Robots in Film – A Complete Pictorial History

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Calling All Robots!
Robots in Film – A Complete Pictorial History

*If you want to see my top 10, click here: Top 10 Robots in film and TV

1900 to 1960’s

1960’s to 1980’s:

1980’s to present:

The BIG list of film and TV robots:

(more or less in alphabetical order)

Ash from Alien

Astro Boy (anime – Japan)

The Astro-Creeps (unnamed robot w/Bela Lugosi 1940)

Alfie – Barbarella

Bishop from Aliens

BOX in Logan’s Run

Blade Runner – Roy & Rachel

B9 – Lost in Space – Robot B-9

Cylon from Battlestar Galactica

Chani – in The Devil Girl from Mars

The Colossus of New York

CP3O from some obscure sci-fi film 😉

Data from Star Trek: Next Generation

DV8 – from Crash & Burn

Destroyer from Thor

Ed209 and Robocop from RoboCop I & II

Fembots in Austin Powers and Dr. Goldfoot films &
TV shows The 6 Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman

Gog – from Gog

GORT from The Day the Earth Stood Still

Goliath in Virus

Giant Alien Robot in Monsters vs. Aliens

Giant Robo (Japan)

Gigantor (1969 animated – Japan)

The Gunslinger- Westworld

The Golden Army – Hellboy 2

Huey, Dewey, and Louie – Silent Running

The Iron Giant

 Johnny 5 – Short Circuit

John the Robot in the films:

• Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965)
• Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women (1968),

Johnny Sokko and Flying Robot (Japan – 1968)

Jet-Jaguar from Godzilla vs. Megalon

Kronos

Mark13 in Hardware

Mogera from the Toho film, The Mysterians

Mecha-Kong

Mechagodzilla

Maria Futura – Metropolis

Maximilian – The Black Hole

Marvin – The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy

Moon Trap – alien robotics

Proteus IV in Demon Seed (1977)

Pacific Rim (2013) various including Gypsy

RoMan from Robot Monster

Robot Boxers in Real Steel

R2D2 from some 70’s flick

Robbie the robot from The Forbidden Planet

Rosey – The Jetsons

Robot in Heavy Metal (1981)

Robot Teachers in Class of 1999 (1990)

Rapist Robots in Flesh Gordon (1974)

Seven of Nine, from Star Trek: Voyager

Sonny from I-Robot

Screamers assorted killer robots

The Sentinels – The Matrix films
Saturn 3 – Robot

Star Crash – assorted Robots

The Shape of Things to Come – various robots

Surrogates – replacement robots

Twiki from Buck Rogers

Target Earth – Invader robots

Tripods from War of the Worlds (2004)

Terminator Robots:

• T-800
  T-1000
  Terminatrix – TX
  Harvesters
  Skynet ‘Tank’ Robot
  T-600

Transformers various including Optimus Prime and Bumble Bee

Tobar the Great

Ultraman (Japan)

Wall-E – Wall-E

War Robot – Judge Dread (1995)

Zathbot  – Zathura (2005)

Of course there are a slew of robots in TV and Films such as Dr. Who and the Star Wars saga but I think I’ve mentioned the most memorable and widely known.

If I have missed anybody important, let me know. I will add it to my list!

My Top 10 Robots in film and TV

My Top 10 Robots and Killing Machines in film and TV

As a preface of Pacific Rim, I’d just like to take a pictorial look at some other famous robots through the years. I know the machines in Pacific Rim are technically not Robots, but they are Robotics.

My Top 10 Movie and TV Robots:

1) The first lady robot in film and the first lady robot of film, Maria Futura from the silent movie classic, Metropolis.

2) Most famous is Robbie the robot from The Forbidden Planet.  After that film, Robbie, appeared in the film, The Invisible Boy (1957) and in guest spots on several TV shows, Twilight Zone, Addam‘s Family, and The Man From UNCLE, to name a few.. Robbie was the first Robot to demonstrate Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, in film.

3) The television series, Lost In Space had the wonderful computerized think-tank robot, aptly called Robot. He would give words of wisdom like, “That does not compute,” and “Danger, Danger, Will Robinson.” Actually, the robot’s name is B-9.  (this pick goes out to Markmc2012)

4) Mechagodzilla was modeled after Godzilla. He appears in 5 Godzilla movies: Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974), Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975), Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993), Godzilla against Mechagodzilla (2002), Godzilla: Tokyo SOS (2004)

5) Terminator Robots – Naturally, we have the Terminator Robots, T-800 and T-1000 and the Terminatrix (T-X). In Terminator Salvation, we have The Harvester, a gigantic robot war machine sent to seek and destroy the human resistance. That is one awesome giant robot – the whole film should have centered around The Harvesters, IMO. Also in the film was an earlier model, the T-600.

6) The Gunslinger played by Yule Brenner was the original Terminator in the film Westworld (1974). Based on a Michael Crichton story.

7) Mecha-Kong was a giant robot modeled after King Kong in the film, King Kong Escapes. (Toho Films)

8) War of the Worlds (2005) Tripods – despite the successful 1950’s version of the film, the war machines in HG Wells’ classic were not saucers, but giant 3 footed pods. They came to life in Spielberg’s 2005 version of War Of the Worlds.

9) Sonny from I-Robot (2004). He was smart too. I felt bad for Sonny. The film’s many robots struggled to adhere to Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics.

10) Fembots have been in quite a few films, Doctor Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965), Doctor Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs (1966), Austin Powers (1997), The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999) and GoldMember (2002)

Related articles:
Creature Features – Giant Robots

Robots in Film – A Complete Pictorial History (coming soon)

Aurora Monster Models and Prehistoric Scenes Kits

Aurora Monster Models and Prehistoric Scenes Kits – Part II

When I was a youngster, I loved to build monster model kits. I would see ads in the back of Famous Monsters of Filmland and I would send away for them via mail order or have my mom take me to local hobby shops to purchase them. The premier company in horror model-kits back then (1970’s) was Aurora. I started with the Universal Monsters model kit collections and soon moved on to the Prehistoric Scenes Kits. Eventually, the kits I owned went to the big toy graveyard where all kids things seem to find their end. For the longest time I thought those model kits were gone forever. But recently, I have found many of the wonderful kits I enjoyed as a kid, still available for purchase.

Aurora Prehistoric Scenes kit molds were first bought by Monogram who only kept seven of the Dinosaurs and the Wooly Mammoth. Sadly they destroyed the other kit molds to reuse the material. Then Revell bought Monogram and re-released the dino kits (twice). Today you can still purchase many of the Aurora Dinosaur kits under the Revell label. Although the box art is different, the kits are basically the same as the old Aurora kits minus the bases and extra accessories.

the same Ankylosaurus model released through the years…

Many of the Aurora Monster Model kits were purchased by several different companies such as Playing Mantis, Moebius, and Polar Lights. It is a bit of work to hunt all of these down as they release them sporadically but you can get almost all of them. I have recently purchased, The Forgotten Prisoner and the Aurora Godzilla model.

On top of that there are several companies that release customizing kits under the “What if…” banner and alternative pieces market which are often called Conversion Kits. You can change the head of the original Godzilla to one that is more in line with the movies. You can change the heads of the Triceratops to create different horned dinosaurs such as the Torosaurus or the Monoclonius. You can change the head of Dr. Jekyll to match the original  film “The Fly” (which looks amazing). You can now buy Julie Adams to fit with your Aurora style Creature From the Black Lagoon, where she will be set in his arms like the famous scene from the film.

Today’s model kits are amazingly detailed and there are quite a few hobbyists that take great pride in the building and painting of these kits. Many are limited release and can sell for upwards of $200. There are 3 types of kits, plastic, vinyl, and resin kits. The resin kits are the most expensive and offer the most detail.

One new kit I’ve been waiting for is Gorgo, by the company, Monarch. It was supposed to be released last year but no one has heard any news since. I hope they continue there plans to release it, because it is a fantastic model. Update: model kit was released – you can see my build here: Monarch Gorgo Model Kit

Below are some links if you care to check out some more info and pics on the subject. Some of the pics used here are from these sites.

If you want to learn more about the Aurora Kits and product lines, a good place to start is with the documentary dvd, The Aurora Monsters: the model craze that gripped the world. You can get the dvd at monstersinmotion.com or Amazon.

www.monstersinmotion.com
www.geometricdesign.net 
www.culttvman.com
www.auroraprehistoricscenes.com
www.tylisaari.com
www.morbidmonster.com
www.universalmonsterarmy.com
http://creaturescape.com

Gallery of classic kits:

this model is gone forever, the molds were destroyed.

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Gallery of new kits and conversion accessories:

same body, different head, new dino.

Model builder vids:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAWsr3aI0Ic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlB_rkH2414&feature=youtube_gdata_player

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnWP3cg0olE