I’ve blogged before about stores where kids and parents can create their own remote-control model car (RIDEMAKERZ) or stuffed toy bear (Build-A-Bear Workshop). I just found out about another build-it-yourself retailer that should appeal to anyone who grew up with the promise of robots in their future, whether baby boomer, Gen-X’er or their kids.

Robot Galaxy is exactly what its name implies: a retail universe stocked with the individual parts or kits to assemble a walking, talking toy robot. They’re sure more interesting-looking than the toy robots I grew up with in the ’50s. Back then, who’d have thought there’d be entire stores devoted to the little mechanical men?

An article earlier this year on Playthings.com covers how frustrated father Oliver Mitchell and retail veteran Ken Pilot came up with the concept. They now have one store in New York and another in New Jersey, and just got a $5 million funding boost for expansion.

I really like the interior photo in Playthings. It’s a clean, open design, with lots of white shelves and cabinets. The high, arched ceiling evokes a spaceship feeling, with open circles in the curved beams. High-up wall graphics of the planets carry the feeling through to infinity and beyond (sorry, Buzz Lightyear). The shelves are stocked with all the components needed to build a ’bot as simple or as fancy as its creator desires. Like RIDEMAKERZ and Build-a-Bear, the stores let you host in-store parties where all the guests custom-build their own robotic companion.

Great concept, great execution and great website. If Robot Galaxy ever opens a store near me, I know where I’m going to hold our next company retreat.