claims to have collected upwards of 20,000 to 25,000 toys over a 50-year period, many of which are featured in his videos. Timothy Quiller Rowett (born 12 July 1942) is a British YouTube personality and renowned toy collector, known for presenting videos about toys, optical illusions, novelties and puzzles on the YouTube channel Grand Illusions.
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