Battery-powered fun (that’s family friendly)

ROBOQUAD, from Wowwee; RRP $209:

This  little critter is all fun, all the time.

He’s a four-legged robot who scuttles around your house entertaining the cat, waving at anything that takes his fancy, dancing to his own tune and freaking out the occasional overly sensitive soul who claims he looks like a spider and shrieks every time he comes near.

Now that’s entertainment.

You can get Roboquad to do all that and more via his remote control, which has four different levels of use, including 72 preprogrammed functions.

You can change his awareness, activity or aggression at each level of control to give a huge range of reactions and behaviours. It’s like the little beastie has his own personality.

The full-on aggressive mode is stacks of fun, with him shaping up to anyone who gets in his way by roaring, attacking or a combination of the two. The cat wasn’t so fond of that part.

If you select the autonomy button, he’ll even take it upon himself to wander around checking out his environment.

His smart scan function means he reacts if anything changes, and that reaction varies according to aggression and activity levels you’ve selected for him.

He’ll even go into escape mode, heading for the largest open space he can spot as fast as his four little legs will carry him.

Make sure you have a good stock of batteries (four C-size and three AAA) because you’ll be spending plenty of time bonding with your new toy.