June 2, 2026
Cheap bot, messy teardown, spicy comments
How to Build a Shitty Robot
Dad buys cheap toy robot, smashes it open, and the comments go straight for the website drama
TLDR: A dad bought a very cheap toy robot, ripped it open, and started rebuilding it into a simple talking toy for kids. But the louder reaction was readers complaining the site blocked Hacker News visitors, with one mocking the article and another posting a mirror so everyone could see the robot wreckage anyway.
A developer dad spotted a 10-euro toy robot, decided it looked like the perfect victim for a weekend project, and promptly began turning it into a goofy talking robot for kids. The original post is a chaotic delight: a bargain-bin robot, a fake-looking "LED matrix" that turns out to be mostly an illusion, and a proud admission that the teardown began with "violence" because the right screwdriver wasn’t available. It’s part DIY adventure, part parenting project, part "what if we gave the cheap toy a new soul?"
But in true internet fashion, the gadget surgery wasn’t the only show in town. The real mini-drama in the community was that some readers said the site appeared to block visitors coming from Hacker News, a popular tech forum. That instantly shifted the mood from "haha, cardboard robot" to "wait, are we being blocked?" One commenter called the move odd and basically shrugged that readers weren’t missing much anyway — a low-key brutal review disguised as a technical complaint. Another stepped in with a hero move, posting an archive mirror so everyone could still peek at the robot carnage.
So the vibe around this story became a funny double feature: on one side, people chuckling at a man ripping apart a toy to make a charmingly shabby robot; on the other, a tiny burst of link-sharing rebellion over access drama. The robot may be "shitty," but the comment section made sure the spectacle was premium.
Key Points
- •Mario Zechner bought a €10 Silverlit YCOO NEO OCTOBOT with the aim of converting it into a simple LLM-powered toy and possible STEM project.
- •The robot’s original capabilities include remote-controlled head rotation, forward motion, and a preset dance mode, while its arms are only poseable.
- •After disassembly, the author found that the advertised LED matrix is actually a small set of RGB LEDs behind a printed translucent inlay and plastic dome.
- •The robot uses a simple single-layer PCB containing a main control IC, an IR receiver, capacitors for motor power support, and an H-bridge motor driver.
- •Based on the PCB layout, the author planned to remove the original control IC and reuse the H-bridge to drive the rebuilt robot electronics.