TekNO - The Dust Collector of The 2000 Xmas Season
Written: Dec 26 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great marketing and PR department
Cons: Fuzzy logic needs work, limited appeal, poor bang for buck.
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| driver4t5's Full Review: Tekno the Electronic Robot Puppy |
Thirty-five dollars for half a pair of bookends? Sound preposterous? Think NOBODY would buy such a thing? Think again - millions did just that when they bought Tekno the Electronic Puppy.
Tekno was one of the two most-ballyhooed toys of the 2000 Christmas season - the other of course was the Sony Playstation 2. Unlike the PS2, Tekno was widely available. Also unlike the PS2, Tekno provides no more than a few minutes of fun.
Tekno is a plastic, three-dimensional offshoot from the Virtual Pets that were the rage a couple years ago. Like the Virtual Pets, Tekno (when properly programmed) will behave in much the same manner as an 8-week-old puppy with all attention-mongering personna intact.
My boy Kyle got hooked into the advertising to the point where he demanded that Santa bring the Tekno, despite already having two flesh-and-blood dogs at his house. His mom, who is a Certified Puppy Chick, also thought Tekno would make a cute addition.
Tekno's mode of operation comes in three varieties:
* Basic Functions
* Everyday Tricks
* Advanced Tricks
To put Tekno in Basic Function mode, just turn the power switch on and listen for a beep. The idea of the game is to keep Tekno happy. Every now and then he requires play, attention, and basic doggy care such as feeding. Tekno lets you know by dropping hints whether he's happy (barking, tail wagging, eye flashing), unhappy (moaning, whimpering, dropping his ears), or tired (moaning, snoring). The user can then take appropriate action or just sit and let Tekno suffer. Mercifully Tekno doesn't have a working digestive system, so there's no fear of periodically finding rank-smelling piles of plastic shards and screws around the house.
Sensors placed on several places provide Tekno the ability to interpret user actions and give a preferred response. For instance, petting his neck will give a happy puppy response, and calling his name (or clapping) triggers Tekno to bark excitedly and walk towards the caller.
Tekno's Everyday tricks include speaking, fetching, howling, and various other puppyesque items. Performing these tricks requires work on the user's part. In addition to the sensors, there is a mode button located on Tekno's right shoulder that must be pressed to alert the dog to the preferred trick. The user manual does a very good job of describing what needs to be done.
Does Tekno always behave? No. The user manual points out on page 4 that he uses artificial intelligence to decide whether to behave or not. I believe they just ain't worked out the bugs. I point to the questionable state of word-recognition software as my basis for this. Regardless, don't be shocked if Tekno requires three or four strokes to perform his one trick.
The advanced tricks require some training. Tekno can function as an alarm clock, which is kind of neat and not all that hard to do. His other trick is a somewhat hokey card trick that we couldn't make happen.
All this advanced functionality is great, but how does this play to a 5 1/2 year old? He wanted it, he got it, but did he PLAY with it?
The long version: After ditching the supplied batteries for a fresh set of Duracells, we unleased Tekno on Kyle. We showed Kyle how to do a couple tricks and had him try. Tekno behaved more often than not, but Kyle quickly grew bored of him and went off to play with an old-school, low-tech $15 Nylint Semi-truck and sailboat combination (which proved far and away to be his favorite gift). We left Tekno on and fiddled with it for a while to test this much-hyped toy. Kyle remained completely oblivious to Tekno. We reminded him of his puppy. Kyle gave a very noncommittal "ok" and continued sailing his boat on the carpet.
Every now and then Tekno would bark or otherwise make a bid for attention. Kyle ignored about the first dozen attempts. Finally he said "can we turn the dog off? I don't want to play with it." and returned to his boat. We played with Tekno some more, but Kyle never again laid eyes upon it. Eventually we tired of it too and I saw enough of its functionality to agree that fuzzy logic is nowhere near an exact science. Artificial intelligence indeed.
Kyle played with every other toy at least twice and never showed interest in Tekno again. Even when we suggested Tekno he declined.
The short version: Tekno captured four minutes of his attention span the first time and one minute the second. There was no third time.
Durability? I suppose at its present usage level, this toy will last forever. The buttons and sensors seemed fair in quality. I expect these would be the first to go...IF Kyle were to ever play with this again.
Perhaps an older child may pay more attention to Tekno. I handicap a guess, though, that older kids will tire of Tekno's constant whining, yipping, and other attention-grabbing antics very quickly and will relegate Tekno to either lining the bottom of the toy box or to holding up one side of a row of books.
For $34.99, I expected more from this overrated little plastic canine. Anyone who has the patience and time to devote to Tekno is a good candidate for a real dog, which will provide much more pleasure and enjoyment, even if it does occasionally emit something less desirable than plastic shavings and screws. For a few bucks more, the real thing can be had at your local animal shelter.
I, however, only recommend the real thing for those who are willing to take care of the dog in the long run. As for TekNO, I recommend passing it by. Try some old-school toys. You might be surprised how much fun the kids have with them.
Recommended:
No
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driver4t5
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Member: Jon Harney
Location: Lake Mary, FL
Reviews written: 147
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About Me:
2000 - 2001 Epinions Fixture...Now living off of my Eroyalties Millions
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