There have been a lot of consumer bots showing up in recent years, but most of them seemed to lack personality. Of course, maybe it’s kind of creepy to look for personable robots. We’ve all seen the movies and the little bastards always turn on us at the last moment, but Nuvo just looks too freaking cool not to want.

The New York Times has an article about all the things he can do and how the person testing one kept anthropomorphizing the little guy. I can’t blame her, though, considering how I often talk to my laptop as if it were alive. But the best part of the article is the video. They show Nuvo doing some acrobatics, but that’s not all that impressive. That useless Aibo could do that kind of stuff, but it’s the way Nuvo walks that sold me. How could you not like that swagger? And at about 59 seconds into the video he starts waving his arms and spazzing out.

Screencap from New York Times video of Nuvo.

Yup, call me crazy, but fits of unadulterated panic is all I ever wanted out of a robot.

Early Tuesday morning I just happened to be placing an order at Amazon when I read an article about the release of the new TMX Elmo so I added him to my cart. I have a 2 y/o nephew that loves Elmo. (Are there any toddlers who don’t!?) The price at the time was $39.99. I checked the status of my order in the evening and the estimated delivery date is November 26th. A long wait, but plenty of time for Christmas. The crazy thing was that Elmo was now being sold by a different merchant (when I ordered the merchant was Target) for $100! I checked again in the morning and there were none left, but plenty of people complaining in the review section about even higher prices.

Ebay was even worse, I saw auctions closing near 200 bucks.

An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer says “more than 20,000 T.M.X. Elmos - the initials stand for Tickle Me “Extreme” - were for sale on the Internet auction site at 5:35 p.m. yesterday, according to eBay Marketplace Research, which monitors listing, bidding and pricing on the site. And more than 7,000 Elmos had already been sold, at prices up to $355.”

Barbie’s even got in on the action wearing the latest Elmo fashion line and has her own TMX Elmo doll. Barbie’s mini Elmo is missing all the electronic gadgetry but that doesn’t seem to have stopped Elmo speculators as she’s sold out most places too and is now on the secondary market for 2-3 times her retail value of $19.95.

So, is it worth all the hubbub? Here’s a video someone posted on Google showing exactly what this toddler toy gadget does.

I say forty bucks is a fair price. Anything over that and you are probably better off buying one of the dozens of other cheaper Elmo dolls and putting the extra dollars in your kid’s college fund!

When our best inventions turn against us.

Best inventions of incredible machines.

Very nice, I think a toned down version of this new technology (ie. less lights and not so bright) might sell well. Useful for theater seating and other low-light events. The fact that the fabric remains soft is the biggest step forward but I really wonder, “how” soft?

Beautiful Sand Art done with low-tech gadget.