Bunk Bots: Robots for Geeklings

Ahhh! The Chase is On!

Are you searching for the perfect gift for your baby, small child or even favorite grown-up? There aren’t many items out there that fit the bill for all of the above, but I have recently found one. It is cute, soft, cuddly, geeky and, to me, irresistible. It is a Bunk Bot.

What’s a Bunk Bot, you ask? If you missed the photo at right, here’s a description. They are plush robots perfect for anyone. There are no buttons to come off, no scratchy edges, no blatant commercialism. Everything is well stitched. They would pack quite well for taking on trips. While pink stuffed bears can be cute for a while, don’t you wish you could share more of your geeky side with your children? Bunk Bots are perfect for this.

When kids are very small, everything they encounter is new, so they take everything at face value. New things are normal, since they don’t have much to compare them to. If you expose your kids to robots from an early age, it seems much more likely that they’ll be drawn to them later on. Perhaps they’ll eventually be the youngest on their block to program their own Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 (available in August 2009)!

While at the GeekDad booth at the Maker Faire last weekend, Anton Olsen and I met Jason Hilbourne, the owner of Huge Factory which makes the Bunk Bots. He was an incredibly nice and personable guy, and was wearing one of the two best T-shirts I saw at the Faire. (Here‘s the other one.)

Surveying My Domain

There are 10 varieties of Bunk Bots, each with the same body size and shape, but with a different facial expression and tools-for-hands. Each has its own name and job. There are five lighter colored robots, and these seem to have the respectable day jobs. Then there are five darker colored ones, with variations on the names of the lighter ones. Most of the dark ones have red eyes, as if they are on their evil superhero moonlighting jobs. Witness some hysterical Bunk Bot videos illustrating this, including my favorite, Star Trek Bunk Bots. The bots are surface washable and have a spot on their tag for your kid to write his or her name.

So go out and buy several. They are available at Amazon, among other places, priced at $14. You can create your own Bunk Bot army (for good or for evil), or blanket your network of friends and family with a really cool toy. After all, your kids will need to know what to do if and when there is a robot uprising. Always be prepared!

(Photos: Jason Hilbourne)