I checked out the new Buzz Lightyear robot today, which is selling this Fall for $130-$150, and it proved that robot toys still have a bit to go before they’re really awesome.
There’s some cool stuff to this toy, to be sure. It has original Tim Allen voice work, which is nice, and it’s obviously of solid construction. But it seems like its uses are pretty limited. Once your kid has said the dozen voice commands and has heard the quips and seen the motions, there’s not a lot to keep them coming back. Sure, there’s puppeteer mode that allows them to make their own sequence of motions, but it just doesn’t scream “play with me.”
But you can see where these things are going. In the next couple of decades kids toys are going to be real-deal robots that actually play back. But until then, we’ve got pseudo-robots that only respond to limited commands and are therefore not that fun.
