I got a horde of them in my kitchen, pretty active and agile even in the mid of winter when they are supposed to shiver to death. At the end of long evolutionary path, they are able to run blitz-quick, faster even than the speed of light, because they easily evade the beam of light in the night, however quickly I move my flashlight.

Invasion of mecha-cucarachas from Texas. Innovation First's HEXBUGs in shiny black and silver shells.

Yes, cockroaches are a menac.... just a moment.

Please look at this creature cafefully. It has no lack of good design, which is inevitably accompanied by some beauty. Its shiny, well-lubricated shell is paper-thin. It slips into a nano-sized gap smoothly. And its oversized antennae hide a super-sensitive sensor array; touch, acceleration, air-flow, chromatography, and wide spectra of vibrations. Besides, it's robust and resistant/immune to all kinds of hostile environmental factors. (Though it's not immune to hunger, I noticed).

Engineers at a Texas robotics joint, Innovation First Inc., were also fascinated by the efficient functionalism of cockroaches... Texas is famous for its Texan-sized giant Cucarachas... and patched up its hexapod simulacrum, "HEXBUG".

HEXBUG is driven by one single supersonic motor which is widely used as a vibration device for the mobile phone. The motor drives directly three legs on one side. The movement is transferred to three legs on the other side of the shell by levers. Left antenna works as a touch sensor. HEXBUG reverses the walk when the antenna touches something. And after a few seconds of reverse walk, it resumes the forward move.

A microphone is located on the bottom side of HEXBUG. When a loud noise is heard, clap of hands or bang on the table, HEXBUG reverses its direction as if it hates the loud noise. Well, this is the extent of HEXBUG machine intelligence.

HEXBUG transparent green model.	Antenna is a touch sensor.

It's a far cry from the sleek and liquid movement of real cucaracha, but at least, HEXBUG can stay alive and dormant for a prolonged period in the fridge, even without a single morsel of food. A good Texan roach couldn't survive a day without munching a whole tortilla or two.

Fame of HEXBUG reached Japan immediately. So toy giant Bandaiof Tokyo has been distributing them for Japanese market since. HEXBUG's regular color variations, orange, green, blue, yellow and red, did not satisfy the taste of kinky Japanese bug lovers, though. They bombarded Bandai with requests for more "realistic" colors. I mean, brilliant oily dark brown!

Bandai delivered this request to Innovation First in Texas. But the latter flatly refused. Negative image of la cucaracha was too strong and vivid for them. Instead, Bandai got gothic black and shiny silver skins for Japanese roach fans.

HEXBUG black model for Japanese market. Sur-real.

All HEXBUGs go at around 2,000 yen (US$19). Buy a dozen and move them in a confined space, all of them at a same time. It beats a B-class horror movie, I assure you. Movie clip of HEXBUGS in action, push here.

 

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