Thread: Radio Shack Hex Bug--nano robotic creature

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While shopping for the Pumpkin insert at Radio Shack saw another cool item--Hex Bug. Maybe 1-1/2 inches long, it crawls like a bug, flips over and avoids objects. I'm planning on attaching one of those lightweight soft rubbery gag roaches to the top of the hex bug and let a few of them scurry about a skeleton laying on a morgue table. A slight rim around the table hopefully will keep it from falling off the table. $6.39. Comes in a few colors. I bought my two in purple, hoping the underside will be less noticable. The green was a nice color too. The manager sold me the last purple he had and I went to another location for another one. He said he didn't know if this would be a restock item BTW.

I didn't know of them until i saw your post and checked them out on YouTube. They are so much like a roach, it's scary. I think i'll just have a few run around on my floors next Halloween, great idea. Thanks for pointing these out.

Originally Posted by caju12831

I didn't know of them until i saw your post and checked them out on YouTube. They are so much like a roach, it's scary. I think i'll just have a few run around on my floors next Halloween, great idea. Thanks for pointing these out.

Hope no one thinks they're real and squashes them.............

Got mine out of the storage tube (which by the way could double as a laboratory test tube if you wanted to reuse it), and turned it on (comes with an AG13/LR44 button battery) and set it out on my tile floor. Cool!! I bought this sight unseen pretty much, no demo model at my Radio Shack, and after checking out the Hexbug website, I'm going to pick up more. You guys need to check out the videos on the website too. I like how they seem to socialize (think this was the last video on the website). And I might be mistaken but I thought there was an implication that different colors were programmed to act slightly differently in their movement patterns.

I posted about Zsu Zsu hamsters a few weeks ago (which have been impossible to find in my stores) and the possibility of turning those into rats, but honestly I like these Hexbug Nanos better. And of course they have a track you can buy to run them on and storage cases also. Oh the merchandising built into these kind of toys!! I feel bad for parents these days. Anyway apparently Toys R Us and Radio Shack are the retailers of the HexBug. They apparently come in more colors than the 5 or 6 that were shown at my Radio Shack.

Here's the Hex Bug website. Nano - HEXBUG

They make some other "insects" as well (links on site) and I could see adding a "disguise" on top of some of these too. But the roach for the nano seems to fit it perfectly. BTW it makes a buzzy sound and moves pretty fast.

Someone put a bunch in a microwave..watch em spark!
YouTube - HEXBUG Nano Swarm in the Microwave

funny, I just saw the commercial for these today and was thinking, what in the HECK are those going to be good for? haha...GREAT IDEA!!

at $8 a piece that is a lot of cash to cook in a microwave!

Looking at this from a slightly different perspective, I am wondering if you couldn't make a tray, or tabletop using a single vibrating motor and having a number of random plastic bugs running about randomly to get a similar effect for a lot less money. I am thinking along the lines of one of those old football games ? seems like it could work and would be an easy way to get all of the bugs moving at once ?

YouTube - Back to Basics Toys: NFL Vibrating Football Game

that is what they say inspired the design of the nano:

Nano - HEXBUG