My Butterfly

Remember those lazy summer days spent trapping butterflies in jars? Course you don’t. You were too busy playing video games and watching telly. But thanks to My Butterfly you can reconnect with the Blyton-esque wonders of nature without the attendant cruelty.

It looks like an empty jam jar but tap this glass container or make a noise and the gorgeous faux butterfly inside begins to flutter around in an incredibly lifelike fashion. The effect is utterly compelling, not to mention befuddling because the colourful creature’s random stop-start movement is staggeringly realistic.

So how does My Butterfly work? We’re not entirely sure but there’s a thin wire inside the jar and its metal lid conceals three AAA batteries. Quite how this causes the fake flapper to move is a mystery. Indeed, we can’t believe it’s not a butterfly!

Having already generated a major buzz at the 2010 Tokyo Toy Fair this amazing curio is set to add a twist of Japanese eccentricity to desks, shelves, worktops and windowsills across the globe. Mums, dads, kids, grandparents and even full-on lepidopterists (butterfly collectors, silly) will be totally mesmerised.

With various butterfly species rapidly becoming endangered, there’s never been a better time to admire an electronic doppelganger. Each jar even comes with its own species-specific, info-packed hang tag. There are four species: Monarch, Yellow Swallowtail, Pink Morpho and Blue Morpho. Each one as stunning as the next. My Butterfly really is the pet that keeps on giving – as long as you change the batteries once in a while. Go on, have a flutter.

Monarch		Yellow Swallowtail		Blue Morpho		Pink Morpho