Mimobots by the people, for the people, include a cosmonaut, a panda, a totem pole, and a Hunter S. Thompson-inspired drive.
(Credit: Mimoco)"We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the data began to take hold." That's what you may be saying when you get your hands on one of the latest Mimobot flash drives, which appears (to my hopefully coherent mind) to be a tribute to Hunter S. Thompson in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
The gonzo drive is one of six winners of the Vimobot Design Contest, a do-it-yourself vinyl art toy challenge that sought innovative character designs to add to the ever-expanding line of quirky drives from Boston-based design studio Mimoco. You may have already seen Star Wars Mimobots, Halo-themed Mimobots, Domo-kun Mimobots, and designer Mimobots. (You get the point; the world has seen its share of Mimobots.)
The victorious designs, chosen from hundreds of submissions, represent the start of a collection of community-created characters that will add to Mimoco's portfolio of nearly 100 limited-edition Mimobots. The winning drives are now available in capacities ranging from 1GB ($24.95) to 8GB ($79.95).
The designers hail from the U.S., Canada, and the United Arab Emirates. Each gets a cash prize and shipment of their design in Mimobot flash drive form.
(Credit:
Mimoco)
Halloween is more than four months away, but Mimoco is getting an early jump with its latest designer USB drive. Unlike the Star Wars and game-themed Mimobots that usually get all the attention, the "RayD8" model isn't based on any celebrity; its design is basically just a skeleton, albeit one that glows in the dark. What's perhaps most significant about the flash drive, a limited edition created by designer Dino Alberto, is that it represents a new 8GB capacity available for all Mimobots. And perhaps its phosphorescence will help obviate the need for night-vision computing.
(Credit:
Mimoco)
Now this is more like it. Mimobots weren't meant for the designer treatment. As anyone can plainly see, they've always been best suited for the likes of anime stars, game heroes, and, of course, Star Wars characters.
The newest of Mimoco's novelty USB flash drives is an expansion of the latter galactic category with its "Mimobot Series 2," which includes Boba Fett, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and Han Solo. OhGizmo says these memory keys will be produced in limited quantities with capacities from 1GB to 4GB, starting at $50 each. They certainly took their time to even things out.
(Credit:
Mimoco)
Not that we needed it, but here's even more hard evidence that the fashion gadget trend is out of control: designer Mimobots.
It's one thing for the novelty USB drives to commemorate games and anime characters, but the latest version is designed by New York artist Dino Alberto in the "Swirl" line of the Mimobot Core Series 2, according to GeekSugar. There's even a hoodie available for them, according to GeekSugar. But that's just wrong.
(Credit:
Mimico)
Having never jumped on the Mimobot bandwagon, we weren't terribly excited when the Halo series made its debut last week. But then we realized that it had stolen the spotlight from the real star in our book: Domo-kun.
Our favorite sharp-toothed character from Japan has shown been incarnated in a line of Mimobot USB flash drives that blow away all others. In addition to the classic Domo X, they also come in Ninja Domo and--best of all--Rasta Domo.
As with other Mimobots, they have storage sizes ranging from 512MB to 4GB. But as far as we're concerned, the Rasta Domo is worth its weight in gold without any flash drive at all--which is a good thing, because its memory may be perennially clouded.
(Credit:
GeekAlerts)
As much as we like Mimobot drives, and especially their latest Halo family, they wouldn't last a day once our kids got their mitts on them, which they would surely do. But there's a way to revel in your inner (or outer) geekdom with a USB key more discreetly while paying homage to Transformers to boot.
A 2GB Decepticon and a 1GB Autobot are available only in the U.K., according to GeekAlerts, for some unknown reason. Either will easily hold its own in the USB-bot community at large. And they also can be worn on one's person with an accompanying lanyard, for those days when you want something a bit more subtle than Optimus Prime helmet.
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