Retro Scan of the Week: The Perfect Heathkit Robotic Family
March 27th, 2006 by Benj Edwards
Flash back to 1986: “Is your family life not quite how you’d like it to be? Does your husband stay late at work and seem ungrateful? Does your wife refuse to clean the house and make you dinner? Are your kids too gross, squishy and organic? Well worry no longer, because now you can buy and build your own Heathkit RoboFamily Plus (GD-9920) for only $2999.95 plus shipping! (Important Note: The ‘RoboFamily Plus’ comes pre-programmed to buy Heathkit products and demonstrate them frequently, thoroughly, and repeatedly, so do not be alarmed if you witness this behavior.)”
[Scan from a 1986 Heathkit Catalog.]
March 27th, 2006 at 3:00 pm
Awesome! When can I order mine?!
March 27th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
DUDE! I so remeber that robot from an 80’s book called Robots In The Home. I’ve always prefered the Androbot TOPO robots though.
Here’s the spiritual successor to the Heathkit bot:
http://www.whiteboxrobotics.com/
March 28th, 2006 at 5:04 am
All this robot really does is watch football.
March 29th, 2006 at 3:07 pm
Why dad, is that an oscilloscope on the coffee table? You know that mom and her dual floppy portable don’t allow it to be out of the workshed.
March 29th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
Heh. Good call, Layne.
I wonder exactly what he’s measuring?
June 6th, 2008 at 3:06 pm
Holy COW I remember having this too. this site is amazing. never got any of the stuff in the catalog, but I loved looking at all the cool projects.
February 3rd, 2011 at 1:28 am
I really like this picture; as an 80s child scene (parents, kids, sweaters, roaring fireplace) is the stuff dreams were made of, and I guess still are, as I’m an adult now and still don’t have anything close to it.