October 25, 2001

5:48 AM

Prototype mechanical soldier tried out in WWI! Your challenge on this site is to separate fact from fiction.
posted by beagle (16 comments total)

I've known some boilers in my time.
posted by johnnyboy at 5:54 AM on October 25, 2001

Awesome link!
posted by SuperBreakout at 6:17 AM on October 25, 2001

Heh. It looks like that evil robot thing from Return to Oz.
posted by gramcracker at 7:10 AM on October 25, 2001

Why am I getting a strange Chris Ware vibe from this?
posted by ColdChef at 7:42 AM on October 25, 2001

This is so cool!
posted by gamera at 8:01 AM on October 25, 2001

In 1901, to celebrate the new millennium, Boilerplate circumnavigated the globe[...]

Talk about jumping the gun. And remember when everyone was pedantic about 2000 not being the millennium.
posted by Hexaemeron at 8:34 AM on October 25, 2001

gramcracker: You mean Tic Toc? Eventually he turned out to be a force for good, rather than evil.

My first thoughts were of Tic Toc as well, except this guy isn't quite as short and round (must have been pumping iron, I guess) ba-bum-ching!
posted by spnx at 10:21 AM on October 25, 2001

hey, i have one of those things in my backyard. we use it as a birdbath.
posted by tolkhan at 11:25 AM on October 25, 2001

sexy...
posted by Ty Webb at 12:09 PM on October 25, 2001

looks a bit like a South Park character.

Thanks for the link beagle, really funny stuff
posted by matteo at 1:07 PM on October 25, 2001

If they just used electro (sorry, best link I could find with a picture) from the 1939 World's Fair, they wouldn't have had to retouch the images.
posted by electro at 1:20 PM on October 25, 2001

this reminds me of the WTC guy...
posted by hotdoughnutsnow at 3:17 PM on October 25, 2001

this reminds me of the WTC guy...

With a little work you can turn that into a Titanic "I'm king of the world!" photo.
posted by skallas at 5:37 PM on October 25, 2001

Not only did Tic-Toc become a force for good, he also eventually got his very own book.

As an interesting note, L. Frank Balm, the author of the Oz series, once wrote an editorial calling for the genocide of the Sioux Nation.

More information.
posted by Hexaemeron at 9:37 PM on October 25, 2001

That would be Baum.
posted by beagle at 5:04 AM on October 26, 2001

Indeed it is.
posted by Hexaemeron at 7:20 AM on October 26, 2001