During Toy Fair, I had the opportunity to visit the Innovation First showroom, which was chock full of robotic goodness. Innovation First, of course, is the company behind the hugely popular Hexbugs, which will be continuing for 2013. For 2013, however, there’s a huge advancement – Hexbugs can now climb! New tracks and sets will be available which will let your bugs climb higher than forever. Also new will be extra large remote control spiders and scarab robots and both Hexbug Warriors and their battle stadium.
Another new product will be Aquabots, small robotic fish! These blew me away when I saw them…days after toy fair, these are one of my favorite things I saw during the entire Toy Fair. These are so smart that they know when they’re in water and when they’re not – they stop swimming. Amazing! These would be a fantastic desk toy – like having a fish, without any risk of killing it.
Finally there’s Tagamoto – which takes the intelligence of a Hexbug and puts it into a small motorized car. When place on the track – the car can read information on a sticker that’s placed on the ‘roadway’ and reacts to it – for example, stopping at a Stop sign, or revving it’s engine. The 26 cars also support three modes, one where it acts as described above, one where it just runs motorized, and one where the wheels are free rolling, letting it roll like any other toy car. These were pretty cool and will be available in the fall. See these, and everything else described in this post in the gallery below.
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