World's Smallest Humanoid Robot (2007)

panese toy maker Takara Tomy's world's smallest humanoid robot “i-Sobot” is displayed during the Toy Forum 2007 on January 23, 2007 in Tokyo, Japan. The 165mm height robot is able to walk, play the drums and keep its balance.

We won't beat around the bush: there's just no way that Takara Tomy's claim of "the world's smallestrobot" for its new Omnibot2007 i-SOBOT humanoid is even remotely true, but as far as fairly well-articulated humanoid biped toy bots that are about to be available for sale, we could see the 6.6-inch tall i-SOBOT taking that crown. Now that we've got the extravagant claims out of the way, there's a lot to love about the i-SOBOT, including an LCD-equipped remote for having the bot act out programmed motions, and voice control for dictating simple actions. The bot can play music, dance, and respond to applause and other user actions. The bot can also make its own punching and kicking sound effects, so we can imagine some entertaining robo-duels with a pair of these things. If that's not quite enough excitement for you, Takara Tomy is also prepping the Omnibot2007 i-SOBOT CAMVersion (pictured), which includes a camera that can beam pics to your PC or phone via WiFi, and whose head can swivel 60 degrees in each direction. The cam-free model should be out in July for 31,290 yen (about $258 US), while the CAMVersion bot will run you 41,790 yen ($344 US) when it debuts in October. Check a pic of the cheapo-version and his remote after the break.