An R2 Of Your Own

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Sunday September 1, 2002 @07:39AM from the real-r2s-project-holograms dept.

skywalker404 writes: "Hasbro is releasing a 15" tall, functioning R2 unit. 'We built in all the feistiness of R2D2,' said Jeff Popper, director of marketing for Hasbro. 'He has the same charisma and charm that we have come to know in R2D2.' And apparently 'Hasbro also has programmed secret commands into R2D2 - putting an emphasis on the upper end of the "8-and-over" target market.' Rocky Mountain News has this article on it. You can also go to the (very meager) website that Hasbro has made just for it."

39 of 175 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Re:Who is more gay? by Zen+Programmer · 2002-09-01 07:44 · Score: 2, Funny

You
R2 as copilot by unsinged+int · 2002-09-01 07:45 · Score: 5, Funny

Whoever buys this should get one and ride around with it. That would be awesome.
Secret commands, eh? by lavaforge · 2002-09-01 07:46 · Score: 5, Funny

Mix:
A bunch of computer geeks
A toy like this
"Secret commands"

I have a feeling that there are going to be a lot of calls from concerned parents after some of these commands get discovered.
1. Re:Secret commands, eh? by guttentag · 2002-09-01 10:44 · Score: 2
  
  I wonder what kind of secret commands are built in.
  User: Get me a beer, R2.
  R2: Get your own friggin beer, jerkoff! I'm watching the game. And get me one too while yer at it. Worthless human...
  I'm still waiting for the beer-fetching Princess Leia with secret commands.
This is a dangerous toy by paladin_tom · 2002-09-01 07:46 · Score: 4, Funny

The R2 Droid has memory archives of many Star Wars characters, and will react at the mention of their names.

Kid: I saw The Phantom Menace last night. Jar-jar is so cool!

R2: Whee-a-whoo! KILL DESTROY KILL DESTROY...

--
#define sig "Every social system runs on the people's belief in it."
Sounds familiar by bartb · 2002-09-01 07:50 · Score: 4, Insightful

hmmm, sounds familiar, remember this story?
At $100, this could be a good platform by jukal · 2002-09-01 07:50 · Score: 5, Insightful

for an open source development project. It seems to be equipped well enough to do all kinds of things, if we just changed the brains to something more intelligent.
Actually, this is so interesting that I will try and approach Hasbro about whether they could publish the complete specs for the hardware on board(or if someone from Hasbro reads this, publish it here). Then, if we get the specs, I will publish a "R2D2 new brains challenge", at this site.
1. Re:At $100, this could be a good platform by jukal · 2002-09-01 08:24 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  > whether they could publish the complete specs for the hardware on board
  So far, the marketing video gives best source for quesses on the hardware.
2. Re:At $100, this could be a good platform by jukal · 2002-09-01 09:15 · Score: 2
  
  > This is a troll, right?
  Hehe, this time, it was not a troll. If Hasbro replies to the request I sent to them and publishes the specs, you could really turn this into something fun - by replacing the software and maybe adding a few cheap new pieces of HW - you could get a rather good bot platform for $100. :)
3. Re:At $100, this could be a good platform by jukal · 2002-09-01 09:31 · Score: 2
  
  > Like what, an R2 firewall? Or R2 Beowulf cluster?
  Like R2, that follows your Slashdot postings and rates the comments made on them. Upon detecting comments like the one I am commenting to now, it would hop into an miniature airplane, fly to the other side of the world, recognize you by forming a profile based on vocabilary and image, flap you on the cheek, assimilate you, and fly back while playing the startwars theme on background.
4. Re:At $100, this could be a good platform by Chasuk · 2002-09-01 09:48 · Score: 2
  
  Maybe I'm not enough of a geek to appreciate this fully, but $100 seems awfully expensive for something that has no practical application, and would provide, say, 15 minutes of amusement.
  
  Not to be crude, but for $100 it had better be able to give head before I would pay for it.
  
  I think Hasbro has overestimated the Star Wars appeal. Or are there really that many /. readers out there so enamored of the Star Wars universe that $100 seems reasonable for a glorified beer-fetcher?
  
  Now, when the day comes that $100 buys me a droid that can fetch a beer out of the fridge without me pre-loading it, then I would still save my money and walk to the fridge. But then, like I said, I guess I'm not geeky enough.
  
  Let's be honest: if this wasn't Star Wars merchandise no one would give a shit. If it understood the names of 20 characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and beeped and chirped when the owner spoke those names, would anyone except for CmdrTaco buy it?
  
  --
  Neopets - the best free game on the Int
5. Re:At $100, this could be a good platform by jukal · 2002-09-01 09:59 · Score: 2
  
  > but $100 seems awfully expensive for something that has no practical application
  I don't know if that turns it into capable of being used in practical applications - but I believe that if the bot was freely programmable (and controlled by for example CLinux) - you could enhance it's possibilities quite much.
6. Re:At $100, this could be a good platform by ncc74656 · 2002-09-01 11:03 · Score: 2
  
  Stupid viddy won't play in Mozilla. I thought most everyone had come around.
  
  You'll still need Windows Media Player (or something compatible), but the direct URL to the video is mms://vendariawm.fplive.net/vendaria/onair/obpOaDy qImLLKIKLvLluEN003501200160.asf. (I would've made it a link, but /. would've mangled it...as it is, you'll need to filter out the space in the middle.)
  
  --
  20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
7. Re:At $100, this could be a good platform by g4dget · 2002-09-01 12:22 · Score: 2
  
  If you don't get it, perhaps we should revoke your nerd membership. Also, this has nothing to do with "open source", as you seem to suggest. The fact that when a bunch of unrelated people collaborates on something, the result ends up being open source is incidental.
  What I find much more tedious is that whenever a bunch of people want to do something fun with hardware or software, a bunch of people like you come out of the woodworks who put it down. Go back to hacking MS SQL Server and stop bothering us.
8. Re:At $100, this could be a good platform by istartedi · 2002-09-01 15:21 · Score: 2
  
  I think Hasbro has overestimated the Star Wars appeal. Or are there really that many /. readers out there so enamored of the Star Wars universe that $100 seems reasonable for a glorified beer-fetcher?
  
  Yes. I think The Simpsons said it best:
  
  Skinner: Here's Ralph Wiggum's entry... Pre-packaged "Star Wars" characters, still in their display box? Are those the limited-edition action figures?
  Ralph: What's a diarama?
  
  And of course, Ralph won.
  
  --
  For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
9. Re:At $100, this could be a good platform by jukal · 2002-09-02 18:39 · Score: 2
  
  > Dude, you REALLY need to get out of the house. No, seriously, this is not even trolling.
  > Find the nearest walking trail and follow it as long as you can. You need fresh air.
  hehe! do I have this effective geekcamouflage, cool :) I will have to show this to my two kids when they start thinking I am a dinosaur :)
Comment removed by account_deleted · 2002-09-01 07:52 · Score: 4, Interesting

Comment removed based on user account deletion
"Fully Operational?" by unsinged+int · 2002-09-01 07:53 · Score: 2

Hmm...can't seem to get mine to fly. Guess I got the Episode I model and not the Episode II model. Darn.

(Actually...whenever someone advertises a robot as "fully operational" or "fully functional" I can't help but think of Data from Star Trek saying "Yes, I am fully functional." You have to remember the context to get that...)
1. Re:"Fully Operational?" by Chanc_Gorkon · 2002-09-01 08:03 · Score: 2
  
  Imagining Tasha and Data GETTING IT ON! Of course for Tasha it was probably alot like a Symbian (weird ass sex toy). That was one funny scene.
  
  --
  Gorkman
Obligatory... by Ozan · 2002-09-01 07:56 · Score: 5, Funny

Father: I'm looking for a Star Wars christmas gift for my son.
Salesman: We have this R2 droid toy.
Father: No, this looks cheap, I'm looking for something real impressive.
Salesman: This is the droid you're looking for.
Father: This is the droid I'm looking for.
Salesman: You want to pay cash.
Father: I want to pay cash.
Something tells me.... by Chanc_Gorkon · 2002-09-01 08:05 · Score: 2

This thing will just suck. I wonder if anyone had a Heathkit Hero and upgraded it's brains?

--
Gorkman
I can forsee this one... by Guppy06 · 2002-09-01 08:12 · Score: 2

" 'Hasbro also has programmed secret commands into R2D2 - putting an emphasis on the upper end of the "8-and-over" target market.'"

"R2, go get me a beer."
Charisma and charm? by perlyking · 2002-09-01 08:19 · Score: 2

The thing is a bin on wheels and beeps...

--
no sig.
Re:Secret commands revealed by damien_kane · 2002-09-01 08:22 · Score: 2, Funny

"Toss me my saber"

"It's the one that says 'bad motherfucker' on it

"Call one of my bitches"

After which the R2 unit will respons with "I'm on the motherfucker, the shit is under control, I will be sending the wookie directly"
Who needs to buy a droid? by Kaz+Riprock · 2002-09-01 08:24 · Score: 2

Why would I want to buy an R2, when I can just build my own droid.

--
Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
What's old, is new again. by Christopher+Thomas · 2002-09-01 08:38 · Score: 2

I knew I'd seen something very much like this before.

Anyone remember Omnibot?
Or if you prefer your own light saber by revscat · 2002-09-01 08:47 · Score: 4, Funny

Check these guys out. Came across this while searching Google. It's a fully-functional light saber. Of course, by fully functional I mean "has a glass blade" instead of a laser one, and "would break in actual combat" instead of "kicking ass." But still.
1. Re:Or if you prefer your own light saber by WIAKywbfatw · 2002-09-01 10:43 · Score: 2
  
  Star Wars fans camping outside a movie theatre waiting for Episode III playing with fake lightsabers will look like true dorks?
  
  Gee, d'ya think?
  
  --
  
  "Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
fully functional? by cosyne · 2002-09-01 09:11 · Score: 4, Funny
so it
- Can be submerged in a degoba swamp
- Can interface with major computer systems via rotating phallic appendage thingie
- Projects holograms of hot chicks in mid-air
- Has a built-in stun gun
- Repairs space ships in mid-flight
- Can traverse miles of scorching desert
- and of course can fire a light saber out of it's head
Schweet.
You meant... by IIRCAFAIKIANAL · 2002-09-01 09:22 · Score: 2

CRUSH KILL DESTROY

right? :)

--
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
1. Re:You meant... by glandauer · 2002-09-01 09:35 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  No. I think that he means:
  EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!
  
  (Added text to defeat lameness filter.)
2. Re:You meant... by IIRCAFAIKIANAL · 2002-09-01 12:55 · Score: 2
  
  In a less than interesting coincidence, I came onto slashdot to check out if anyone thought my lame joke was funny and "Doctorin' the Tardis" starts playing on my MP3 player :)
  
  EX-TERM-INATE! EX-TERM-INATE!
  
  --
  Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
3. Re:You meant... by NeuroManson · 2002-09-01 13:29 · Score: 2
  
  Nonono, it's clearly "Kill, Crush, Destroy!"
  
  Wonder how it would respond to "klaatu barata nikto", however...
  
  --
  Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
15" and fully functional? by IIRCAFAIKIANAL · 2002-09-01 09:25 · Score: 2

Must be for the lonely female geeks.

Oh, it's a toy robot. Nevermind.

--
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
WARNING, LINK IS NOT WORK-SAFE by Chris+Pimlott · 2002-09-01 10:48 · Score: 5, Informative

A little heads up for the cubicle dwellers... it's Star Wars pr0n.
How good is the voice recognition? by interstellar_donkey · 2002-09-01 11:34 · Score: 2

It starts to shake in fear if you ask about Vader, eh?

So what happens, in passing, when you say 'hey R2, what do you think of Ralph Nader?'

Oh the fun.

--
The Internet is generally stupid
Re:Read the fine print... by NeoSkandranon · 2002-09-01 13:01 · Score: 2

Some assembly required

--
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
Marketing info reveals secret featur by gerardrj · 2002-09-01 16:22 · Score: 2

Following the link to the toys-r-us page for purchase (via amazon) lists the following specs:

Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
Box Size (in inches): 10.5 x 7.5 x 17.5
Shipping weight: 0.039198 pounds. -----
ASIN: B000063KCP
SKN: 527772

It seems R2 comes with an anti-gravity module. Figure a 15" metal robot should weigh a few pounds at least. The packaging and box should weigh a few ounces to maybe two pounds. Yet the shipping weight of the entire deal is just over 1/2 of an ounce. R2 must be generating a hover field that supports its own weight and most of the box and packaging. Hope it doesn't get blown away when I open the front door!

--
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
Move along, move along... by Jugalator · 2002-09-01 17:58 · Score: 2

Come back when it projects holograms. If such holograms can then be downloaded from internet, we know where that's headed to. R2 units projecting pr0n. ;-)

--
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!