Whatever happened to Heathkit Hero Robots? They had about 8 years of sales: 4,000 Hero Jr's, 3,000 Hero 2000's, 14,000 assembled Hero 1's. Ones with less capability didn't do as well but higher priced ones did ok in the market. Service and maintainability were a problem due to the sheer number of bolts, pulleys, boards, sensors, cables etc. Used ones can be picked up - but caveat emptor.
Heath Company began the HERO 1 project in October 1979. The first units were available in 1982 and sales continued throughout most of the eighties. "An ideal teaching tool, HERO 1 is a completely self-contained robot that interacts with you and its environment.
Heathkit made four Robot Models, they are the original HERO 1, the HERO JR, the HERO 2000, and the Arm Trainer base. The HERO 1 was the first and most popular robot model. The HERO JR came out after the HERO 1 and was created by the consumer division as a personal robot instead of an educational one.
Of all the educational and personal robots created during the 1980's the Heathkit HERO robots were by far the most successful and most popular. The talented engineers at Heathkit originally created the HERO robots and supported the HERO robot line up until 1995. The Heathkit HERO robots make a great robot to start with. There are excellent examples of each one of the HERO Robots in the Robot Workshop Robot Gallery collection. Along with the robots there are also some rare prototype parts and some of the original Heathkit test fixtures used to repair the robots.
HERO Robots Formerly from Heathkit, then Mobile Ed Productions!
