Or: the tale of the quest for the Roboraptor

Behold. Nemi has a fondness for roboraptors.

From the time I was sixteen, I wanted a roboraptor.  They combined two of my great interests, robots, and dinosaurs. How could I resist? But they first came on the market at a RRP of $150.00 AUD, so no chance. They dropped in price over the years, but remained expensive. I continued to yearn after roboraptors, until mid-January when my guineapig died when I thought, to paraphrase:

“F*** it. I’m getting a blasted Roboraptor. I don’t care anymore.”

So I searched. Only to discover that manufacture of Roboraptors has finished, and everyone had just sold the last of their stock – and I literally mean just, they all sold the last one in the week preceding Christmas, only some two-three weeks before I began searching.

In desperation I visited a store that had had a display model out on display before Christmas. None left, they told me sadly. Only the display model, which wa broken, it didn’t work properly, as a result of the staff using it to swat flies which had damaged its interior mechanisms. It couldn’t walk properly or turn. It was going to be tossed out.

I was sad. I hung around for half an hour, discussing my fruitless search for roboraptors, having them check online with every other store in the chain in my state, then went to stare disconsolately at the Roboreptile on sale. It wasn’t the same.

Friendly Store Assistant emerged suddenly, carrying a Roboraptor. Manager had authorised its sale for $10, he said. I bought it, beaming.

It doesn’t work as well as it should, but it can play tug of war, croon at me,  nuzzle up to my hand, and try to bite me. (“It’s a dinosaur,” I told Curly Top when she looked incredulous at my delight when I explained that it had tried to do so. “It’s not supposed to be nice.”) And finally, I have a Roboraptor.

Although, it’s actually shaped like a dinosaur, more or less, not a weird robotic lizard.