So how did such a simple looking robot find such fame amongst the more technologically advanced robots available on the market, the story behind it is somewhat special indeed.

The designer of Keepon is Hideki Kozima, who developed the robot as a social interaction tool for autistic children. He found that the simplistic looking robot could encourage more interaction and eye contact than human beings could with the children and over the last few years Keepon has been used as a learning tool amongst schools.

Hideki put videos of his social experiments on YouTube and not one to miss a trick, a huge toy company came along and said they’d like to create a consumer version of the little robot thanks to it’s growing online popularity, low and behold My Keepon was born and it’s set to be a huge smash indeed with the manufacturers donating a proportion of profits to autistic charities.

My Keepon has two modes, dance mode and interactive mode. In dance mode he will listen to the beat of any song and dance along to the beat, completely in time. No dance is ever the same though thanks to some clever computing so even if you play the same song twice, whilst dancing in time to the beat he will pull out some new moves to everyone’s delight!

In interactive mode he will respond to touch and sound, turning to face you when you speak, nodding along and bobbing his head when patted. My Keepon becomes more than just a robot, he’s like an interactive pet that will undoubtedly become part of the family.

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Yes it only seems 10 minutes ago (it was in-fact a couple of years) that we were raving about the Addictaball as being the most challenging puzzle we’d ever faced, the Perplexus Epic certainly takes that crown away.

Epicness in a plenty, the you guide the ball-bearing through the tracks, down the steps, through tubes and down falls as you try to complete the puzzle. You need to twist and turn the Perplexus Epic 360 degree’s in order to work your way around the maze and it certainly isn’t as simple as it may first appear.

Taking the obstacles and concepts that other 3D mazes introduced to an extreme you’ll need your wits about you to complete the puzzle and make your way through no less than 125 different stages, all designed to challenge your dexterity and more often than not, make you very frustrated.

We’re also a fan of the little stand that comes with it, meaning you can leave it in plain site on your desk and then watch as people come along and try to take up the challenge and leave completely defeated, though thats just us being mean maybe.

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We also remember playing a game on the Spectrum ZX, an egg called Dizzy, he lived in a wonderland and had arms and legs and would crack open when he fell off a platform and died, whatever happened to Dizzy?

We’ve wondered away from the point a little so let us get back on track, we wanted to tell you about how video games are already evolving further and we may just have found the most awesome new piece of tech available on the market today with the appBlaster iPhone Gun.

The game is one where you defend your position and man the stonghold against a swarm of aliens who have invaded earth and probably want to eat your brains (we might have made the last bit up). Nothing unusual or novel about a good old fashioned alien shoot em up we know, but here comes the clever bit.

Through the use of augmented reality the appBlaster allows you to play the game on your iPhone and using the accelerometer of your iPhone/iPod touch, the game rotates as you do, meaning you have to be truly looking around the room your in to ensure your not going to have the aliens eat your brains (again, we imagine that’s what they are trying to do).

It gets even better if you have an iPhone3GS or iPhone4 because using the rear facing camera of your device you can overlay the game against what your camera sees meaning if your playing the game in your living room, aliens will be jumping out from behind your sofa and emerging from behind walls from within your very own house!

Gaming has become so good because gamers are getting closer to the games and feeling more involved, with the appBlaster iPhone Gun you place yourself literally in the game itself and trust us, it is a truly awesome experience.

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The Super Soaker Scatter blast allows you to do just that in some style, forget the hosepipe bans and the fact that we may not actually get any sun, there is a war on in your garden this summer and the king (or queen) of water fights ye shall be with this beast.

The Super Soaker Scatter Blast does exactly what it says on the tin. Firing 5 jets of water in a trademarked “scatter blast” motion you can’t fail to hit your target and quite frankly, we like those odds!

This pump action water blaster fires at distances of up to 7.6 metres meaning you don’t have to increase the risks of you yourself getting a soaking, you can pick your targets off at some distance and we don’t know if you’ve tried it (we did), but throwing a bucket of water 7.6 metres isn’t going to soak your target unfortunately making this the water fight snipers gun of choice this summer.

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Water fights and more particularly, water guns, have come a long way since we were young however. Gone are the tiny one handed pistol guns that hold little more than a dribble of water that can barely reach your enemy, now we’ve gotten serious.

There is of course nothing wrong with taking water fights seriously, there is a matter of pride at stake and you should arm yourselves with the best possible equipment possible. The AK47 Aqua Fire Water Gun should simply be billed as the daddy of all water-guns, and the daddy of water guns is what you shall be requiring for your water war.

A rapid-fire water pistol modelled on the original Kalashnikov model and capable of fireing 4 ‘water bullets’ per second, the Aqua Fire requires no pumping, has a range of up to 8 metres and a full ‘clip’ will last you about 60 seconds.

Next time some young whipper-snapper decides its fun to spray you with the hose, revenge will be of the sweetest, and you’ll look pretty damn smooth along the way too.

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See If dolphins were  indeed that intelligent, they’d have got themselves one of these nifty Bladefish Sea Scooters by now.. giving us the dolphin version of a couch potato we imagine, as it lazes it’s way through the ocean taking in the scenery.

Bond definitely had the right idea. Diving is great, taking in the ocean from underwater is a magical experience, but all that exercise making us healthy as we swim down to depths of sea monsters? That’s just not for us.

Thankfully the Bladefish Sea Scooter takes all the effort out of diving using it’s built-in propeller to pull you through the ocean at speeds of up to 3.75mph. There are three versions available to suit your diving experience:

Bladefish 1000

• 3.5 hours of battery life on full charge.
• Suitable for depths of up to 20 m.
• Top speeds of 2 mph.
• Available in the colour yellow.

Bladefish 3000

• 2 hours of battery life on full charge.
• Suitable for depths of up to 30 m.
• Top speeds of 3 mph.
• Available in the colour orange.

Bladefish 5000

• 3.75 hours of battery life on full charge.
• Suitable for depths of up to 50 m.
• Top speeds of 3.75 mph.
• Available in the colour black.

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It turns out a Waboba is a ball (we feel quite lucky it wasn’t a goat having been sent one in the post), but not just any ball oh no. This isn’t a ball you just kick or throw. The Waboba Ball Pro bounces on water… somewhat like Jesus we’re told.

So OK, maybe Jesus bounced on the water, maybe he didn’t, but we think you get the idea. The Waboba Ball Pro bounces off the water like a fat man on a a space hopper – it makes no sense but it’s great fun.

Simply this years must have beach accessory, the Waboba Balls are made of polyurethane and have a Lycra coating which allows them to bounce off the water at great speed once you have perfected the technique. The Waboba ball pro succeeds the Waboba ball extreme and bounces much higher, further and faster than its predecessor.

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Now you can judge all those hairy angel (Susan Boyle) wannabes in your own distinct style, the Britain’s Got Talent Judges Buzzer truly has no limits.

Imagine if you will for a moment, you are sitting in your office and one of your beloved and very well respected colleagues comes up with yet another truly stupid idea. You have two ways of responding, nod along whilst thinking “this is never going to work” or doing what we’d all love to do in our every day lives and hit the big red X button letting them know that they really are a dimwit and are wasting your time.

The Britain’s Got Talent Buzzer allows you to immediately dismiss whatever is in front of you with the now-trademark “BZZZZZ!”. We assure you that if you use it often enough you will really start to annoy everybody around you and people will cross the street to get away from you.

All in all, a great little gift idea, for somebody that lives a very long way away from you.

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Britain’s Got Talent Judges Buzzer Challenge With the Britain’s Got Talent Judges Buzzer Challenge, not only can you show your disapproval  to the supposed talent your watching on TV by pressing the Britain’s Got Talent Buzzer in anger, you can express your displeasure at the performances of your friends and family! All you need to do is press down to hear the trademark ‘BZZZZZZ’ buzzer and light up the big red cross, just like the judge’s buzzers on the TV.

Even without a purpose we found the NeoCube Alpha completely impossible to put down, so head our warning, this little puzzle is extremely addictive.

Composed of 216 individual high-energy rare-earth magnets (and who doesn’t love magnets), the NeoCube Alpha allows you to create literally hundreds of shapes and patterns.

We kicked things off by trying to create a cube, which isn’t as simple as it first appears. The pyramid was good fun to construct and then the girls in the office started making jewellery and … well we lost interest from there on in, but we’re told they look “fab!”

It maybe utterly pointless, but as pringles have taught us, once you pop, you just can’t stop.

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You might not think that such a simple low tech ball-through-maze game would be able to hold your attention for very long, but this thing is frustratingly addictive and sometimes annoying puzzle will keep you playing for hours until you become lord of the sphere!

To master the addict-a-ball you must guide your ball through a huge array of challenges, over platforms, through arches, down holes, vertical roll through’s meaning you must twist and turn the ball up to 360 degree’s in order to reach your goal.

There are two versions available, the large has 138 numbered sections you have to work your way through with the travel version still sporting 100 numbered sections to conquer. But be warned, working your way through the labyrinth like structure is no easy task and if your anything like us, you will lose many hours from your day whilst trying to figure it out.

It’s great fun and makes a great present idea for almost anybody and it’s even more fun watching their frustration growing and growing. It will sit their taunting them like a chocolatier in a weight watchers meeting, much to your amusement we’re sure.

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Whilst we don’t know a whole lot about golf we do imagine that a fair few golf balls get lost whilst playing as they are quite small and that’s why we thought these Golf Ball Finder Glasses were pretty smooth indeed.

Golfers… Bless them, always losing their balls. Well not if they have these super cool Golf Ball Finder Glasses with their specially tinted lenses which filter out the foliage and grass making the white golf balls stand out and easier to find, which means you spend less time hunting about for golf balls and more time enjoying the game you love.

We’re also told by one of our golfing buddies that simply using these golf ball finding glasses he managed to save the amount he spent on them within just a couple of games as he was having to spend less money on buying new golf balls! A practical gadget which saves you money, that’s good enough for us.

Care for another golfing joke? Whats the difference between a bad golfer and a bad skydiver? A bad golfer goes: WHACK…”Damn”! A bad Skydiver goes: “Damn”!…WHACK.

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By now you have probably got a good idea that the Space Coaster Marble Run is a pretty amazing gift, so sit back and relax (no staring mind), whilst we tell you more about this wonderful marble run.

Are you the type of person that can construct an Ikea desk without looking at the instructions or are you the type of person that calls in help from your dad? It’s an important question to ask yourself before opening the box to the Space Coaster Marble Run from SpaceRail because depending on your answer, it’s going to take you either 20 minutes or 2 hours to construct.

So after donning your Bob The Builder hat and somewhat rewardingly figuring out how to put it together, the fun really starts. We’ll start by telling you that it’s self-perpetuating, which is pretty cool. You place two marbles into the central shaft and watch as they shoot off down the rails taking the hair pins with ease, gaining speed on the dips and looping the loop effortlessly until they reach the bottom of the central shaft.

The fun doesn’t stop there though because they will be automatically lifted to the top and off they will go again! The perfect gift idea for anyone with a love of physics, science of just crazy gizmos that will make people stop and stare.

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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.

Your mother probably told you that copying what people say in order to wind them up isn’t big, and isn’t clever. The Chatimal however repeats whatever it hears back in a very low or extremely high pitched voice, which we have to admit (sorry mum) is very, very funny.

Tipped by the toy experts to be a contender for toy of the year the cute looking Chatimal is simple to use, simply press it’s paw, he’ll listen for up to 30 seconds and then repeat what he’s heard with some hilarity, even if you spoke to him in french! This fury little chap is set to mimic the world… we apologize for the frustration he’s going to cause in advance.

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Dave is truly one of a kind and perches on your shoulder (as you might expect given his name) and is a burping, farting, sleeping, snoring interactive toy that will keep the kids and big kids entertained for hours on end with wit, charm and antics.

Dave The Monkey literally interacts with the people around him through the clever use of a remote control that you can keep hidden away in your hand out of sight, making Dave look like a very clever Monkey indeed.

He has a gesture, an emotion or a sound for every occasion and you can literally make it look like he is communicating with the people around him. He laughs, he cries, he sleeps, he nods his head and so much more, Dave literally takes on a personality of his own.

The remote control is small in size which makes it easy to hide in your pocket, behind your back or simply where people can’t see it. Each behavioural mode is a different shaped button making it easy to select the most appropriate without looking at the control. Dave being a shoulder monkey also comes complete with a shoulder strap to keep him attached firmly to your shoulder.

Dave isn’t just a funky shoulder monkey, he’s an all singing, all dancing interactive remote control toy that will really impress.

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However the good people over at Parrot decided that we should all own our very own flying drones (and why not we ask), creating the Parrot AR.Drone, meaning for you and me the war has only just begun!

It works as follows: you install an APP onto your iPhone and control the drone via a WIFI connection, using an on-board camera to see where your going. There are already two augmented reality games available (and we expect many more when the developers get hold of it) which means if you and a friend both own one, you can hunt each other down and blow each other up (with missiles you will only see on the iPhone screen), somewhat turning the virtual into reality.

The Parrot AR.Drone is a major step forward in gaming. Featuring gyroscopes, accelerometers, ultrasounds and visual input from downward facing cameras it is capable of maintaining its position and hovering at a height of up to three metres, stabilizing itself and remaining hovering even if you let go of the controls!

It has a range of up to 50 metres, offers a generous 12 minutes flight time and can work in winds of up to 9mph, meaning you don’t need a perfectly sunny day (which lets face it is rare in the UK) to run it.

The slight downside is that it is a little bit costly, but given the advancement in gaming technology, it is to be expected. The Parrot AR.Drone is going to be big, that we’ll guarantee you.

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If we were the keepers of the Oxford English dictionary (and sadly we’re not, some smart types in Oxford we guess are), we would only be able to sum the term Addictive up with one simple but somewhat appropriate phrase: Ballz Cubed.

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 ultimately 110% sports star 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. Can you form the cube from scratch? Can you master the pyramid? Can you line them up so that you have 216 balls in a row making a kind of magnetic whip (oooeerrr missus)?

It’s somewhat sillily simple, you’ll wonder why you want to keep playing and your boss will hate you for taking them to work. We give you the Ballz Cubed, enjoy!

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The T3 Solar Robot Kit however is powered by the sun which is very Eco friendly and keeps the tree huggers happy, the transformers have a lot to learn indeed.

If you have ever wanted a robot which comes to you in 70 individual pieces which you have to somewhat rewardingly piece together yourself and then turns into either a Scorpion, a Tank or a erm, robot looking Robot… then boy do we have the toy for you!

The T3 Solar Robot harnesses the awesome power that is the sun, meaning no batteries or chip fat are required. Once you’ve figured out how to put it together it will burst into life and roar across your desktop whilst you scream at the top of your lungs “it’s aliiiivvveee!!!”, at least that’s what happened in our office anyway.

The perfect gift for that kid or big kid that keeps taking things apart to see how they work and educates an Eco friendly message, what more could you ask for?

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Featuring the same “bucket shaped” technology as the original Airzooka (the one without the laser), we give you… “do dooo da doo dooo dooooo” …   The Laser Airzooka

Described as a ” high velocity air cannon with laser targeting system” we’d say the reality is more “bucket that fires air, now with fantastic accuracy”. This however doesn’t detract from the fun given this new model could pick out Waldo in the middle of Manhattan.

Whether you use the Laser Airzooka to knock cans off of a wall for target practice, or annoy your siblings or your cat with an unexpected blast of air,  that unexpected “Rambo” feeling you get after every shot just cannot be beaten.

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Back in 1977 Morph was born and instantly became a massive star. Emerging from artist Tony Hart’s wooden pencil box and speaking complete gobbledygook (you follow, right?), Morph won us over with his charm and not forgetting his ability to morph into almost anything!

The Make Your Own Morph Set comes complete with DVD, presented by Morph creator Peter Lord, showing you how to create your own Morph figure in simple steps using the provided Morph coloured Plasticine.

Complete with accessories, Morph comes along with a fake beard, a cricket bat and a wizard’s hat so you can truly recreate those special childhood moments. The Plasticine doesn’t dry out so Morph can be remodeled time and time again and if your lacking inspiration, the DVD comes complete with 15 classic Morph episodes to get the creative juices flowing.

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My Monopoly takes the traditional game to new heights and without a shadow of doubt will be the most unique gift you could ever give to somebody.

My Monopoly takes the traditional game to new heights and without a shadow of doubt will be the most unique gift you could ever give to somebody.

The good folk over at Hasbro are offering the opportunity to fully customise the game to your own specifications, forget about Old Kent Road and Mayfair; My Monopoly allows you to build your property empire on locations of your choice.

Playing spaces can be named after places you have visited, street names, made up locations, your only limitation is your imagination. Bond St. could become Dad’s Shed, Whitechapel could become Mo’s Tavern or Fleet St. could become “Unemployed Bankers Lounge” … (ahem).

You’ll have great fun customising your game, alternatively send the recipient of your gift a voucher that lets them customise the game themselves. The boards are made in the same factories as the traditional Monopoly boards and are made to order, so be sure to order well before the occasion if this is a gift as they take around 4 weeks to produce and be delivered.

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If like us you have always wanted a remote control car, however was dismayed by the limitations of only being able to drive around on the floor because of that annoying little thing called “gravity”, we’ve got something pretty special for you.

The RC Zero Gravity Micro Car cleverly uses an internal air suction system which we can only presume was created by NASA to achieve its greatness and race along your walls or even upside down on your ceiling, which at first sight is quite confusing indeed!

It will run for around 10 minutes and come with working head and tail lights allowing you to cruise along the ceiling at night, which we think is quite cool.

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Some things in life are inevitable, it will always rain when you don’t have an umbrella, you’ll always wait 45 minutes for a bus – then two will turn up together, and bubble wrap just has to be popped, no human being alive can resist the temptation of bubble wrap.

Some things in life are inevitable, it will always rain when you don’t have an umbrella, you’ll always wait 45 minutes for a bus – then two will turn up together, and bubble wrap just has to be popped, no human being alive can resist the temptation of bubble wrap.

Usually we only receive bubble wrap on those rare occasions when we receive a carefully wrapped parcel in the post or somebody else does and you nick it from them. Now though, you can get your bubble wrap fix 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

The Poptastic bubble wrap keyring delivers a deeply satisfying popping sound every time you press it, it never runs out and best of all, you can take it with you anywhere you go. Pure Genius!

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