Anyone ever had the idea of making and then selling toy robots? Or even useful robots? Or did anyone even did it and was somewhat succesful at making some money? This idea always appealed to me, to make homemade toy robots. Kinda feels like an idyllic idea to me, something I'd like to do for a living rather than anything else really. But I don't think it's very profitable.
The Omnibots sold pretty
The Omnibots sold pretty good back in the 1980s. I had considered buying, fixing and reselling old 80’s robots but I was torn between restoring or updating. I bought an Omnibot, complete in the box, on craigslist for $50, fixed a minor problem and sold it for $250 on ebay. I’m currently repairing an Omnibot 2000 which I disassembled and painted all the parts due to yellowing of the plastic. I just need to fab some battery clips for the AA clock batteries.
I also repaired a Hero Jr. but still trying to find the crystal for the remote control receiver. Once I get that done it will go up on ebay. I have a working Omnibot but that one I might upgrade just to test the water on selling upgraded Omnibots. If there’s a market maybe I’ll start building them but even broken one are a bit pricey so after upgrades might be priced higher than most want to pay.
Seems to be a bit of competition for basic kits for obstacle avoiding robot platforms. You would need to find a niche or offer something a bit different than what’s currently out there.
OddBot is right, you need to
OddBot is right, you need to weight your time against the profit. If you are an artist and you are able to create a kind of art robot and peopel are willing to pay 2000 bucks just for the art then yes, you are probably can consider it. For all other robots here and elsewhere it’s just too much time and to less quantity to get some profit out of it. Buying MCU’s for example is cheaper in 1000 pieces boxes than 10 pieces, but then you need to get those 1000 pieces sold. DigiSys is also on the right page, fixing and restoring is another way to top up your pocket money.