RoboRaptor
Robot Toys | March 29th, 2008
Using five motors, touch sensors (on its chin, back, and tail, and in its mouth), infrared (on its head and snout) and stereo audio sensors (in the head), Roboraptor can, whether you set it in “Roam” or control its locomotion, move about, avoid obstacles, and even inspect and react to its environment. For a toy, this level of interaction and environmental capability doesn’t come cheap: Roboraptor sells for around $120. But as a low-end robot, it’s priced right.
Touching the chin sensor when the raptor’s in Playful mode causes it to make a slow, almost purring, sound (though it’s rougher and louder than a purr) and push its head against your hand. Roboraptor’s mouth sensor lets it play tug-of-war. We did have to shove the T-shirt into its mouth (the robot barely opens its mouth on its own), but once the shirt was in there—pressing up against the sensor, which is nestled in the roof of the raptor’s mouth—the robot engaged in a spirited struggle to gain control of it. The only issue we encountered was that the 3-pound robot has a tendency to tip over on its head.
Roboraptor is not a cuddly robot toy. It is, after all, a dinosaur. It doesn’t stand upright; it’s horizontal from the tip of its tail to the end of its nose. Picking up the long and somewhat unwieldy bot can be difficult. You almost wish it had a handle.
His head and tail can be swung from side to side, and if he walks up to something he can try to pick it up in his mouth. Aside from that, he really has no cool functions. He has a tendency to roar a lot, at pretty much everything, which may appeal to some people by adding some authenticity, but it wasn’t a patch on the hilarious repertoire of the Robosapien. The controller was fairly easy to get the hang of, largely due to having less buttons than its predecessor. There is a single pad that controls walking, and a second pad to move the head and tail. The shoulder buttons control the targeting system, allowing RoboRaptor to move towards a specific target, assuming you can get him moving at all.