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Tin robots
One of the most famous tin robots is Robby the Robot Robby the Robot was a fictional character who had a number of appearances in science fiction movies from the 1950s onward. "Robby" was a 7 ft 2 inch mechanical suit designed for an actor to wear, to play the part of a robot. It was originally designed for the 1956 MGM movie Forbidden Planet and it became an icon representing the genre of science fiction films.In the film, Doctor Edward Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) uses Robby to demonstrate one of Isaac Asimov's Laws of Robotics: Morbius tells Robby to shoot a human, and Robby, being programmed to follow orders yet also to never kill a human, is faced with a paradox that would eventually destroy him if his state of indecision was allowed to continue.
The "Robby" robot suit was also reused in a less popular movie called The Invisible Boy, and it made appearances in several other movies and TV shows over the next few decades. While Robby's appearance was generally consistent over the decades, there were notable exceptions, such as the 1962 Twilight Zone episode Uncle Simon, where he was given a somewhat more human "face". At other times Robby usually retained the working gears inside his bubble head, although the details of his "brain" (along with the details of his chest panel) were sometimes changed. In recent years Robby hasn't appeared much in movies or TV, although he is featured in a 2006 commercial for AT&T.
Robby differed from his successors in that he walked (somewhat awkwardly), while later models by his designer Robert Kinoshita such as Robot B-9 of Lost in Space moved smoothly on motorized treads.
Before the appearance of Robby, robots in movies and plays tended to lack characteristics attributable as personality, being simple mechanical devices. Since his appearance, robots with personalities have become more and more common in movies.
For many years, Robby the Robot was on display at the wax figure museum Movieland in Los Angeles, CA. The museum is now closed.
