Few people have heard of it, yet many consider John Blankenbaker's KENBAK-1 to be the first commercial personal computer.
Tomy Animal Robots
By Caitlin
Hello, friends! My name is Caitlin Biljan Wezeman and I am honored to be a guest writer here at Retro Thing. I am fairly obsessed with robots, so much of my writing involves them. I respect the online community here and I hope I can entertain you with some nostalgic finds.
Ah, the robot aisle at Toys 'R Us circa 1985. Also known as Christmas/birthday wishlist heaven. I used to stare at the robots in this aisle and mentally note which ones I would picture as I blew out my birthday candles. One year, I was lucky enough to receive both Hootbot and Spotbot, two popular Tomy robots that resembled, you guessed it, an owl and a dog. Hootbot would flap its wings, flash its eyes, clack its talons, and hoot. Watch Hootbot in action here...
Spotbot, on the other hand, would wag his head and tail, spin and zip around, and "bark." You could also move his ears and open his mouth. His incredibly realistic barking can be witnessed here...
Rounding out the collection was a cat named Kitbot, which came in brown and white or pink and white. Santa, to his detriment, failed to bring me Kitbot, but Hootbot and Spotbot are still tucked away safely in my garage next to my dusty Casio keyboard. While their 20-year-old plastic is slowly disintegrating, I am definitely keeping them. Do you know why? Because we had a chimney fire in 1987, and in that moment, when I could take only one armload from my bedroom and run - guess what I grabbed?
