Radio Shack Robie Junior
Rating: 3/10, Cute but mostly useless. For a lot of ‘80s kids, Radio Shack provided their first real experience with a robot. Tandy Electronics’ Robie Junior was closer to an RC toy than an actual robot, but it was smart enough to follow its wireless remote without needing to be manually steered, thanks to a bumper on the front that could detect obstacles in its way. Its only practical function, besides chewing through a mountain of batteries, was carrying things such as drinks on a small tray, but its approach to object detection was to just crash into things, which often led to plenty of spilled beverages.
