It doesn’t seem like long ago that the Tamagotchi craze began, those irritating little electronic creatures, cats, dogs, aliens and dinosaurs, that died if you didn’t feed them and play with them more than 3000 times a day. We have probably all owned one at some point during our lives, or have at least known someone who has, but admittedly they’ve come a long way since the day they arrived. Not to mention Furbys, those fluffy, egg-shaped creatures with beaks that were impossible to get hold of for Christmas! Now everything seems to react with something else too. Next thing you know, they’re going to start talking to your household appliances and walking your dog.

You can’t just have one of something though, oh no! If your daughter wants Pixel Chix, then it stands to reason her sister will need one so they can, you know, get them to talk to each other and interact with each other. One of the best electronic pets is the FurReal, basically a pet without any of the mess, just lots of batteries. You can get anything from a parrot to a horse and even a gorilla.

Then there is the really exciting stuff. The Aibo, small robotic dogs that look like they’ve come straight out of Japanese sci-fi with an armour-like body and seven expressions to tell you what they want. They also respond to voice commands and can technically ‘see’ the environment around them and interact with them. Just one step away from a robot that will do the washing up.