I’ve been covering robots for over 20 years and can tell you with near 100% certainty that there is no reason for home humanoid robots to have breasts, let alone saunter down a runway like a catwalk model.
Things are getting a little weird or weirder than usual in the burgeoning humanoid robot space. First, we had Chinese EV manufacturer XPeng unveil IRON, a new oddly feminized humanoid robot that looked and moved in such a convincing manner that the company was forced to partially strip the bot and cut away the foamy flesh to reveal the metal and motor workings underneath.
Days later, Russia finally joined the humanoid robot race with the, in hindsight, ironically named “Idol.” It moseyed out from behind a curtain to the pumping beats of the Rocky theme, looking bowed and bewildered before toppling over. The scene only got worse as the handlers dragged the robot’s discombobulated body away, and stagehands desperately tried to cover the scene with a twisted curtain.
I can’t stop laughing 😆 This is a presentation of Russia’s first AI robot. I think it learned to walk from alcoholics. pic.twitter.com/bd5M58c6rjNovember 11, 2025
In both instances, roboticists remind us again of the risks and difficulties of entering the robot race. These companies are already facing stiff and possibly exciting competition from almost half a dozen other firms, including Tesla with the latest dancing Optimus (it was last seen busting a move with Tesla CEO Elon Musk), 1X Neo Beta, which is being hawked on ads outside of NYC subways, G1 from Unitree, and Figure 03 from Figure AI.
While none of these robots are ready for the home, they mostly avoid the pitfalls of IRON and XPeng’s Idol.
Sure, Neo Beta now has a nice soft covering, but it’s clearly built as an asexual being and doesn’t wiggle its hips to confuse you. Mostly, it plods along trying to slowly assist with home cleaning tasks. Though it’s unclear if it can accomplish any of them without a teleconnected human operator.
Robots such as Optimus and Figure 03 are just now catching up with the mobility skills of Boston Dynamics Atlas; they are now all capable of walking across the room while waving. Russia’s Idol arrives like a bot built 15 years ago. I haven’t seen such a spectacular and viral robot fail since Honda Asimo tumbled down a short flight of stairs in 2007.
Humanoid robotics writ large, though, is difficult stuff. The Russians and Chinese are facing two very different issues: underdelivering and overpromising.
In the case of IRON, they’ve built an impressive robot featuring a “humanoid spine,” flexible “skin” and home-grown AI, but with no real explanation why it looks and walks like a supermodel from the 1980s. It, perhaps inadvertently, elevates the creepiness factor with too human-like looks and (blech) feel.
Watching the execs cut away that weird flesh foam gave me some very unfortunate 1970s cheesy sci-fi movie feels. It was all so unnecessary for a robot that will probably never look like that if and when it finally arrives a decade from now.
As for Russia’s Idol, I don’t know what to make of that underperforming robot. Perhaps Russia is now so cut off from the Western press that it no longer knows the state of humanoid robot art. I’ve never seen such a confused-looking bot. Even it appeared to be wondering why it was there.
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lance.ulanoff@futurenet.com (Lance Ulanoff)
