The GravaStar Mars Pro is a Bluetooth speaker straight out of your video game dreams

At Stuff, we’re always on the search for interesting-looking gear. Occasionally, we find some. The GravaStar Mars Pro is one of the more remarkably-designed Bluetooth speakers we’ve ever encountered.

That’s because the Mars Pro looks like an articulated robot of the sort that would prove irritating in a video game. You know, the type of enemy that relied on swamping players in numbers before exploding. Or a surveillance droid that clambers around on the walls and ceiling, where you can’t see the little buggers.

GravaStar of the show

Sure, it looks like a plasma grenade or a Seeker in a cyberpunk version of Harry Potter. But this Bluetooth speaker is made from a zinc alloy, so it’s about as tough as it looks. The legs act as shock absorbers, of a sort, which is handy because it weighs a little over 2.5kg. Volume is controlled by a touch strip on top of the speaker’s head, and it also features six RGB lights. Because what were you expecting?

The speaker bit connects to your device via Bluetooth 5.0. GravaStar, the company that makes these, reckons that it’s got a battery life of up to fifteen hours. We’d expect a little less than that, but it’ll probably last through a couple of load shedding sessions, lights and all. Details of the speaker itself are light — it’s packing “full-range subwoofer speakers” — but they seem to be optimised for bass. But you don’t have to actually play anything on the speaker. Though, at this price, you’ll probably want to.

If you want a GravaStar Mars Pro, you can have one. You’ve got to pay for it, obviously, but the company is explicit about shipping to South Africa. The base version will cost you R3,900 ($230), before shipping. If you want the battle-damaged version pictured up top, that’ll be R5,600 ($330). There’s also the R6,000 ($350) Shark 14 edition that features a chain gun and shield addon. Purely cosmetic, obviously. We think.