You can buy some pretty wild things in America in 2024. There’s fun stuff like an American muscle car that packs more than 1,000 hp, a keychain that lets you hack your neighbors car (sort of), and now a futuristic robot dog armed with tech invented during the first World War. I love the smell of capitalism in the morning.
The robotic terror in question is called the Thermonator and it’s been designed and developed by American startup Throwflame, reports Ars Technica. To create this four-legged fire-breather, the Ohio-based company takes a humble quadruped robot that can be controlled via a smartphone and straps a massive ARC flamethrower to its back. The flamethrower can be powered by gas or napalm and has a range of up to 30-feet. It’s a truly terrifying creation, which will only set you back $9,420, as Ars Technica explains:
It also includes a LIDAR sensor for mapping and obstacle avoidance, laser sighting, and first-person view (FPV) navigation through an onboard camera. The product appears to integrate a version of the Unitree Go2 robot quadruped that retails alone for $1,600 in its base configuration.
The company lists possible applications of the new robot as “wildfire control and prevention,” “agricultural management,” “ecological conservation,” “snow and ice removal,” and “entertainment and SFX.” But most of all, it sets things on fire in a variety of real-world scenarios.
One of the most alarming things about this creation is that it’s perfectly legal to buy in 48 U.S. states. Meaning that you may one day be able to walk down to your local flamethrower store and stroll out with a new four-legged friend capable of incinerating your local forrest.
This is because, whether they’re dog-mounted or not, flamethrowers aren’t federally regulated in most states, as Ars explains. The devices aren’t considered firearms in 48 states, with Maryland being one of the few places to require a firearms license to purchase one.
This means that there’s actually fewer regulations on you buying this flame throwing robot dog than harmless children’s candy, the Kinder Surprise. In the U.S., proper Kinder Surprise chocolates are illegal, because they hide a small toy in a bright yellow capsule inside the chocolate egg. Instead, the U.S has its own versions of the Kinder surprise, that are way less fun that the ones you’ll find in civilized places like Europe.
Incidentally, buying a flamethrower is illegal in most European countries. The EU classes flamethrowers as a type of weapon, so you can’t pop down the shops and buy one. But you can pick up a Kinder Surprise with your groceries.