Before you get too excited it's an action figure, not the real robot. Aldebaran now has a shop for fans of the cutest robot ever made. 

I can't imagine a better Xmas present than a Nao robot. I would spend the whole of the holiday programming and showing off what it could do.

Then I'd probably spend the rest of the year doing the same thing. 

But the odd thing about Nao is that it is difficult to actually buy one. If you try to buy one from Aldebaran all you get is a "contact us" link - no price no "buy me button". You can find companies that will sell you a Nao, and currently the going price is around $7990 - so I think that means I won't be getting one for Xmas.

However, I might put an action figure on my wish list.

In an unusually commercial move for a company that more often acts as if it is a research institute, Aldebaran has set up a "store". You can visit it and you can in theory buy accessories for the Nao, but at the moment no prices are indicated.

All you can really seem to buy is the aforementioned action figure:

• 1/4 scale
• Size : 15 cm.
• Available in blue or red
• Complies with European, American, Chinese and Japanese toy standards. 
• 20 degrees of freedom, for movement : 4 on each leg, 5 on each arm, 2 for the head.

Very smart and for $39 you can play with the action figure and practice making noises that imitate the servos in the real Nao's body. 

Something like this:

You might also notice that you will be able to get a T-shirt and a notebook, whatever that is, from the shop in the near future. 

Is this a prelude to being able to buy actual robots from Aldebaran?

Aldebaran was recently bought by Softbank and this might be responsible for it becoming more commercial. 

If you are interested in robotics then do visit the new store because it has lots of nice graphics and information.

What this all currently indicates is that we are still a long way from an affordable humanoid robot, even though people keep predicting that one is just around the corner. Until we get there, I guess it's just the action figure for me.

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