Sonic will be as speedy as ever in Meccano form, with sets including a Green Hill playset (just a mention of that should be enough to get videogamers of a certain age all nostalgic).

Gears of War will see the introduction of a different building system to recreate vehicles like the Armadillo APC, Centaur Tank and King Raven.

What might be considered Meccano’s core values are not being neglected. The Construction, Build & Play, Turbo, Space Chaos and Multi Models lines will all see new additions, and the company has already enjoyed success, with the new Advanced Toolbox (pictured) named as the best new toy in the Construction category at The Toy Fair.

“Our Construction Toolboxes are designed to engage beginners through to advanced builders,” said Meccano’s Sue Barratt, “getting incrementally more complex as you work your way through the four sets from Easy to Expert. Add to this the exceptionally useful toolbox itself, which keeps everything in one place, and you have a product that ticks all the boxes.

“These are exciting times for Meccano. We are taking our considerable brand heritage and fusing it with some of the hottest licensed properties around. “

There are 12 sets to choose from, headlined by the KRE-O Transformers Optimus Prime Set. With 542 pieces, you can construct the leader of the Autobots as a robot or a truck, and the truck’s removable cab can convert into a mini-command station.

The trailer opens up to house two motorcycles and the five KREONs included in the set.

You can keep those KREON figures busy by rebuilding the trailer into a command centre playset and when Optimus is in robot mode he can call on a projectile-launching brick to deal with foes.

Priced around £69.99, the set is suitable for ages eight and up.

Other sets available include Sentinel Prime (ages 8+, 386 pieces, four KREONS, around £39.99), Megatron (8+, 310 pieces, four KREONs, around £34.99), Starscream (7+, 316 pieces, two KREONs, around £29.99), Bumblebee (7+, 335 pieces, three KREONs, around £29.99), Sideswipe (7+, 220 pieces, two KREONs, around £19.99), Ratchet (6+, 187 pieces, two KREONs, around £19.99), Prowl (6+, 174 pieces, two KREONs, around £19.99), Jazz (6+, 122 pieces, two KREONs, around £11.99) and Mirage (6+, 119 pieces, two KREONs, around £11.99).

At the budget end of the range you can also pick up basic versions of both Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. Priced around £8.99 each, with 90 and 75 pieces, respectively. These sets do not include KREON mini figures and are suitable for ages six and up.

Captain Jack Sparrow is intent on taking over the ship, but zombies are the least of his worries – Blackbeard himself is lurking in the captain’s quarters.

The set features movable cannons, detachable captain’s quarters, fire elements and a working helm. The ship measures 50cm tall when completed and comes with seven minifigures – Blackbeard, Jack Sparrow, Angelica, quartermaster, cook and a pair of pirates.

For ages 9–16, the set is priced around £102.99.

When he’s finished fighting zombies, Jack can try his hand at netting a mermaid, which is probably much harder than it sounds.

In the Whitecap Bay set (ages 7–14, 745 pieces, around £71.99), Jack has two mermaids to aim for, using a net-firing cannon. Everything seems to be going to plan, but who left those barrels of whale oil so close to an open flame?

The set features a lighthouse with working searchlight, a pair of rowboats and six minifigures – Jack Sparrow, Philip, Scrum, Syrena, a pirate and another mermaid.

Back in London, things aren’t getting any easier.  A pair of redcoats are hot on the heels of Jack and his right-hand man, Joshamee Gibbs, and Jack has decided to hide in a pub. There’s a hidden exit if the redcoats find them and a pair of carriages that look like perfect getaway vehicles.

The London Escape set (ages 7–14, 462 pieces, around £46.99) comes with five minifigures – Jack Sparrow, Joshamee Gibbs, a coach driver and two redcoats.

The key to the Dead Man’s Chest is at stake in the next set – The Mill (ages 7–14, 365 pieces, around £40.99).

Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, Admiral Norrington and Hadras are busy fighting for the key when the mill wheel breaks away and takes them for a spin.

The mill measures 25cm high and the wheel, naturally, is detachable.

Jack does his best to avoid being the main course in the Cannibal Escape set (ages 6–12, 279 pieces, around £26.99). One look at Jack’s face tells you all you need to know about how seriously he’s taking this, as he legs it from the hungry cannibals.

Jack Sparrow and Will Turner are up against two cannibals (surely two cannibals wouldn’t be able to eat both Jack and Will?) and there’s a bone cage for them to escape from before dinner is served.

In Isla de la Muerta (ages 6–12, 152 pieces, around £19.99), Jack and Elizabeth discover heaps of treasure, but Hector Barbarossa isn’t keen on sharing it. Even worse, he transforms into a skeleton figure. That’s really creepy.

The set includes the Black Pearl rowboat (10cm long) and enough gold pieces to sink a pirate ship.

The Fountain of Youth (ages 6–12, 125 pieces, around £19.99) promises much more fun – for whoever it is who gets to drink from it. Jack, Barbarossa and Blackbeard all have their eye on the prize, but who will get there first? (Barbarossa’s wooden leg must be a hindrance here.)

The set includes waterfall scenery (10cm high) and translucent water elements.

The Captain’s Cabin (ages 6–12, 94 pieces, around £10.49) ought to be a place of peace and relaxation, but not when Jack Sparrow’s around. He’s decided to steal a ship-in-a-bottle, and the two henchmen lying in wait are none too pleased.  Whether Jack succeeds is up to you.

Each set in the Pirates of the Caribbean range also includes a free poster.

Children aged three and over can use two different colours of Moon Sand to construct a variety of structures on a building base. The kit includes a roof, door, windows and brick moulds to help you create a detailed building, and the little construction worker figure gives it an authentic building-site look.

When the model is complete, a working detonator can implode the whole thing in dramatic style. A sand box is included for storage, and to keep all the mess contained. The Moon Sand Destruction set is priced around £14.99.

Priced around £71.99, the giant LEGO City Harbour is positively bursting with activity. A ship has just docked, and the race is on to get the precious cargo offloaded, sorted and loaded onto a truck to be delivered direct to the city centre. A powerful crane helps with this, and the cargo is soon sliding off down a conveyor belt.

Ignoring the noise and haste, a fisherman is at ease on the quayside, with his rod and catch of the day. All around him, the worker, chief officer and crane driver go about their business with walkie talkies, brooms and other accessories to help keep everything ship-shape.

A more serene scene is provided by the Marina set, priced around £41.99. Here is a haven for all the watersports enthusiasts of LEGO City. A nice wind blows through, providing a windsurfer with some excellent sport, while a dinghy bobs around nearby.

From the vantage point in his tower, a lifeguard keeps an eye on all five of the included minifigures as they enjoy the water (complete with surfboards, flippers and diving masks), relax on the beach under a sun umbrella, take to the dunes in a buggy or browse the surfer shop.

As the lifeguard looks on, he may even see a giant Power Boat Transporter (priced around £29.99) pull up.

Under his watchful eye, the huge lorry will unload the exciting boat into the ocean, where its proud owner can get kitted up in his lifejacket and jump on board.

It’s alright for those who have the time and money to take to the water for pleasure, but spare a thought for the fisherman, trying to make a living in his Fishing Boat, priced around £13.99.

As he prepares to drop his line into the water, contemplating a nice fat cod in his tummy for tea, a shark lurks ominously nearby. One false move by the fisherman, and it’ll be the shark who dines well tonight.

The sailor in the Speed Boat (priced around £3.99) doesn’t look at all worried about the threat of sharks – probably confident that he can outrun them all in his sleek, shiny boat. He’s not an entirely reckless character though, he is wearing his lifejacket.

The bear with very little brain is having an outdoor lunch in the Winnie the Pooh’s Picnic set, priced around £8.49. In typical Pooh style, the menu for this picnic is a hugely overflowing pot of honey, and two crusty baguettes to spread it on. The picnic scene is set with a flower and a bee, as well as Pooh himself, and additional scenery can be created by young builders using an assortment of bricks.

Looking bouncy in a bigger set, Tigger and Piglet are having an incredible adventure together with the Tigger’s Expedition set, priced around £18.99. The adventure is up to the young builders, who can create an imaginative setting for any storyline they like with all the included bricks.

A watery escapade of some sort seems to be on the cards, as the set comes with a canoe for little piglet to travel in and a fishing rod for Tigger, while a little fence could form part of a bridge for the young friends to play Pooh sticks from.

It’s home sweet home with the third product, the Winnie the Pooh’s House set, priced around £30.99. DUPLO figures of Pooh, alongside his little buddy Piglet and gloomy friend Eeyore are included in the set.

Other details include two honey pots (which should last greedy Pooh around half a day), a slide for the friends to play in and furniture for the house. The bricks that build the house can be shaped around a door and window, which both open and close to aid role play.

Ranges include the Miniature Collection (priced around £7.99), which contains animals (such as frogs, polar bears and the ever-popular meerkats) and musical instruments, the Sights to See range (around £14.99), including famous landmarks such as the Taj Mahal and Eiffel Tower, and the challenging Advanced Hobby series (around £149.99), which includes 5,800-piece models requiring anything up to 20 hours of build time.

“The great thing with Nanoblock is that you’re not limited to building the packaged models,” says Ashley Yeates of Asholay Distribution.

“With just eleven brick types the product retains a basic construction style, so the adventurous who want to build their own creations are limited only by their imagination!”

The Cookie Set and Candy Factory both come with two different colours of the amazing substance that never dries out. Also included in each set is a playmat or sand box plus lots of moulds and accessories to help make and decorate a huge variety of imaginative sweet treats.

When the creation stage of the cookie or sweetie making is over, the delicacies can be baked in an oven to harden them and extra details can be painted on.

Moon Sand now also comes in new packaging that closes securely and can be stacked for easy storage, and there are new moulded sand trays in the large sets.

The Cookie Set is priced around £9.99, while the Candy Factory is priced around £14.99.

Now distributed in the UK by Flair, the system uses magnetic rods and chrome spheres to open up a world of construction possibilities. The 2011 range includes 22-, 44- and 66-piece sets, as well as 36- and 72-piece sets with new coloured panel pieces.

Geomag Wheels has also raced into the picture, with sets like the Sports Car (around £10.99) and Drag Launcher (around £14.99) allowing kids to build and race their own cars (which will disintegrate spectacularly when crashed!).

To celebrate the re-launch of Geomag at the Toy Fair in January, Flair teamed up with celebrity builder Craig Philips to construct an impressive 2.5m replica of Big Ben. Click here to see a video of the build on YouTube.

From Star Wars: The Clone Wars we have the T-6 Jedi Shuttle, the Bounty Hunter Assault Gunship, the Battle for Geonosis set, a Clone Trooper Battle Pack and a Mandalorian Battle Pack.

The Battle of Naboo set and an Imperial V-wing Starfighter come from the movie series.

The T-6 Jedi Shuttle is transporting Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Shaak Ti and Saesee Tiin minifigures when they are ambushed by bounty hunters. Their ship has flick-firing missiles, a rotating wing and retractable landing gear.

If things get too hairy, the cockpit can detach and be used as an escape pod (surely it won’t come to that). The ship measures 25cm long when you’ve put all 389 pieces in the correct places and is priced around £49.99, for ages 8–14.

The Bounty Hunter Assault Gunship (ages 8–14, 389 pieces, around £40.99) has rotating engines, laser cannons and (most importantly) a prison area for holding captured Jedi.

The stolen Holocron is included, as are minifigures of Sugi, Aurra Sing, Embo and an IG-86 assassin droid bounty hunter. The ship is 25cm long when completed.

The Battle for Geonosis set (ages 8–14, 331 pieces, around £35.99) comes with five minifigures – Captain Rex, Luminari Unduli, a pair of battle droids and a super battle droid.

A Separatist proton cannon (22cm long) is carrying all before it, and it’s only when Rex and Luminara turn up on their BARC speeder that the battle begins to turn.

The two Battle Packs each offer four minifigures and a vehicle for padding out larger scenes or simply enjoying on their own.

The Clone Trooper Battle Pack (ages 6–12, 85 pieces, around £9.99) includes a clone commander, two orange-clad bomb squad clone troopers and an ARF clone trooper as well as a BARC speeder (15cm long).

The Mandalorian Battle Pack (ages 6–12, 68 pieces, around £9.99) comes with a Mandalorian assassin and three Mandalorian trooper minifigures, a Mandalorian speeder (7cm long) and a blaster turret

The Battle of Naboo is one of the highlights of Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. This set (ages 7–12, 241 pieces, around £25.99) features a 25cm-long Federation Troop Carrier packed with eight battle droids.

Further minifigures include Jar Jar Binks, a Gungan soldier (with a transparent energy shield) and two droid pilots.

Finally, the Imperial V-wing Starfighters (ages 7–12, 139 pieces, around £21.99) were originally flown by Republic forces, but a quick paint job soon turned them into instruments of the evil Galactic Empire after the Republic fell. The V-wing is used to track down and destroy elements of the Rebel Alliance.

The set comes with an all-new Imperial pilot and an astromech droid, R2-Q2, and the 22cm-long ship has rotating wings to deploy in either flying or landing mode.