The HEXBUG® Scarab is an exceptionally high-speed, mechanical, beetle-like robotic bug that skitters around on six angled legs. In addition to HEXBUGs, Innovation First produces the Vex Robotics Design System, the top-selling robotics platform in middle and high schools. Today, the company is an industry leader in hobby, competition and education robotics, as well as a developer of consumer robotics toys. Innovation First began producing electronics for robots in 1996. “HEXBUGs were a runaway success that we had not anticipated,” Joel said. The company introduced the HEXBUG in spring 2007 and sold more than 1.5 million units by year end. We knew we could do better cost-wise and come up with a cooler product.” Getting from the initial idea to actual production took nine months. “We saw people waiting to pay big bucks for a bag full of component parts and an instruction sheet on how to build robot bugs that didn’t do much. “The power of observation is important to succeed,” Joel Carter, vice president of marketing at Innovation First, told TDmonthly Magazine, explaining that the inspiration for HEXBUGs came because of a long line at a robotics trade show. If a robot toy were crossed with an insect, what would you get? A HEXBUG! For Innovation First, the result has been a sellout, with demand overwhelming supply in the products’ first year. “They fill the affordable techno/RC need - grab and go,” said owner Brett Sommer. Hexbugs were great sellers at Figpickels Toy Emporium in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho in Aug. Fifteen percent of 40 retailers polled in June 2010 said Hexbugs are their best-selling electronic item. ― “Hexbugs are doing very well,” said Jenny Bramhall, owner of Dandelion Toys in Fort Collins, Colo., in summer 2010. They've sold ''thousands,'' she said she couldn't even guess at an exact number. Christine Osborne, co-owner of Wonder Works in Charleston, S.C., has a Hexbug Nano Habitat set up in the store. Chris Lowe, owner of Bean Head Toys in Sandy Springs, Ga., told TD monthly in a Summer 2011 survey that she sells between 20-30 items from the HEXBUGS line each month. Five colors are available in the Newton Gravity Series. It moves very quickly and can even flip over by itself. This small, 12-legged microrobotic creature is battery powered and designed to behave just like a real bug.
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