[protonfish]

As a hobbyist AI programmer with few hardware skills my dream is a for an out-of-the box robot with basic movement, sensors and maybe an arm that I can start programming for in a higher-level language. Rex looks like a huge step in that direction. If they could throw in a chassis for mounting standard motors and sensors, even my multi-thumbed self might be able to make it do something cool.

[veemjeem]

You might want to check out ROS from the willow garage people. It's probably the right tool that you're looking for.

[alexcroox]

You should take a look at the Micro Magician V2 http://goo.gl/YunKFR, about a third of the size and motor driver/accelerometer/IR receiver built in. Great for small robots or doing high level coding (their Micro M library makes coding for those features a breeze)