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As a child I was always fascinated by all things robotic, much of this fascination was generated by the TV shows of the time, such as Star Trek and re-runs of Lost in Space. I was a sensible kid, I fully realised this fantastic mechanical devices that were walking and talking, displaying true sentience, were far beyond our technology at the time. I did think that we might see something very similar emerge in the future, definitely within my lifetime. So thirty years on from my young TV watching days, where are the robots?

You would think that after 30 years of incredible technological advances that here would be some recognisable for of commercial robotics? Certainly something that was a close match to my boyhood daydreams, but no, we are stuck with ridiculously expensive children’s toys as the pinnacle of robotic science.

Let’s take a look at one of these advanced robotic life forms shall we? Queue drum roll….. It’s Pleo the Robotic Camerasaurs! Can this really be the most advanced form of publically available robot known to mankind? Let’s take a look!

Pleo retails for around $299, making him a rather expensive electronic toy. He contains (hold a second, why am I calling it a he?) a range of sensory devices that enable him to hear, see, sense touch and detect objects. Anybody who remembers Furbies (those cute if somewhat annoying electronic pets) will be familiar with the whole concept of Pleo, he is just a rather more advanced version of the same thing. The manufacturers state that no two of the toys will develop the same habits, and his entire development is based upon the time the owner spends with him. Due to the fact he can only operate (be awake?) for an hour on a full battery charge and then needs four hours to recharge the owner isn’t really going to be spending much time with him.

The core of Pleo’s brain is Life OS; an impressively named piece of software that it would seem is designed to make something wag its tale when you feed it something it cannot eat anyway. I’m in the wrong business! This software has recently been updated to Life OS 1.1, brain surgery for your robotic pet!

Pleo can react to his surroundings and will display character traits such as sadness, happiness and excitement in a variety of ways, he will also let his owner know when he is tired or hungry. Many of his responses are geared towards affectionate actions such as petting and play.

As you can probably guess, I am not exactly impressed with this particular gadget. Quite frankly it is nothing new, ok the technology is more up to date than previous attempts at the same thing, but there is certainly nothing innovative about Pleo, and unless you are the kind of person who can afford to blow $299 on a toy that is likely to be forgotten within a week I can’t see the value of him.

There have been lots of gadgets that became cult items, such as the Tamagotchi (that weird digital pet thing), the Apple iPod (love or hate them, they are everywhere), and the Commodore 64 (considered the premier home PC of its era). It is very hard to try and attribute the title of Ultimate Cult Gadget to any one item.

My choice is going to be the Technics SL 1210 turntable. Why am I choosing this as my ultimate cult gadget of all time? Simply because unlike most gadgets, this one actually did an awful lot to encourage people to develop skills and get involved in new things, instead of hanging on a key chain looking pretty.

The SL 1210, is the best known DJ turntable hands down, it is a veritable industry standard in the DJ world and is used by everyone from back bedroom wannabes to $1,000 per minute super star DJ’s. This is truly a gadget that breaks into a huge cross section of the intended target market. The sight of a pair of 1210s has become synonymous with the image of a DJ. So why are these decks so popular? Why do people love them so much?

Firstly we need to consider the design. They contain every function needed by a DJ, and supply these functions in a single, easy to operate and robust package. All of the components are of extremely high standard, these things just keep working. Because of the great value they represent, they were quickly adopted as a standard part of the average club sound system. Of course, if you are a DJ in waiting, and you want to break into the club scene, then you had better practice on something that is the same as the equipment you will eventually work on right? So within a very short space of time, every aspiring DJ had a pair of 1210s on their Christmas list. This was a typical snowball effect, and sales of the SL 1210 grew exponentially.

Getting back to why I chose this as my ultimate cult gadget of all time, we need to consider what the SL 1210 is all about. It is about mixing music, entertaining people, learning how to play a pair of decks and having fun. Other gadgets just simply allow you to do something; the SL 1210 offers you the chance to be something. From the youngest teenager with his pair of turntables plugged into some old Hi-Fi system in his bedroom, to the international DJ’s who entertain crowds in excess of 50,000 people, all of them are following a dream, and living a lifestyle, of which the Technics SL 1210 turntable is a fundamentally important building block. Can the same be said about the iPod? Not in the slightest.

So this is why the 1210 gets my vote as the ultimate cult gadget of all time, a truly exceptional product, which for many people has changed their world.