When These Robots Enslave Us, It'll Be an Adorable Enslaving
Jason Torchinsky is a guest blogger on Boing Boing. Jason has a book out now, Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. He lives in Los Angeles, where he is a tinkerer and artist and writes for the Onion News Network. He lives with his partner Sally, five animals, too many old cars, and a shed full of crap.
As a kid, I remember that a suspicious number of my toy robots seemed to originate from Tomy, which I always pictured as a sophisticated Japanese concern, headquartered in a gleaming steel building on, probably, a hovering island off the coast of Hokkaido.
I thought this because, unlike most toy companies, Tomy seemed to secretly long to be a real robot company. Sure, they had the usual little wind-up and remote control robots (and the less usual, like the owl-bot pictured here), but they kept sneaking into their line more and more sophisticated ones. This site gives a great rundown of the whole 70s-90s era Tomy Robot Army, so you can know just who your cute new plastic master is.
As a kid, I remember that a suspicious number of my toy robots seemed to originate from Tomy, which I always pictured as a sophisticated Japanese concern, headquartered in a gleaming steel building on, probably, a hovering island off the coast of Hokkaido.
I thought this because, unlike most toy companies, Tomy seemed to secretly long to be a real robot company. Sure, they had the usual little wind-up and remote control robots (and the less usual, like the owl-bot pictured here), but they kept sneaking into their line more and more sophisticated ones. This site gives a great rundown of the whole 70s-90s era Tomy Robot Army, so you can know just who your cute new plastic master is.
the latest
latest episodes
yeah omnibot 2000!
In the future we will all be watched over by machines of loving grace.
We had hootbot and spotbot, and they did get a little imperious near the end. Good thing batteries are a single point of failure, or this story would have a sad ending.
I had a Verbot and a Flipbot, and I loved them both.
The TOMY FOOCROW (Hootbot outside Japan) you posted is super cute!!
If you like Omnibots you can't miss the OMNIBOT FANBOOK http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/01/omnibot_fan_book.html
written in 2007 by the Japanese cult writer TECHN'O'TAKU http://twitter.com/TECHNOTAK
and published by MYCOM.
Quite sad that the i-Sobot never reached the same success of the original Omnibots...
I, for one, welcome our adorable new overlords. :)
That's no "owl-bot," but a Hootbot. I've still got mine somewhere. Came with a plastic perch. It is awesome.
Hootbot sucked... If the only thing you asked for for Christmas was Omnibot and then Santa brings you this piece of crap. I can still here it whirring around my parents' rec-room floor.
Grind, grind, grind, grind. Hoo! Hoo! Grind, grind, grind, grind...
Lame!
sad, sad. I take it none of you discovered the little circular removable hatch on HootBots base?
Emily I understand how you felt, but you should never blame a cute robot because your human parents fault...
Sigh. I still have my Omnibot, but sadly I melted the remote on top of the gas fire. I loved that little guy (even though I am still pissed I never got an Omni2000). The look of horror on the dog's face when you switched the remote to 'follow' & he lurched towards her croaking 'Watch out, I'm coming!' was priceless. Poor dog, she hated that robot.
Anyone know where I can score for an Omnibot Jr. remote? I suppose it wouldn't be out of the bounds of possibility to make one, but I'd kinda like him to be complete again...
Also, if anyone bought me a Big-Trak for Christmas, I would love them for everandeaverandever.
OMG! OMG!
I loved those robots growing up but they were bloody expensive. But, one Christmas my parents were able to afford a HootBot for me. I played with it until it fell apart.
I received a Verbot for Christmas one year. The only problem was I had a speech impediment. (Well I still do, just not as bad.) Nothing smashes your self esteem like a misguided gift. :) "Stop. Stop. NO STOP! Left. Left. Turn left. LEFT! TURN LEFT!!!"
Is it just me, or does the TRX 002 have suspiciously ED-209-like legs? Not the feet, so much, as the backbent birdy-ankles.
Check it out:
TRX 002:
http://www.theoldrobots.com/images14/tr17.JPG
Ed:
http://www.robocoparchive.com/info/ed209-24.jpg
I'm just sayin'.
My uncle got me a Hootbot one year. I loved it; my mom got sick of it and threw it away. I still miss that stupid thing.