ROBOTSCLASSICROBOTS!

July 2, 2004 7:33 AM

Robots, classic robots!
How to build a B9. "What?" The B9! You know, "The robot from Lost in Space". From B9 Today, "your B9 Robot Resource." See also: B9 Robot Builders Club and the Robot Builder's Sourcebook and Robot Hut. Everybody's doing it.
(Also from B9 Today, building the Mystic Seer Machine from the Twilight Zone classic "Nick of Time," starring Wm Shatner and written by the legendary Richard Matheson).
Of course, the sorely neglected Robby "could and should be build" too. And where's Gort, and sexy Maria? Ehh, you can probably chat with her somewhere on this "AI" robot page.
posted by Shane (14 comments total)

I applaud this post on the basis of inventiveness in 'type color' alone. I look forward to exploring the links.
posted by mwhybark at 7:53 AM on July 2, 2004

I'm gonna spend my Christmas with a Dalek .
posted by Smart Dalek at 7:54 AM on July 2, 2004

Too bad next year's Dr Who won't have them (daleks, that is)
posted by jazon at 7:59 AM on July 2, 2004

MeFite asok has good taste: he wants a lifesize Gort.
posted by Shane at 8:21 AM on July 2, 2004

On the Robby the Robot fansite (love the posters) they ask the time-honored question, "Who's got better legs? Robby the Robot or Anne Francis?" I think Robby does - he's all pumped up, like the Michelin Man, who I find very sexy as well ;) If anyone builds a B9, we need to see pics.
posted by iconomy at 8:35 AM on July 2, 2004

The Small Wonder website kinda gives me the willies.
posted by britain at 9:01 AM on July 2, 2004

Good stuff! One question: The image that shows "Robby" holding the girl as in the Forbidden Planet poster, but with the "ROBBY the ROBOT" title, is interesting. I had always understood that this robot did not acquire the name "Robby" until Lost in Space. Certainly it's not called "Robby" in FP, but "Robot." Was Robby unofficially its name back in 1956? Does one of Shane's 742 links explain this?

More applause for the "type color," which I see as an elegant way to cue the reader that there's more than one link per word.
posted by soyjoy at 9:10 AM on July 2, 2004

"Who's got better legs? Robby the Robot or Anne Francis?"

Heh! Here's a leggy shot of Anne and Robby together. And here's Rod the Man with Robby retooled for a Twilight Zone episode. Robby is "the hardest working robot in Hollywood," doing two Twilight Zones, one Lost in Space, and even Earth Girls Are Easy.

The 1950s Robby Toys are the coolest, but some go for around $850. Even a replica of Rosko, a Robby knockoff from the '50s, goes for over $400 (nice toy robot link!). There's a nifty Japanese tin Robby ($595!), but I have the inexpensive Trendmasters Robby and B9 with motion and sound. I don't need to pay more than $25 for my toys, what am I, a geek? Um, yeah, I guess I am anyway ;-)
posted by Shane at 9:19 AM on July 2, 2004

Robby was called Robby in Forbidden planet.
posted by thirteen at 9:36 AM on July 2, 2004

I recall seeing something several years ago in Entertainment Weekly about a lifesize Lost in Space robot that was a CD jukebox. I wanted one then and I want one now. I have three B9s in various scales, but none of them are life size. (One of them is technically my son's, but I keep it in my office. Possession is 90 percent of the law, right?) Does that make me a geek too?

Bob May, who sat inside the robot suit on Lost in Space, has his own website too.
posted by Man-Thing at 10:32 AM on July 2, 2004

Bob May, who sat inside the robot suit on Lost in Space...

Um, man..? In suit..?
*/just found out there's no santa*
posted by Shane at 11:20 AM on July 2, 2004

Robby was called Robby in Forbidden planet.

Er. But not in Lost in Space, then? Apparently I was confusing the two pop-culture icons - you know, inovative, all-time-classic quasi-Freudian reinvention of The Tempest vs. laughably shlocky low-budget TV show? You can see how easy it is to mix 'em up, right?
posted by soyjoy at 11:29 AM on July 2, 2004

smart dalek beat me to the obligatory build-a-dalek links

Good job man!
posted by davros42 at 11:40 AM on July 2, 2004

From Forbidden Planet: "I am monitored to respond to the name 'Robby'."

I've often puzzled over that line. Computers were in their infancy in 1956, had the word "programmed" not even entered the common speech yet?
posted by George_Spiggott at 12:31 PM on July 2, 2004