When I first saw Rovio[1] for sale on eBay, one clever eBayer decided to charge $1 to let you use it. Since you could control it remotely through wifi and the camera, you were able to roll around his house.

So then I thought, what about taking this further? Like an arena where you could battle them or something? Better yet, get a warehouse and build rooms, escalators, themed areas like a park or waterfall. Allow people to use their mobile device to log in to their bot, avatar toy, etc and control it. You could do things like teleport to other parts of the warehouse, where you'd just embody a different bot. With augmented reality, you could even sell "stickers" to decorate your bot or battle car, etc. Advertising could be tastefully placed around the areas as an additional revenue stream.

Of course, prox sensors would be a must if the object of the environment isn't to bash everyone to bits.

It's pretty far fetched, but I think it would be fun!

[1] http://www.robotshop.com/wow-wee-rovio-spy-robot.html

It actually already exists ;)

http://mech-warfare.com/

Altough you can't play from home, but all the players have only the cameras of their bot to look around. So far they play with electric airsoft pistols and each bot (which has to be a walker, so no wheels or anything) has a few standardized sensor plates to register hits.

As most control the bots via WiFi, it would certainly be possible to host such a competition via internet.

[I never played this myself, but it looks like fun!]

I was stoked to see this - Jaimie is a unique guy. ("Greatest toy robot ever invented" is typical to his brand of...enthusiasm.) His YouTube channel is worth checking out (http://www.youtube.com/user/JMEMantzel). He lives in the woods (I think in Vermont), and for the past few years has been working on building a LIFE SIZE version of this toy. Looking at his YouTube page just now it seems that he's had a kid so that'll slow the Giant Robot Project down a bit, but I'm happy to see he's sold his idea & it's going forward!

Edit: his web site: http://jamius.com

Jamie and his wife's enthusiasm for life is infectious. That is an awesome family. I spent an hour going through his videos last night. I can't believe how much energy that guy has to do everything in his life.

I'm sorry but that's is not a lego mindstorm. While it does looks somewhat customizable it doesn't seems to encourage creativity like the mindstorm does.

But hey!, second place is not bad.

I think this is aimed at a substantially younger crowd. Your 4 year old isn't going to be programming anything on the Mindstorm, but he could definitely have fun with the OP toy.

I can;t believe this article didn't even mention Jaimie's claim to fame, the giant robot videos. Those things are hilarious. "I'm gonna make a giant robot, but I have to build a shop first. Oh, and I don't have wood, but I have trees, time to build a sawmill. Oh, I don't have electricity either..." Good stuff.

Brilliant - here's Part 1 that you mentioned (he's posted 300+ videos). I'm afraid I've wrecked what's left of the work day as I follow the saga. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86Krv3gE-c4

Does anyone know if hexbug spider uses same principle or is it substantially different in any way?

Is this even technically a robot?

Yeah I was thinking the same thing. While robots can technically be directly remote controlled, generally that definition is limited to using remote control to perform a task. I'm not sure that firing ping pong balls fits into at least my definition of "performing a task".

Maybe the definition is changing as a result of robots moving from industrial to consumer. Perhaps a "toy robot" as this thing is described can just be any controllable moving machine that does anything more than just move about (like RC cars/helicopters do).