The robot's groundbreaking design and dazzling finish represented a radical advance on the conventional "walking oil-can" depictions of robots in earlier features and film serials, and the only previous film robot of comparable style and quality was the "Menschmaschine" created for Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927). However, this did not come cheap: As with every aspect of the production of Forbidden Planet, MGM spared no expense on Robby's design and construction. At a reported cost of US$125,000 (equivalent to at least $US1.1 million today) it was, proportional to total budget, one of the most expensive single film props ever created up to that time, which represented nearly 7% of the film's total budget of US$1.9 million. (By way of comparison, Robby cost roughly the same, proportional to total budget, as the massive 27-ton, 12 meter-diameter, rotating centrifuge set built for Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, which cost US$750,000 against a total budget of around US$11 million). 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.
The name "Robbie" (spelled with an "ie") had appeared in science fiction before Forbidden Planet. In a pulp magazine adventure The Fantastic Island (1935), the name is used for a mechanical likeness of Doc Savage used to confuse foes. The name is also used in Isaac Asimov's short story "Robbie" (1940) about a first-generation robot designed to care for children. In Tom Swift on The Phantom Satellite (1956), it is also the name given to a small four-foot robot designed by Tom Swift Jr., the boy Inventor in the Tom Swift Jr. science fiction novel series by Victor Appleton II.
Robby's design was a major advance on all previous screen robots in many practical and aesthetic respects. By comparison, the robot Gort, the menacing "interstellar policeman" from the film The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) was clearly a man in a robot suit, and its design posed several practical problems for shooting. Because it was made of flexible neoprene overall, similar to a skin diver's wetsuit, the props team had to fabricate two suits that laced up in order to keep the fastenings out of sight while filming Gort moving: One suit opened at the back (for frontal shots), and the second, which opened at the front, was used for the shots in which Gort was seen from behind. The neoprene suit creased at the hips, knees, and elbows when the actor inside moved, giving the impression of being made from a flexible alien metal. The filmmakers diminished the effect by keeping Gort's movements to a minimum or by only shooting his upper body when he walked.
Robby the Robot originated as a character in the 1956 MGM science fiction film Forbidden Planet. The story centers on a crew of space explorers from Earth who land their starship, the C57-D, on the planet Altair IV, ruled by the mysterious Dr. Morbius. Robby is a mechanical servant that Morbius has designed, built, and programmed using knowledge gleaned from his study of the Krell, a long-extinct race of highly intelligent beings that once populated Altair IV. The film’s plot appears loosely based on william Shakespeare’s play The Tempest (1610), with the planet Altair IV standing in for Shakespeare’s remote island and Dr. Morbius for Prospero. In this context Robby is analogous to Ariel, a spirit enslaved by Prospero.
The robot quickly became a science fiction icon in the decades that followed and was reused or recreated in multiple TV shows. Robby was reused by MGM in The Invisible Boy (1957) and then made several further appearances in other films and TV shows during the next few decades; these include episodes of My Little Margie, The Thin Man, Columbo, The Addams Family, and Lost in Space where he battles The Robot. While Robby's appearance was generally consistent, there were exceptions.
The original Rod Serling incarnation of The Twilight Zone - which was substantially filmed at MGM Studios - made extensive use of props and costumes originally created for Forbidden Planet, including Robby. The Season 5 episode "Uncle Simon" (1963) featured Robby, although his appearance was considerably different, combining the familiar body with an alternate head. According to Robby's current owner, Director william Malone, the head used in this episode was a prototype created during Robby's original construction. It featured a highly simplified and rather old-fashioned cylindrical "oil can" robot head with stylised 'eyes' (that were illuminated and movable) and a circular 'mouth'; this was enclosed under the distinctively-shaped conical plexiglass dome, but this head's front grille also did not have the blue neon tubes and lacked the rotating external 'ear' pieces seen in Forbidden Planet. It is not known whether this internal "oil-can'" head was original, but its rather rudimentary design and appearance is clearly not of 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. However this version of the prop survives and is currently also owned by william Malone.
Robby has made few appearances after the 1970s, but he does make a cameo appearance in Gremlins (1984); he can be seen standing in the background and speaking some of his trademark lines. He was also featured in a 2006 commercial for AT&T.
Fred Barton built a second Robby replica which appeared at the 1974 Star Trek Convention in Los Angeles. Barton continues to produce Robby props and other 1:1 robot replicas. His recreations are currently on display at the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, Washington, and at the Metreon entertainment complex in San Francisco; other Robby replicas are on display in various venues. Full-sized, remote-controlled Barton robot props are available from Hammacher Schlemmer or ordered directly on-line from Fred Barton Productions; the company manufacturers various 1:1 film and TV robot reproductions under license, aimed at the growing science fiction film collectors' market. Robby has also become a popular subject of collector tin toy and plastic robot reproductions and model kits.
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. episode, "The Bridge of Lions Affair", only Robby's head dome was used as part of a regeneration machine. Robby also appeared in the Mork & Mindy second-season episode "Dr. Morkenstein", this time representing a character called Chuck (voiced by actor Roddy McDowall) whom Mork befriends while working as a security guard in the science museum where Chuck is on display. Robby was given a major 'makeover' for his appearance in the TV series Project U.F.O. (1978). The original head was removed and replaced with a newly constructed "Cyclops" head that had new internal 'brain' fittings, a much squatter (roughly hemispherical) perspex dome, and a large circular glowing green 'eye' on the front, mounted in a protruding triangular panel. The front panel on Robby's torso was also modified with the addition of a new protruding panel, and additional appliances and cables were added to the front of both legs. This 'Cyclops' version of Robby was also used in the 1976 TV series Ark II and the 1988 video B-movie Phantom Empire. It should be noted that all appearances of Robby after 1971 are a replica, as the original was retired and on display in a museum (see below).
Robby the Robot was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame in 2004.
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. Robot Historian Fred Barton was commissioned to restore Robby to his original 1956 state while the robot was still on display at the museum. Barton used original duplicate replacement parts made for the Forbidden Planet suit by MGM's prop department. It was, however, in a desperate condition once again several years later. The museum closed its doors in 1980, and Robby, along with his vehicle, original MGM spare parts, and shipping containers were sold to william Malone. Malone noted that Robby had once again fallen into a state of disrepair. Having built the first ever replica of Robby in 1973, Malone was able to carefully restore the robot prop to its original condition using additional spare parts which the original builders had stocked in Robby's stage cases some 25 years earlier. The original Robby the Robot remained in Malone's collection for many years until finally being sold by Bonhams Auctioneers in New York on November 21, 2017 for $5,375,000. It became the most expensive hero film prop ever sold at auction.
Robby exhibits artificial intelligence, but has a distinct personality that at times exhibits a dry wit. He is instructed by Morbius to be helpful to the Earthmen and does so by synthesizing and transporting to their landing site 10 tons of "isotope 217", a lightweight though still effective replacement for the requested lead shielding needed to house the C-57-D’s main stardrive to power an attempt to contact Earth base for further instructions. Morbius programmed Robby to obey a system of rules similar to Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics as expressed in I, Robot (1950). One of the laws is a rule against harming or killing humans; this becomes an important plot point near the conclusion of the film when Robby refuses to kill the Id Monster. The robot recognizes that the invisible creature is an alter ego/extension of Dr. Morbius. Hollywood purposely, and misleadingly, depicts Robby in the film’s advertising posters as a terrifying adversarial creature carrying a seductively posed unconscious maiden, but no such scene is in the film and the images do not reflect in any way Robby's benevolent and intelligent character. Robby only carries one person during the film, the Earth starship's Dr. Ostrow, when he is mortally wounded near the end of the film.
