Mousetrap

You turn the *crank* - housed on *base 1* - to turn *cog 1* which meshes with *cog 2* which pushes the *stop sign*.The stop sign springs back, by virtue of the rubber band (Which I don't think was formally a 'part'.), and hits the *boot* dangling from the *lamp-post*. The boot kicks the *bucket* at the top of the *rickety stairs* which contains a *ball-bearing* (Possibly formally a 'cannonball'?). The ball - whatever it is - goes down the rickety stairs, and enters the *half-pipe*, until it gets to the base of the *pipework*, housed on *base 2*. There it hits the *helping hand*, which pushes the bottom of the *thing-a-ma-jig* (Yes, that is its formal name. It was just a device to trigger the *bowling ball*). The bowling ball falls off the thing-a-ma-jig into the *bathtub*, and then through the (bloomin' large) 'plughole') onto the end of the *seesaw*. The seesaw then fired the *man* (Always green, for some reason, but I imagine he came in designer colours, 'cos I think the one on the box was another colour) into the *washtub*. The shaking of the washtub shook the rest of *base 3*, including the *pole* which had, at the top, the *cage*.

Of course, the reality tended to be that you turned the *crank*, which shook the *board*, which made the *cage* fall.