In what has now become tag-team Ultimate Wall-E posts, a friend posted this morning about Gizmodo’s coverage of the upcoming toy at last weekend’s Maker Faire. Their story included a video of a rep showing off the remote control and talking about Wall-E will be able to do, but there wasn’t much of an actual demonstration because Wall-E was sitting on a small table in loud and crowded room.
Engadget also had a story from Maker Faire about Ultimate Wall-E that included a video (from Techie Diva, embedded below). This video better showcases Wall-E’s range of motion, including his head, arms, and eyes. The rep also demonstrates his collision avoidance and directional sound sensors. And while not implemented in that prototype, the rep explained that he’ll also respond to small number of voice commands.
After seeing this new video, I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these.
Update: A friend pointed out that video changed at some point. It would appear that the embed code I got from Engadget points to the most recent Techie Diva video instead of this particular one. (Incidentally, the original Techie Diva story is showing the same incorrect video) You can find the original video at Blip.tv.
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).
Neil Gaiman‘s Stardust opens in less than a month and billboards are starting to show up around town. I enjoyed the book a great deal but I’m going to have to reread it to refresh my memory before I see the movie.
Paramount has set Robert De Niro, Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes, Charlie Cox and Sienna Miller to star in Stardust, an adaptation of the Neil Gaiman fantasy novel, to be directed by Matthew Vaughn, Variety reported. The movie begins shooting in the United Kingdom and Iceland next month.
Gaiman has mentioned on his blog that Mark Strong will be playing Septimus. Of DeNiro’s character, Captain Shakespeare, Gaiman described him as “Captain Alberic with a bit more to do.”
Back when negotiations between Disney and Pixar broke down, Disney announced that it would begin production of Toy Story 3 as it was allowed to do under the terms of their existing agreement. This was largely seen as a strong-arm tactic on Eisner’s part to force Pixar’s hand in the renegotiating of their partnership. Disney put together an animation studio (Circle 7) whose primary function was to make sequels of Pixar films and would do so to the chagrin of Pixar fans everywhere.
