With great power comes great responsibility. With great amounts of free time comes great hilarity. YouTube user Paxshikai has filmed 100 videos featuring TOMY’s i-SOBOT toy robot. To celebrate, or maybe just to release some inner angst, Paxshikai’s 100th video demonstrates the (not so) deadly fighting prowess of the bot. The video is something of a clip show featuring the many weapons that Paxshikai has created for his little automaton. You’ve got to watch the video after the break, if only to see how the ongoing battle between toy robots and dinosaurs is progressing. My favorites are at 1:53 and 3:12. Enjoy.
TOMY’s i-SOBOT stands only about six and a half inches tall, but it is fully programmable and comes with seventeen degrees of freedom. That’s an impressive amount of robotic might for a kit that is in the price range for many enthusiasts. i-SOBOT was once as cheap as $100, but now retails for around $200 or more. I wonder if Paxshikai’s videos on YouTube were responsible for helping restore the price. If so, I think TOMY should send him some much deserved free merchandise. The fascination with robots, and the fun that can be had with them, is something of dividing line in society. Some people get, others simply don’t. Whether or not you find yourself “loving the machine“, the growing popularity of robotic toys is undeniable. Zhu-zhu pets are still dominating the winter shopping season. As robots replace human workers in manufacturing, and androids become more sophisticated, it will be interesting to see how our enjoyment of playing with bots changes. Children, and many adults, raised on toy robots are likely to one day see a world where intelligent machines are everywhere. Hopefully Paxshikai will still be around helping us laugh as we learn to enjoy the changes that such machines will bring.
[screen capture and video credit: Paxshikai]
