Noodad Product Review: The Robopanda by Wowwee Robotics

For me, when I think about a robot I think about things like Optimus Prime, Short Circuit and of course, R2-D2 and C3-PO. But for kids these days, they think robots are just ordinary playmates. Technology is so prevalent in toys these days, who cares if the head moves or the lips move?

For the last few months, every time I walked down the toy aisles with my kids, one of the most frequent stops was the section of robots. I always wondered if the appeal of these things was they looked deep into the eyes of these artificial beings and found a connection, or if they just knew it was expensive because of the flashy packaging and its placement well above the reach of tiny hands.

So I was excited to get the opportunity to review the popular Robopanda by WowWee Robotics. The Robopanda is a high priced feat of robotic engineering packaged in a hard plastic shell that is rugged to the touch and cute to look at. After all, when thinking of a character to animate robotically, you would be hard-pressed to find something cuter than a panda. At a price tag between $99-$170, I was skeptical about its appeal. No doubt, for the amount of moving parts and exterior moldings, delivering this under 2 bills is a feat in itself. But despite its worth in parts and manufacturing, a big fear for parents is they will fork over that type of cash only to see it at the bottom of the toy pile in a few weeks.

So I put it through its paces. I tested it myself, then with all 3 of my kids (ages 1-5). And to truly do it justice as the recommended age range is 8+, I had a 9 year old test it out to see his reaction.

UNPACKING
I have mixed feelings about the packaging of the Robopanda. On one side of the coin, it is brilliantly packaged. The construction of the box is solid, the necessary information is clearly labeled, and the clear plastic part clearly displays the Robopanda in al its glory. But that’s also the problem. This toy is packaged to catch the eye on the shelf and have huge “Wow!” factor when you unwrap it. But opening it up was, by far, the most frustrating and time-consuming experience I have had in my illustrious toy opening career. You may be saying to yourself, “Noodad, I unpacked the Littlest Pet Shop Playset” to which I reply, “Me too and this is worse. Way worse.”

The reason for this nightmare of an unpacking experience is the dreaded plastic slit, with tape, with twisty tie combination….times 9. It took me close to an hour to unpack it correctly. Granted, if I took a pair of scissors and cut through the ties from the front instead of untwisting carefully from the back, it would be a little quicker. But with an item that costs $130, you can never be too safe. If it didn’t work, or was defective cut twisty ties would do nothing for me.

The point is, don’t expect to buy this for your kid, have them open it and start playing it quickly. This may be one of those situations where you re better off giving it to them already out of the box.

THE SPECS
At around 8 pounds the Robopanda is light enough for a kid to hold up but heavy enough that a drop on the floor (even at kid height distance) would produce a loud thump or a broken toe. It’s arms and legs are easy to move when the Robopanda is turned off. It is somewhat poseable when it is on too. It lacks elbow and knee joints so it is basically like bending it at the Barbie joint points. Even though the Robopanda cannot see, its eyes light up in a blue glow. The exterior is a hard black and white plastic with a big field of speaker holes in its chest. Size-wise it is big enough that your kid can feel like they can hug it and small enough that it doesn’t feel like it is some robotic monstrosity in your kid’s playroom.

TOUCH SENSITIVITY
The real cool feature is how the Robopanda reacts to touch. It can sense touch at various points of its body. This is used for everything from adjusting settings like volume (“touch my right paw if you want to make me talk louder..”) to understanding whether it is lying down, sitting up, or being held. Out of the box, there are stickers place at all the touchpoints on the Robopanda. This is used to avoid confusion of where to touch.

THE VOICE
Robopanda sounds like an ordinary little boy. It has the vocabulary and speech patterns of maybe a 5 or 6 year old. I must say, after seeing the light up eyes I was nervous that the voice would creep me out. I didn’t want to walk downstairs in the middle of the night and here a demon voice asking me to play patty cake. The voice is clear and un-intimidating. It has quite the personality as well. Coupled with the sensors around its body it will say things like, “Where are we going?” when you pick it up and “I can’t move my arms when you hold me there!” In fact, some of the “ordinary” phrases caught me off guard that I spent most of my time trying to get it to say it again. For instance, I stood it up and spread its arms apart and it said, “I’m the king of the world!” Titanic references are so 10 years ago but it gave me the same type of chuckle that I got when my daughter sings along to YMCA: its the fact that it is unexpected that makes it delightful.

THE SET UP
The Robopanda comes with 2 cartridges packed with stories, songs, and dialogue. A door on its back pops open and the cartridge slide in. There is also a space in the door to house the second cartridge. It requires a whopping 6 C batteries and 4 AA batteries which these days could cost as much as the toy itself. The battery doors are fastened with single phillips head screws. So far I have had over 8 hours of solid gameplay on the same batteries. I have not had to replace them yet. I do not know how long they will last but I was happy with how much time it has given me so far.

TRICKS
Another cool feature about the Robopanda is its ability to learn tricks. You can move its arms or legs in various motions and it will learn them. Then you can play those tricks back and the Robopanda will reinact the exact motion you saved. Needless to say, this can be a very amusing activity. But it is also a great feature that showcases the robotics technology.

THE TOY PANDA’S TOY PANDA
Ok, so the Robopanda comes with a stuffed animal in the form of a panda. When you really think about it is seems weird. How many kids carry around a stuffed kid? Well, this stuffed animal has a chip sensor in it that when the Robopanda has it nearby, it can hug it and interact with it. Honestly, this is unnecessary. The Robopanda does not live or die on the inclusion of yet another toy. And your kids wont give a hoot about the non-talking toy when there is a talking one right next to it.

IMPRESSIONS
I spent a considerable amount of time testing out all the options of the Robopanda and it remarkable how it integrates touch points, animatronics, and voice to create an experience that feels responsive. After hearing a few cute phrases while playing with the Robopanda, I quickly wanted to hear them all. One of my first impressions was that although the voice was easy to hear, the sounds of the motors inside were very loud. I couldn’t help but think of Robocop telling me I only had 20 seconds to comply. I understand that there are complicated goings-on inside that plastic body but to this tester, it took away from the overall experience.

I had my 3 kids play with the Robopanda all at once. My 5 year old daughter spent a ton of time listening to the stories, yelling out answers to the questions it was asking, and laughing about it all. My 3 year old son never lost eye contact with the panda but refused to come down off the couch to interact with it. I’m nervous he will be scarred for life. My 1 year old was laughing and enjoying the Robopanda with his sister but all he wanted to do was knock it over and laugh; clearly amused by his takedown.

The packaging states that the Robopanda is geared for ages 8 and over. So I had an 8 year old boy test the Robopanda too. He found it amusing and played along for awhile. After 5 minutes or so, he said he was bored and he played with something else. I think the age suggestion is wrong. I think as young as 3 or 4 could find enjoyment in this toy. I suspect that kids older than that will find this boring compared to their other options of videogames. I did ask the 8 year old if he would be more interested in the RoboReptile or the Robosapien models. He saw that there was one with a full color screen, camera, and MP3 capabilities and immediately asked if he could plug his iPod into it. Perhaps the idea of a panda was a tad too childish for him.

CONCLUSIONS
The Robopanda is an amazing toy that is well-built, finely executed, and has a cross-gender appeal. But I have come to the conclusion that this is one of those toys that adults will get a lot of satisfaction giving as presents but kids will not play with it past a few weeks. Even my daughter, who had such a great time in the beginning has decided it isn’t interesting enough to put down her Leapster.

For us adults, the idea that a toy can actually do these things may give enough appeal to buy it. After all, we only had Teddy Ruxpin and only his mouth and eyes moved! So the appeal of having this crazy technology might be enough to pony up the money. The Robopanda has been advertised as “My first robotic friend”. It will never be your kid’s best friend (let’s hope not) but it is sure to bring some enjoyment to them.

Noodad Rating: 4 out of 5 Noos