I SO wanted a robot when I was growing up… and for a while, that was actually possible.
Behold, this Sears 1985 Wishbook page:
Omnibot! Maxx Steele! Chatbot! And the big bad OMNIBOT 2000! Holy cow, these things were AWESOME. Well, at least, I heard they were. They certainly LOOKED awesome. Of course, I didn’t have one, because LOOK AT THOSE PRICES. The cheapest one was $60, and it was a glorified answering machine. Omnibot 2000 was $450! Adjusted for inflation, that’s over $1300 in “today’s” dollars.
Imagine how spoiled you would have to be to get some of these things for Christmas. More spoiled than me, obviously (and I was pretty spoiled).
My adult rational mind look at them now and I realize that they were probably a handful to use, with no practical application. Of course, my inner child is still thinking “OMG A ROBOT!”
(Hmm… it looks like I can but some of these on eBay, and cheaper than when they were originally released. I’ll be right back.)