WowWee Toys has created something of a consumer robot revolution with their impressive lines of robotic toys. Starting with the B.I.O. Bugs in 2001, which were a bit of a commercial misstep, to the first Robosapien, which proved a huge hit several Christmases ago, to the current Robosapien V2, the company has proven that surprisingly-sophisticated, feature-rich home robots can be created using basic electronics, cheap sensors, and ingenious engineering, all of which helps keep price-points reasonable.

The Robosapien V2 (robosapienv2online.com, $199) is bigger and smarter (and more expensive) than the original Robosapien, but is it better? Some of that answer may have to do with your gift recipient. Although the Robosapien is sold as a toy, V2 is not completely intuitive to operate and is definitely too complicated for younger kids. The box says “8 and up,” but the young end of that range might get frustrated with the dozens of controller button sequences that need to be learned to initiate the V2’s various maneuvers. A tween or teen who’s interested in robotics but inexperienced, or not interested in building bots from scratch, might really enjoy the fiddly aspects of the push-button and “puppet mode” programming that Robosapien V2 offers. One cool thing about Robosapien is that it does scale up with different levels of user interaction, from simple triggering of pre-programmed routines, to freeforming your own routines by pressing button sequences on the controller, to more sophisticated stored-sequence programming. There’s even a “Positional Programming” or “Puppet Mode” where you can physically move Robosapien into different positions and then store these movements in a program for playback. And you can link together stored sub-routines to build longer programs.

Probably the most enthusiastic recipient of the Robosapien would be the robot builder/hardware hacker, either teen or adult, who’d be anxious for the visiting holiday relatives to leave so that he or she could whip out the Dremel tool and soldering iron and get busy “improving” Robosapien. WowWee’s robot designer, well-known robotics engineer Mark Tilden, encourages aftermarket modding, and designs his toys with well-labeled circuit boards, plug-in connectors, and plenty of space inside for user-added tech. As a result, there’s an enthusiastic community of Robosapien hackers and several excellent books that cover such mods. Giving a builder a Robosapien V2 (or even the original Robosapien) and a copy of The Official Robosapien Hacker’s Guide by Dave Prochnow and/or the The Robosapien Companion by Jamie Samans would make for an awesome present.

Robosapien V2 has been criticized for not being as easy to operate as the first Robosapien and because he’s very selective about what sorts of surfaces he’s willing to walk on. He’s also prone to falling over. We have all-wood floors in our house and he didn’t have trouble walking around, although I wouldn’t call his movements exactly graceful, and he does fall over enough that it can become annoying. Robosapien is really fun to have around though. He’s got a winning, albeit goofball, personality and we’ve had some great laughs at his expense, like when he bowls, using his included ball and pins, and yells: “Strike!,” then adds sheepishly “I hope.” Or when he does his robot dance, complete with his own techno soundtrack, and then says “I hope nobody saw that.” With his color camera, infrared sensors, stereo sonic sensors, hands and feet touch-sensors, and vocal library, there’s a lot going on here, and a lot that can be done by a patient programmer.

If you’re looking for a Christmas present that comes in a big box and generates a lot of excitement, but is likely to end up in the basement toy box by the New Year, you can save yourself some money by buying the less sophisticated but still fun WowWee Roboreptile ($67 street) or the original Robosapien ($60 street). If you’re looking for a robot for an avid tech tinkerer or a budding student of robotics, the Robosapien V2 would make an unbeatable gift.