Robby the Robot

[1] He made a number of subsequent appearances in science fiction films and television programs, which has given him the distinction as "the hardest working robot in Hollywood".

[4] The film's storyline centers on a crew of Earth explorers who land their starship, the C57-D, on the planet Altair IV, inhabited by the mysterious human Dr. Morbius and his daughter Altaira who was born there.

Robby is a mechanical servant that Morbius has designed, built, and programmed using knowledge gleaned from his study of the ancient Krell, a long-extinct race of highly intelligent beings that once populated Altair IV.

This becomes an important plot point near the conclusion of the film when Robby refuses to kill the Id monster; he recognizes the invisible creature to be an alter ego/avatar of Dr. Morbius.

But thanks to its imaginative design, intricate detailing, and the very high visual quality of the final product, Robby immediately became the "face" of the film and soon became an enduring popular culture icon.

These parts were made from an early form of ABS plastic with the brand name "Royalite", a material mainly used at the time for making suitcases.

The tall paraboloidal plexiglass dome that covered the head housed the detailed mechanisms representing Robby's electronic brain.

Conical protuberances attached to each side of the head carry two small forward-facing blinking lights (his eyes) and two rotating chromed rings, one mounted vertically and the other horizontally, which represent Robby's audio detectors (his ears).

The bottom front section of the head is a curved grille consisting of parallel rows of thin blue neon tubes, which light up in voice synchronization when Robby speaks.

Robby's bulky barrel-shaped torso (a sly reference to Bob Kinoshita's earlier job as a washing machine designer) featured a front panel fitted with a rectangular door at the top (into which samples of any substance could be inserted for Robby to analyze and replicate); underneath the slot were two rotating discs fitted with small flashing lights and below that a row of five buttons that moved in and out.

Robby's thick, stubby arms were connected to his body with plastic ball-joints that fitted into matching sockets in the torso, allowing the joints a small amount of rotational movement.

The neoprene suit creased at the hips, back knees, and front elbows when the actor inside moved, giving the impression of being made from a flexible alien metal.

Robby's similar size and its construction from rigid sections that had articulated joints combined to create a convincing viewing experience.

It is not known whether this internal "oil-can" head was original, but its rather rudimentary design and appearance is clearly not of the same exacting MGM standards that are evident in all other Forbidden Planet props, and suggests it may have been custom-made for the filming of this Twilight Zone episode.

In other appearances, Robby usually retained the moving parts inside his transparent dome, although the details of his "brain" and chest panel were sometimes altered; in The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

[1] In 1971, the original 1956 Robby the Robot was sold to Jim Brucker and put on display at his Movie World/Cars of the Stars Museum, near Disneyland in Buena Park, California, where he was often vandalized by visitors.

The museum closed in 1980, and Robby, along with his transport vehicle, original MGM spare parts, and shipping containers were sold to William Malone.

[12] A replica or variant of Robby is on display at the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas as a sci-fi pop culture artifact from the 1950s.