(FORTUNE Magazine) – The exploitation of children's television by toymakers may appear to have reached its limit, but Zyton Demon PROGs are about to add a new dimension. If all goes according to the plan of Axlon Inc. of Sunnyvale, California, next Christmas will bring expensive little robots that obey tones embedded in cartoon broadcasts or videotapes.

PROGs (programmable robots) are plastic battery-powered monsters. A computer console orchestrates their movements, accepting instruction from either a TV or a child. Good-guy PROGs (blue) and bad guys (red) will act out a TV story right on the living-room floor; PROG owners, age 8 and up, will be able to coordinate their robots with the action on the tube. The PROG TV show, Tech Force and the Moto-Monsters, is in the works at DIC Enterprises, an Encino, California, producer of Saturday morning cartoons. Available in a $250 starter kit, PROGs are the latest brain progeny of Axlon founder Nolan Bushnell, the fadmaker who brought the world Atari and Pizza Time Theater. Bushnell may have to fend off demon competitors. Mattel is developing Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future, which will also interact with the TV. Both companies have presented their plans to the Federal Communications Commission for approval. How did the watchdog of the airwaves react? Positively. Says an FCC spokesman: ''We were kind of disappointed when Mattel showed up with only a demo videotape and didn't bring any of the toys.''