This is a repost that I did from another site.  For the most part, I am just looking for some insight as to what you all think of my thoughts on the future and the direction that Wow Wee is currently going towards.

     First of all I am a big robotic "toy fan".  That probably might mean I am not necessarily favored here as some do not like the idea of having their entertainment droids being viewed as toys.  But since a "toy" can be anything from a kitchen knife to a 4 wheel drive 2 ton diesel truck, I really don't see any offense to seeing things being viewed as a toy.  Mainly because a "toy" can be nearly anything you play with regardless of what age you are or what the object is.  Anyways..  I collect robotic toys quite often.  The only major difference is what I collect is quite different from most other robot collectors.  I am mainly interested in robots that don't look like robots or have the human like appearance.  Probably cause human robots tend to look creepy.  In other words, toys, like pleo, or near me, are examples of toys which I would collect and probably tinker with.  This is probably why my collection consists mostly of Animal Tronics and Dino Tronics.  I think I have almost every toy of the set that is super cool to watch!  Though I would like to get more of the Hyenas which is the best one I have in the collection! 

      For a while my collecting of Wow Wee toys has even lead me to suggest over several other exotic animals to the company in hopes that I would one day add those to my collection.  That was about the time that the company began changing course and started to ward away from "children's toys" in favor of a more mature audience.  It was a good move and they gained alot of new ground in bridging the gap between toys and consumer robotics.  Unfortunately it also meant the death of the long running toy line.  Which spanned about 3 years I think.  I saw how the toys progressed with each year's release.  Each year the series release seemed to become more fluent and more animated.  While these were merely children's toys, that didn't stop adults from collecting them and admiring their animations.  I was one of them.  When the private retailers had enough with the toy line, so did the company.  Despite the end of the series, I kept hope that the series would somehow resurface in a more evolved and more advanced form.  I still see alot of potential in the series to come back with way more than it last left us with.  Not in simple button pushing, or remote operation.  But in a more interactive and artificially intelligent form that is capable of doing things on its own.  So this is where the real post begins. 

     Roboraptor is cool and all.  But something didn't pull me to buy one yet.  I saw and enjoyed the videos.  But something kept me away.  Same thing with the Alive Chimp.  It too kept me from buying it.  I knew why after some thought and a closer look.  It was not what it did, but rather, how it was presented that stopped me.  In other words, I had an issue with the looks.  A chimp head?  A metallic raptor with horns?  Not very appealing to the eye if you ask me.  At least with the all robot look, like Robopet, or RSV2, you didn't have an eye sore on your hands.  Well to me the raptor was to some degree an eye sore.  You can blame my pickyness to the look of it that did it.  You could also say that because I generally don't like metallic looking robots, that it was obvious I wouldn't get one.  But I DID buy the Cybernetic Panther.  Yes it was more of a child's toy.  But the look is what sold me.  It just looked cool.  The Roboraptor?  Blue veiny eyes coupled the horns killed it for me.  It just didn't seem to match or make much sense.    Maybe if they made it more like a regular raptor?  Or more of a mix of a cyborg?  I don't know. 

So what would I like to see?  Nearly everyone here wants more advanced human like robots.  I am one of the ones who like the idea of having their own room with a few robotic wild animals that you could interact with.  Hopefully with a skin covering like pleo since I like how it looks.  I am still a solid fan of movie animatronics.  They could still be very much advanced like the roboraptor or even beyond.  I believe that if it looks good and has alot of neat functions, as well as more believable and varied sound effects, (The Grizzly Bear roar was terrible!) then I am sure we will see some big winners.  Thats assuming they actually manage to get a more durable and more elastic skin for the job.  Lets hope they aren't planning to make anymore decapitated ones.

Fastenjaw.