Robby the Robot Robby the Robot Robby the Robot is a fictional character and science fiction icon who first appeared in the 1956 film "Forbidden Planet". He made a number of subsequent appearances in science fiction movies and television programs, usually without specific reference to the original film character. 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
Robby the Robot 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