Xiaomi is making a Mi Pad 2 that turns into a Transformers robot

What does a company do when they get burnt out on making consumer electronics? That’s right, they build giant robots. It’s happened to tons of companies in the movies, so it was bound to start happening in real life, too. Right?

Xiaomi (probably) won’t be getting into the robot business anytime soon, but that hasn’t stopped their collaboration with Hasbro to create a Mi Pad 2 that turns into a Transformers robot. It’s a new take on the classic Soundwave Transformer that turned into a cassette recorder, since a cassette recorder would stick out like a sore thumb in 2016. It’s honestly not much of a tablet anymore, since we’re talking about a toy puzzle, but Xiaomi went to great length to make sure that the look and feel of the “tablet” felt just like a realy Mi Pad 2.

It takes a total of 30 steps to transform this thing into a robot from a tablet, so it’s definitely not as quick as a real Transformer. But with Xiaomi’s crowdfunding campaign you can scoop one of these up for the equivalent of $26, which isn’t bad for a DIY toy Transformer.

If you want to see the entire process in action, check out the video below.

source: Hugo Barra (Facebook)