Meow-Chi
Meow-Chi (ミャーチ) is an interactive robot cat from Sega Toys, which was released in Japan on the 28th of October, 2000. It was distributed by Sonokong in South Korea, and it was sold by Tiger Electronics in the U.S. and in other places. In France, Meow-Chi was sold as "Miaou-Chi", and it retailed for 199 F. In South Korea, the official translation for Meow-Chi's name was "미아오치" and the toy retailed for 28,500 won.
Meow-Chi requires three AAA batteries.
Appearance
Meow-Chi resembles a cat, sitting on its back legs. It has a translucent circle on its chest and a small handle above it, and its head is shaped like a sphere. It has three, small holes above its visor. The U.S. version also has holes where its whiskers are, while the Japanese version doesn't.
Functions
Meow-Chi turns its head, raises and lowers its arms, and it can display four eye expressions, two of which include a sad expression where Meow-Chi’s eyes are shut, and a happy expression with heart eyes. Meow-Chi also displays a unique eye expression when your Meow-Chi is male and another unique eye expression if your Meow-Chi is female.
Meow-Chi has an infrared sensor to communicate with other Robo-Chi friends (Japanese Meow-Chis can’t do this), a sound sensor to respond to loud sounds or when they hear you clap your hands, a light sensor in their forehead, a touch sensor on the left and right side of his head, and a magnetic sensor for playing with their mouse (the Japanese version doesn't have a magnetic sensor or come with a mouse). Meow-Chi will react if you cover their light sensor with your hand and then move your hand away, and they will make noises if you hold the toy mouse to their mouth.
According to Sega's website Meow-Chi sings 10 songs in total, however, the English version is capable of singing 8 songs. I can't identify all the songs that the English version of Meow-Chi plays, but the description of the above video mentions some identified ones.
| Meow-Chi Song List (English Version) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Presses | Song Name | |||
| 1 | Unidentified | |||
| 2 | Unidentified | |||
| 3 | Beethoven No. 9 (Ode to Joy) | |||
| 4 | Unidentified | |||
| 5 | Unidentified | |||
| 6 | Beyer No. 8 | |||
| 7 | Blue Danube | |||
| 8 | Unidentified | |||
Game
The Japanese version of Meow-Chi can play a game with you, according to the manual and SonoKong's Korean website for Robo-Chi Pets (this only links to the page mentioning the game; btw, the Korean version of Meow-Chi seems to just be the Japanese version with its packaging in Korean).
The game starts when Meow-Chi plays the "Hallelujah" song. While singing, Meow-Chi will display an eye type. When the song finishes, Meow-Chi's eyes will alternate. Press Meow-Chi's head when Meow-Chi displays the eye type it had when singing; if you do this successfully, Meow-Chi should congratulate you by singing a tune. If you ignore Meow-Chi, the eyes will stop changing and Meow-Chi won't sing the congratulatory song.
Apparently, Meow-Chi will play this game with you randomly if they are in a good mood.
Prototypes
Photo from pcweb.mycom.co.jp
Photo from robope.com
It seems only one prototype is documented online. This one was presented at the Tokyo Toy Show in 2000. Despite being a prototype, McDonald's toys based off the prototype's design exist.
Trivia
- In France, there were resin Meow-Chis which were 1.5 meters in height that were used as Point of Sale displays. There were also people dressed as robots introducing the toy.
Gallery
Some images on this page came from theoldrobots.com.
