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Program-a-BOT,
according
to the instructions, dates from 2002 and comes from
Silverlit
Toys. His humanoid austronaut look seems somewhat
modeled on Honda's
Asimo humanoid robot. He's well-made of heavy white and
black plastic
and stands just under a foot high. He's shown here with
a Maxi Pal
(which seems like it should be called a Mini Pal) of
about four inches,
which interacts with Program-a-BOT.
The Maxi Pal is wind-up and his head lights when you
press his helmet.
Pressing once, twice or three times signals
Program-a-BOT to
respectively go forward, turn left or turn right.
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Two
Program-a-BOTs can
also interact if they're within two feet of
each other. You can also
activate him by clapping; clap in front or to
one side and he
moves forward or in that direction. He's
also controlled by
buttons on his back pack. You can program up
to 36 commands and then
hit go and he'll execute them. The possible
actions include forward,
left, right, backward, kick and dance, in any
sequence. He also has a
room guard mode and an infared sensor to avoid
obstacles.
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His
eyes
light and
his
arms swing as he walks, and if inactive for a
while he goes into sleep
mode. My Program-a-BOT came with a Maxi-Pal
labeled M-III. The rest of
the "robot family" don't resemble him, but M
III seems like a Mini- Me
of Program-a-BOT. The box and
instructions show other Maxi Pals, which I
have not encountered.
The
Maxi Pals take two button batteries for the
light (which were included)
and Program-a-BOT takes 4 AA batteries, two in
each leg (not
included). Rather than another radio-
controlled robot, Silverlit
opted for a unique design which interacts with
sound and light.
creating a reasonably-priced, modern era
robot.
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