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Nice Vintage Toy Robot Site — Parallax Forums

Nice Vintage Toy Robot Site

ercoerco Posts: 20,256
edited 2010-06-17 21:31 in Robotics
http://www.cragstan.com/index.html·· Beautiful photos!

I had·quite a·robot collection as a yout', very similar to this fellow. I sold all but one of them at yard sales, probably for a quarter (DOH!), and am now paying dearly on Ebay to buy the little fellows back.

My latest Ebay·score was this Cragstan Mr. Robot, working and mainly intact for $49:

!Bu!qSG!CWk~$(KGrHqYOKjYEvnyNtyGWBL-en9hbTw~~_12.JPG

This is the style I had, all plastic, utterly different from the mostly tin "Mr. Robot" also put out by Cragstan/Yonezawa: http://www.cragstan.com/mrrobotyonezawa.html

Now all I need is a Yonezawa "Mars Explorer" to complete my collection:

horikawa-mars-explorer.jpg

In the 1960's, robots needed MACHINE GUNS to explore Mars.·Beat that, Viking, Sojourner, Spirit & Opportunity!
[url=:ShowImage2('/lotfinderimages/d49236/d4923633x.jpg')][/url]


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·"If you build it, they will come."

Comments

  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2010-06-08 18:52
    erco said...(trimmed)
    In the 1960's, robots needed MACHINE GUNS to explore Mars.·Beat that, Viking, Sojourner, Spirit & Opportunity!
    And now that all those mean Martians are dead we can explore the planet in relative safety.· skull.gif

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    Chris Savage

    Parallax Engineering
    ·
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2010-06-08 20:01
    I had one that talked: "I'm Robbie the Robot, mechanical man. Drive me and steer me wherever you can." I don't remember what the sound mechanism was -- probably a small grooved disk. It had spring-loaded hands that you could use to grasp small objects. Here's a photo of one that I found on Flikr:

    www.flickr.com/photos/94851897@N00/4537414209/

    Robots were hot, hot items back then. When I was about 10, my next younger brother and I had robot costumes for Halloween made from cardboard boxes that we painted with aluminum paint. My mom sewed matching sleeves and leggings for them.

    -Phil
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2010-06-08 20:33
    Phil: Good memory! That was Robert the Robot by Ideal. You can buy nice Repros today, but they have a voice chip inside instead of the record you manually cranked. I have an original and a repro.

    ·http://cgi.ebay.com/ROBERT-ROBOT-1950S-STYLE-/120578039518?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c1302dede· Original unit, claimed working, but no pics of 'bot. Cheap, no bidders. Curious. Prices vary wildly.

    My boss' Dad (Lionel Weintraub)·worked at Ideal on Robert, back in the early days. He appears in the collector DVD that comes with the Repro unit. Nice to have such·connections.

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    ·"If you build it, they will come."
  • allanlane5allanlane5 Posts: 3,815
    edited 2010-06-08 21:27
    Ah, you make me crazy.

    When I was growing up, the Marx (or Ideal?) "Robot Commando" was something I wanted desperately for Christmas -- no dice. The NEXT Christmas we got "Big Loo" though. Ah, the memories.
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2010-06-08 22:13
    I think the coolest "robot" I ever had as a kid was a two-wheeled battery-operated ladybug. It had mechanical feelers which, when they were touched, caused the bot to change direction. The coolness aspect was that it was all done mechanically with levers and gearing. It had a nice ergonomic design, too. The two black spots on its back were actually deep recesses in the plastic shell, which made it easy to pick up.

    I honestly believe that Ray-O-Vac and Eveready were paying the toy companies to come up with this stuff. My folks were constantly complaining about having to replace dead batteries. That was before alkalines, so the batteries didn't last very long at all.

    -Phil
  • Martin_HMartin_H Posts: 4,051
    edited 2010-06-09 01:57
    I had the robot with the machine guns. I also had a Chrome Dome robot which had a telescoping midsection. Someone put a video online of one but it isn't telescoping all that well.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2010-06-09 04:14
    A lot of these robots have "mystery" or "bump & go" action where they roll fairly straight until they hit an obstruction, then they back up and move off in a new direction. All done with a motor and some gears. Final drive is a crown gear. Arguably, they function a lot like a programmable robot with bump sensors and a simple program.

    Old toys had to be mechanically clever, usually much moreso than today.

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    ·"If you build it, they will come."
  • iDaveiDave Posts: 252
    edited 2010-06-17 21:31
    Well guys, there's recent evidence that these old vintage robots are now spearheading the much anticipated robot revolution!!

    www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUk8t4v1jMY&feature=player_embedded


    Good luck...and....see you on the other side... shakehead.gif

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    “How much of human life is lost in waiting.” Ralph Waldo Emerson"
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