We’re working with 3D-fabricator Shapeways to bring you an opportunity to spiff up your My Keepon! The Shapeways My Keepon Challenge invites the designer/hobbyist/DIY community to create accessories (hats, glasses, belts, rocket packs, etc.) for the yellow fellow and to submit them for a chance to win a My Keepon, a Shapeways gift certificate, and a 3D print of the winning design.

Contest announcement and details may be found here.

You can also check out the new BeatBots shop on Shapeways, where you’ll find full-scale and 1/2-scale models of Keepon that you can order printed in full-color sandstone!

Last week, the MyKeepon.com website went live with a new music video featuring the toy.

We’ve had wonderfully supportive interviews/coverage from Businessweek, Engadget, CNET Crave, MIT Technology Review, Automaton, Robots Dreams, and Adafruit. And our press release has just gone out on the wire.

My Keepon is available for presale in ToysRUs.com in the US (where it has made their Fabulous 15 List), and at other retailers around the world.

In other news, My Keepon saw his first public showings at World Maker Faire. Marek carried My Keepon around the Faire to the great delight of fans and Keepon noobs alike. The toy held up wonderfully to the enthusiasm, handling, and loud noise! We also printed mini-Keepons from yellow ABS plastic (with bonus googly eyes) on our MakerBot Thing-O-Matic and gave them to the most excited children (and a few very excited adults).

We’re as excited as you are that My Keepon will be hitting shelves in just a few weeks!

Become a fan on Facebook and follow My Keepon on Twitter.

You may remember Anna the Red from this Keepon-themed bento box. Well, Marek randomly met her at a sidewalk cafe in Brooklyn, and invited her to come to the Robot Film Festival. She was generous in giving us not just an autographed photo of the bento box, but also a plush Keepon:

Next, we have master knitter Taj Bortz who, at the request of Carol Reiley, created a warm and cozy cat costume (left) and prosthetic-arm sweater (center). Olgalyn Jolly created the orange super-hero sweatband and cape (right). With Halloween coming up, Keepon is looking for more costumes like these!

Finally, Taj also knitted this mini-Keepon for Keepon to take care of:

These craftswomen all ROCK. Thank you!

• The Danish Technological Institute is using Keepon in a research project. We visited the Rosengårdskolen and Tornbjerg Skole in Odense, where the kids drew these fantastic pictures:

• Marek spoke about Keepon, and the relationship between robotics and animation, at the Pictoplasma festival in Berlin on April 9, 2011.

• Marek curated a robot short-film screening for the RoboGames Speaker Symposium in San Mateo, CA on April 16-17, 2011.  This also served as a teaser for the upcoming Robot Film Festival in NY in July.  Submit your robot stories for a shot at being featured on the silver screen!  (Vimeo group here.)

UPDATE: Project page here. And a new video:

Check out the My Keepon Press Release. More details to follow over the next few months!

UPDATE: Please visit MyKeepon.com for more information.

UPDATE: Thanks to FastCompany, BotJunkie, GetRobo, Engadget, Gizmodo, CNET, HackADay, Ubergizmo, CrunchGear, and Gearlog for coverage.

Plum TV‘s technology show, Masters of Innovation, has created an episode about the Robotics Institute. We got a lot of great footage of Keepon interacting with kids at the Children’s School. The episode premiered on Plum’s resort cable network on December 23, 2010.

Keepon will be on exhibit for the next few weeks at Platoon Kunsthalle, an incredible art/culture space in Seoul that is built from shipping containers.  (Or friend Soomi was a resident there last year.)