The Paladone Pac Man alarm clock was one of those bargains which I spotted when browsing Amazon last year looking for stocking fillers. At a price of £5 (current selling price is a hefty £15) it looked like the type of fun gadget which would both raise a smile when it was opened and be useful throughout the year.
The alarm clock stands around 5 inches or so high and features a bright yellow spherical Pac Man with his mouth open sitting atop a black square base. It is very cute, the type of object which will happily brighten up a kid's bedroom. The plastic construction feels cheap and light so it is not the type of clock which will withstand many bumps.

The time is told on a tiny LCD screen inside Pac Man's mouth which is not the easiest to read, especially in a dark bedroom although on the other hand there is no annoying glare from lit numbers which can be annoying in a darkened room. The clock and alarm are easy to set using the easily accessible buttons on the front of the unit.

The alarm is really loud; it plays the Pac Man music and then beeps repeatedly like the noise of the Pac Man ghosts. It does not always wake my daughter up but certainly had me running to her bedroom as it woke me and I would shout at her to get it turned off! There is also a snooze function for those who want an extra few minutes of shut eye before forcing themselves out of bed.

The alarm clock runs on batteries only so no mains lead trailing across the room, the battery life is excellent and in the few months the clock worked the batteries never needed changing once.

The alarm clock is fun but never lasted for very long. After 10 months or so the alarm stopped working completely, since the rest of the clock worked fine I think it was some kind of wire that came loose. Obviously an alarm clock which no longer has an alarm function is totally useless so Pac Man went in the bin, the clock not being good enough to keep the unit for.

As a fiver stocking filler this was a reasonable buy despite the fact it only lasted a few months but I certainly wouldn't pay any more than that for a gadget with a limited life span.