This design made it possible to film Robby from any angle and for him to move about and carry out the actions required in a scene, without either betraying the obvious presence of an interior operator or revealing how each got in and out Robby was operated (uncredited) by stuntmen Frankie Darro and Frankie Carpenter, both actors being of shorter stature.ĭuring shooting, Robby's voice was performed off-camera by an uncredited actor, who spoke lines into a microphone that fed into a voice-actuated circuit connected by a cable running into Robby's foot, up through a leg, and all the way to the neon tubes in Robby's lower headpiece this device generated a control voltage that synchronized the voicebox's flashing neon tubes.Īll appearances of Robby after 1971 used a replica, as the original was retired sold to Jim Brucker and put on display in a southern California car museum the original. The torso was then placed around him, the two sections were secured with internal clips, and the operator was strapped into an internal over the shoulder harness finally the head was fitted, the internal electronics were connected to external power via hidden cables, and the suit was switched on and ready for filming. To access the suit, the three sections were dismantled and the operator climbed into the legs. The finished Robby stands just over 7-foot (2.1 m) tall and was fabricated in three detachable sections: the legs and lower torso, the barrel-like chest section (which included the arms), and the highly detailed head piece. 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 plastic parts were a pioneering example of the use of the then novel technology of vacuum-forming heated plastic over wooden molds. The Robby suit was constructed using a range of materials including metal, plastic, rubber, glass, and Plexiglas.
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. Robby was designed by members of the MGM art department and constructed by the studio's prop department The design was developed from initial ideas and sketches by production designer Arnold "Buddy" Gillespie, art director Arthur Lonergan, and writer Irving Block. Robby the Robot originated as a character in the 1956 MGM science fiction film Forbidden Planet.
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