Armatron

The Armatron was a toy from the 1980s made by TOMY and distributed by Radio Shack. It consisted of a crane-like arm with two attached joysticks which could be manipulated to pick up small objects. It is essentially similar to industrial robots of the 1980s, though it is strictly user-controlled, with no automation built in. The Armatron existed in both the original fixed version and a mobile version with a wired remote. It included an "energy level" indicator (actually a countdown timer) and a series of objects such as boxes and spheres designed to be manipulated by the arm.

The term is now in use by a toy company called PowerGear to name a simpler trigger-controlled gripping arm [http://www.amazon.com/s/?url=search-alias%3Dtoys-and-games&field-keywords=Power+Gear] .

* [http://users.netonecom.net/~swordman/Photos/ForSale/Armatron.jpgPhotograph of an Armatron]
* [http://www.inthe80s.com/toys/armatron.shtml Photograph of an Armatron]
* [http://www.flickr.com/photos/marc-julien_objois/sets/72157604678979867/ Photo set of an Armatron]

External links

http://www.samstoybox.com/toys/Armatron.html