Just what are Chatimals? Imagine for a moment if you will an experiment involving a hamster, a parrot and a truck load of helium… well you won’t be too far wrong. If when you were young (or even now your older…) you ever played that little game where you somewhat frustratingly repeat exactly what someone says to you continuously, then we would like to introduce you to your new best friend. The Chatimal is tipped by the toy experts to be a contender for toy of the year.

Ideal As: Birthday Presents, Children’s Toys, Stocking Fillers.

It’s simple to manage; all you need is the USB Tape Express connected to your computer, pop your cassette in and let the software do the rest. Burn your precious sounds onto CD and transfer them to your MP3 player or iTunes. The USB Tape Express is compatible with most audio tapes, including C60, C120 and chrome. Neat and compact you could totally re-live your youth by using it as a portable cassette player, just get some massive headphones and a pair of hi-tops for true retro style! People won’t laugh, honest!

Ideal As: Birthday Gifts, Gadgets, Christmas Gifts.

The My Scratch Map is a travellers dream as it allows you to scratch off all the places you’ve been to thanks to the gold foil layer that makes up the image of the world. Been to the Bahamas? Scratch it off and hang your map somewhere people will see, it’s a great little conversation starter. The map itself measures approximately 53cm (H) x 89cm (W) and is of very good quality. You simply scratch off the foil layer using the edge of a coin like you would a scratch card to reveal the gorgeous detail underneath.

Ideal As: Birthday Presents, Christmas Gifts, Anniversary Gifts

Infuriatingly addictive, your Mum or your partner will be relieved to hear that the Stylophone Beatbox does have a headphone socket which also doubles up to accommodate speakers, it’s all pleasure and pain! So you can choose to share or not to share, making this the perfect companion on long journeys. Why not entertain other passengers’ on the bus with your fine and funky performances? Oh Yeah! Pitch and tempo are adjustable as you’d expect with such a clever gadget.

Ideal As: 21st Birthday Gifts, Musical Gifts, Toys & Games

Big Trak was at it’s time, the height of toy technology. This 6 wheeled retro beast has an integrated 23 button keypad which allows you to program where the Big Trak will venture. Forward 10 lengths, turn right, forward 5 lengths, turn left… With a memory that can remember up to 16 individual commands and a loop mode to repeat your actions over and over again, can you even imagine how excited we were? Made from the same moulds as the original model the Big Trak is a magnificent gift for all retro toys fans.

Ideal As: Gifts For Him, Fathers Day Presents, Xmas Gifts For Men

If you have ever wanted to reenact some of your favourite star wars jedi movie moments yet had just a little too much self respect to go and actually buy yourself the costume to wear around the house, this is what you have been looking for. Reenact away safe in the knowledge that if anybody witnesses, you retort “just got out of the bath, with you in a moment…” heh heh heh. “When 900 years old, you reach… Look as good, you will not.”, frankly Yoda should have bought himself this bathrobe and look good he would have.

Ideal As: Gifts For Him, Fathers Day Presents, Xmas Gifts For Men

If after reading this review you go on to buy the Ballz Cubed, don’t come back on here and complain that we didn’t warn you. Here let us make this clear: Ballz Cubed will result in less productivity at work, you will become more popular as everyone will want a play but you may lose your social life as putting it down isn’t easy. Now that we have the health warnings out of the way, well tell you exactly what Ballz Cubed is. Made of 216 individual magnetic balls, the aim of the puzzle is to function as many cool patterns as you can.

Ideal As: Birthday Presents, Stocking Fillers, Xmas Gifts

These wafer-thin, touch-sensitive guitars contain some pretty fancy ActiveGraphicsTM electronics so you can crank out chords and riffs with ease or play along to a number of preloaded, fully licensed tracks without any of that elusive talent malarkey, feigning musical competence has never been easier! The freestyle mode is briliant, but not for the untalented as it allows you to strum away to your hearts content and almost acts as a real guitar would with fantastic sound quality thanks to the built in speaker.

Ideal As: Gifts For Men, Birthday Gifts, Christmas Gifts

Whilst we appreciate the super fine detailing that has gone into crafting such a sweet looking RC car, it isn’t what we absolutely love about the Rapid RC Racing Car. Whilst we love that these cars are so small you can race them in confined spaces where normal RC cars wouldn’t be able to manoeuvre, that’s not what we absolutely love about the Rapid RC Racing Car either. We do like the headlights that come on during operation making racing in the dark a blast, but again it isn’t the one true thing that we absolutely love.

Ideal As: 21st Birthday Gifts, Boys Toys, Fathers Day Present Ideas

Sleek, light and tougher than tough, the MiLi protective case has a built in battery hidden within its smooth hard shell case and is rechargeable with a USB cable. You can plug your MiLi and your iPhone in at the same time. Phew… about time someone thought of a way to avoid the bore of separate batteries and chargers! Offering twice the battery life of the iPhone, the MiLi is… well let’s face it, it’s genius. It doesn’t stop there either; the MiLi can charge two iPhones at one time.

Ideal As: Fathers Day Present Ideas, Gadgets, Xmas Gifts

The Syma S107 comes complete with built in gyroscope (ooohh, fancy) which puts an end the endless spinning witnessed by many RC Helicopters. We didn’t know what a gyroscope was either, but Google tells us it’s is a device for measuring or maintaining orientation, which means we’re still actually none the wiser. What we do know is that a gyroscope combined with a RC helicopter is a perfect combination, delivering possibly the single most stabilized, easily manoeuvrable flight we’ve enjoyed in a long time.

Ideal As: Boys Toys, Birthday Gifts For Him, Gifts For Men

If you are a fan of nuts in general then you’re going to love this, The Peanut Butter Maker allows us all to open our own little pea-nutty production line…right in our own kitchens! Grab your nuts (Vintage Carry On film anyone?), throw them into the Peanut Butter Machine and stand back as the machine churns them up into warm, spreadable and extremely gorgeous peanut butter!

Ideal As: 30th Birthday Gifts, Lifestyle & Home, Christmas Present Ideas, Xmas Gifts.

Terry has an infra red motion sensor which launches him into a tirade of potty mouth insults every time somebody approaches, which is especially amusing when it’s the boss. If motion sensors aren’t your thing then Terry comes with an “insult now” button which can launch him into his repertoire on demand, along with a “not-so-rude mode” and “safe mode” for when the mother in law comes to stay … maybe.

Ideal As: Birthday Gifts, Christmas Gifts, Gifts For Him, Stocking Fillers, Office Toys, Birthday Presents.

We imagine there aren’t many pleasures in life that would be as cool as having a monkey blowing your nails dry after you’ve had them painted. Getting a real monkey to do this might not be easy and would certainly cost you a lot of PG Tips, which we hear they are rather fond of. Thankfully though some clever person came up with the Monkey Nail Blower which doesn’t feature a real monkey, but is almost as much fun when this little guy gets to work blowing your nails dry.

Ideal As: Birthday Gifts for Girls, Secret Santa Gifts, Stocking Fillers.

At some point in the last 10 years carrying photographs around in your wallet has started to make you look like an analogue dinosaur in a digital age. Now when people ask to see photographs of your kids, family and loved ones you can simply whip out the Tao Digital Photo Keychain which comes complete with an 8mb memory, easily enough to hold up to 100 digital photographs and share your photographs in true digital style on it’s 128×128 pixel screen.

Ideal As: Birthday Presents, Secret Santa Gifts, Fathers Day Gifts, Gadgets, Stocking Fillers.