The Kid's Walker
October 6, 2010 7:20 PM   Subscribe

I led a deprived childhood. Why didn't I have toys like this? (Man, you just know that if two kids in the same neighborhood have them, they're going to have battles.)
posted by Chocolate Pickle (33 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
Boy, I'm glad we didn't. I would be in prison for life. I got in enough trouble as it was, with just your standard household accoutrements.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:23 PM on October 6, 2010 [3 favorites]


Does it shoot lawn darts?

Because that would be AWESOME.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 7:25 PM on October 6, 2010 [14 favorites]


Powered by gasoline

Yeah, no.
posted by Gator at 7:30 PM on October 6, 2010 [1 favorite]


Yeah, it should obviously be powered by steam.
posted by No-sword at 7:34 PM on October 6, 2010


Um, it's powered by gasoline. Can you say, LOUD!?. Oh, and if if it were actually available for purchase ( it's not) this 350 lb lawsuit-waiting-to-happen would cost around $21000.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 7:35 PM on October 6, 2010 [1 favorite]


It would be best if the kid using it couldn't walk. SO ADORABLE
posted by The Devil Tesla at 7:36 PM on October 6, 2010 [2 favorites]


Living in the future is pretty cool.
posted by oddman at 7:37 PM on October 6, 2010


Huh, I expected so much more. It looks like it does nothing but just rolls around - the legs don't really move at all. The other "thing" near the end of the video looked a lot more interesting. And do the arms do anything?
Good that this is not avail in the US, because I'm sure the neighbor would get one for his kids - they already have the battery-powered Kids Wheel junk and are amazingly always around when I'm trying to back out of the driveway.
posted by Old'n'Busted at 7:40 PM on October 6, 2010 [1 favorite]


that's nothing compared to my neighbor's 62-ton Kim Jong Il.
posted by TrialByMedia at 7:42 PM on October 6, 2010


I know what my son's getting for his 2nd birthday! Might have to hide it from the wife, though.
posted by zardoz at 7:45 PM on October 6, 2010


I, for one, welcome our new prepubescent overlords.
posted by cmoj at 7:49 PM on October 6, 2010 [3 favorites]


Has anyone else been considering that something you want to do with your entertainment money and time someday is build a playground beyond your own wildest childhood dreams, and unleash it on the world, free for kids to use? We have the technology, it seems like a great hobby!

But then I think of lawsuits, and vandalism, and suspicious parents murmuring "neverland ranch", and I wonder if my dream can exist in today's world.

I still hope to maybe one day find out. :-/
posted by -harlequin- at 7:59 PM on October 6, 2010


If wheels are involved on the underside of those feet, it's not walking.
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:07 PM on October 6, 2010


Here's video of the thing walking (*). Or, rather, rolling slowly. The arms don't move either. So basically this thing would bore the heck out of any kid in about 30 seconds. Too bad.

(*) Is it too much to ask for people posting to Metafilter to do just a little research on the stuff they post? It took all of 10 seconds to find that video.
posted by Nelson at 8:13 PM on October 6, 2010


Did you mean for this post to be in oh my god no don't kill me
posted by setanor at 8:44 PM on October 6, 2010


Call me when it's powered by He-3.


No, seriously. Call me. I'll want some advance warning.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:53 PM on October 6, 2010


You'll shoot your eye out.
posted by Drab_Parts at 9:07 PM on October 6, 2010 [2 favorites]


It doesn't even function as an interplanetary pallet jack? Fail.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:16 PM on October 6, 2010


Much cooler.
posted by dhartung at 9:22 PM on October 6, 2010


Here's video of the thing walking (*). Or, rather, rolling slowly. The arms don't move either. So basically this thing would bore the heck out of any kid in about 30 seconds. Too bad.

My five-year-old son has a whale of a time in his self-constructed cardboard robots, so 30 seconds might be on the low end, estimate-wise.
posted by davejay at 9:53 PM on October 6, 2010


Mousing over the link promised me a 16 meter exoskeleton for kids. This falls a little short of the mental image I had.
posted by Iteki at 10:09 PM on October 6, 2010 [3 favorites]


Just what we need, overprotective parents turning their children into tanks.
posted by hermitosis at 10:11 PM on October 6, 2010


Um, it's powered by gasoline. Can you say, LOUD!?

elementary school a few blocks away. all the kids have them. total fucking racket twice a day. and then there's the battles, everybody taking sides based on religious belief (Jesus Christ - Lord or NOT!). anyway, it was brutal last weekend. one kid dead. five still in the hospital. two cats and one coyote dead.
posted by philip-random at 10:41 PM on October 6, 2010 [1 favorite]


That's it! Kids are too spoiled these days! I didn't even get a little red wagon! Neither did my kids.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 11:46 PM on October 6, 2010


Mousing over the link promised me a 16 meter exoskeleton for kids.

I too was expecting a 16 metre kid-piloted robot. And I was thinking 'Has no-one thought this through?'
posted by memebake at 12:04 AM on October 7, 2010 [1 favorite]


(*) Is it too much to ask for people posting to Metafilter to do just a little research on the stuff they post? It took all of 10 seconds to find that video.

You mean, because it's the same video linked in the original article? (**)

(**) Is it too much to ask for people replying to posts on Metafilter to just read the post and the original article before snarking? It took all of 10 seconds to download that video from the link the first time.)
posted by benzo8 at 12:30 AM on October 7, 2010


Yeah, it may look awesome fun now, but mark my words, when you see this thing ascending atop an enormous cross-shaped explosion into a giant vagina and everyone turns into marmalade, you'll be sorry you didn't just buy your kid the damn pedal car.
posted by emmtee at 1:41 AM on October 7, 2010 [1 favorite]


My five-year-old son has a whale of a time in his self-constructed cardboard robots, so 30 seconds might be on the low end, estimate-wise.

I get where you're coming from, but a cardboard box to a kid is filled with possibilities, with no limits. The look of this thing is making promises it can't keep (no actual walking,no complex arm movement, etc), and that is the disappointment/boredom issue. Kids will see it, think it's amazing, and then learn about all the things they can't do with it once they are in the thing, and it's just a downer.

The best-results scenario would be to show a kid the picture of this thing, then give him a cardboard box to make his own.

I admire this guys talent and hard work, but until he gets leg/arm/hand control, it's just not finished yet.
posted by chambers at 5:30 AM on October 7, 2010 [1 favorite]


How much is the bio-plug upgrade?
posted by Theta States at 7:01 AM on October 7, 2010


Great, way to turn the spoiled rich bully of the playground into ED-209.
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 7:32 AM on October 7, 2010


In other news, A-Ko, running late for class again, beat it by simply sweeping its leg.
posted by quin at 7:39 AM on October 7, 2010 [1 favorite]


This is the first Japanese robot I've seen in a while that managed to stay out of uncanny valley.

I first typoed that as uncanny valet, which would make an excellent uncanny-valley robot name.
posted by maryr at 10:43 AM on October 7, 2010


Uncanny Valet would be a brilliant name for a mad scientist's robot butler.
posted by Gator at 10:49 AM on October 7, 2010


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