Technical (or Construction) toys originate from the world of engineering and machinery; they are inspired by the architectural and technological environment and developed on the basis of the opportunities these environments afford for play. This paper is based on research at the collection of technical toys of the Deutsches Museum, Munich, and focuses in particular on a rare and idiosyncratic as well as exciting object from the Museum's depot: the Dandanah set of building blocks, designed around 1920 and usually attributed to the architect Bruno Taut. The Dandanah consists of 62 blocks made of coloured glass, a material that was considered by Taut and others to be a expression of purity, innocence and hope; glass technology itself was often presented as a potential agent of change in construction and architecture. The fact that the Dandanah is included in the toy collection of a major technical museum emphasizes its playful as well as its technical character. However, the analysis of the artifact and its sociocultural context has revealed a much more complex picture that expands beyond technology and well beyond childhood and play. This paper situates Dandanah on the intersection of technical, utopian, educational and appropriation discourses, and foregrounds the complexity as well as the contradictions that this object incorporates. Furthermore, the present case-study triggers reflections on the wider role of this and similar artifacts within the context of a technology museum and discusses the potential and implications of object-based research.