Macenstein

Can’t decide what to get the geek in your life for the holidays? Chances are, they want a mimobot, even if they don’t know it.

Mimobots, in case you’ve been living under a rock, which in turn was inside a cave, are the Ãœber-cool thumb drives put out by mimoco, featuring a wide array of geek-friendly licensed characters. Choose from such favorites as the Japanese TV mascot Domo, Master Chief, Red and Blue Halo soldiers, The Happy Tree Friends, various Star Wars characters, or mimoco’s original Core and Artists series. Each series is made in limited edition runs, and many do sell out, thus causing these little guys to become collectible technology.

Flash drive technology is pretty commonplace these days, and functionally, there is nothing overly special in the way these drives work/perform compared to other flash drives. Simply plug them in to an available USB port on your Mac, and the thumbdrive will appear on your desktop as a 1, 2, or 4 GB drive.

What sets mimobots apart from their (admittedly cheaper) competitors is their coolness factor. Sure, there are less expensive flash drives out there, but once you factor in mimoco has to back up the brinks truck to the likes of Lucafilm and Microsoft first, the prices seem more reasonable. There has not been one person yet who has seen my Stormtrooper and Domo mimobots and not commented on how cool they are or asked where I got them. Truly, both geeks and attention-whores alike will love a mimobot. They are true conversation starters.

Above: mimobots DO sell out, (see Darth and R2 for example) so it’s a good idea to check back often for new models.

Aside from their unique good looks, mimobots each ship with exclusive content complimenting their design. My Domo mimobot, for instance, shipped with exclusive Domo desktop wallpapers, icons, avatars, a Domo soundbyte app, a screensaver, and all 23 of the original videos that made Domo such a hit over in Japan. The Star Wars Stormtrooper mimo had similar Star Wars content, including all the original theatrical and teaser trailers for all 6 SW movies (including a higher-quality version of this horrible one for Episode 4). All videos are in FLV format, but mimoco provides an interface for viewing the clips.

Of course, you’ll eventually either want to back up all these goodies or just delete them after watching them, as the whole point of a thumb drive is to keep enough free space open to move files, and these extras use up about 200 precious MB.

Above: Exclusive desktop wallpapers are just one of the goodies waiting to be discovered on your mimobot.

Issues

Although both PC and Mac versions of all mimo content are provided on the drives, I had a little trouble accessing some of the content on the mimobots. For instance, my Domo Sceensaver kept giving me error messages when installing, so I still don’t know what it looks like.

Also, I’m not sure why, but installing the SoundByte app requires a computer restart, which seems unnecessary, and if you install the app from one mimobot, you must first uninstall it before installing the SoundByte app from another (although, you can by-pass the app altogether to get at the sound files by exploring the package contents of the installers, which is what I did to make my “Domo yell” ringtone). But overall, the extras are well done, and something die-hard fans of each series will likely want to have (although real fanatics have likely seen these before).

This is just a personal pet peeve of mine, but when inserted in a Mac’s USB port, the mimos are face down (i.e. BUTT UP). Perhaps this is so you can see their red power light (located on the back, near the “feet”) better, but I’d rather see the front of my mimobot when mounted. Just a suggestion to mimoco.

Above: I think it would be cooler if the mimos faced up when plugged in, but maybe that’s just me.

The only other question I have is why some mimobots seem to have the unnecessary “ear” shape to their heads. While I assume this might just be a case of “it’s cheaper to use the same mold for all bots”, it’s a little odd to see a Stormtrooper or R2 with the mimo ears. Newer models, like the Halo mimos and the Series 2 Star Wars drives (shipping this January) seem to have eliminated the ears, so this likely won’t be an issue going forward.

Conclusion

mimobots are cool, there’s just no getting around it.

In the past I used my iPod for transporting files to and from work, but since ditching my iPod for my iPhone (with its current lack of a disk mode, as well as lack of extra space) I have come to rely on thumb drives to fill in the void, and the mimobots are the Cadillac of thumb drives (well, perhaps given their geek cachet, they are more like the Tesla Roadster of thumb drives). By licensing beloved cult-status characters, cramming in exclusive content, and issuing limited edition runs, mimoco has created arguably one of the coolest and most sought-after geek accessories since the Steve Jobs lego set, plus they’re actually useful to boot! (and boot from) If you are looking for that one gift that will likely always be a hit with the geek in your life, stuff a mimobot in their stocking.

mimobots – Desinger USB Flash Drives by mimoco

Price: Variable depending on capacity ($49.95 – $110 for most models, up to 4 GB)
Pros: Awesome
Cons: None significant