Following hot on the heels of wind-up radios, torches, and phone chargers come the Wind Up Walkie Talkies. With all the functionality of battery ridden chatterboxes such as a 3Km range, 8 channels, LCD display screen and being generally pretty darn rugged, these Walkie Talkies are, as the name suggests, powered by winding them up. The dynamo mechanism knocks past dynamo efforts into a cocked hat, making it simple with just a few cranks to get connected. No longer need you worry about failing batteries when you're out and about being adventurous - or indeed when you grab them from the cupboard just before you leave, which is always when you find out they've run out of juice. Now you'll never be out of touch, even when you're out of power.

They can also be charged up by the included 6V mains adaptor if in a bout of environmentally unfriendly apathy you don't fancy cranking them. A full charge will give you eight hours of standby, and an hour and a half of actual talk time (though what you'd be talking about for that long is anyone's guess).