Everything you need to know about Robby the Robot

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Originally published at: Everything you need to know about Robby the Robot | Boing Boing

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I’ve always wished Stanley Kubrick hadn’t deliberately destroyed all the models and props from 2001:A Space Odyssey. The loss to history seems unacceptable. But seeing how many times Robby was recycled, I can certainly see why Kubrick thought it necessary. He wanted to avoid his designs getting recycled in the same way, and that’s a pretty realistic fear, seen in this light.

(This is a great assembly of stills and clips and trivia, I just wish the producer would find someone who knows how to narrate a voiceover.)

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I’ve always wondered why Robbie became such a big star while Lost In Space’s B9 robot kind of fell by the wayside. I can’t seem to recall B9 showing up anywhere afterwards. Wikipedia does say it showed up in a kids show but that must have been after I gave up on such entertainment.

I do have a B9 robot on my desk that speaks in the original voice. I’d easily buy a similar Robbie version.

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Licensing reasons, maybe? I’m guessing the production company that made Lost in Space kept tighter control of B9, but that’s just a guess.

Fun fact, the first time I saw Robbie, it was in a Lost in Space epidsode (unless that only happened in the Berenstein Bears universe that I come from). I figured he was a knockoff of B9, when it was basically the other way around!

Love them both, though.

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Robby has gotten so famous that some people mistakenly think the Lost in Space robot is Robby – a bit how some people mix up Michael Myers (not Wayne/Shrek but the Halloween killer) with Jason Voorhees (of Friday the 13th).

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There is at least one artifact that remains - the space suit; it was in Babylon 5. In audio the commentary, they mention they asked the prop department for a spacesuit and received this one. They realized they couldn’t use it as-is because it was so recognizable, so they painted it blue. Ugh. The show was too low budget to make a new one.

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I seem to remember a episode of Lost in Space where Robbie was a guest star.

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Monsters from the id !! Love this film! One of the few from my childhood that still hold up in my adulthood.

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There is a very affordable, relatively accurate Robby that was a Walmart (ugh, Walmart) exclusive a couple of years ago. You can probably get one from eBay (ugh, eBay) even cheaper. It walks well and has original voice phrases too. It might be to scale with the B9 you own.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Light-Sound-Walking-Robby-the-Robot/495964718?

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Forbidden Planet gave me one of the first nightmares I ever had when I was around four or five, I think.

I completely forgot about it and then went to see the film at AFI with a friend just after I moved to Northern Virginia in the early '90’s. I immediately remembered it when I saw the scene that caused the nightmare - the footprints and collapsing steps up to the spacecraft - and it scared me all over again!

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I watch Forbidden Planet every five or ten years, and each time I’m amazed at how well it holds up. The trick is that it took a great yarn, Shakespeare’s Tempest, and did an almost prescient job on the special effects. It even borrowed Shakespeare’s trick of using a bit of comedy between the grimmer sections.

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It was on the shelves this past Christmas. I almost bought it but knew the child I would have given it would have busted it the same day.

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I wonder whether Forbidden Planet was the first example of Hollywood mining Shakespeare and making a “new” story by resetting the action into the present or future. They’ve gone often to that well (as well as other classic authors like Austen) since.

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My local WalMart shows them in stock. I know where I’m going tomorrow.

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I always get Forbidden Planet mixed up with Fantastic Planet.

Totally NOT the same thing.

700×500 65.3 KB

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Folks, here’s a story 'bout Robbie the Robot
He was real tough strong and slow bot
He was a genuine mechanical man
But Robbie had a wit as dry as the sands
Hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-hi (hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-hi)
Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho (ho-ho-ho-ho-ho)
Hee-de-hee-de-hee-de-hee (hee-de-hee-de-hee-de-hee)
Hey-ey-ey (hey-ey-ey)

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It is mentioned in the video.

It has to be said that the video content was very cool but…

  • that constantly scrolling bokeh background was a severe pain on the eyes (and the later starfield not much better)
  • the narrator’s vocal ‘style’ was almost designed to induce sleep. No variation - every sentence had exactly the same cadence - it was like listening to someone reading a list. Which is pretty much what the script was - a list of facts. But it could have had a little more life in it! Dare I say it sounded robotic?
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