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2006
marked
the 50th anniversary of the 1956 sci-fi movie, Forbidden
Planet.
This film is a classic of sorts for a number of
reasons. It's a very
loose update of Shakespeare's play, The Tempest, and
it plays off of
the '50s fetish with psychology. You also can see
Leslie Nielsen before
his comical roles in Airplane and Police Squad.
But
the
real star of the
show was Robby, the robot of Altair- 4 and the
creation of Dr.
Morbius. In real life he was created by Bob
Kinoshita, whom one may
suspect of secretly being one of the big-brain
aliens that people
this sort of film, because he created not one but
two of the greatest
robots of all time, the second being the
"Bubble-headed Booby" of TV's Lost
in Space,
robot B-9.
Above:
Save for your trip to
Altair
Four. This great Robby the Robot coin bank was still
available retail
in 2008, for under $50. If a bank doesn't sound like
too much fun, how about an alarm clock or a room
guard? Robby looks
gold in the above picture, but he's actually dark
gray, about ten
inches tall, all plastic. He runs on two AA
batteries, one in each
leg. He's made in China by Daiwatoy, but
there's an instruction
sheet in English.
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Above
left: two blue LEDs in
Robby's faceplate blink when he talks. He says three
phrases from the
film, and makes an outer space noise. Center:
close up of the coin
slot
in Robby's faceplate. Right:
The control panel looks green, but it's
really black. Robby's functions are set by the two
round and two square
gold buttons.
The left square
button
cycles through six modes:
1. clock: setting the
clock, which is on 24 hour, or military time.
2. balance: displays
savings balance.
3. expenses: to
display
withdrawls from the bank.
4. target:
displays
savings goal and amount to goal.
5. alarm: setting the
alarm. When the alarm goes off, Robby blinks,
beeps, and says "Good morning, gentlemen", as in the
film Forbidden
Planet.
6. other
settings:
turns on and off the video slot game and voice
clips.
The round buttons
cycle
numbers up and down, as when setting the clock.
The right square button performs various functions
depending on which
mode Robby is in.
The video slot game
can only be activated by inserting a dollar coin.
Inserting a coin
switches automatically to the bank mode, and
displays the total. Robby
can count US pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters,
fifty cent pieces, and
dollar coins. He can display up to $999.99, after
which he reads
"full". But he only holds up to 100 fifty cent
pieces. Coins can be
emptied out and then the total adjusted.
The light sensor is
very
sensitive to changes in room light. With the
voice clips turned on, Robby blinks two blue LEDs
in his faceplate,
singly and together, and says one of three random
lines from the film
Forbidden Planet, or makes outer space noises.
With the voice clips
turned off, Robby still blinks when the light
changes.
With the voice
clips
turned on, when Robby's alarm goes off, he beeps
and says "good morning gentlemen". With the voice
clips turned off, he
still beeps, but twice as long. Pushing any button
turns off the alarm,
but it shuts off anyway in a few seconds. The
voice is not very loud,
and the voice clips off, "beep only" mode is
recommended for heavy
sleepers. There's no off switch, so the only way
to shut him off is to
take out his batteries.
Robby's licensed
through
Turner
Entertainment, and seems to be made from the
Trendmasters molds, with
only very small changes (see the Trendmasters
Robby below).
(Robby knock offs never say "Robby the Robot" on
the box, nor do
they have actual Forbidden
Planet
voice clips from Turner
Entertainment.) However, since the film's first
appearance in 1956,
Robby has forever influenced robot design, and
inspired lots of great
Robby-style robots, an enduring tribute to his
creator, Bob Kinoshita.
This Robby is mainly
a
very tech bank. If he's in the clock mode
(normal mode), inserting a coin will override it.
The display first
shows the amount of the coin, then Robby bleeps and
shows the total
saved. Another beep, and the display goes back to
showing the time.
Then he's ready for another coin.
If the video slot
game is
turned on, inserting a dollar coin
automatically starts it. Pushing three of Robby's
buttons brings up a
three digit number. Hit 777, and Robby rewards you
by playing one of
three secret sound clips. Robby has a sliding
panel on the back to
empty out coins, and you can reset the savings
total to zero to start
over.
It would be great
if you
could leave the voice clip on the alarm and
shut off the light sensor voice clips. The way to
do this is to cover
the photocell. But here's a very tech talking
Robby with real voice
clips from the film, bank and alarm functions,
well-made and very
detailed, collector quality at an amazingly low
price. Start saving for
your trip to Altair- four. Wake up and smell the
gear oil!
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Above:
Robby
and
Son.
When the Lost in
Space movie came out in 1998, New Line Cinema
licensed Trendmasters to
make
tie-in toys. The movie toys, like the film, fell far
below the original
TV show. However, Trendmaster also created a
stunning series of toys of
the Jupiter II and robot B-9 from the original TV
series (see Lost
in
Space). As if that wasn't enough, in
1999,Turner Entertainment
licensed
Trendmasters to make this great ten inch remote
controlled Robby the
Robot (left), here shown with Masudaya's wind-up
Robby (right).
Trendmasters'
Robby
retailed at under $30 at Toys-R-Us. Push one button
on the wired remote
and
he walks with a lumbering gait, torso turning side
to side, his head
lighting up. Push the other button and he recites
one of three phrases
from the film as his head flashes. The voice is
clear as a bell and the
actual Robby heard in the film. The wired remote
control is the same as
on Trendmasters' other remote control Iron Giant and
Dexter's
Laboratory robots. An incredibly great, well-
designed and crafted
modern plastic robot. Absolutely worth tracking
down, even if you have
to go to Altair Four to find him.
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Above:
Got
an extra $50K? If so, don't
waste it on a sports car. Get this seven foot tall
Robby replica from
Hammacher- Schlemmer (click a pic for details).
He's an exact replica
by Fred Barton, AKA the Robot Man, who restored
the movie Robby for a
California film museum.
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Above:
Forbidden
Planet, according to film critic Leonard
Maltin, "remains one of
the
most ambitious and intelligent films of its genre".
Maltin's Movie
Guide rates it three and a half stars. Numerous
editions of the film
have been released, including a two disc 50th
anniversary edition in
2006. There was also a deluxe set in a metal box
with a small Robby
robot included. However, many reviewers on
Amazon.com have been
critical of the set due to dented boxes and a lack
of extras. The
included Robby is apparently not the Masudaya
wind-up (see
below). However, the inexpensive one disc DVD
includes striking
movie graphics on the cover (above left).
Right:
The box for Trendmaster's ten inch Robby echoes the
film
graphics, which are also carried over to the remote
control box.
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Above:
Forbidden
Planet spawned any number of unlicensed Robby-
influenced
robots, among
them some of the best robot toys ever made. Along
with the Gang
of Five and B-9 wind-ups Masudaya released this wind-up
Robby as robot
YM-3. Later versions were licensed, as shown here with
the Rocket USA
English language box designed by George
Eisner. At just over four inches, this is great
robot. He's all
black with relief detailing, a clear face mask showing
his silver
brain, and silver antennae. Wind up his strong motor and
he walks,
swaying side to side. He originally retailed at under 20
bucks, and is
licensed 1997 Turner Entertainment. A great deal
for Masudaya
quality.
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Above:
One of the best Robby knock-offs was Yoshiya's
Action Planet Robot
(1958). It was made in both remote control and
wind-up versions, with
numerous variations. The wind-up ones were so
plentiful that they could
be had as late as 1999 for $1100 Mint in Box.
But
an
even better deal was this repro wind-up, available
as late as
2007 for under $30. This silver version was made
by Ha Ha Toys and
distributed through Schylling. Wind him up and he
walks, sparking in
the
head and chest area, living up to his "action"
heritage. Note the
beautiful retro art box says nothing about either
feature. This very
popular 9 inch repro was available in numerous
variants, the green one
being distributed by Robot Island (see links). The
silver one carries
this warning on the side of the box: "Caution! For
ages 15 and up," and
"Attention: This is not a toy; it is an adult
collector's item,"
although the Schylling sticker on the box back
says "For collectors:
not
safe for children," "Ages 8 and up." The sturdy,
included key also fits
some other Schylling repro robots, notably Robot
Lilliput, should you
lose the key to one of the robots.
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