Apartment Therapy Unplugged | Tomy Dustbot: The Roomba of 1985

Tomy Dustbot: The Roomba of 1985

Roomba is a saving grace for anybody with a hairy pet or a penchant for potting plants (it also makes a pretty great PacMan mod, too). But back in 1985, the adorable Tomy Dustbot out-Roombaed Roomba with edge sensors and a teeny tiny dustpan...

Way back almost a quarter-century ago when Roomba was just a sparkle in his daddy's eye, Dustbot was the first robot to feature a built-in vacuum cleaner.

Dustbot's large eyes flash red and his arms move and make a sweeping action with the included teeny-sized broom, while his vacuum takes up the rear and picks up all the swept up dust bunnies. And just like Roomba, when he senses any edge, he turns away.

We've got no idea how well Tomy Dustbot did picking up after his owners, but if you remember this guy, please do leave us a comment!

Comments (2)

I never had a dustbot, but I did get spotbot, another member of the Tomy robot family, for Christmas one year. The little guy would zip along and when it bumped its nose into something it would stop, bark and turn around. I still have it, but doesn't work, so it's just a cute paperweight now. But I do remember there being a bigger butler robot as part of the series, and really, really wanting that...

posted by theglossies1 on January 26th 2009 at 1:54am
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i got one of these for my mom at radio shack when i was a kid. it didn't do a very good job of picking up the crumbs.

posted by kale on January 27th 2009 at 6:35pm
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