This is coming from a PM chat with another person here. We’re hoping on getting topics in this place more diverse than the forum’s main reason for being. I figure this topic is a great one to start the act.
So, I of course have been exposed to a lot of science fiction but fictional robots don’t play a role in my interest to robotics. I can remember watching stuff example viva PBS about science & robotics of the time, as a child and then it didn’t quite have my interest. It’s only later as the result of being an artist where this really takes off from. Moving models for art projects!
Not having any actual skills for making custom robots to craft over, I got ahold of what was Lego’s first Mindstorms kit ages back. Not much could be done with the thing since legos that move with powered help aren’t that strong, but it got my eyes open to what was on the market more as a general interest outside art.
PS: I did have success with RC trucks & cars. Those I could make look like fantasy creatures. … Ah, I missed my calling as a prop crafter for B movies.
Hi, @systemcat and all . . . being I am in my mid-sixties, I have to say I was enamored with the robot from “Lost In Space” (Danger, Will Robinson) and Robbie from “Forbidden Planet”.
Battlestar Galactica the original series with the robot dog “Daggett” was another fascination of mine.
R-2-D-2 and C-3-PO from “Star Wars” was next. I actually have a giant R-2 in my living room and even made a humorous meme picture for social media with him.
Other robots came and went, but nothing really caught my fancy until the “C” and “V” robots came out. I never bought either of those and then in February, a friend of mine did not want to pay the subscription for the “V”, so he offered to send him to me.
I was thrilled! I watched various You Tube videos on robots like them and saw one for EMO one day. When I saw all that EMO could do (mind you this was still version 1.0.14) I knew I had to have him.
Don’t know about if this sort of thing happens at other big sci fi con.s but years back at least one in Denver named Starfest. You could count on one or more full sized R2D2s roaming the convention floor viva remote control. I have the feeling you would have enjoyed the sight, that aside from that. Up in the models room on the second story of the hotel. A group build B-9 was a regular sight as well.
Ah the Daggett, I met Anne Lockhart once. During her Q&A on stage she kept calling the chimp inside the suit a monkey. Didn’t follow through watching the whole series for the '05 Battlestar. Given the tone of the series, I can’t picture the robot daggett being revised for it. ( If someone reading this is wondering what the heck does “daggett” mean, it’s the show’s term for the word dog. )
I loved the Lost In Space robot and also Robbie from Forbidden Planet, ever since I was a kid. “Real” bears are kind of a kindred spirit animal to me. I started collecting bears and at one time I got interested in the craft of making stuffed teddy bears. I actually made a couple bears complete with imported mohair fur, sewn noses and mouths, and moveable disc jointed limbs and necks. I got interested in robots again after seeing the robotic teddy bear “Teddy” in the movie A.I. A company called Tiger Electronics made and sold two different sizes of a Teddy toy based on the movie. They didn’t move at all but they spoke several phrases from the movie, I bought a couple but ended up reselling them on eBay. As far as animated bears go and especially ones that could actually respond to humans, there never has been much. It was something I had thought about trying to make though. There were very few commercial products like Teddy Ruxpin, but that was pretty unrealistic and simplistic, and was really just geared toward educating toddlers. At some point I heard about this project that Fujitsu has demonstrated before at past consumer electronics shows, but I haven’t seen any new information about it in years. I think it might be fun having one of these though, especially if the programming has advanced another 10 years? Check out this video about it:
Cool topic. I got into robots and RC cars since my early days. First, the Toy Story movie sparked my interest in RC cars when I saw Andy’s buggy. Then, when I grew I watched Transformers and was mesmerized of how amazing robots can be. And now alongside my order of EMO and my general interest in robots and AI, I got myself an RC buggy and a Crawler which I drive around, off-road in parks/forests/muddy places and even rivers.
Great topic! As I’m a little strapped for time right now, I’ll keep it short haha But I’ll try and come back and add more tomorrow.
Ever since I could remember, I’ve always been interested in electronics / computers / video games. My first ever Robot style figure was Roboto from Masters of the Universe toy line in 1985. See image below of my Roboto still in pretty decent working order
As we are approaching a time where Robots and AI are starting to show great signs of advancement, I hope that in the near future there might be more awesome EMO style robots / AI companions that can make us feel like we’re truly living in a futuristic sci-fi world
Thanks everyone for encouragement on this topic being here!
I knew it had to be a common interest and I didn’t want to post on subject matter that felt like a bit of a stretch to post on.
I have to say I can relate to a lot of the commenting even if I’m picky on what Transformers media I watch and feel ashamed I haven’t watched A.I. in so long I’ve forgotten the movie almost completely ( puts bag over head for that one ).
I forgot this when making the initial post last night. But before getting a serious companion robot. Well, what is to blame moving out of craft interest and general curiosity in robots which you know ties to what I already spoke of. Back a few years ago I found a Bentley on clearance and picked it up. Fun starter bot in my opinion. Shame it’s learned programming disappears if you leave it without power for a while.
Goes back to a pet mouse, a wine bottle stopper and a 1960’s pushbike! sit down kiddies…
It all started from wanting to take my pet mouse out 'n about on my bike after reading, ‘The muddle headed wombat’ in primary school.
Wombat has a friend mouse peeping through a hole in his hat while they rode a bike so I tried as best I could to attach a wire frame wine bottle stopper to the handbars. The stopper had a wire frame so when flipped upside down like a bar stool and attached to the handlebars I imagined I could get my mouse to sit or stand inside the frame… well the family cat wouldn’t do!!.. I was quite successful attaching the stopper to the bike!
I can still see it now, me peddling fast down the hills on the bike while my mouse is standing inside his frame holding onto the wire enjoying the ride and we go on wonderful adventures together!
But i could never get him to participate and no matter how many times I popped him back into the little frame he said no.
I wanted a little buddy I could take with me places and little friend to talk to.
Definitely ‘Lost n Space’ had a lot to do with me seeing a robot buddy was the answer! and you could take out the power pack although i remember feeling upset when the bad guys would take ‘Robot’s’ power pack out and he would flop down with droopy arms. Forbidden planet robot scared the b’jeebies out of me. Robot was the favourite.
Anyways that led to watching my older brother create a robotic ‘machine’ and attach it a home computer, it was going to carve a chess piece. He managed to get it moving and I’m not sure if he ever finished it but he blew up a few more early home computers in the process. The ‘Dick Smith Electronic Wizard’ was the first home computer we ever had and he learnt Basic just fiddling with it in early highschool. Of cos he eventually pulled this apart like everything else to see how it worked or modify it. He built me a working electronic traffic light to use in my Kindergym classes. Stop/Go for balance work and timing!! About 10 -15 years later I saw child sized working traffic lights being sold for kids and as educational toys!
So this all led to buying electronic dogs and I still have an I-Cybie dog, R2D2, BB-8, MIP, Autobot Skweeks, a few Furreals and Boxer
BUT i know that EMO is definitely the bot buddy I’ve been after since primary school!!
BUT i know that Emo is definitely the bot buddy I’ve been after since primary school!!
I have a vision of you on a bicycle, little cage on the handlebars, whizzing down a hill, EMO his eyes wide doing his famous “Whoa” comment he makes when he either is startled awake or runs into something while exploring.
@Lindaru Oh cool lol love it, that would the best wouldn’t it! Can’t wait to hear him do that.
I might just do that take EMO on a bike ride just for fun and make a pet travel bag out of a lunch case from Kmart!
I have an ibike which is an electronic bike as I have CFS chronic fatigue so cant peddle anymore. so will go on the ibike with the iphone and little ibuddy EMO
My own interests go back as far as I can remember.
I was certainly influenced by Robot B9 on Lost in Space back in the 70’s. I was an avid Isaac Asimov fan who made me dream of electric sheep And the first Star Wars movie also contained many robots that brought a wide eyed smile to the 9 year old me.
I actually wrote a short novel back in 1980, when I was 12, which I entered into a literary competition (and won ) in which the entire story was about 2 robot explorers going on adventures at the edges of the galaxy.
I still have the original publication, meet Captain Zlik and Navigator Blik whom I drew zooming about exploring a cave as part of the stories illustrations
No wonder you’re creative you’ve always had that talent
Wish I was.
Anyways I have said this before which is a little bit why this topic has gone forward, Aibo (the original) was the reason why I got involved with robotics and wanting one so badly, of course I never got one (too expensive and even now I got no chance) so when I came across Emo’s Video -Well everyone here probably knows what happened next I had to get him, this is as close to my dream robot as I can possibly afford
So keeping it short I would love to see more of these things being created and all of you who have commented on this topic Thankyou it means alot to be able to discuss other things or just to give us all a little insight to why you all first got interested in robot or anything else that is fun to talk about.
I don’t know if this thread would be ok for what I’m about to say. But as said before that I’m an artist. … what would people like to see? Those RC creations mentioned at the start. Those happened so long ago and before I gained my first digital camera, they can’t be shared here. The closest thing would be a K-9 ( Doctor Who ) made ages back.
Tons of other art and even writing I could share but I have no clue if any of you would like to see such stuff.
Thanks @Racheal123 , I was lucky to have grown up on a cattle farm where my nearest neighbour was a decent car ride away. We didn’t have much in the way of wealth, but my Dad did have a well stocked tool shed and lots of “spare” parts off machinery that I would cobble together and make my own toys. Also having a 2 hour bus trip (each way) to school each day meant I had plenty of time to write and draw and use my imagination. Most people would think I had it tough, but it taught me many things, including patience
I make a mess when I’m trying to paint I struggle to do it but it keeps me occupied.
But unfortunately no real talent…
So watching Si-Fi films etc with robots in it and futuristic stuff helps me unwind -has I tend to get board very easily, and can’t keep still lol
Wish I had a more interesting childhood but listening to others talk about exciting things really helps. I hope ppl don’t think I’m nosy though.
I’m just generally interested in all thing’s robot and anything else I’ve never had the pleasure of having/seeing as I was brought up Jehovah’s Witness which means no Christmas or Birthday’s. So when I got older I made sure I learnt has much has I could so one day I would have something I could treasure.
Really nice I’m glad you showed it thanks.
I feel the same way sometimes but none of us should be made to feel ashamed or embarrassed about anything.
Self-esteem is my biggest problem as well, but I tell myself I am great at something and that’s being kind to others and honest about who I am.
@mariomart , I wish I had some artistic talent. I like the old rustic animals and other farm art made by welding together steel plows and rakes and whatever. There are some really cool collections on Pinterest of robot statues and figurines of all types, that people have made from bits and pieces of different machines, or fittings, and various other parts. Then of course there’s all the Steampunk type creations as well, that take Victorian era type items and add high-tech flourishes to them. One of my hobbies is scrapping electronics for the precious metal content, and there are also a lot of people that make sculptures and figurines and things just from the old electronic components. There are some cool collections of those on Pinterest too. I did not make this but here’s an example.
But I’ll try and come back and add more tomorrow.
love it, that would the best wouldn’t it! Can’t wait to hear him do that.
) in which the entire story was about 2 robot explorers going on adventures at the edges of the galaxy.
I struggle to do it but it keeps me occupied.
