Dave the Funky Shoulder Monkey: Robotic simian shenanigans

Here at CNET UK, we love robots. We also love monkeys, so you can imagine the poo-flinging frenzy we got ourselves into when we discovered someone had crossed the two to create a robotic chimp known as Dave the Funky Shoulder Monkey.

Dave, dear reader, is an 8-inch-tall, interactive simian designed to sit atop a user's arm with the help of a small harness. Once in position, he gets his funk on, responding to inputs from an infrared remote control and performing a range of actions.

Controlling him is fairly simple. Hit the mode buttons on the remote control to select the conversation, greeting, puppet or action modes, and then hit the keypad to trigger a behaviour. The cheeky chimp will then run through his repertoire of moves, including high-fives, handshakes, bored yawns, burps, farts and a dubious gesture that can only be interpreted as self-pleasuring.

That, friends, is about it really. He's not programmable, he doesn't walk and he doesn't talk -- he just sort of sits there, waving his little monkey arms around whenever you hit the remote control. As a result, we wouldn't really recommend him to anyone with a mental age above nine.

Still, he's pretty cheap -- a mere £25 from Hamleys -- so he could provide minutes of fun for a very young child or grown-ups who really should know better. Click through the photo gallery above to get a closer look at Dave in all his questionable marvellousness.