ago 1988 montreal quebec canada founder richard peter yanofsky headquarters hong kong china website www.wowwee.com wowwee group limited is a privately owned hong kong based company that focuses on breakthrough consumer technologies . they are best known for their biomorphic robot robosapien and their interactive balancing robot mip . wowwee is a leading designer developer marketer and distributor of innovative hi tech consumer robotic and consumer entertainment products . the introduction of wowwee s robosapien robot in 2004 revolutionized the way people interact with robotic companions . one of the most popular entertainment robots in the world with global sales of more than 6 million units the robosapien robot was the first commercially available biomorphic robot . the robosapien humanoid product line evolved to include robosapien v2 robot which added functionality like speech capability and rs media robot which featured a complete multimedia experience that allowed users to create and edit functions . mip released in 2014 continues to be one of the world s most popular consumer robots and the winner of more than 10 major tech and toy awards including the toy industry associations 2015 toty award for innovative toy of the year . with offices in montreal san diego hong kong wowwee s focus on the development of breakthrough consumer technologies continues to forge new categories in personal robotics and entertainment with its imaginative innovative award winning gadgets and toys . contents 1 history 1.1 under hasbro 1.2 under optimal group 2 legal problems 3 private again 4 references 5 external links history edit initially from canada the two founding brothers richard and peter yanofsky moved to hong kong to form the company in 1982 as an independent research & development and manufacturing outfit . 1 as an oem seller they produced products such as the power rangers power gloves and the talking tots dolls . 2 in 1987 the company changed focus building and marketing toys under their own brand in response to a fall in oem orders . they produced a number of new products including a robotic dog megabyte t rex and the animaltronics and dinotronics lines of remote control animals . in 1998 the company was purchased by hasbro . 3 under hasbro edit shortly before the hasbro sale 4 peter yanofsky reportedly caught physicist roboticist mark tilden on the discovery channel and soon hired him as a consultant . 3 initially tilden worked part time with wowwee while he continued his work with the los alamos national laboratory but in 2001 tilden joined the company full time . one of his first products with wowwee was the b.i.o. bug released in 2001 . unfortunately while sales were good they weren t as strong as either wowwee or hasbro would have liked . in part this has been attributed to the after effects of 9 11 and the anthrax attacks while tilden has also expressed disappointment with some of the limitations placed on the product design by hasbro . 4 after moving to wowwee full time in 2001 tilden focused his attention on developing robosapien . while tilden was developing robosapien hasbro canceled the project several times leading yanofsky to negotiate out of the contract in 2003 . 3 robosapien was released in 2004 and over 1.5 million were reportedly sold in the first 5 months of sale . 5 robosapien was the first commercially available biomorphic robot and the first to integrate personality like features . tilden continued to develop the line with the robosapien v2 released in 2005 which added functionality like speech capability ; rs media robot released in 2006 which included user created functions and roboreptile also in 2006 . 6 the roboquad a four wheeled robot released in 2007 ; the rs tri bot a three wheeled robot released in summer 2008 7 rs media 2006 and the roboquad 2007 . the joebot and the roborover both released in 2009 expanded on the concept of robots with personality . in 2007 working with inventor sean frawley wowwee released the flytech dragonfly a remote control flying ornithopter . 8 the dragonfly was named as one of the inventions of the year by time in 2007 . 9 the success of the dragonfly led to other flying toys such as the bladestar a remote controlled helicopter and the butterfly a wind up ornithopter aimed at younger children . the flytech bladestar was awarded an editor s choice award 2008 by popular mechanics magazine as a technologically advanced innovation . under optimal group edit on september 27 2007 the publicly traded optimal group announced they had entered into a purchase agreement to acquire wowwee ltd which they completed in november of that year . 10 at the 2008 ces several new products including the rovio robot and femisapien were announced with their estimated release dates and prices . 11 12 legal problems edit on november 23 2010 engadget revealed that wowwee and a number of retailers are being sued for trademark infringement by gibson guitar corporation for unlawfully using the shapes of the bodies and headstocks of gibson s signature guitars in their paper jamz line of toy guitars . 13 wowwee has denied any wrongdoing and has asserted that the shapes gibson claims as trademarks are generic and therefore can not function as trademarks . on november 24 2010 the court denied gibson s request for a temporary restraining order citation needed but on december 22 2010 granted gibson s motion for a preliminary injunction . the case was later settled with wowwee paying gibson an undisclosed amount for licensing the likeness of gibson guitars according to gibson ceo henry juszkiewicz . 14 private again edit in 2010 the management of wowwee entered into a support agreement with optimal group and took the company private again . 15 in the following years wowwee continued its high pace of innovation and product launches . in 2014 mip was released to wide acclaim and is the winner of more than 10 major tech and toy awards including the toy industry associations 2015 toty award for innovative toy of the year . mip was also names innovative toy of the year at the national robotics week . 16 at the 2015 ces wowwee announced many new products including miposaur and rev 17 slated to launch in summer 2015 . references edit krueger justus february 28 2006 . robot climbs evolutionary ladder . south china morning post . hong kong . history . wowwee official site . archived from the original on 2008 04 08 . retrieved 2008 05 01 . a b c goldman francisco november 28 2004 . a robot for the masses . the new york times . a b feder barnaby j. february 21 2002 . toyland is tough even for robots . the new york times . taylor michael november 16 2004 . innovative toy packs a punch . south china morning post . hong kong . bullard dave august 9 2006 . techno comes to toy town . the courier mail . wowwee rs tri bot marriott michel february 8 2007 . if leonardo had made toys . the new york times . gadget of the year flytech dragonfly . time . november 1 2007 . optimal group completes wowwee acquisition press release . yahoo finance . november 7 2007 . archived from the original on 2007 12 22 . retrieved 2008 05 01 . ces 2008 meet the new wowwee robot lineup . robocommunity . 2008 01 08 . retrieved 2008 06 24 . robocommunity team 2008 01 14 . wowwee robots 2008 release dates and pricing guide . robocommunity . retrieved 2008 06 24 . gibson sues wowwee retailers over paper jamz toy guitars . engadget . 2010 11 23 . retrieved 2010 11 24 . gibson responds to wowwee settlement article . mmr . 2011 01 12 . archived from the original on 2011 07 14 . retrieved 2011 02 09 . optimal group enters into support agreement with management of wowwee group for offer of us 2.40 per share march 17 2010 named innovative toy of the year at national robotics week toynews april 16 2015 wowwee shifts into hyperdrive at ces with rev and miposaur pr newswire external links edit this article s use of external links may not follow wikipedia s policies or guidelines . please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references . may 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message wikimedia commons has media related to wowwee . official website wowwee alive website all about the wowwee alive cubs robocommunity the official wowwee robotics user community hands on with the new wowwee bots engadget january 6 2006 a preview of three upcoming robots the robosapien rs2 media the roboreptile and the p bot live from ces robosapien roundup gizmodo january 7 2006 optimal group to acquire wowwee iwowwe optimal group web page v t e wowwee robotics robosapien robosapien v2 rs media robopet roboreptile roboraptor roboquad robopanda roboboa alive chimpanzee flytech bladestar flytech dragonfly rovio femisapien retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title wowwee & oldid 737651842 categories companies established in 1988toy companies of hong 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