Review: WowWee Mr. Personality

Written on Apr 14, 2009 by MKowalski and filed under Reviews, WowWee

A robot with multiple personalities? That’s the idea, at least, behind Mr. Personality, yet another highly interactive robotic toy from WowWee. Similar in design and over function to WowWee’s Tri-bot, the tri-wheeled, wisecracking Mr. Personality adds the ability to download and install different personalities using a simple software interface and a USB connection. But while dynamic, computer-programmed “techno-toys” are all the rage these days, WowWee has been slow to develop new personalities for this unique robotic toy, which has been on the market since late last year. Can a long list of other interactive features provide enough charm to keep Mr. Personality’s target audience of eight-and-up kids entertained?

Getting Started with Mr. Personality

The only thing standing in the way of getting Mr. Personality powered up is, unfortunately, the tech-toy double threat that many parents fear most: a screwed-in-place battery compartment, and the need for six C-cell alkalines. In fact, getting the six main batteries, the supplied button back-up battery, and the remote control’s three AAAs in place will probably take you longer than it will take your kid to get started zooming around with Mr. Personality.

With the batteries all in their respective spots, Mr. Personality comes to life as soon as you hit the power button on his back, and after ten seconds or so to load up initial settings, this toy is ready to go.

Like the WowWee Tri-Bot that we checked out not long ago, Mr. Personality moves about using a set of omni-directional rollers, giving the bot the ability to cruise in eight straight-line directions as well as rotate in place. This array of small but apparently high-traction wheels had no problem finding grip on tile, wood, and carpeted flooring surfaces, though the bot did have some trouble stopping on smooth surfaces like hardwood – which can lead to some amusing but also potentially destructive encounters between Mr. Personality and your furniture.

Unlike Tri-bot, Mr. Personality is fully robotic, with independent arm and waist movements that you can control using the remote. What also separates this bot from similar toys is the small color LCD that makes up Mr. Personality’s “face.”

WowWee describes the bot as “a cartoon character morphed into 3D,” and with a face that’s truly animated, it’s not hard to see why. When this toy talks (and when does it not…), the cartoon-like face moves, well, just like a cartoon. And true to its name, you can see evidence of Mr. Personality’s personality in his clearly visible moods and facial expressions.

Technophobe parents may find the sheer number of buttons on Mr. Personality’s remote control a bit terrifying, but the middle-elementary kids to whom this toy is targeted will likely have no trouble mastering the bot’s numerous controls and functions.

The control you’ll probably want to find first, though, is the set of volume buttons located on the remote’s right side – as Mr. Personality’s default volume is a bit much for indoor use. However, striking the perfect balance on the bot’s audio can be tough, as a set of exceptionally noisy motors all around often make it hard to hear Mr. Personality’s quips over the sound of moving arms and spinning wheels.

Also included in the box are a wall adapter – necessary for taking advantage of certain functions – and a software CD for managing your bot’s personality via your computer. More on both of these accessories momentarily.

Using Mr. Personality

Like other WowWee robots, Mr. Personality’s motion is controlled by an eight-way joystick that sits front and center on his remote. In addition to being able to move in a straight line in any of the directions permitted by the joystick, Mr. Personality can also be moved “RC car style” – rotating as he turns corners, rather than keeping a stationary heading – by holding down the trigger on the underside of the remote while steering.

An array of IR sensors on the bot (a handful of wheel/body sensors, plus one on the head) detect objects, and with the sensors enabled (they’re on by default), Mr. Personality will come to a stop when he’s in danger of colliding with an object – and often chide you for your lackluster driving in the process with one of a handful of mild insults. While the IR sensors are plenty effective in preventing head-on collisions with household obstacles, they can also be easily fooled by reflective objects, and completely miss dark objects in low light as well. Ultimately, for navigation in tight spaces, I found it easier and more enjoyable to disable the IR sensors once I had familiarized myself with the controls.

Compared to Tri-bot, the ability to remotely move – rather than merely pose – Mr. Personality’s arm and waist joints really add to the fun. Whether it’s picking up objects, terrorizing housepets, or dancing to your favorite Styx LP (domo arigato, anyone?), the addition of these functions to Mr. Personality’s total range of movement make playing with this bot thoroughly enjoyable for kids and parents alike.

Although Mr. Personality lacks a tilt sensor, I rarely found this to be a concern (even when navigating some treacherous indoor terrain). There’s also no edge-detection system in this bot, meaning tabletop operation is conducted entirely at your own risk. And who really has a table big enough for a robot of this size to enjoyable roam around on anyway?

Personalities

While Mr. Personality offers a lot of user control for the basic robotics functions described above, this toy’s key feature is engaging and (theoretically, at least…) user-customizable persona. As noted, Mr. Personality take’s Tri-bot’s running commentary to a whole new level with a cartoonish animated face – or, more correctly, two faces. This bot’s default personality is a pair of opposed alter-egos: obliging and gregarious Max, and surly and snarky Simon.

There’s a fair bit of humor in a robot that can carry on a running (and, in the case of Simon’s commentary, usually satirical) conversation with itself, and kids and parents alike seemed to enjoy the pair’s witty back-and-forth banter. Pressing the remote’s Demo button launches a three-minute introduction, in which both halves of the device’s asylum-worthy default duo introduce themselves at length while highlighting the robot’s several additional features.

It’s a good thing that the Max/Simon interaction is well developed and enjoyable, because sadly, they are – for the moment, at least – the only personality (personalities?) available for this bot. Sure, WowWee has made it easy enough to load additional alter-egos onto Mr. Personality: a supplied USB cable connects the bot to your computer through a port behind a cover on the device’s head, allowing new personality files to be loaded into the device’s 64MB internal memory. And there’s even an SD card slot as well for direct-from-card file transfers.

Likewise, a supplied software CD features a slow-running but polished and easy to use control panel for downloading new personalities from WowWee’s website and loading them straight on to your bot.

Unfortunately, until WowWee – which originally slated monthly new personality launches for this toy – gets around to developing some additional characters to take full advantage of this impressive and powerful potential, you’re stuck with the Max and Simon show.

Greet Mode

Mr. Personality can be set up to “greet” you when you enter a room, detecting motion using his IR sensors. Enable Greet Mode and you’ll have half a minute or so to leave the room before the system becomes active; as soon as Mr. Personality detects motion, he’ll comment on your presence with one of a handful of pithy responses (or with a user-recorded message if you’ve recorded one in the Memo mode). In spite of limited play options, Greet Mode is a fun feature for adults and kids alike – one of Mr. Personality’s more engaging and amusing functions.

Alarm Mode

Different from the Alarm Mode found on Tri-bot, Mr. Personality’s alarm function turns the bot into an actual alarm clock. Setting up the alarm time is a little bit more complex than I might have preferred, but once configured, Mr. Personality becomes a rolling, talking wake-up device that’s sure to amuse kids – or drive parents out of bed in a frenzied search for the power button. The one caveat in this case is that Alarm Mode can’t be turned on unless Mr. Personality is running on wall power via his DC adapter.

Story Mode

In Story Mode, Max and Simon co-narrate a short, joke-laced story. Kids can take control of the tale, however, by pressing either Yes or No at certain points in the interaction to have either Max or Simon describe what comes next. Even with lots of decision points to change things up, Story Mode plays itself out fairly quickly. It’s also definitely geared to the younger segment of Mr. Personality’s target user group; older kids will likely have more fun driving the robot around or investigating some of the motion-based functions. But Story Mode also shows evidence of careful planning and character design – ideas which will hopefully carry over to future personalities for the bot as well.

Crystal Ball, Bits, and Fortune Modes

The remote’s top row of buttons trigger shorter interactions. Press Crystal Ball and Max or Simon will give you an answer to whatever question you were presumably pondering before pressing the button. The bot’s Bits function is a little more enjoyable: press the button and Simon and Max take turns telling short jokes. Ok, so it’s not complex, high-level humor, but even parents will get a chuckle out of some of this back-and-forth shtick. Mr. Personality also serves up a daily fortune-cookie style outlook if you press the Fortune button – though sadly, you only get one fortune per day.

Bottom Line

Mr. Personality offers a few more features, and thus a slightly higher overall “fun factor,” than similar robots, but the key selling point for this toy really is the ability to swap out personalities. Unfortunately, with WowWee’s development of new personalities for this bot moving at a snail’s pace at the moment, it’s hard to give the manufacturer full points for this feature. I like the wide range of control options that Mr. Personality provides – being able to remotely move the bot’s arms, for instance – but miss the longer list of games and “free roam” modes found on similar toys like Tri-bot. Even considering its shortcomings, though, Mr. Personality still serves up a lot of replayable fun for everyone from young kids to adults.

4 out of 5 stars

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