Top 20 Awesome Robots

K-9 was a companion for the Doctor, featuring mainly in the 1980’s and coming back every so often, K-9 is a fan favourite.

Facts

• Era. (1977 – 2011)
• He even had his own TV show called, K-9 and Company
• There were 4 versions of K-9 (K-9 Mark I, II, III, and IV)
• Professor Marius invented the first K-9 in the year 5000 while working on the asteroid K4067
• The 10th Doctor had a cat called Rose that made fun of K-9.

Bender is the alcoholic, bad mouthed robot from Futurama, he burps fire and can literally poop bricks.

Facts

• Era. (1999-2013 That’s every episode!)
• He’s been a pharaoh, a god and even a country singer.
• Bender is named after John Bender from The Breakfast Club
• Bender’s first words were “Bit my shiny metal ass”
• Bender’s father was killed by a can opener

Daleks are the long-standing archenemy of the Doctor in Doctor Who. There are many different versions of the Dalek which have been in almost every series and have always been an enemy of the Doctor.

Facts

• Era. (1960-ongoing)
• Catchphrase is Exterminate!
• The Daleks are an aliens race of cyborgs created by Davros
• They can’t go up steps! (Or can they…)
• The Daleks have tried just about everything to take over the universe but luckily the Doctor has always stopped them.

Who doesn’t like explosions and robots? Though the films might be a little cheesy but the robots are awesome. Robots that can turn into vehicles, whats not to like?

• Era. (1984-ongoing)
• The toys rule
• Optimus Prime’s orginal name was Orion Pax
• Optimus Prime is an Autobot, Autobots fight against the Decepticons
• There is a 12 metre high statue of Optimus Prime in Yunnan Province, China

Baymax is one of the main characters in Big Hero 6. Baymax is an inflatable robot built by Tadashi, the older brother of the protagonist Hiro Hamada, to serve as a healthcare companion.

• Era. (2014)
• The drunken Baymax scene is hilarious
• Baymax can repair himself
• Baymax gets ‘drunk’ when he has a low battery
• Baymax has a rocket-fueled armoured suit that can make him fly

Wall-e is a great movie and a great robot from it is M-O (Microbe-Obliterator), it is one of the cleaner robots in the film. If you haven’t seen Wall-e we definitely recommend it.

• Era. (2008)
• M-O stands for Microbe-Obliterator
• M-O is obsessed with keeping things clean and exempt of “Foreign Contaminants”
• In the movie, there is only one M-O, but the video game there are two.
• The film’s working title was “Trash Planet”

The replicants in the Blade Runner film are the robots which have escaped and its the job of a blade runner to seek out and destroy the robots.

• Era. (1982)
• Talks of the sequel are sounding good, fingers crossed!
• According to director Ridley Scott, Rick Deckard (the protagonist) is a replicant himself
• The film is set way into the future – November 2019!
• Replicants look exactly the same as humans, they are manufactured by the Tyrell Corporation

ED-209 (Enforcement Droid Series 209) are peacekeeping robots, they are fully automatic and they even made it into the remake (yuck!)

• Era. (1987 – 2014)
• ED-209 was filmed in stop motion, really impressive
• During its first demonstration, ED-209 machine gunned junior executive Mr. Kinny to death
• The ED-209 project was brought in to replace RoboCop
• Just like the Daleks the ED-209 could not do stairs!

In the Day the Earth Stood Still, an alien named Klaatu visits Earth, Gort accompanies the alien to deliver a message to humans.

• Era. (1951 and 2008)
• Gort is on of the most famous robots ever, it looks dated now but the remake looks a lot better for fils nowadays, it’s not a great film but worth checking our if you’re a fan of Sci Fi
• Gort is an eight-foot robot from an unnamed, distant planet
• He can evaporate anything he targets with his laser-like vision

Johnny Cab is a series of robots which are taxi drivers in the Total Recall film, unfortunately they didn’t make it into the remake but they are very funny and very 80’s.

• Era. (1980)
• The song Johnny Cab is whistling is the Norwegian national anthem… for no apparent reason.
• Robert Picardo was the voice and face of the Johnny Cab robot
• Just like Johnny Cab, Google has a self-driving car, ideal for nights out drinking

Hal-9000 is more of a computer than a robot (but cool nonetheless). The robot is the antagonist in the 2001: A Space Odyssey film.

• Era. (1968)
• Originally, HAL was to be called Athena and have a female voice.
• HAL stands for ‘Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer’
• HAL has no exterior physical form, it is seen as a red television camera eye located on panels throughout the space ship

GlaDos is the antagonist throughout the Portal computer game series, the most distinct thing about GlaDos is her voice.

• Era. (2007)
• GlaDos even made an appearance in Lego Dimensions the Lego game, it’s a shame you can’t buy Lego sets (just yet…).
• GlaDos is an acronym for ‘Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System’
• In the first game, she awakens Chell (the protaganist) taking her through the dangerous course, but Chell manages to escape and destroy her

Pacific Rim is a film in which giant robots fight slightly bigger monsters, it’s not supposed to be taken seriously and that’s a good thing. Gipsy Danger is the main robot built to fight the robots.

• Era. (2013)
• Gipsy Danger is based on a cross between John Wayne and the Chrysler Building.
• Gipsy Danger was constructed on Kodiak Island at the Jaeger Academy’s Jaeger testing facility
• Gipsy Danger stands at 260 feet tall and needs two pilots to control him

Metal Mickey is a robot from the 1980’s self titled TV show. The robot was built to be a helper around the house but the TV show usually ended in something funny.

• Era. (1980 – 1983)
• The show was actually written by Micky Dolenz from the Monkees.
• In 1978 he released a novelty record, ‘Lollipop’
• His catchphrase was ‘Boogie Boogie’
• The TV series ran for 39 episodes, and finished in 1983

TARS is one of the three robots in the film Interstellar, the robot pilots and helps the crew on their way to discover a new planet.

• Era. (2014)
• TARS was actually a practical effects puppet controlled by Billy Irwin, who was then digitally removed.
• TARS looks like a robotic four finger Kit Kat
• The name TARS doesn’t actually stand for anything
• TARS is made from Aluminium, weighs 14 stone, and took six weeks and about $20,000 to build

Lance Bishop is the accompanying robot in the Aliens film, every mission in the Aliens universe requires a robot in the team and Bishop is one of these, I won’t spoil too much but he is a very cool character.

• Era. (1986)
• For the scene where Bishop plays the knife game, the actor practised with a variety of different knives and got to the point where he actually performed the stunt on camera, although certain shots were later sped up to accentuate his inhuman abilities.
• Bishop was created by Weyland-Yutani and modelled on his own appearance
• Bishop is played by the actor Lance Henriksen
• Spot the pattern, in Alien the robot is called Ash, Aliens has Bishop, Alien Resurrection had Call and Prometheus had David, A-B-C-D

The Terminator is a robot from the future! It travels back in time and stops events from happening in the future, a good series of films but I believe the second one stands out!

• Era. (1984-ongoing)
• Terminator was actually born out of a nightmare that James Cameron had.
• The Terminator is played by Arnold Schwarzeneggar, his “I’ll be back” line is three of the 58 total words he used in the first film
• The film studio originally wanted O.J. Simpson to be the Terminator
• The T-800 (the Original Terminator) was Skynet’s first cybernetic organism, with living tissue over a hyperalloy endoskeleton

Short Circuit’s plot centers around an experimental military robot that is struck by lighting and gains a more humanlike intelligence.

• Era. (1986)
• There are talks of a remake in the works so keep an eye out for that
• It took 12 people to operate Johnny Five at one time
• There were 15 versions of Johnny Five built for the two films
• Actor Tim Blaney was the voice of Johnny Five

Mechagodzilla is a man-made weapon designed to defend Japan from Godzilla it appears in the Godzilla films and is a robot doppelgänger and arch-enemy of Godzilla.

• Era. (1974)
• Mechagodzilla is one of Godzillas most powerful opponents and is rumoured to be in the sequel to the remake coming 2018.
• Mechagodzilla is 120 meters tall and weighs 150,000 tons
• Mechagodzilla has quite an armoury including; Mega-Buster ray from his mouth; Laser Beam Eyes; and can join with Garuda to form Super Mechagodzilla
• Mechagodzilla appeard in six of the Godzilla movie series

It had to be a Star Wars character, we all love Star Wars at Ocean Print and the best robot in the series has got to be R2-D2. The robot has been in every film so far and plays a key role throughout the films, surely everyone agrees!

• Era. (1977 – ongoing)
• R2-D2 was ranked the best robot from film or television of all time by Amazon.co.uk and the Internet Movie Database in 2004, and the best movie robot of all time by Rotten Tomatoes in 2009, so we aren’t alone!
• R2-D2 is played by all round short guy and actor Kenny Baker
• R2-D2 is pronounced Artoo-Detoo or Artoo for short
• R2-D2 was able to fly in the prequel films
• R2-D2 was designed by Ralph McQuarrie, co-developed by John Stears and built by Tony Dyson from The White Horse Toy Company