It may only be July, but retail experts are already looking ahead to see what's going to be the biggest sellers this forthcoming festive season. After farting robots last year, the prediction for 2005 is slightly more grown up, a wind up dog, made and sold in Japan.

Capable of running distances of up to 100 metres, owners simply pull out a chord hidden in the tail to create the energy needed to wind it up. This means that no batteries are needed, a popular selling point, however it's purchase price will put it out of reach for most people - it's only available on import and costs nearly $1000.

Wrath
Despite being easy to use, the toy has however incurred the wrath of vegetarians, anti-fur protestors and celebrities worldwide, due to the fact that the toy is made using real dog hair.

'It's disgusting' Gwyneth Paltrow told us, but then so was her last movie.

Real hair
Manufacturers admitted that real dog hair was used in a bid to make the toy more realistic. 'We only use fur from dead dogs,' a spokesman told us, 'it's not like we skin them whilst they're still alive or anything'.

These concerns however don't seem to affecting sales however, it's producers told Mr Damian that they are selling wind up dogs as fast as they can make them.

Remember kids, a wind up dog is for life, not just for Christmas.

Posted by damian at July 08, 2005 07:42 AM