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The range, made by California-based One2Believe, includes a foot-high talking Jesus, which recites three short verses from the Bible and a minute-long rundown of the feeding of the five thousand. There’s also a talking Mary, and a Daniel that comes with a lion and den. Following success at Wal-Mart stores across the US, the manufacturer is apparently now interested to talk to UK chain Toys ’R Us about launching the toys in this country early next year.
 
But does it really expect the range to sell well against some of the kids’ market’s cooler toys? Take the Toy Retailer’s Association’s list of this Christmas’s predicted bestsellers, which includes a dog that gets bigger the more you pet it, a mask that makes you talk like a Dalek, and Optimus Prime, the robot hero of the hit film Transformers. It’s hard to imagine a humble carpenter being able to compete.

A talking Jesus would of course be a more relevant gift at Christmas, which may appeal to parents who fear the commercialised holiday has moved too far away from its more down-to-earth roots. Yet it seems like an unlikely time to be pushing religious toys, especially given that the multicultural nature of our country has already led to many schools ditching the term ‘Christmas’ in favour of the more inclusive ‘Winterval’.

Still, no matter how ridiculous range sounds, it can hardly be as bad as some of the alternatives, from the Barbie mp3 player to the Bratz, which manage to take pretty much all that’s abhorrent in modern life and recreate it, with uncanny accuracy, in a few grams of plastic.