Steampunk Dalek has wheels, can’t climb stairs

Posted in Robots by Conner Flynn on June 5th, 2008

Steampunk Dalek has wheels, can’t climb stairs
The tardis is flying out of out control. It was driven off course by an unknown force. Finally it lands. Ah, 19th century London. As you exit the door, you’re pleased to see that it all looks about right…Until you see one of these. Then another. And another. Something is very wrong with this time-line. But even as your brain processes the danger, you can’t help but admire the workmanship. You notice it has wheels, so they won’t be climbing any stairs again. Nothing else to do, but go have your adventure.

Can you believe this thing? It’s a model from Alex Holden. He modded the hell out of a bottle of Dalek bubble bath to create this beauty, adding all kinds of detail.

Lego Johnny Five seems very alive

Posted in Robots by Conner Flynn on June 4th, 2008

Lego Johnny Five seems very alive
This has got to be the coolest Lego Johnny Five from Short Circuit I have ever seen. It’s creator is user rack911 from The Brothers Brick. (No relation to us, but on the Brick family tree somewhere)

Go ahead and check out a ton of pictures of the project at the Brickshelf Gallery. See, this is the kind of thing that Lego needs to be paying attention to. I would buy it and you would buy it. End of story. Robots are cool, Legos are cool. Put the two together and it’s geek magic. He did an excellent job.

WowWee’s new robot: Wrex The Dawg

Posted in Robots by Conner Flynn on June 3rd, 2008

WowWee’s new robot: Wrex The Dawg
WowWee has a new robot headed our way, and it’s not your typical bot. The Wrex The Dawg robot is a more or less hilarious and entertaining cartoon character come to life. Check out the video below to see his antics and cool features. Stuff like: Rubbing his robo-ass across the floor like a bad dog, fake peeing with funny sound effects, sneezing, and slot machine eyes that look help a whole lot with the cartoon feel.

You can even turn him into a cat, which he does pretty convincingly. Put him on guard duty and he’ll act like a guard dog. The remote is styled like an oversize industrial remote for some reason. Pretty cool stuff. I would say he’s a cut above most “dog” robots.

Wall-E and Eve interactive toys

Posted in Robots by Conner Flynn on May 30th, 2008

Wall-E and Eve interactive toys
The Wall-E merchandising train is alive and kicking. We told you about the ultimate Wall-E and we really like that one, much like the Wall-E mp3 player. Well, they’ve taken it a bit further with the Wall-E and Eve interactive toys.

Now Wall-E and Eve get the chance to get all freaky with each other. InterAction Eve has light-up eye expressions, arm movements, and sound effects. She’ll respond when you talk to her or push her along. She even has a flying mode, where you can lift her up and hear authentic blasts and whooshes. Needless to say Wall-E will interact with her.

Evolta Robot scales Grand Canyon cliff

Posted in Robots by Conner Flynn on May 25th, 2008

Evolta Robot scales Grand Canyon cliff
What’s the one thing we need more of in the 21st century? If you said that we need more robots performing daring feats, you’re in luck. It just so happens that on Saturday, the Panasonic Evolta battery robot, a 17-centimeter tall super-hero looking bot and all around bundle of cuteness, scaled a 500-meter cliff at the Grand Canyon.

It was a publicity stunt of course, to show-off the endurance of the Evolta AA alkaline batteries. The Guinness Book of World Records already recognizes the batteries as the longest-lasting of their kind. The robot, powered by just a pair of Evoltas, pulled itself up 530 meters of rope, finally reaching the top after 6 hours and 45 minutes. I don’t know about you, but if you show me a cool robot doing cool stuff I’m gonna buy your batteries.

Haptic mutant Tribble/Bunny creature

Posted in Robots by Conner Flynn on May 23rd, 2008

Haptic mutant Tribble/Bunny creature
In his attempt to build a better tribble thing, roboticist Steve Yohanan has come up with a Haptic creature that looks like a tribble with bunny ears attached. One that raises the creep factor, by having no facial features. This robot uses touch feedback as it’s only way to communicate.

It’s full of pressure sensors and the need to lull you into a false sense of safety with lots of fur and no face. It will be able to sense how you touch it or stroke it, and it will respond with breathing motions, ear wiggles or purring. What we have here is a fancy fur slipper that’s been sewn up after installing some gear. I just wish I worked for the company, because I’d find a huge bin full of these things and recreate the classic trek image above.

‘Dynamizer’ does the yard work

Posted in Robots by Conner Flynn on May 21st, 2008

‘Dynamizer’ does the yard work
This is how the future was supposed to be. While you are just sitting around laughing it up, your robot slave is busy doing all the gruntwork. Things like mowing the lawn for instance. This little guy seen in the accompanying video works his metal ass off, never complaining.

He’s entertaining to watch as he’s doing your chore. He even has to stop at one point to wipe the sweat from his brow. He clearly doesn’t get any respect. He just does his job. It’s all well and good until he runs into the doghouse.

Sony Rolly finally hits the U.S.

Posted in Robots by Conner Flynn on May 20th, 2008

Sony Rolly finally hits the U.S.
Everybody’s favorite whacked out, dancing, escape pod looking robot from Sony is finally making its way from Japan to the USA. The small egg-like bot can blast tunes from it’s built-in speakers, move its cute little flippers to the music and spin around. Is it useful? Hell no. And we like it that way.

The bot comes with pre-choreographed routines for songs. (”Also Sprach Zarathustra,” Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend”, Earth Wind and Fire’s “Boogie Wonderland”) You can also use the choreography software to create dances for own tunes. The 2GB bot can be had in black or white, and found online or in Sony stores for $400.

R2D2 ice bucket with Han in Carbonite ice cubes

Posted in Star Wars by Conner Flynn on May 13th, 2008

R2D2 ice bucket with Han in Carbonite ice
Our favorite little Star Wars droid is like Rodney Dangerfield. He gets no respect. They make laundry baskets in his likeness, even soy sauce bottles. When will they give the droid some proper respect? Not today. Here is the latest R2 item. An ice bucket with Han Solo in Carbonite ice cubes. They managed to diss Han with this one as well.

Great for a geek BBQ. R2 can serve up the ice and Han can keep your drink cool. This will make you the head geek at any event. It’s available for pre-order for about $33. It may even distract Jabba enough so you can rescue the real Han in Carbonite.

Robo Vacuum: Your crumbs will be assimilated

Posted in Robots by Conner Flynn on May 6th, 2008

Robo Vacuum: Your crumbs will be assimilated
Resistance is futile. Your crumbs will be assimilated and absorbed with these little robo vacuums. Which is appropriate, since these little guys look a bit on the obese side. They should probably do some exercise. But they can’t.

They don’t do anything but suck up your crumbs. Their arms don’t even move much. But there’s no better way for a geek to clean up after himself, then to move these things over his desk while making robot noises and talking into a fan for the voice. It runs on two AA batteries and comes in three different colors. At $14.99 these are too cute not to get one or two.

Wall-E MP3 player from Sharper Image

Posted in Robots by Conner Flynn on May 1st, 2008

Wall-E MP3 player from Sharper Image
Behold robot fans. We told you about the ultimate Wall-E robot toy. Here’s an animated MP3 player in the form of Wall-E “Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth Class”. He’s available from the Sharper Image, but probably most people haven’t noticed due to the chain’s questionable futute.

The 8-inch-tall “iDance Wall-E” claims to talk and dance to the music and his eyes even light up. You can also plug in an iPod or other MP3 player. I suppose it’s the latest version of the “i-Dog,”, just much cooler, since it’s a robot. He only costs $24.95.

Ultimate WALL-E robot toy is good for geeks and kids alike

Posted in Robots by Shane McGlaun on April 30th, 2008

Ultimate WALL-E RobotThere are a few things that most of geekdom has in common, one is an insatiable lust for all things gadget and the other is an undeniable need to own anything robotic even when the robots gizmos are meant for kids. The latter affliction is easier (and less embarrassing) to indulge in if you have kids, which thankfully I do.

Not too long ago I spent some “testing” time with the UGOBE Pleo robot dinosaur and it was cool but I thought it would be cooler if a robot actually looked like a robot. Disney agreed and has announced a new Pleo-esq robot based on the WALL-E movie hitting the silver screen this summer. The toy is called Ultimate WALL-E and it will go on sale this fall for $189.99.

Robot elephant washes urinals in Japan

Posted in Robots by Conner Flynn on April 23rd, 2008

Robot elephant washes urinals in Japan
Everything in Japan has to be made to look cute. Even urinal cleaning robots have to be made to look like elephants. He does his job pretty quickly. His job is to be pushed ass first against the urinal and scrub and clean away.

I’m not sure if it qualifies as a robot, but it does qualify as amazingly freaky and bizarre. This thing can’t even swallow the urinal on it’s own, it has to be pushed. If this guy is cleaning urinals, who’s cleaning him? It’s got to get pretty funky inside that robot, after cleaning urinals all day too. Check out the video below.

Little Big Man: A robot with a robot inside

Posted in Robots by Conner Flynn on April 16th, 2008

Little Big Man: A robot with a robot inside
Nemo Gould, a mechanical sculptor, assembled the Big Man robot from all kinds junk materials ranging from vacuum cleaner parts to chair legs and he even used floor polisher. The Robot is a respectable 8 feet tall and has a little robot inside that controls him.

The Big Man robot moves it’s hands to and fro and it can also move it’s mouth up and down. The “Little Man” in it’s chest moves levers that control Big Man. It doesn’t get much more awesome then watching a tiny robot control a big robot with antlers on it’s head. Video below.

Crazy trash can dancing bot is slightly insane

Posted in Robots by Conner Flynn on April 15th, 2008

Crazy trash can dancing bot is slightly insane
What if suddenly one day your trash can walked up to you on crab-like legs, told you jokes in a robo-voice, and tossed dice all over your floor like an insane maniac? Not to mention drumming on it’s own ass… I don’t know about you, but I’d be freaked out and kill it dead, thereby saving the human race from this maniac’s stand up routine. And you just know it plans to kill with that die flipping bit.(No pun intended)

It was created by Osaka-based Robot Force and named the Push-kun. It’s pretty pointless. What’s with the Evil Knieval jumpsuit paint job? Check out a video below to be thoroughly annoyed by this thing.


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