These could well be the coolest gadget toy Christmas present this year, little animated stick men in a cube AKA Cube World.

The Cube World cubes are slightly larger than the Q-Be MP3 player but infinitely more fun. Each cube (there are currently 4 different ones to collect) contains a stick character and an accessory, Dodger has a ball, Scoop his own pet dog, Whip has a rope he does tricks with and Slim enjoys playing with a stick (hmm that could be taken the wrong way considering he’s a stick man). The animation to the right really doesn’t do these guys justice.

You can watch your very own Cube World matchstick man play with their toy and even play with them using the 3 buttons on the front of each cube but that’s not where the real fun is. Each cube has built in motion detectors, so you can roll the cube around and watch you little match stick man roll around as if he’s in a washing machine. Or if you’re really sadistic you can shake it and watch him vomit in the earth quake that ensues, but it gets even better than that.

Not only can you interact with Cube World but the Cube Worlds themselves can interact with each other. Each cube has magnets on 4 of it’s sides that can be used to connect cubes together (in any way you like) once this happens the little matchstick men can freely wander and interact with each other. As one has a stick and another a dog you can guess where this is going.

The behaviour of the characters is pretty random (in a good way), they could start dancing, play leapfrog, hug or just have a plain good old fashioned fight. Each cube can contain up-to 4 matchstick people so you can expect some mass brawls. The funniest action I’ve seen so far is Whip (the man with a rope) bunging down 4 vertically connected cubes.

You can get this great little cubes in the UK from Firebox who have also got a great (but hammy) video of them in action.