cr0sh:
oric_dan(333):
VINTAGE TOMY OMNIBOT TOY ROBOT 5402 for sale | eBay
[beware the $1250 and $900 auctions! I got mine for < $20]I'm pretty sure those auctions are for the Omnibot in "prime" condition (with box, manual, all parts, little/no fading or yellowing of plastic, and most importantly - the cardboard "home" base); for all of that, those are actually reasonable prices - the Omnibot -is- a collectible Tomy product, and an antique toy (technically). Do some research on such toys; you'll be amazed.
I personally own the three major "Omnibots" (One Verbot, Two Omnibots, and an Omnibot 2000 - I also have a Chatbot), plus an actual Tomy Armatron (and several of the Radio Shack ones); I also have a Heathkit Hero Jr. They are all my "collector" bots; they don't get played with. None are in perfect shape or have everything they came with originally, but they all work.
I once had this idea of collecting all of the 1980s era Tomy robots, but then I found out that there were a ton out there, many only sold in Japan originally. Many of those are near impossible to find at any price; there are some really rare ones out there that are hella expensive when you can find them on the collectors market (one is called "Hootbot" - it's an owl; if you can find it with the stand/perch and the manual - let's just say it ain't cheap, last time I looked several years back). I once saw an auction on Ebay (5 or more years ago) for a special Tomy robot that was given out to executives for some Tomy aniversary; it was programmable, and was fairly small - it's base was about the size of a quarter, and stood only an inch or so tall. You programmed it with this small pocket-sized computer; it had some IR sensors or something. Anyhow, it was silver plated, and I can't remember what this robot went for, but it was in the thousands of dollars by the end of the auction. Since it was an executive board giveaway schwag item from Tomy, there were only like 20 or so made, and who knows how many still exist.
I also collect other Tomy toys of the era - I have a few Atomic Pinballs (one of the greatest tabletop toy pinball machines ever made, IMHO), as well as an Air Jammer car...
why do you collect old robots? whats the point? if you can build or buy newer and cheaper for a higher capability and accuracy? you are so amazing..