When you’re an exhibitor at CES, size is everything. The larger your booth, the more visible you are in the sea of some 3,000 exhibitors, and the added real estate boosts foot traffic. Korean manufacturer Moneual has a giant booth for its line of touchscreen tables, water purifiers, and other home gadgets. Verizon has a cornered chunk of the third floor for its latest line of tech innovations. But if you’re wandering the show floor and came up an acre of blue carpet advertising TOSY, we’re willing to bet you’d be just as confused as we were. Especially when you’ve probably never heard of it, and because TOSY’s only got one superstar product to show off: The mRobo dancing robot.
Without exaggeration, there were at least 50 people sitting around waiting for mRobo’s hourly dance shows. When it hits the market, users can program a series of dance moves for the mRobo via the company’s proprietary app so you can send the robot off on the floor instead of embarrassing yourself. The mRobo also has a speaker built into its crotch so it’ll also blast music while it’s grooving away, spinning around on wheels and doing fancy splits.
As if it’s not a strange enough concept, the mRobo also happens to look like Agent Smith found a new gig, and it packages itself back into hiding by lifting its legs all the way up to its shoulders. Just look at this promotional photo. It’s no wonder at least several hundred people found themselves perplexed and entranced by the TOSY booth, standing through repeats of Gangnam Style and Billie Jean until the actual robot came out for the show.
Last year at CES, TOSY also managed to snag Justin Bieber to unveil the robot, which confirms our belief that the company must be rolling in dough. How all this is possible from one silly dancing robot — which you still can’t buy — is beyond us, but they must be doing something right. CES 2014, take note.
By the way, if you’re actually interested in buying the TOSY mRobo, you can snag your own later this summer for $200.
