Walkiebits, Tiny Dancing Robots from Takara

Ok, so maybe calling these little buggers robots is a little stretch on the meaning of that word. Nevertheless, they’re robot-sy by virtue of being somewhat programmable. And, I hate to admit it, also pretty darn cool.

See, the best trick they perform, is to be able to “dance” to a rhythm you provide.

In Rhythm Mode, the turtle will walk in synchronization with a rhythm that is “clicked” o­n its shell with a finger. For example, clicking a 3-3-7 rhythm o­n the shell will cause the turtle to walk in a 3-3-7 rhythm. It will repeat remembered rhythms three times, and can store up to 15 clicks

They also do a bunch of other things.

There’s “Walk Mode” in which the turtle shakes its rear as it makes sound, “Race Mode” in which the turtle runs, and “Sing Mode” where the turtle will play melodies with electronic sounds.

They come in a bunch of colors, they’re made by Takara, cost about 13$ and most likely will not be available in North America for quite a while.

That’s ok though, we can always dream…

Check out the Japanese (for any of you so enabled) website here. There’s also a press release though you’ll need Japanese on your PDF reader. Finally, the link came VIA TechJapan.