Nobody wants one of these Wall-E robot toys when they could have one of these Wall-E robot toys. Only problem is, the cool one costs $250, and the lame one is all of $40. What to do, what to do… Well, if you’re as talented as Trossen Robotics forum member DJ Sures, you simply stuff the cheap model with a bunch of extra servos and a new brain with 1,000 new lines of code. Couldn’t be simpler:

This is a lot of modification, and gives the cheapo Wall-E the ability to not only to tilt his head and wave his arms, but also cruise around and autonomously navigate, which are basically the big draws of the version that costs way more. And anyway, swapping out old and busted parts for new hotness parts is totally in the spirit of Wall-E, as is the message that fancier and more expensive is not necessarily better. It’s bringing a tear to my eye just thinking about it. The DVD releases on November 18…

[ DJ Sures ] VIA [ Trossen Robotics ]

Robots-Dreams was on hand to get some video of the $35 Tomy Robo-Q mini biped robot that we wrote about on Monday. He’s pretty spry for such a little guy:

Still going to be a little while before he shows up over here in the States, unfortunately… Next year sometime, if we’re lucky.

VIA [ Robots-Dreams ]

Tomy has released what may be the world’s smallest and the world’s cheapest bipedal robot. The Robo-Q is 3.4 centimeters tall (that’s under an inch and a half), walks around on two stubby little legs, and costs a scant $35. It’s far from a wind-up toy, however, and packs more smarts than many much larger and more expensive bipedal robots. You can control it directly with a remote, plus it has some kind of infrared object following mode and it can navigate simple mazes on its own (obstace avoidance, basically). Not bad, how about we use these little guys for micro-mini soccer competition at RoboGames?

Robo-Q will be sold in Japan starting in February, but Tomy says it’ll be making its way to the rest of Asia, Europe, and then (eventually) the USA.

Video after the jump. (Read more…)

Dinosaurs never go out of style, and it seems as though robot dinosaurs are getting more and more popular, what with Pleo, Kota, and now D-Rex. It may seem like the market is getting a bit crowded, but Pleo (alternate personalities aside) and Kota are missing one critical aspect of dinosaurs: they eat people.

D-Rex is able guard your stuff for you and “will attack and obey on command.” He only weighs 5 pounds, but maybe he’s got poison teeth or an integrated taser or something. He definitely roars, and in fact has over 100 different roars to let you know what he wants. Touch sensors and voice commands let you interact with him, or you can control him more directly with his dinosaur bone remote.

It’s unfortunate that Mattel promotes D-Rex as “the ultimate pet for boys” that “celebrates traditional boys play patterns.” I guess girls are stuck with Barbie dolls, instead. Thanks Mattel.

The D-Rex Interactive Dinosaur is available from Amazon for $150.

[ Amazon ] VIA [ RSN ]

Pleo is very cute, but it’s also very small. Too small to effectively ride around pretending you’re a Cretaceous cowboy. If this has been a fantasy of yours (and don’t lie, it totally has been) Amazon has a whole herd of Hasbro’s Kota robotic baby dinosaurs ready to anesthetize, crate, and ship directly to you and your ages 3 & up year old, who will love you (through their new pet dinosaur, anyway) forever.

Although Kota is certainly more dino-sized (he’s 2.5 feet tall, over 3 feet long, and weighs around 35 pounds) than Pleo, the two have rather a lot in common, including motion sensors, touch sensors, moving heads, adorable blinking eyes, and the exact same leafy snack. Unlike Pleo, Koda is sadly unable to walk on his own, but he is able to stand there and make stomping noises while you your kids bounce on his spring-loaded back. Just arm Kota with some laser cannons or something, and maybe he’ll be able to take some long-overdue revenge on a certain ComBot…

Kota is on Amazon.com for $299, and shipping is free.

[ Amazon ] VIA [ RSN ]

Finally finally finally finally FINALLY!!! I have been waiting for this moment ever since I saw Keepon in his video debut over a year ago. Since then, I’ve been posting Keepon vids whenever I can find them. I mean, how could you not desperately want a couple squishy yellow balls stuck together with two eyes and a cute little nose and an astonishing amount of dance talent (for having no arms and no legs and being only six inches tall)?

So yes, I’d sell my soul for Keepon. My soul, however, is not likely to be worth the roughly $30,000 that Keepon apparently costs. And that’s just the the base price, which I guess doesn’t include any of the little hats that he appears in. Unfortunately for fans like me, Keepon is designed primarily to do research on interactions between robots and children, so he’s expected to sell mostly to research institutions (and museums). But there is some good news… Keepon’s designers are “planning to come out with a new version which will use a simpler mechanism and have a cheaper price tag.” Significantly cheaper, I hope. And please, please, make sure it stays yellow and squishy with the awesome dance moves.

Keepon dancing, after the jump. (Read more…)

Here’s an excellent way to waste a few minutes of your Friday: take remote control of an unmanned ground vehicle in Australia. BP has set up a miniature course shaped like the fine country/continent of OZ, and stuck five little Surveyor robots (which you can get for yourself here) inside. The robots are controlled wirelessly over the internet by you via a Flash interface, and stream video from front-mounted cameras to let you see where you’re going. You only get 4 minutes at a time, and the bots only seem to operate between 9am and 9pm GMT+10 (whenever the heck that is), but so far I’ve always been first in line and have never had to wait my turn. Codes are hidden around the course that you can use to give yourself more drivin’ time, but I was entertained enough just exploring the city and outback areas and trying to get my little robot to drive over a bridge.

Oh yeah, and the bots are 100% solar powered, go BP!

[ BP Explorer ] VIA [ Trossen Robotics ]

It’s obvious that Pleo needs to learn some self defense skills. Painfully obvious. The newest Pleo “personality” turns your little buddy into a “scary, rampaging, fire-breathing” monster. Not sure how they get Pleo to breathe fire via a software update, but I’m excited to find out. As with most Pleo personalities, I’m sure there are all kinds of fun little behaviors to discover, and Ugobe does encourage users to see if they can “figure out how to trigger a dramatic death sequence.” Oh, I can think of one way…

[ Pleosaurus Rex ] VIA [ DVICE ]

Just a quick update: looks like Wrex, the robotic dog from WowWee that we got a first look at back in January at CES, is now up for grabs on Amazon.com. Here’s a video and a quick rundown on the specs:

- Three moods (happy, angry, crazy)
- Three desires (exercise, hunger, call of nature)
- Eye icons combine to show 10 different expressions
- Edge and obstacle avoidance
- Guard mode; IR sensors and speakers
- 9 motors
- Requires 4x C and 2x AA batteries (remote uses 3x AAA)
- MSRP $149.99

The Wrex website has lots more specs and detailed info, if you’re interested.

[ Amazon ]

We spotted the prototype of Disney’s remote control Wall-E toy at Maker Faire back in May, and it looks like Ultimate Wall-E is now up for pre-order from Pixar Disney. It’s essentially what you’d expect from the preview we had a few months ago (albeit with an obligatory price-hike to $250), but here’s a complete run-down:

* With the original voice from the hit movie, WALL•E can chat with you. He can also dance, play music from your MP3 player (cable included), follow you around, or explore on his own. His programmable infrared remote control lets you create more than 1000 action sequence combinations!
* His eyes light up and blink with the expressions you loved in the film
* Designed with advanced technology, Ultimate WALL•E has audio, motion and obstacle sensors
* WALL•E will turn his head towards a sound and respond thanks to 4 audio sensors that give him 360-degree sound detection.
* 4 motion sensors, 3 in the front and 1 in the back, allow WALL•E to detect motion and trigger his curiosity
* Obstacle sensors enable WALL•E to detect obstacles in his path to avoid collisions
* WALL•E’s arms move up and down, hands grip and rotate 360 degrees and his body tilts forward and backward plus he has real working treads
* Play modes include Follow-U mode, Explore mode, Dance mode, MP3 Music mode and Program mode plus he has an interactive Talk Back feature
* Innovative remote control allows WALL•E to be played with using Touch Pad control, dual joy sticks or any of the 16 function buttons for voice, lights, sound effects, music, expressions, special programs and more!

Oh, and one more thing:

WARNING: This product contains a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer, or birth defects or other reproductive harm.

That’s right, kiddies… If you live in California, Wall-E will probably kill you. And your unborn children. THANKS DISNEY! My advice? If you want to spend a ton of money on Wall-E swag, go for one of these instead. They’re guaranteed harmless*.

[ Ultimate Wall-E Pre-Order ] VIA [ Engadget ]

*May cause paper cuts, sticker shock, and/or unprovoked assaults from robot blog editors who are too poor to buy their own posters.