Cool Wall-E Merchandise

April 30th, 2008 by Mox

Ultimate Wall-E (click to enlarge)Disney/Pixar’s Wall-E is still about two months from release, and I am definitely very excited to see it. However, I (and several of my friends) have also been anticipating the merchandise. Being a movie about a robot, there is strong potential for some really cool toys.

For example, some friends have a voice activated R2-D2—a Wall-E version of that seems like a no-brainer. Well, last night I came across this Gearlog story (by way of Engadget) that would appear to be just that.

Ultimate Wall-E is a programmable robot with 10 separate motors and sensors that will let him react to his surroundings. He’ll be out sometime this summer for $190 but will be introduced to the public at Maker Faire this weekend (not the 29th as mentioned in the Engadget story).

Spore Creature Editor Announced

April 29th, 2008 by Mox

On June 17, EA will release two versions of the Spore Creature Creator – a $10 complete version and a free demo version. Both will be functionally identical to the creature creation tool in Spore, however the free version will only include about 25% of the creature parts compared to the full version.

Users will be able to create an unlimited number of creatures and let them loose into a play area to see how they will look and move in-game. Once Spore is released in September, they will be able to import their creations into the full game.

EA did something similar with The Sims, releasing an item creator ahead of the actual game to generate buzz. That turned out to be a great move as user-generated content became a huge factor in the success of that game. Spore will have a more fully integrated infrastructure for user-generated content from the beginning, so it is likely that this tool will have a greater impact on the long-term success of the game.

I will definitely need to make a computer upgrade before the full game is released, but it is not likely to happen before the Creature Creator is released. Hopefully, my current computer will be able to handle it.