Retrobots Revisited: Robby the Robot and friends!

 

After the struggling through half the usual number of posts last month, I was seriously debating whether to do anything at all this week. I finally decided I needed to get at least an off-week's worth in, and that brought me to a new acquisition. I have been trying to get scale figures I can work into pics for the Marx Space Guys adventure. I've had the hardest time with robots, mainly because the ones I had thar were closest to the look I wanted are very small or, in a certain case, bigger than generic Godzilla. I finally made a new acquisition that had been on my radar before for a somewhat lower price than I found the last time I had gone looking. I present Robby the Robot, action figure scale.

Even a robot can look good coming or going...

Now, the real story here is how I got fixed on Robby for this project. As previously recounted, Robby the Robot was a character and suit that first appeared in the 1956 film Forbidden Planet (I'm thinking about it...), and was reused or imitated regularly thereafter. Since I was a kid, I loved the robot and its design without knowing anything about the original film. In considering ideas for my next time-wasting project, it crossed my mind that Robby was very possibly the first non-anthropomorphic robot in cinema. Sure, he had arms and walked on legs, but even these were no more human-like than dictated by pure functionality. The centerpiece is the domed head, which doesn't offer even a hint of a face (notwithstanding occasional efforts by misguided artists to project one onto it), a feature which is distinctive and potentially unnerving. It's all the more noteworthy that despite this inhuman outer shell, the film portrayed the bot as "friendly" or at least neutral, a decision evidently honored as often as not in later appearances. It wasn't until the 1970s that cinema again tried non-threatening robots that didn't follow a human pattern, in the likes of Silent Running, Star Wars and The Black Hole. I quickly came to the further conclusion that Robby fit the look of the Marx figures far better than anything Marx itself had turned out. By further comparison, the bot actually included with the 70 mm space guy set I possessed was a flat washout as soon as I reexamined it.

With that in mind, what I first considered were the Tomy windup bots which started this misbegotten feature, which led to experiments I included in the Archer space people post. The original "Rascal" bots were close enough to Robby for army man scale, with the further benefit of clearly being designed to be just generic enough not to trigger a lawsuit. As a bonus, I had it in two different sizes, so it could work with the 70mm space guys. The one that really looked good was the "tall" Tomy bot, which I had even dubbed Robbie. At something like 2 and 3/8ths of an inch, this was tall enough to terrorize 54mm and 45mm army men like a set of gas masked troopers I had gotten as space marine analogs (see last month's dino post), and it had a good size compared to the original Rascal bots, something like 6-7 feet if they were 4 1/2 -5 feet. However, it was much too small to fit in in with even the 70mm space guys. What I needed was a bot at least 4 inches tall. I managed to find a few different things. What I soon settled on was a Diamond Select Vinimate of Robby, from the same outfit that made my Black Hole bots, described most places as 4 inches tall. This, of course, is the bot featured above. Here he is with a Rascal bot.

"You picking on my little brother?"

And why not the Truckstop Queen?

If anything, this bot was more than I bargained for. It was definitely well over 4 inches tall, possibly even 5, not much smaller than the Queen. Assuming a 1/18 scale for the largest Space Guys, that gave a height of up to 7.5 feet. On careful measurement, which I already knew would be tricky after trying it with the windup bots, I concluded he topped out at about 4 and 3/4ths inches, which still came out at over 7 feet. He would actually be even taller if his proportions were closer to the movie bot. On the other hand, the squashed shape makes him more massive, and it keeps this a few degrees away from stealing the movie esign outright. Here he is with an MPC Teenette figure I got to represent a character named Alek Kapek, listed as 90mm with the base.

Yeah, the jokes are already writing themselves.

And here he is in a battle with the protagonist/ knife guy. The guy is already a little over 4 inches, wonky pose and all. The bot is still obviously taller. For a little color, I used the Mexican day glo figures.

Now for some fun, here's the bots with some figures and props. First up, part of a new reissue Marx space accessory set!

And a few air base figures...

And a couple Evermodel ladies I got. These are quite good "civilian" figures for a very good price, but you want them unpainted, because the paintwork this company does is incredibly awful.

"You're cute, but I'm already dating the Iron Giant."

And leading the space marines. That's the Mold-A-Rama space capsule behind them. This was really a test whether I could take a pic with the gigantic base cropped out.

And here's the big guy with Moxon, the obvious villain, with another piece from the accessory set. I think for once, his "scar" is showing pretty well.

And here's something extra. This is a wind-up from Schylling that I've included in pics at least once, purchased around 2007. It was and is sold under the name Planet Robot, with artwork implying that it is a reissue or copy of a 1950s-'60s toy. I suspect it's of much more recent origin. Still, it captures the look of both Robby the Robot and vintage tin toys. I can't see working him in unless I also include some of the Marx 6 inch figures. Here he is withe Truckstop Queen and Connie.

And that's enough for me to wrap this up. This is what makes this blog fun, and I'm glad to be finally trying to turn it into an actual story. That's all for now, more to come!