This strange looking helicopter-insect hybrid known as the Insecta is yet another remote controlled toy to keep the kid within you entertained.

With its big glowing eyes, bug-ish legs, LED strobe light, colorful camouflaged body and membranous X-rotors, the rechargeable Insecta looks as if it’s just flown out of a sci-fi movie or the twisted mind of a comic book creator. Indeed you might feel like wearing your pants outside your tights every time you take to the skies. Or not. Also available in blue or green!

With the Insecta, you don’t have to worry about the weather outside as this little critter is very much capable of indoor flight, albeit it will be rather cramped (while risking the missus’ wrath). Still, you can risk sleeping on the couch for the night by handing over £19.95 to Firebox for the Insecta.

Miss your younger Etch A Sketch days?

Relive the childhood fun of Etch-A-Sketch® by drawing on your television! Simply plug the controller into your TV and explore 4 activity modes: Cool Drawing Tools, Trace A Pic, Super Sketch and Connecting The Dots. The image you draw with the controller magically appears on the screen and you just shake the controller to make the image magically disappear from the screen!

You can pick up this for an extremely early Christmas present for $12.98.

The WoW Wee stand had us hovering around for quite a while and we particularly liked Tribot, the interactive robot. Not only does he have great movement function due to the tri-wheel base, but he also acts as a door guard to prevent pesky little brothers or sisters coming into your room.

Another of his features is as an alarm clock - nothing too new in that you may think. However, when he wakes up, in order for you to turn him off, you have to chase him around the room and he’s pretty fast!

Of course you can also play games with Tribot and there are many to chose from. Available in Summer 08 at $99.00, I’d get him on your Christmas list now.

Not all girls are into helicoptors, planes and other such microflying toys, so WoW Wee have now come up with two fairly girly options; Flutterby and Fairyfly.

Both charge on a hand held charging unit and take about 10 seconds or so to charge up and then fly for 20 seconds (Flutterby) and 5 minutes (Fairyfly).

The Flutterby can be used either indoors or outdoors and whilst not directly controllable via the handset, it will fly in a random circular pattern and, if the wind carries it, could go quite high.

Fairyfly can only be used indoors and is directed by the hand held remote control, which is perfectly suited to small hands.

Retailing at MRSP $24.99 for the Flutterby and MRSP $34.99 for the Fairyfly and available from Wowee.

If you love puzzles, why not pick up the Eternity II and give yourself a chance to become a millionaire two times over should you be the first person to solve it.

Well for starters this infuriating geometric head-scratcher took yonks to design. Secondly - and more importantly - the first person to solve it wins $2 million. You heard, $2 million! If you’re a complete puzzle-dunce, don’t despair. According to its creator, Christopher Monckton, Eternity II is just as likely to be solved by a 5-year-old as a mathematical genius. Apparently age and academic ability don’t come into it. Then again Mr Monckton is a former policy advisor to Margaret Thatcher. But there are loads of reasons why you shouldn’t hold that against him. In fact we can think of two million rather good ones!

It makes me wonder, who comes up with the $2 million prize money in the first place? Can they actually sell enough to offset the amount in the first place? With more and more kids these days preferring to spend their time on video games, I doubt this $49.95 will pick up the pace at retail stores.

Yeah, I’ll admit it, I am on a serious Leap Frog habit. If you read my report on the Leapster, then you know what I mean.

I definitely have to tell you about the LeapPad, a similar device as the Leapster. Like the Leapster, it uses cartridges, but it has no screen. Instead, the cartridges come with these spiral-bound books.

The books fit on the LeapPad, and then a child touches areas of the book with the digital pen. The LeapPad then reads to him from the storybook, or there are other options. For example, touching a certain spot starts a game where a kid must touch certain numbers to win. It’s almost as much fun for the parent. Makes you wonder where this toy was when you were a kid.

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As a parent, I often wonder how many other parents read this site. I am assuming there is quite a lot. The Leap Frog Leapster is nothing new, but I highly recommend it.

The Leap Frog Leapster Learning Game System is something like a handheld gaming system, as it takes cartridges to run it. It even has a digital pen thing like the Nintendo DS. However, the Leap Frog Leapster actually comes with some little games already loaded in the thing that can entertain a kid for hours.

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WolfQuest is a game which places players in the role of a wolf on the plains of YellowStone National Park. And running with the wolves isn’t what one would expect. The game teaches users how wolves hunt, survive, defend territory and ultimately find a mate and establish a pack.

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