COMMENT: Five top toys from the Toy Fair

Our favourites from the show

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30 January 2009 17:43 GMT / By Stuart Miles

It might have been a smaller Toy Fair in London this year with companies like Tomy, Scalextric, Hornby, and Vtech not being present, but that didn't stop those who where there launching some interesting toys due to come out over the next 9 months. Here are our favourite five:

LeapFrog My Pal Scout
Taking the teddy bear into the 21st century, My Pal Scout from LeapFrog is cute, green and interactive in a way a teddy should be if it's going to be cute, green and interactive. Rather than a hard plastic console like the iTeddy (the one that featured on Dragon's Den a couple of years ago) this one has fabric buttons on its paws. Simple and effective, it will play games with you, play music to you, and if that wasn't enough even knows your name (well after mum or dad has programmed it in). Oh and it's only £20 meaning it won't break the bank.

jOG for Wii
So the best way to get your kids exercising is to take them to the park, but if you can't do that because it's raining or you can't be bothered, this handy accessory will make them have to walk if they want to play games on the Nintendo Wii. A third of the price of the Wii Board (it promises to work with more games as well) the idea is that walking in real life lets your character in the game you are playing walk around too. Walking on the spot has never been so much fun.

Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0
Building Lego is always a good laugh, but this Lego Mindstorms' set aims to take it to the next level entirely, bringing in your computer to help you program the robots you build. With 14 different designs out of the box (four on paper, 10 online), and plenty of customisation thanks to all the different elements - motors, sensors, and Bluetooth just for starters, this isn't a couple of hours build-time to be then wasted sitting on the shelf. This is actually building something with motors and a computer attached. Impressive.

Nerf Gatling gun
We're too old to have got into Nerf here at Pocket-lint towers, but by Jove, if only we were young enough now to justify an afternoon in charge of the Nerf Gatling gun called the Havoc. It's capable of blatting off three rounds a second. Yes three rounds a second. Coming with a tripod and one of those magazine boxes you see in old war movies, made of foam or not, that's gotta hurt.

Dancing Brobee
If you've seen Yo Gabba Gabba then you'll know what a mind trip bonkers out of this world experience it is. Therefore, imagine bringing that "Crazy" into your living room with a dancing Brobee (the green one with long arms). A must have for fans of the TV show, young or old, you just know you'll want to see this in a dance off with Elmo.