#omnibot 2000

[thefugitivesaint]

'Omnibot 2000', ''Omni'', #12, Dec. 1985

We use to be a proper country that understood the craft of good Japanese merchandise. Sure, there was also a wave of xenophobic and racist reactionary politics aimed at the Japanese (see 'Gung-Ho' from 1986 for a mild example of this kind of "cultural anxiety"). When is America NOT racist? I mean, have you MET America? It's a pretty confused country. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to digress here, I just wanted to show you a 25'' toy robot that you could once own. It was also relatively useless if the remote for it broke (or got lost). It ran on two AA batteries. It probably didn't run that long. But robots right? We once lived with the promise of robots in our homes. Now the taste of that promise is bitter on our tongue, the memory of that promise sour. We live in the echo of its lie. We live under the dictatorship of the algorithm.

[sbuggbot]

When you're trying to show your support but your weird modded friend causes problems on purposes as a hobby.

It's a day late, but I made my own entry for Make a Terrible Comic day even though it didn't actually wind up terrible IMO. Enjoy this peek into something that I daydream about but haven't actually turned into anything postable.

[vintage-robots]

A most excellent review.

[wouldyourfavepaychildsupport]

Would the Omnibot 2000 pay child support?

[conventionalwisdomcomic]

[jobot]

Oh, how the reputation of robots and AI art has changed.

[roxyteal]

Robot friends!!!

God I love stuff like this.

[whitedogblog]

1984, MSRP $600

[fernsnailz]

Do you have a favorite retro robot? Like robbie from lost in space or gort from the day the earth stood still

hmm there's honestly a lot of older robot media that i still need to check out so my list is pretty limited! i really need to watch more things that have some guy in a bulky robot suit it's so awesome

i do really love k9 from doctor who.... he's my buddy. my best friend. my ride or die

and i LOVE 80s robot from the 2011 muppets movie.... like technically i guess he's not like RETRO retro since that movie is fairly recent but he's very heavily inspired by the omnibot 2000 so it's retro by design i guess

[odd-drive]

in that case: trick or treat :]!!!

Oh yay welcome back to my virtual door!!

You get this Omnibot 2000 from 1980!

[designaday]

Wishes

I have vivid memories from my childhood of flipping through the Sears Wish Book, circling all of the toys I wanted to ask Santa for. I expect most of us who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s do. You can bet there was a circle around every Star Wars toy I didn’t already have, at least until I moved on to G.I. Joe. And then there was that $600 Tomy Omnibot 2000 that you could program to serve you a beverage. Because, you know, if I had a robot that could bring me drinks and snacks, my parents would just let it bring me Coke and M&Ms whenever I wanted them, right? It was the same logic behind my desire for an Easy-Bake Oven. I can bake cookies whenever I want them!

What inspired this trip down memory lane? I received the Amazon Kids Gift Book in the mail today. 95 pages displaying over 700 toys and gifts. There’s a QR code on every spread. There are still Star Wars toys, but I couldn’t find any programmable robots. The Playstation and Xbox are there in place of the Atari 2600.

The biggest difference is the diversity of kids pictured playing with the toys. There’s a girl of color playing with a LEGO City Robot World Roller-Coaster Park. That would have been a white boy in the ’80’s.

We are progressing, however slowly. Maybe next month we can put a woman of color in the presidency. That’s what I’m circling this year.

[sbuggbot]

Just a girl and her robot companion/daughter.

For almost as long as I've had Ommi IRL, I've always liked the idea of making a custom backpack/harness to easily carry her around on my back.

[bfdreaming]

I had a dream that I was reading a fanfiction where additional Jiang Chengs showed up in a 15-year-old Jiang Cheng's world and time. One was older, one was younger, one was from a modern AU, and one was a drinks serving robot, basically an omnibot 2000 with a refrigerator backpack.

He usually liked the robot best.

[nekogarfield]

Wow, it's like a non toy version of my omnibot 2000

"Connie" Conergy (an Android Amusements DC-2), The Conergy Energy Saving House, 1982 World’s Fair, Knoxville, TN. "Hi I'm Connie, I'm your robot from Conergy and I'm here to invite you to join us at the energy saving house at the 1982 World's Fair. We'll be there to tell you about all sorts of ways that you can save energy on residential housing. From household conservation, cooling, ventilation, heating, plumbing, and insulation. And we have all sorts of interesting characters that I'm looking forward to introducing to you when you come visit us at the fair. So please come join us. We'll be at the 1982 world's fair located across the street from the Japanese pavilion and next to the candy factory. Come see us." – Join CONNY and her friends at the Conergy Energy Saving House.

[gameraboy2]

Omnibot 2000, 1985 ad