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
Forbidden Planet (bookstore) paired with James Hamilton and Kenny Penman (today the main shareholders in Forbidden Planet International with Andrew Oddie, Richard Boxall and Colin Campbell) to open other stores. Penman and Hamilton were owners of one of the UK's oldest comics and SF stores, Science Fiction Bookshop, in Edinburgh, which opened around 1975. On 30 September 2003, the London store moved to even bigger premises at the eastern end of Shaftesbury Avenue. Forbidden Planet opened a second Megastore in Clifton Heights in Bristol in 2005, and a third in Southampton in 2007. In 2006 the company launched forbiddenplanet.com, an e-commerce retail site