Gizmodo Australia » tomy

Tomy Dustbot: The Original, Way Cuter Roomba

Mark Wilson — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Long before the sterile Roomba arrived, there was a more anthropomorphic cleaning slave known as the Tomy Dustbot.

Released in 1985, the Dustbot is claimed to be the first robot to feature a built-in vacuum cleaner (that broom was just for show) and featured edge detection to turn away from obstacles.

I never owned a Dusbot, but I did have his brother, the Verbot—as did Jesus Diaz (I just discovered in our Gizmodo chatroom). The Verbot was a voice-programmable robot with a stylish bubble helmet and wide-spaced kid-friendly eyes to offset their evil red glow. We each found Verbot’s lifting powers to be a little wimpy, but I’m sure that years ago from across the world, Jesus and I were simultaneously experimenting with our first American curse words by mapping them to simple robot functions, unbeknownst to us both. [The Old Robots via bbGadgets]

Bite-Sized Tomy QFO RC Flyers Command The Skies Of A Very Small Universe

Adrian Covert — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 02:00:00 +0000

I like things that fly, especially when they’re the size of a golf ball. Tomy’s OFO RC toys are part of the Japanese Q series of all things minuscule, and are propelled by a rotor on its underside. The QFO will be available in Japan this month for about US$40, but more importantly, I keep thinking of how awesome it would be if 20 of these took to the sky at once in a public space. Check out the video below. [Akihabara via Oh Gizmo via Dvice]

Takara Tomy Air Filter for Babies Cleans Air, But Chokes You With Its Cuteness

Matt Buchanan — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 06:30:06 +0000

Famed maker of awesome Takara Tomy’s latest bundle of cool is a super cute air filter for babies. It’s outfitted with an antibacterial filter and Sharp’s “decontamination ion” purification tech (my AC in Japan actually had this too) so your offspring don’t inhale all the nasty, germ-y stuff floating around your house. It’s about $150 (17,640 yen), so it’s kind of pricey, but it’s smaller (115×80x140mm) and definitely packs in more cute per square inch than most air filters. [Fuji Sankei via Tokyo Mango]

The I-Sobot in Action

Ben Longo — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 18:50:32 +0000

Tomy’s I-Sobot may be the world’s smallest humanoid robot, but how does he move? Kind of like your dumb tubby friend from high school. He has stupid one-liner comebacks to many of your comments, “awesome” dance moves, karate actions that definitely leave something to be desired and he even loves playing the air guitar. If after seeing this video you still want one I-Sobot will go on sale next month for $299. [Makezine]