Forget the Aibos of this world. Sure they're clever but if you're prepared to spend new car money on a toy robotic dog, you're either very rich, or very stupid. Instead, why not part with a modest £59.95 and bag yourself a Robopet. At just over 23cm long, part dog, part Terminator, the Robopet can walk, run, crawl, sit, lie down, or roll over whenever it feels the need and also displays different behaviour dependent on his/her mood. Sonic and motion sensors mean that he responds to your movement and you can chat merrily away to him and watch his reactions. He's even got a guard dog mode to keep your home safe while you out on the town.

Use the supplied laser pointer and you can have your Robopet follow you around the home and do your bidding. ‘Empty the bins,' you'll say to him. Completely in vain, of course. He won't do that. Best of all, if you also own a Robosapien V2, your Robosapien can control the Robopet, like some sort of mildly camp robotic family. It'll be like having C3P0 and R2D2 as flatmates. Sounds alright to us…