Oh! Gizmo

By Evan Ackerman

This cute little guy is KOTA, a 40 inch long battery powered baby triceratops. If you’re a preschooler, you can ride comfortably on KOTA’s spring-loaded back, holding onto a safety handle hidden under his frill. He’s got 11 touch-sensitive areas on his body and will move his head, tail, or horns in response to a little luvin’. He’ll even pretend to eat fake leaves, and roar at you if you talk to him. A “friendly” roar, says Hasbro. They also claim the roar is “realistic,” but I’m not sure how they figured that one out. He’ll cost about $300, and runs on 6 D batteries.

6 D batteries… That rings a bell… Oh, right! This thing takes 6 D batteries! The obvious thing to do when KOTA comes out in fall of this year is to buy it along with the Nerf Vulcan and a dozen D batts, and turn yourself into a real life Dino-Rider. Remember Dino-Riders? Relive some of the glory days of 80s killer cyborg dinosaur cartoons, after the jump.

Dino-Riders was an 80s cartoon series about a classic duel between good and evil aliens who got stuck on prehistoric Earth, and decided to slug it out with giant weapons mounted on dinosaurs:

The Dino-Riders triceratops featured motorized walking action, as well as a radar dish, a bunch of laser cannons, and a removable brain box. The triceratops figure itself was about 1/36 scale, and was so anatomically accurate and detailed that, along with many other Dino-Riders figures, it was re-released by Tyco on behalf of the Smithsonian Institution, although the weaponry was sadly absent. Here’s a sample of what the cartoon and figures had to offer:

All in all, the whole concept makes me think of this:

Doesn’t get much cooler than that.

[ Hasbro Press Release ]