i-Que
item #34822 by Manley ToyQuest
I have had my eye on this robot for quite some time now. What with money being
tight and my short attention span, I haven't been able to make that leap - yet.
This robot is coming down in price and he may become a part of my extended
robot family soon.
WOW! I found a couple on eBay that were broken. Technician that I am, they were no problem to repair! I am totally speechless. He is so cool. We were watching TV when I first turned him on, so after setting up the date and time, I put him in sleep mode. I have never in my life seen a robot dream! After going into sleep mode, he was really quiet. All of a sudden, he said "I'll be back..." Then after a second he said "I've been watching way too much cable TV" and went back to sleep. A little while later he said something I didn't quite make out, but then he said "Nightmare concluded. Returning to sleep mode." I could not stop laughing.
What I find most appealing is that he contains the entire Merriam-Webster's dictionary and can speak every word of it using text-to-speech technology. He also has over 3,000 historic events stored from the Encyclopedia Britannica with the ability to even more through expansion cartridges sold separately. As if all of that wasn't enough, he is able to remember what you say to him and store it in his internal database. Using all of this information, i-Que is able to hold a seemingly intelligent conversation with you.
Another nice feature is the docking function. i-Que is able to detect a low battery condition and subsequently find the dock and place himself back on charge. Or at least that is how it should work in theory. It's been my experience, as well as others, that the docking feature doesn't work exactly as intended. As a matter of fact, he seems to be lost more often than not. I am going to have to delve further into the workings and see if I can't figure out why and see if I can't fix that.
When i-Que isn't roaming around on his own, you can control him either by voice control or with the included "Blackberry"-style communicator. This same device will also allow i-Que to act as your own personal secretary - remembering names, dates, telephone numbers and addresses.
Year Released: 2007
Original Price: $200
Technical Specifications:
Power Supply:
9.6v rechargeable battery pack (robot)
3 x AAA batteries (remote)
Dimensions: 5" tall x 14" long x 11.5" wide
Weight: 9.7 lbs
RF Frequency: 27 MHz
