Yes, we know it's still August, but...

LEGO Monster Fighters: Vampyre Castle: Top toy for Christmas 2012?

-- we all know that if you don't get your Christmas orders in early, some of these "must have" toys -- including the ones for the big kids who mainly read this blog -- will be hard to find.

Here's a breakdown of some of the toys for the whole family that "toy experts" say look set to top the sales charts this coming festive season... Of these, Moshi Monsters of course has its own magazine, which is a darn site cheaper than some of the toys on offer, so maybe it's worth looking at that as a stocking filler.

Good to see Lego still riding high -- we're sure some of you out there will be hinting for the Batcave listed, even though it was released early on this year.

Boys

• LEGO Monster Fighters: Vampyre Castle - £79.99 
• LEGO City: The Mine - £69.99 
• LEGO Ninjago: Epic Dragon Battle - £84.99 
• John Adams Pro Deck Workshop £24.99 
• Spynet Video Watch £49.99 
• Moshi Monsters: App Monster - £22.99 
• Smasha-Ballz - £19.99 
• Gyro-Botz Battle Arena - £19.99 

Tweens

• Lego Games: Life of George £29.99 

Families

• LEGO Games: Creationary £24.99 
• Booms, Bangs, Fizzes - £19.99 
• Radioactive Science - £19.99 
• Telestrations - £24.99 
• Dragon Chase - £17.99 

Big Kids

• LEGO Star Wars: Jabba's Palace £119.99 
• LEGO Technic: 4X4 Crawler £139.99 
• LEGO DC Superheroes: Batcave £69.99 
• Rubik's Cube - £12.99 

Stocking Fillers

• LEGO Minifigures, £1.99 
• LEGO Hero Factory - buildable action figures, £6.99-£14.99 
• Series 4 Collectable Moshlings - £1.99 
• Fuzzy Felt: My Favourite Shapes - £5.99 
• Gyro-Botz Shadow Warriors £9.99 each 

Pre-schoolers

• Britain's Big Farm: John Deere 6190R RC Tractor - £49.99 
• Baby Jake Giggle n Wiggle - £29.99 
• Little Charley Bear: Ready, Teddy Go! £29.99 
• Cloudbabies: Glow Babas £24.99 
• Everything's Rose: Sweet Dreams Rosie & Raggles - £29.99 

Girls

• Tiny Tears (Classic) - £19.99 
• Girls World: Gabriella Styling Doll - £19.99 
• WaggleTagz - £17.99 
• Cabbage Patch Kids - £29.99 
• AniMagic: Tessie Goes Trotting - £22.99 
• Moshi Monsters: Super Moshi HQ - £24.99 
• Crayola Catwalk Creations: House of Fashion - £29.99 
• Flufflings: Jiggle n Dance - £22.99 
• Winx: Deluxe Dolls - £19.99

• The products listed above can be found at the following websites: www.lego.com,  www.johnadams.co.uk, www.vividtoysandgames.co.uk, www.jaaks.com and www.tomy.co.

In Space No One Can Hear You Build, Again

Way way back we pointed you in the direction of some SF related Lego, specifically a Tardis and Blake's 7's Liberator, so we are overdue for some more.

MOCpages is a Lego fansite which allows Lego builders to put up photos of their own creations and some are remarkable. Ron Haller is a Gerry Anderson fan who is building his way through some of his favourite Anderson vehicles in Lego. Not the obvious Thunderbird 2 or Spectrum SPV for Ron, instead he has recreated some of the UFO, Space:1999 and new Captain Scarlet vehicles.

From new Captain Scarlet come several versions of the Bison moon rover and an impressive Druzynik battle tank. From Space:1999 comes the Alpha Moonbase moon buggy and my favourite of his creations, a set of SHADO mobiles from UFO.

He is currently working on a Space:1999 Eagle and based on the section of Eagle pod that is previewed on the site it will be a truly impressive model. We wish him luck with it.