No matter how good your Halloween robot costume looks, your movements still sound like clattering plastic and cardboard.
ThinkGeek, the online electronic novelty retailer, remedies that problem with the Mega Stomp Panic sound effects machine.
About the size of an old Sony Walkman, the Mega Stomp Panic (MSP for short) plays any of nine sound effects through its amplified speaker. What makes it clever is a accelerometer that synchronizes the sound effects to your movement.
For instance, choose “Hydraulic Giant Robot†to hear the background sound of a gas motor and whirring hydraulics, but as you walk your steps are accompanied by a heavy robotic clank.
Other sounds include a rainstorm, with splashes at e ach foot fall; zombie attack, with the sound of eerie groaning and a leg dragging hobble, gigantic monster (I guess “Godzilla “is trademarked), with the sound of collapsing masonry and breaking glass. You can also dial up gunslinger, medieval knight, eight bit gaming hero, or steampunk giant robot.
You attach the MSP accelerometer where a belt buckle would rest, then 22-inches of cable lead to the MSP speaker, which you can place were you wish. The $40 sound effects machine takes four AAA batteries.
In a test it worked well if I walked a little more heavily than normal, but it still missed an occasional step or two. That might be momentarily embarrassing to a giant robot, but you can console yourself by imagining the laughs for anyone meeting death beneath your mighty hydraulic powered foot.
