An interesting auction popped up last week and at first glance it just looked like an old junkie decorative statue. But further investigation revealed it to have a bit of gamer cred. This robot was designed and built by Namco, yeah, that Namco, the one of Pac-man, Tekken and Soulcalibur fame. Unfortunately, this robot isn’t going to do some super duper awesome game playing for you. However, it is a piece of Namco history on the auction block. If you claim to be the biggest Namco fan in the world, then maybe you NEED this robot.
The description of the robot on the auction page is pretty simplistic, but it appears to be a flag waving robot designed and built by the engineers of Namco back when they were a company that made and maintained children’s rides. We are talking way, way back in history, back before Ridge Racer, back before Pole Position and back before Galaga.
▼Take me to your leader!
This isn’t a pristine piece of Namco history, it’s not mint, it’s not even near-mint, so if you buy this robot, it’s going to be a fixer upper. Allow us to paraphrase from the auction description:
As it’s a considerably old product, it can’t move very well. When you plug the robot in and push the remote control button, the head and one arm will move at first, but after that, nothing. The external appearance is dirty and has small nicks, chips and scratches. There is only one eyeball. The robot’s flag isn’t included. The user’s manual isn’t included. Everything you see in the pictures is what you get. If you’re someone who is good with electronics, maybe you can fix it. So, how about trying to resurrect this robot?
With this kind of listing, how is it not inducing a crazy bidding war? At 50,000 yen (about US$482.30) this seems like a steal…especially with this last feature located right on the robot’s junk!
▼TNK? Tink?
Historically, the Japanese language didn’t have the “t” sound (pronounced “tee”) so the closest equivalent would be “chi” followed by “n” and “ko” because there is no final “k” sound either. So why not “ko”? Chi-n-ko.
▼Who wants to join the pen15 club?
Yes, the robot has “junk” written on his “junk”. Like we said, this robot is a real steal! It’s gotten some really high-class comments such as…”unko” (poop). The auction has expired now and there was a single bid for the lowest amount. What better things did people have to buy instead of bidding on this priceless (50,000 yen) piece of history?!? Oh well, maybe a museum bought it up and is putting it on display, not waving its flag.
Source: My Game News Flash
Images: Yahoo! Auctions JP
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