If there was a tech equivalent of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, it'd probably be the gadget and gizmo heaven that is Firebox.com .Tech Digest recently got to have a play around with all their latest and greatest gear, and made a pretty lengthy Chsitmas list in the process.

Santa, if you're reading, you know what to do.

Click below for the best of Firebox's Christmas collection.

Tipped for the top of kids' Christmas lists this year is Dave the Funky Shoulder Monkey robot.

Priced £24.99, Dave can perform over 30 different actions and movements, controlled via remote control. And yes, before you ask, that includes a fart noise/movement combo.

The perfect primate for your cheeky little monkeys this Christmas? Watch the video above and decide for yourself.

I was walking down the highstreet yesterday and, no word of a lie, I heard Christmas tunes playing. No word of a lie. Either they'd popped the wrong CD in the player or it's the earliest Christmas shopping season drive I've yet been privvy too. No doubt it'll also mean that the little ones will be rolling out the parchment and quill and getting together a Christmas list, and we wouldn't be surprised if we saw Putty Monsters making an appearance on there somewhere.

Made for kids by kids, they're a goggly-eyed glob of malleable putty that can be stretched and squashed into an infinite number of kooky creations. Good clean fun for the kids (and big kids), they even have their own social network where you can hunt down the most inspired creations that people have uploaded. Shiny Shiny's Saskia has a play around with them in the video above.

Available from Firebox for £9.99.

Remember that scene in classic 80s coming of age flick Big, where man/child hybrid Tom Hanks gets to live out his dream of working as a toy inventor? Well, thanks to a neat little competition ran by the folks over at Firebox, young inventor Tom Spring has been able to do just that. Minus the shaving rash (or at least we hope so...).

Tom fended off some 1,200 other entries to see his Putty Monster toys go into production with the help of Firebox. Made of a squidgy, plasticine-like material, the goggle-eyed blobs can shaped into whatever their owners' imaginations see fit. Then, when you're bored of them, leave them a while and they'll melt back into a little ball at room temperature, ready to start all over again.

"I came up with the Putty Monster idea because I like to play with Putty" says Tom, "I've always been in to monsters and aliens and I'm a big fan of the Flaminals stories - so it made sense to bundle them all together."

Cleverly, Tom also thought to add on online, social element to his toys. Owners are encouraged to take a snap of their creations and post them to a web-based database, where users can compare and rate the ghouls.

There are five different Putty Monsters to collect, priced £9.99 each. Click here to grab them.

Also, if you're interested in getting involved in next year's young inventors competition, click here.

Scalextric are set to release a Toy Story themed 1:64 scale circuit, just in time for Father's Day and the upcoming release of Disney-Pixar's Toy Story 3 animated movie.

Recreating the classic "Falling with style" van chase scene from the first movie, the cars feature Woody and Buzz Lightyear as drivers, while the track-side decorations feature Sid the Dinosaur, Slink the Dog and my personal favourites, the green soldier army. The track itself features a near-vertical hairpin turn that is set to challenge even the most seasoned of Scalextric fans.

Paul Chandler, Scalextric Marketing Manager, told Tech Digest: "The Toy Story films are a favourite with both adults and children and we are very excited to be bringing this landmark film to life in our Disney-Pixar Toy Story micro set."

The set will cost £50 and will be hitting shops on July 23rd 2010.

It's that time of year again, where we all rush off to Clinton's for a naff card, a syrupy teddy and a box of Quality Streets for our loved ones. Yep, Valentine's Day rears its sickly head once again, and, like it or lump it, it's here to stay.

But how best to show the extent of your love for that special, nerdy man-child in your life?

If your boyfriend is partial to a bit of tech or some geeky toys, you've come to the right place. Check out Tech Digest's Top Ten Geeky Valentine Presents: For Him. Wedding bells will be ringing in a matter of months with these nifty little gifts, we assure you.

Click the image below to get started

Remember all those You've Been Framed clips of dogs playing the piano? Well that was just the beginning; thanks to Mattel's Puppy Tweets collar tag, your dog is about to enter the online world of social networking and Twitter. No, seriously.

First of all, you have to make a Twitter account for little Rex (stay with me here). You then clip the tag onto your dogs collar, which packs in both motion and sound sensing technology. The device then reads and categorises what your pet is up to, and sends it to the dog's Twitter account. Then you, smug dog owner person, sit back and marvel as the pooch tweets such dignified observations as "YAHOOOOOOOOO! Somedays you just gotta get your bark on" or "I finally caught that tail I've been chasing and...OOUUUCHH!"

This isn't exactly going to change the minds of those who still "don't get" Twitter yet. But can you think of an anymore zealous a group of animal lovers than dog owners? It'll sell like hotcakes, though I don't much fancy an army of Rovers following my feed.

And surely a "Budgie Tweets" collar would have been more appropriate? Hmmm...Excuse me while I just go file a patent...

The Consumer Electronics show, the behemoth of tech, the Valhalla of gadgetry, has come and gone for yet another year. But this time, rather than arriving with a bang, it slinked into sight with something more like a whimper.

CES 2010 had really had the wind knocked out of it before it had even got into the ring this year. All eyes were already on Apple and their rumoured Tablet in the run up to the event, despite the fact that Apple are traditionally a no-show at CES, instead planning their own top-secret unveiling at the end of January. Likewise, Google delivered a sucker-punch in the shape of the Nexus One, their flagship handset revealed at their own event on the eve of CES 2010's opening.

To make matter's worse, Microsoft's opening keynote speech (delivered by walking personality drain Steve Ballmer) was pretty darn dull. First a power cut, then a load of waffle on the 2 month old Windows 7, Ballmer hardly seemed to be trying to keep our attention. Though the Christmas release date for Project Natal was welcome news, it revealed nothing new about the device, whilst the partnership with Hewlett Packard for the new Slate device seemed merely like a case of keeping-up with the Joneses. Or should that be the Jobs-es?

But the Las Vegas event wasn't without its highlights. Far from it in fact. Maybe it's the recession, or the generally pocket-pinching mood in the air these days, but for once the most sought after tech wasn't in the realms of dreamy aspiration, but was actually fairly affordable.

Take for instance the brand new 3D TVs on show, of which the Sony BRAVIA XBR-52HX900 (video above, courtesy of Ashley) was the pick of the litter. Finally shaping up to the standards set by its cinema siblings, company reps promised that the average 3D TV will cost little more than a top-end Full HD set. Skype and video calling in many TV sets too will help turn your living room into somewhere the Jetsons could only dream of.

E-readers are also looking to be both big and affordable in 2010. As a comic book fanatic I'd have liked to have seen more attempts at a colour screened e-reader (I'm not including the MSI offering, which is really just a dual-touch screened PC, super-cool as it is). Plastic Logic's Que Pro e-reader looked great though, with a massive, durable screen, and was far lighter than the hundreds of books you'd be able to store on the tabloid-sized device.

There were, of course, tablets aplenty. The dual-booting Viliv P3 may be an underdog in the category, but seemed way more exciting than Microsoft's offering. The offer of both Windows and Android on the same device showed a respect for user choice not often seen in the back-slapping world of consumer tech.

There was still time for fun too. The Parrot AR Drone Quadricopter was fun and fresh, combining real-world toys with augmented reality controls. A little less high-tech but full of retro-chic was the Lasonic i931 iPhone dock/ghetto blaster mash-up. Odd's on its at the top of Flava Flav's Christmas list. And there was still some time for the weird and the plain old dumb, too.

Though less prevalent than other years, there were some great examples of brand new tech on show that were genuinely exciting. A real head-turner and my favourite item of the show was the Light Blue Optic Light Touch. Using a pico projection engine and a touch sensitive sensor, it'll turn any flat surface into a touchscreen. It works ridiculously well despite still being in the development stages, and has almost unlimited potential.

Some detractors say that, recession or not, CES looks to be on its last legs. It's sad, but not unlikely, when you consider the audiences that companies like Apple and Google can command for just a single product launch. However, for emerging companies like Light Blue Optics CES is still vital to gain some exposure, not to mention the fact that such a prominent date in the calendar forces the tech giants to have made some significant, competitive advances in their gear, year-on-year.

So here's hoping the old dog's got a bit of life left in it yet. Hopefully next year will kick off the recessionary cobwebs and kick the show back into high-tech gear. It wouldn't take much to tempt us back to the City of Sin once more.

Click here for full CES 2010 pre-show, day one, day two and day three round-ups.

Remember that scene in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, where all of Chevy Chase's festive struggles come good when his ridiculous fairy light system shines brighter than the sun? Well some bright spark has gone one better. Or should that be one louder?

A round of applause please for Mr Ric Turner, one time Disney special effects expert, who has turned his entire house into a festive lightshow, powered by...wait for it... GUITAR HERO.

Using 21,268 twinkling fairy lights and an intricate knowledge of electronics, Ric has rigged his house up to his Wii Guitar Hero game so that it lights up in time with his button mashing.

Words just don't do it justice, so check out the video above. It's totally mental, and 100% awesome.

For full details of this mammoth undertaking, check out Ric's conversation with Make.

While I was snooping round the GRO website I also found that the company has also designed what must be the most stunning table football in the world. A mix of chrome metals (there's a whiff of luxury bath taps) and atmospheric lighting, it really does look stunning. The table is now on sale via this website. The bad news is that it takes 12 weeks before they can ship it to you. Got to be worth the wait though. Take a look at these images.

Click on the image to start the gallery

Fancy a robot vacuum cleaner but not got the dosh for one of these? Well the good news is that that the decidedly low rent version has just started to arrive in the UK. The Brush Robot is essentially a kids toy, but don't let that put you off. You spend a few minutes building it and voila your very own robot cleaner and all for just £9.95.

The robot comes with a battery case, wooden brush, paint brush, motor, a set of plastic mechanical parts and of course those

It is available from a number of retailers including this lot

Rubiks puzzles. I hate them. Never could solve one. Never had the patience to. However, I do appreciate the genius of their design, well, I did. Until I met the Rubik's Touch Cube.

The trouble is that it's exactly the same mental proposition as the original Rubik's Cube only with a completely rubbish interface in the way. From my, admittedly limited, time with the one in the vid, I found the touch effect pretty terrible and, given that they're charging £139.99 for each one when they're launched, I'd chalk it up as "one for the enthusiast".

The answer you're looking for is no. No, you can never have enough Star Wars themed merchandise - certainly not in rainy old England where not even a Jedi mind trick can prevent a downpour.

Instead, equip yourself with the £19.99 lightsaber umbrella. It's got three internal LEDs, which light up the shaft when you hit the button, but, sadly, you'll have to make all the sound effects yourself - probably quite fun when you're cutting through all the pedestrain traffic.

Three AAA batteries are not included, which is a shame because that's what it require to work, and the whole thing is 84cm long. Suitable for those 12 and over apparently.

You know, I don't think I can use the word "shaft" with a straight face any more. How did you fair reading it?

IWOOT

If you don't want a pair of £99 nightvision goggles, you're either Swiss or dead. These are part of the British HM Forces foray into the world of "toys" except these bad boys actually give you genuine, green, infra red-assisted night vision at up to 15m.

Scalextric phoned me earlier. If you were a child of a certain part of the late 80s and early 90s, then you'll immediately be envious. In actual fact, though, all that happened was that my inner eight-year-old immediately took the fore and started babbling excitedly. It was quite embarrassing. All they were trying to tell me is that Scalextric has entered the world of social media.

The company has launched a Facebook application, a YouTube channel and a blog. That wouldn't normally be terribly exciting news, but the app and the channel seem pretty cool. The Facebook app lets you build a garage of cars that you can send to other people using the app. A few people will also win real-life Scalextric vouchers, so you can fill your real-life garage up with that instead.

The YouTube channel is also pretty awesome. There's video of Jensen Button playing with the diminutive cars, but also guides on how to replace the contacts under the cars if they get worn, and footage of an attempt at the world record for biggest Scalextric track.

Lastly, the blog. It's a little clunky, but there's sections for news about the toys and space for news about motorsports. There's also a 'coming soon' section for technical help on Scalextric builds, which I'm sure will come in handy.

The only thing missing in this list is a Twitter account. What's that all about, Scalextric? I want to message @scalextric and not have some bloke from Warwickshire reply.

Blog, YouTube and Facebook App

Awww, poor Pleo. Looks like he might be going the way of his friends very shortly, as the company that makes him has filed for bankruptcy and laid off all its employees.

It's been on the cards for a while, as suppliers have filed lawsuits against the company for non-payment and the company's website has been going down on a regular basis. It's possible that the lovable dino will be saved by another toy company, especially as it's such a powerful brand, but don't get your hopes up too much.

(via Engadget)

Forget useful accessories for your desk and instead invest in one or more of these funky little critters.

The Hexbug is a little creepy-crawly robot (6 x 5 x3.5cm in fact) with touch sensors on its feelers and a built-in microphone. Upon hearing a loud noise it will scurry away in the opposite direction, and any time it makes contact with something it will step back from it.

Depending on your viewpoint and cynicism levels today, the Rubik's TouchCube is either an extremely cool update of the 1970s puzzle world-beater, or a cynical attempt to cash-in on today's touch screen madness.

Frankly, we're prepared to confound your expectations by going for option #1 - it's a very cool little toy. The touchable Rubik update not only LIGHTS UP for your amusement, it also MAKES SOUNDS - sampled clunks and clicks, similar to those made by furious boffins racing each other to complete the thing the quickest.

A motion-detecting accelerometer knows when you rotate it, with the touch screen illuminating the LEDs beneath when you swipe your finger across it to make a line. It even comes with built-in memory, so you can "save" your current progress to resume later, if you've been stuck for three hours already.

And if/when you get angry and frustrated and want to give up, because you're not a precocious child-genius, a "solver" application will show you how it's done.

(Via Techno Source)

Evil geniuses, take note. Your army of drone planes that currently need to be controlled by an army of assistants will, in March, become obsolete when Tokyo-based Taiyo corp releases a voice-controlled toy helicopter. It's going to understand English and Japanese, and understands "start engine," "up," "hold," "down" and "stop". No "forward"?

It's battery-powered, 18cm long, and can fly 10m away from the operator. You need to wear a headset to control it, too. Still, it's likely you'll be able to mod it to carry tiny miniguns, and hack it to fire on voice command, too. If everything goes wrong, you can control it by conventional remote, too. It'll cost $60 (£42 or so).

(via CrunchGear)

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One of the quirkier stories to come out of CES this year was the partnership between Digital Blue and LEGO which will see a number of kid-centric gadgets produced with the iconic plastic brick look.

This isn't build it yourself, unfortunately, so don't think you'll be able to buy a box full of LEGO pieces, a CMOS sensor, LCD and a few buttons and create your own digital camera. It's just the look, rather than the actual coloured blocks, but that's probably just as well as it would be pretty irritating to drop said camera and have it break into a hundred pieces.