Thanks, Mad.

And those are fascinating toys!

Shiny is an interesting bit of "idiom" (I'm sure there's a better word than that, but I can never come up with the right words when I need them) introduced in Firefly -
but is it a bit of Chinese, like the cursing, or is it just something that was brilliantly made up/adopted from English, and and we'll all be using for the rest of our lives? When will it get into the OED?

Yes, shiny.

I wants it, Precious.

::le sigh::

Chris Ware, the eternally depressed and self-loathing funny book* author / artist, makes artifacts based on his comics.

Like a coin-operated automata based on his two-headed cat character. It is in antique-looking wood and glass case with olde fashioned looking fittings.

I know it was at least six or seven years ago that I rechristened a bassist I worked with "Shiny" because of his ability to become completely distracted by nearby pieces of technology for hours at a time. (We had a gig once that involved walking past a parked helicopter, and he very nearly made us late. OTOH, he once saved a gig by rewiring an old repurposed console organ with a paperclip, so it was all for the good.)

Wait a sec -- wasn't there some work of children's fiction that had a character who was an anthropomorphized packrat (or was it a magpie?), who could never finish a sentence? He'd say, "Of course I'll help you, Mr.--- Oooh, shiny!" and go running off after scraps of cellophane or whatever. Dim memories of childhood characters from thirty-odd years ago.... But I suspect that might be the source.

I also dimly recall the phrase "easily captivated by bright, shiny objects" as a mildly pejorative euphemism and a minor catchphrase around the same time.

You'll also find Kiki the ferret in Sluggy Freelance exclaiming "Shiny!"

I believe you are thinking of The Secret of NIMH, which was a movie of Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. There's a crow in the movie who keeps exclaiming "Sparkly!" and trying to get the titular Mrs Brisby (changed to avoid problems with the Frisbee people) to give him the Plot Coupon, a magic amulet which is not in the book.

Oh, side note: I noticed the other day that there's another Carrie around, so I'm going to be Carrie S. to avoid confusion

And I have ADD, so I'm all about shiny --

something just caught my eye, back later.

You have to look at it from below, and from a distance, and you have to move, not it (else shifting shadows will reveal the trick) but ... as something to put on a high shelf, it's Neat.

Anyway, the magpie meaning is a fine derivation, and I'm convinced it isn't a corruption of the Chinese -
so we can return this hijacked topic back to its original shiny origins and illusions.

"Oo, a sparkly! You're wearing a sparkly!"

I'd forgotten about that! My sisters and I quoted that line for weeks afterward. Dom Delouise did the voice, right?