Hasta La Gadget!

Remember the toy car that transforms into a robot? The inventor Kenji Ishida is playing Santa to those of you who wished you could buy one. He’s selling 10 units of the latest version of his robot, which has a couple of new tricks up its robot sleeves.

In addition to being remote controlled and transformable, the 1:12 scale robot can now fire plastic projectiles from its arms and has a camera that can send live footage over a Wi-Fi connection.

You can order the robot from Ishida’s company Brave Robotics (his site is currently experiencing heavy traffic). The price isn’t listed, but you can bet it’ll be expensive. The robot will come fully assembled and programmed along with a wireless controller, four rechargeable batteries, a battery charger, a “motion edit software” and a serial cable. If you think you won’t be able to afford this model, keep saving: Ishida plans to release a life-sized robot car by 2030.

[via Jalopnik]

Most of us weren’t born yet back in the 1950s, but it was definitely a time long before modern remote-controlled electronic playthings. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t some cool toys back in the day – like this awesome old-school metal tank I spotted over on Etsy.

It’s called the Rosko Pom Pom, and this cold war-era toy tank operates using a wired remote control, which allows it to move forward and backwards and rotate the turret.

The turret even raises and lowers and makes some awesome firing sounds when activated – though the projectiles don’t actually go anywhere. See it in action in the video clip below:

Heck, that’s cooler than some of the R/C toys you can buy today. This rare collectible toy is available over on Etsy for $249.99(USD), and it’s in good condition (though it’s missing a couple of cosmetic components, and the drive mechanism can be a bit finicky). If you buy it now, you’ll also get a set of retro D-cell batteries, though there’s not a chance in hell that they still have a charge.

There are plenty of R/C flying toys on the market these days, but I don’t know of many that can actually launch projectiles. The iStrike Shuttle is a flying drone which can not only buzz around, but can drop ping pong balls.

While I wish it could drop hundreds of balls, a la Mr. Moose, it can only drop one at a time. But that’s one more than my AR.Drone can do. Dream Cheeky’s iStrikeShuttle features a built-in gyroscopic technology to help it keep stable and balanced in flight, and can be controlled by your iOS device using Bluetooth connectivity.

The guys at Dream Cheeky are extremely close to having a production version ready, and just need to raise some funds to get the project over the finish line. If you’re one of the first 200 to head over to Kickstarter to support the iStrike Shuttle, you can grab one for $85(USD), a significant discount off the $129.99 retail price. Assuming they can hit their $30,000 fundraising goal by Thanksgiving, you should have one in hand in time for Christmas.

If you read the site regularly, you know that we here at Technabob love weird Japanese gadgets. Something you probably don’t already have lying around your office – a remote-controlled cockroach that you can drive with your iPhone.

This creepy, crawly critter connects via an infrared wireless dongle you plug into the dock connector on your iOS device (sorry iPhone 5 users, you’ll need to wait for your lightning to 30-pin adapter to show up).

Then, using a companion app, you can steer the bugs with your phone or tablet. The bug itself can be recharged by plugging it into your computer’s USB port. But enough of my yakkin’. Let’s see this bad boy in action…

You can pick up this iOS controlled cockroach over at Re!Ex!!Japan!!! for $44(USD).

A few months back, robot/toy designer Jaimie Mantzel showed off an early prototype of a six-legged robot toy that looked pretty damned awesome. He announced at the time that he was working on it so a production version could eventually be made, and now we can see the final build in action!

The first of the six-legged robots in the new Combat Creatures line-up is dubbed Attacknid (despite not having eight legs like a spider, but I don’t care.) The final version of the robot measures 10 inches-tall, and can fire foam projectiles up to 30 feet from its 360° rotating head. You can choose from three different weapons, including foam “Dissector Discs” (included), or upgrade with “Snyper Darts” or “Destroyer Spheres.” Despite not seeing pics of them yet, those all sound awesome to me.

Check out Jaimie showing some of the first Attacknids off the assembly line in the video clip below…

Of course, the entire thing can be controlled remotely, and the 2.4GHz wireless communication supports up to FORTY robots in simultaneous battle! Oh, and if you hit your opponents armor directly it “explodes” off of its legs – and three direct hits shuts down the other ‘bot cold. And from the looks of the video clip, you can swap out colored skins on your ‘bot too.

Oh, and its designer is encouraging hacks and mods, as is proven by this freakishly awesome, illuminated Attacknid somebody already put together:

The Attacknid Combat Creature is available for pre-order now for £69.99 (~$112 USD) for delivery in the U.S. and the UK, though only the UK will get their orders in 2012. That price includes the Attacknid robot in black, a red skin set, the remote control, Disector weapon, 20 foam Dissector discs, and various other bits and bobs. No word yet on how much the add-on weapons and skins will sell for.