The theme of the article is that the creators of these machines made a big bet on the idea that novelty and imagination alone would carry expensive, underpowered machines to market success, and that even when those machines were actually technically impressive, those bets were wrong.
The HERO was able to stay on the market for so long only because Heath was making their real money on electronics kits. The RB5X was able to stay on the market for so long because the overhead was close to zero. Androbot & Arctec folded almost immediately, because the TOPO was a $400 RC car and the Gemini was a $9000 tech demo with no arms.
A business plan that depends upon upper middle class frivolity to the tune of thousands of dollars per family is unlikely to succeed. Everybody in the article learned that the hard way.