Alright, so, you all know those old Transformer toys, right? A few quick twists and flicks and BOOM: you could manually change your tiny plastic car into a weird-looking plastic robot.   It was pretty cool when we were, like, seven, but now that we’re at least pretending to be more mature, we’re no longer impressed by those flimsy little playthings.  No, we need something REAL – something that would make us wet our Superman PJ’s in nerdy glee if you want us to be impressed by a new transforming toy - OH MY GOOD GOD WHAT IS THAT AND CAN I GET IT FOR CHRISTMAS?!

*ahem* Anyway, what you’re looking at right there is a working, fully mechanical transforming robot, a 1/12th scale of… something, the maker’s site doesn’t specify, but I’m guessing Optimus Prime.  The robot’s creator and founder of Brave Robotics Kenji Ishida plans on unveiling a new model of the robot you just saw at the Tokyo Maker Faire next week, but if he’s already got you drooling with desire for this tiny robot with the version you saw in the video there, no worries: you can order your own right now!

Now, for copyright reasons, you can’t order your own version of Bumblebee (and for moral reasons you can’t order your own Skids or Mudflap), but you can still chose the colors of your robot’s plate armor, so you could order an approximation.   That said, if you’re looking for a price, I’ve got good news and bad news: the bad news is that since the robots take a whole month to construct and deliver, you can bet the price isn’t going to be in the ‘cheap’ range.  The good news is that the creator hasn’t got the official price listed–you’ll have to email him directly with your order and he’ll tell you how much it costs then; so between now and when he checks his inbox you can at least pretend that it’s something you could reasonably afford.

That said, the robot is clearly well-crafted and might be the most advanced piece of technology in your house.  Also, it has a built-in wi-fi camera on the front, plus it can shoot plastic missiles out of it’s wrists, so you wouldn’t have to worry about the thing getting stolen.

Anyway, you can check out more info or, god help you, order one here.  The rest of us will have to stare longingly at that video and dream of a day when we can afford such things… or at least find the guts to rob someone who already can.