Click on the images for larger versions. The RS Media is even harder to get out of the box than the RoboSapien V2 was. In the picture you can see the contents of the box, the RS Media isn't standing on the cardboard for looks, he's standing on it because I couldn't find a screw driver to remove the screws that hold him to it. Superficially, the RS Media looks a lot like the RoboSapien V2, most of the mechanical systems and some of the shell are identical.

Most of the sensors appear identical, but there are some minor differences, you will notice in the picture of the spring loaded pulleys for opening and closing the hand (as well as the torso tilt encoder), the position sensor uses pins instead of the wipers the RoboSapien V2 uses, and we also have a new attachment method for the cabling that opens and closes the hands. At first I thought the new attachment method was intended to make the cable easier to attach and detach, If so it failed. The proximity of the screw mounting to the the pin housing the cable is attached to, prevent the cable being easily detached (I had to resort to partially melting the screw mounting with a soldering iron). What they do work for though, is fine tuning of the tension on the cabling. The shoulders are also different from the RoboSapien V2's, they have all the attachment points for the springs, but the springs themselves are absent (this will probably affect the maximum amount he can lift).

The Main board and Motor board are larger than those in the RoboSapien V2, I am surprised at how much the motor board has changed, I expected it to be almost identical to the RoboSapien V2's, its still 11 h-bridges, but the layout is different, and it has several types of transistors. The camera board in the head is also much larger, and their is no secondary connection board in the head like there is in the RoboSapien V2. The RS Media does have the capability to "track" a human using the camera, this seems to function reasonably, but I only did cursory testing.

The mainboard however is totally different. There are now three blobs on the board, two of which appear identical. They appear similar to the blobs on the RoboSapien V2's board, but I haven't compared them yet. What is important to note, unlike the blobs in the RoboSapien V2, these carry a naming schema and markings that I believe denote them as being manufactured by SunPlus (Which should be familiar from the main chip in the RoboSapien V2's camera board). Unlike the Camera board, the Main board carries no helpful (but somewhat cryptic on the RoboSapien V2) labeling. What isn't apparent from these pictures is that the while five pin socket shown above does not have a matching plug, and on mine it is also damaged, suggesting something was plugged in and then unplug in a hurried fashion. I have not yet, however, had time to investigate its possible function.

The Media board contains a 200MHz ARM9 with 64MB of flash RAM for the primary LINUX operating system and user files, 1 USB port, a Stereo audio plug and an SD card slot. It's responsible for all the graphics and sound, while the Main board is responsible for the body and sensors.

The LCD appears to be the screen from a flip phone, This is the LCD unit removed from the shell, you can see clearly on the back the second small unused LCD. I believe that the component visible in the bottom of the same picture is an unused IR transceiver.

Although structurally different, the mechanisms of the hands are almost identical to the RoboSapien V2's, but much easier to access as the pin that is a major obstacle to open the RoboSapien V2's hand is not present here. It is still vulnerable to damage to the tension springs and wiring in the same way the RoboSapien V2 was. The circuitry is slightly modified to support two buttons in the hand instead of one (some of you may recall the RoboSapien V2 had two buttons in the hand, and the small circuit board had a separate header for both, but that they acted as a single button). Visible also is the closed housing that contains the speaker.

Unfortunately The structure of the feet is pretty much the same as in the RoboSapien V2, however, in the right foot there is an additional circuit board. It is connected to the socket where the external power supply would connect, I can only assume its some sort of filter, it also may have some other function, but I don't know yet. It may also have something to do with determining if the RS Media is running off batteries or external power.

I was somewhat surprised to discover that the remote was a single sided board, and that it mixed press button with push pads (part of the reason why it can be a single sided board). Nothing of particular interest in there, except for the small test pad. If we follow a logical progression, then like the remote for the robo-reptile, it should shift the prefix of the IR signals to the 0xF test prefix (though I won't know this for sure until I test the remotes IR signals).

Last but not least, two small things. One I've always loved the way you can get a RoboSapien V2 and now a RS Media to balance after removing one of their legs *Laughs* and second, I don't know if I've just been unlucky with my RS Media, or if its some reflection on WowWee's production, but quite a few of the screw heads in my RS Media were damaged (some quite severely).