Dark Roasted Blend: DRB Pic-of-the-Day: Thunder Robot Army

DRB Pic-of-the-Day
Link - by Avi Abrams

Vintage Japanese Robot Toy Army

These battery-operated "Thunder Robots" are marching across what seems to be Texas, so it could be an invasion - however you have nothing to worry about, as these robots are very hard-to-find nowadays even for the more dedicated collectors, and in many specialized stores they are plain sold-out.

(image via)

Asakusa Toy Company of Japan has been making them walk across imaginary landscapes and happy boys bedroom floors since 1957 (they had moving legs, spinning antennas and flashing headlights). "When it stops moving, it raises up it's arms and begins it's deadly assault firing it's lighted palm mounted guns! The original Thunder Robot can sell for $18,000 or more"... but you can try your luck to get your reproduction from here.

(bottom right image via)

BONUS:

This wonderful Freddie Ford robot requires some maintenance! And a lovely girl mechanic hurries to the rescue -

(image via)

This promotional robot was first introduced into Ford dealerships by Ford Division's Show Exhibit Department in 1964, and later models were quite popular with curious kids and adults alike:

(top image: model Mary Ann Laurel poses with "Freddie", photo by UPI, via, bottom: via Ford Motor Company)

On the right (see above) shown a couple of other retro-cool robots, one of them being the legendary "Lost in Space" Robbie and the other one (also named "Freddy") has been discovered in Spain.

And now... Freddie Ford multiplies, and we got another Freddie robot army on our hands (ready to get into Ford dealerships Statewide):

(images via)

CONTINUE TO OUR "ROBOTS IN ARTS" SERIES! ->

3 Comments:

GOODSTUFF said...: OK, a little NSFW but it's fun

Vintage Robots Hookers - Photo Dump

http://goodstuffsworld.blogspot.com/2014/02/vintage-robots-hookers-photo-dump.html; ___
Dave Tymon said...: Excellent post... have a look at http://101-songs-about-robots.blogspot.co.uk/ ...a huge ever growing pulsating blog that rules from the centre of the roboverse!; ___
Bill Swallow said...: *PLEASE* do not refer to the 'Lost in Space' robot as 'Robbie'.

If he had a name, it was only 'Robot'. They used two designators for him on the show - once, 'M3', and once 'B9'. Supposedly, he was an 'Environmental Control Robot'.

'Robbie', on the other hand, was an entirely different machine, starring first in 'Forbidden Planet', and continuing his 'acting career' with 'The Invisible Boy', several 'Twilight Zone' appearances, and also did a guest spot on 'Lost In Space' as an adversary to Robot.

It's understandable why people confuse the two, though. 'Robbie' (created first) was designed by Arnold Gillespie and built by Robert Kinoshita. Irwin Allen liked 'Forbidden Planet' and then hired Kinoshita to design and build Robot.

(Other similarities can be seen in the design of the Jupiter II as compared to the C57D, and the J-II's 'freeze tubes' for the crew.)

The shot you have here of Robbie is a publicity still from Lost In Space, with one of the show's 'aliens'.; ___

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