Drones, Game of Thrones and robot friends star in London's 2015 Toy Fair (pictures)

Welcome to the Toy Fair 2015. Held in London every year, it's where toy manufacturers from around the world gather to show off the toys and gadgets that, the makers hope, kids will spend the rest of the year pestering their parents to buy.

Among the usual arrays of dolls, animal playsets, and too many colourful plastic objects to count were a slew of gadgets and gizmos for the tech-minded child (or childish adult) in your life.

Drones and quadcopters in all shapes and sizes dominated many of the stands, with paraphernalia from hit TV shows such as "Game of Thrones" and "Breaking Bad", as well as video games like Minecraft also featuring heavily around the show floor.

First up is the Meccanoid from Meccano. It looks rather reminiscent of Johnny 5 from "Short Circuit" and it actually isn't too different.

After building him from scratch, kids are encouraged to teach him all kinds of moves -- either by physically moving the limbs to be remembered and repeated, or by using the accompanying app.

The app also allows numerous dance moves, Judo moves and words and phrases to be recalled. Or Meccanoid can use your phone's camera to see your own moves and mimic them.

Meccano explained that there are any number of possibilities for how to program the Meccanoid or even how to build it -- a T-Rex and weird insect-like thing had also been made using the same kit, and, as it uses standard Meccano pieces, you can add on bits using any of your existing Meccano sets.

Although $399 (that's around £260 or AU$490) may be a lot of money for a toy, it's an amount well worth considering if you want your children to grow up with a robot pal and live the dream you were sadly denied.

Editor's note: All prices announced at the Toy Fair were in UK pounds, so US and Australian prices quoted are all approximate currency conversions. Expect final prices to vary considerably, along with availability.

Say hello to the Zoomer Dino Boomer. It balances itself on its two wheels and can either be remote controlled or roam around autonomously as a dinosaur. You can even pull its tail to make its eyes flash red with rage, if you want to torment your other toys.

It's available now for £100 in the UK, which converts to about $150 or AU$185.

The Atmosphere from Air Hogs automatically hovers in the air and will move away from your hand when it detects you're getting too close, allowing you to chase it around the room.

The Atmosphere costs £25 in the UK, which is roughly AU$45 in Australia and $40 in the US.

Air Hogs has also trapped this helicopter inside a cage. Not only does that mean it won't break apart when you inevitably crash it into something, it allows it to roll up walls and across the ceiling.

The Rollercopter, as it's known, costs £40, which is around $60 or AU$75.

There was a tonne of Minecraft merchandise at this year's fair, including this plush Iron Golem, costing £35 (roughly AU$65 or $55).

Why not fill an entire shelf in your house with Minecraft goodies? Because it would be ridiculous, that's why.

I've already spent quite a lot of time with the drifting, electric Crazy Cart from Razor and deemed it an immense success. So I'm super excited to give its big brother, the Crazy Cart XL, a proper whirl.

This adult-sized version is faster and has longer-lasting, replaceable batteries. It's available already in the US for the not inconsiderable price of $800 and will be coming to the UK this summer, for £800 -- although that's yet to be finalised.

Razor also has a new electric scooter, fitted with a high-torque motor and sturdy wheels for off-road use. The RX200 can go up to 12 miles per hour and will be on sale this summer for £240, which equates to about $365 or AU$445.

Air Storm has fitted these crossbow darts with LED lights, which will not only look cool when fired at night, but will actually allow you to find them again.

The Air Storm crossbow will set you back £30 -- roughly AU$55 or $45.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Corgi winning toy of the year with the replica Aston Martin DB5, a real-life DB5 was on display. The DB5 was James Bond's motor of choice in "Goldfinger", and the toy came complete with ejector seat.

And Corgi has re-released its DB5 in honour of the occasion. 10,000 models will be available in this silver hue...

...with only 2,000 gold models being available.

If you like your Bond memorabilia a little more interactive, then this Aston Martin DB5 Scalextric model may be more up your street -- you can pop it on your existing Scalextric track and race it. Prices and availability are yet to be confirmed.

Here's the Zeus 6 by JSF Quadrocopters. It's a six-rotor drone, with a 5-megapixel camera slung beneath its hull to let you capture some delightful aerial shots.

The Zeus 6 will set you back £300 (around $455 or AU$555).

Its little brother the Pegasus 6 also has six rotors, but it's much smaller and doesn't have a camera.

It therefore comes with a much more reasonable sub-£100 price tag (roughly AU$185 or $150).

TV fanatics are well catered for at the Toy Fair. Maybe you could use this Sheldon Cooper action figure from "The Big Bang Theory" to help teach your young children particle physics. Or just play it with yourself.

Or teach your children about the dangers of starting your own meth cooking business with this Jesse doll from "Breaking Bad".

If Jesse doesn't float your boat, maybe Saul Goodman will be more up your street.

"Breaking Bad" fans will be familiar with the half-burned pink teddy, hurled into Walter White's swimming pool after the plane crash. Whether those same fans will want the bear in their own home is another question entirely.

If you do, it'll only set you back around £30 (that's about $45, AU$55).

The Lancer from Gears of War is arguably one of the best weapons in all of video games, up there with the gravity gun from Half Life 2 and the concrete donkey from Worms.

Put this piece of gaming history on your wall -- or in your hands -- for around £120 (around AU$225 or $180).

More Minecraft merchandise. This time, it's the pixellated pick axe, costing around £20, which is about $30 or AU$40.

The Micro Drone 3.0 is tiny, highly manoeuvrable, can be controlled from your phone and can be fitted with a 720p camera on a stabilising gimbal.

Footage from the camera can even be streamed live back to your phone and, using Google's project Cardboard VR system, you can view it as a head-mounted display.

The Micro Drone 3.0 will be available later this year and will cost £80 (about AU$150 or $120) while the 720p camera unit will cost an extra £40 (AU$75 or $60).

Nope, these aren't laundry baskets, but actually contain live butterflies. Insect Lore will sell you this starter kit for £15 (roughly $20 or AU$30). When the temperature is correct -- between spring and summer -- it will send you baby caterpillars to raise into real butterflies.

Once the butterflies are fully grown, you can release them. They're common European butterflies so can be safely released in Europe and come with instructions on how to care for them as they grow.

I imagine the most important lesson to teach your kids is not to open the zip top of the bag in the house.

Insect Lore proudly claims to be "the original butterflies by mail company" although I'm not sure there are too many people vying for that title.

If you'd rather teach your kids about engineering than butterfly rearing, this wind turbine kit can be built from scratch and really generates power. It's available from Thames and Kosmos and costs around £35 ($50 or AU$65).

Send this giant remote controlled speed boat from flyinggadgets.com speeding round your private lake for only £1,000 (around $1,500 or AU$1,900). You do have a private lake, right?

No show that includes drones would be complete without an appearance from DJI's latest flying machine, the Inspire One.

Pit the dark side against the Jedis with these remote controlled inflatables by Bladez. They're around £40 (AU$75 or $60) each and are due to go on sale later this year.

Bladez also make these tiny little quadrocopters. They're called Mycro Pods and they cost £35 (roughly $50 or AU$65).

Massive inflatable T-Rex anyone?

The Toy Fair is held in Olympia, a grand old building in west London.

More tiny drones! This miniature six-rotor chap is just the right size to send whizzing around your office to help rack up those HR warnings.

Endanger your career with the Nano Hex from Revell for £40 (about AU$75 or $60).

This tall tree-man is apparently from a film I haven't seen called "Guardians of the Galaxy". If that means something to you, perhaps you'd like to pop him (her?) on your shelf. It'll set you back £75 (around $115, AU$140) to do that.

Or maybe this statue from "Iron Man 3" will be more to your taste.

This is the Soma X9 Quad-car-opter. As the name sort of suggests, you can drive it like a car along the ground then take off into the air when you fancy.

"You knerr nuthin' Jon Snerr." "Game of Thrones" fans will love this statue of the dashingly handsome Jon Snow.

"Game of Thrones" fans may also hate this vinyl figurine of the appalling King Joffrey. Boooo!

Ah, Stay Puft Marshmallow man from Ghostbusters. That's much better than stupid Joffrey. All these vinyl figures from Underground Toys cost around £11 (AU$20 or $17).

Given that we're now in the year that Marty McFly originally travelled to in "Back to the Future 2", it seems only appropriate to have this figurine on your desk. Even if we still don't have proper hoverboards yet.

Pledge your allegiance to your "Game of Thrones" clan of choice with these crest pillows.

The warning on this Chucky doll suggests it's unsuitable for children under 3 years old because of small parts, but I can actually think of far more pressing reasons why this doll is unsuitable for babies.

No, there is absolutely nothing tech-based or gadgety about this luxury, wooden Scrabble set, but it's awesome so I'm including it.

This X-COM boardgame is based on the strategy video game series. The game mechanics apparently remain much the same, although I was told we didn't have time to play a full game.

Find out for yourself for £50 (about $75 or AU$95).

This giant Thunderbird 1 model was not for sale, sadly.

Although these Real FX racing cars are not on tracks, they use various sensors to detect the track so as to not veer off. You have control over their speed, much like a Scalextric set.

A Real FX racing set costs £100 (around AU$185 or $150).

This brightly coloured robot is called I-QUE. It recognises your voice, allowing you to ask it questions about the weather, to define words or any number of facts. It's connected to the Internet, so will be able to find the answers and read them back to you.

It's easiest to think of it like Siri, but in a colourful robot instead of in an iPhone. Which is what we all want, if we're honest.

The i-QUE will set you back £60 ($90 or AU$110).