A Tribute To Robots On TV

There should be more robots in television. I remember a whole bunch of them on TV when I was growing up, and how they captured my imagination back then.

Therefore, here is a list of all my ten favourites in no particular order. Some of them are rather obscure now. Click on their names to see a picture.

1. Lt. Cmdr. Data
   Data was a robot Starfleet officer on Star Trek: The Next Generation. He was an android, which means he had a human-like appearance. He is supposed to have a "positronic" brain, which is a homage to Asimov's robot stories. Data didn't have much in common with literary positronic robots, but the shout-out to Asimov was enough to impress me and thus I found the whole show that much more endearing.


2. Optimus Prime
   Optimus Prime was more than just a giant animated toy. He was an inspiring leader to a generation of kids who watched The Transformers with rapt attention each week, and wept when he died in the animated movie. There are a whole bunch of memorable characters from The Transformers show, but Optimus is one everyone loves.


3. Vicki
   Vicki was a robot girl on Small Wonder, a very bad 80's sitcom about a family with a robot daughter. Despite the fact that it was awful, I watched it anyway because I'll watching anything with either robots or dragons in it. I can still remember the theme song to this show, and it's one of those songs that get stuck in your head and make you want to scream.


4. Cameron
   Terminators are probably the most badass robots ever invented. If you ask me, a Terminator TV series is long overdue. I was thrilled to know there would be a series about Sarah and John Connor and their war against Skynet. It's too bad Arnold is too old and too busy being a governor to do any more terminating, but Summer Glau makes up for it. Cameron is a small-framed terminator who is surprisingly tough. She is sent back in time to protect a whiny, emo, John Connor and unlike uncle Derek, she doesn't mind his whining. Sometimes I hear the Small Wonder theme play in my head whenever I see Cameron. It's an evil, infectious theme.


5. R2D2
   Despite being a movie character, R2 makes the list because he had his own animated TV show together with his buddy C3P0 in Star Wars: Droids. It was an entertaining little cartoon, and I watched every week as the droids go from misadventure to misadventure. In the cartoon, R2 would pull out a variety of gadgets we never saw in the movies (rocket thrusters were not included though).


6. W1K1
   Jason of Star Command was a short-lived live action TV show which felt a lot like a rip-off of Star Wars. The protagonist looked a lot like Han Solo, and he had a little pocket robot named W1K1. I watched the show just to see W1K1. I remember nothing else about it, although the internet tells me James Doohan was in it too. Come to think of it, W1K1 is a pretty cool name for a robot. Nowadays we can pretend that it's an allusion to Wikipedia.


7. Roboz
   There was a show with a boat called Riptide back in the 80's, and on that boat was an orange robot named Roboz. Again, this is another TV programme I watched just because a robot was in it, and I also remember nothing else about it. Roboz didn't do much though. I wonder why I found him so fascinating as a kid.


8. KITT
   KITT was an AI installed in a black Trans-Am in Knight Rider. KITT was both a robot and a cool 80's car, which made him doubly awesome. He was sarcastic, loaded with weaponry, and just looked badass. There were several attempts to reboot the series, the latest of which has a new KITT which is an ugly Mustang that manages to look less futuristic than the one from the 80's. Nice going, TV producers.


9. Bender
   I haven't seen too many episodes of Futurama, but from the few I have seen, Bender has always been incredibly funny. There is just something so wrong yet so right about a dysfunctional, sarcastic robot. When I get the chance, I should catch up on my Futurama, if only to watch this guy.


10. K-9
    There have been numerous robots on Doctor Who, most of them villains. However, K-9 is a lovable robot dog companion for the Doctor which predates the Aibo by a few decades. I'm pretty sure I've seen him in the hazy memories I have of the old Doctor Who show, since I was thrilled to see him again when he made an appearance in the new series with David Tennant.

There are other popular TV show robots out there like the Cylons and the robot from Lost In Space, but sadly I have never seen those shows.

This has probably been the dorkiest post I've ever made.

ASIMO

Japan has all the awesome robots. ASIMO is a walking, bipedal, humanoid robot designed by Honda as a way of showing the world just how cool they are. ASIMO is going on an international tour, and he stopped by in Penang at Queensbay Mall. I managed to catch the show on the last day (the 30th of November), and here is a video clip I mashed together of footage I took of the robot.

ASIMO himself "talks" with the human host, but it is most probably a scripted pre-recorded presentation as we can't actually talk to machines in natural language reliably yet. The kids in the audience (that includes me I suppose) were enthralled by the robot as it demonstrated walking, ball-kicking, drink-serving, painting and dancing.

Droid Adventures Part II

Our intrepid little droid returns again for a photo adventure.

Here's R2 on the sterile white floor of the Death Star.

Here he is again on the Death Star, in the detention level. To the observant reader, this set may look just like the background I used for Cybertron. I'm uncreative when it comes to backgrounds, so I recycle them. Observant readers who are also die-hard fans of Star Wars might also (correctly) point out that R2 never went to the detention block. Feel free to protest this oversight in the comments section.

This might be a tank of Bacta fluid. It's too small to be an actual Bacta tank, so I'll pretend it's backup Bacta storage.

This tunnel is supposed to represent the one in Cloud City where Luke enters. Again, R2 never got near it, and it's too small. But I thought it looked cool, so there it is.

Droid Adventures Part I

R2-D2 is one of my favourite characters in Star Wars. I couldn't resist buying a little figure of him to use in Star Wars inspired photo shoots. The first two alludes to R2 rolling off on his own on Tatooine (before being captured by Jawas) and the last two is supposed to be R2 on the forest moon of Endor. These photos would work better if they were done in carefully built dioramas, but I don't have the patience to do that. So here he is, shot at different locations on campus.

Well, I'm not going that way. It's much too rocky.

What makes you think there are settlements over there?

And you said it was pretty here.

Wa-wait! Wait, come back! Artoo, stay with me.

Robosaurs

Everyone knows robots are cool. So are dinosaurs. So what's cooler than both robots and dinosaurs? Robot dinosaurs.

Robosaurs come in many shapes and sizes. Here is a robobrachiosaur, roaming around in a lush Jurassic jungle.

Technically, they run on artificial power sources, so I don't know why it's munching leaves. Perhaps it does so to fit in with organic dinosaurs. As they say, when in the late Jurassic, do as the organic brachiosaurs do (it's a popular aphorism, trust me on this one).

Contrary to outdated beliefs about robobrachiosaurs, they did not spend their time underwater but instead preferred dry land.

The roboraptor is a much smaller robosaur, but it packs a nasty set of teeth and claws. No, actually, those look pretty blunt and child-safe. However, it does makes a fearsome roar. That counts for something, right?

The fearsome roboraptor is ready to pounce from the top of a rock. There is no escape from its mighty jaws, except when you disable it via the on/off switch conveniently located on the back.

The robosaurs co-existed with other dinosaurs from those prehistoric times, such as this DEC AlphaStation.

Silicon Graphics workstations were featured in the movie "Jurassic Park". It fit right in with the other dinosaurs.

The mass-extinction that occurred 65 million years ago may have killed the organic dinosaurs, but the robot ones lingered on until the ice age when temperatures dropped to the "max" setting and they froze up. However, they may return someday.

The robobrachiosaur is a Zoid model I got for cheap during a clearance sale, and the roboraptor is a trinket that's supposed to be a smaller version of the raptor toy from Wowwee Robotics.

Bumblebee Transforms

Bumblebee the Autobot transforms from a Chevrolet Camaro 2008 concept car to a big alien robot in this sequence of pictures. Click here to see it in animated gif form (this is a terrible example of stop motion).

Bumblebee On Earth

I've tried to shoot this little guy in places where the scale of the model is not entirely obvious. I want him to look life-sized, and it's quite tricky to make the illusion look real.

I don't think Camaros can be driven into the jungle like this.

Bumblebee the Camaro parked near a scenic view of the Penang bridge.

Bumblebee transforms into his towering robot mode and poses in front of the bridge to have his photo taken.

It's hard to shoot a tiny model on the grass, because usually the blades of grass are really tall compared to the model and that breaks the illusion that this toy is actually a giant robot. However, this grass is nice and short. It's not entirely convincing so you need to pretend it's really tall (and fat) grass he's stepping on.

Bumblebee standing around amongst rocks and plants.

Bumblebee On Cybertron

Cybertron is a metal world inhabited by giant robots and torn apart by civil war. It was never fully explained why the Cybertronian conflict occurred in the animated series or the movies, other than the fact that Decepticons were power-hungry and wanted to rule over all and the Autobots wanted to stop them.

Bumblebee is a little Autobot fighting for his life, as he's cornered in the above picture. I don't know why he has bits of Camaro sticking out of his robot form even when on Cybertron. While we're on the subject of Cybertronian mysteries, just where does Optimus Prime's trailer go when he becomes a robot? How does Megatron shrink into a tiny gun? Which one is Rumble and which one is Frenzy?

Sadly, these questions may never be answered.

Cardboard Transformers

I am sick.

I have a fever and I'm coughing like mad. I had a trip planned to KL for an Apple event, but I had to cancel. Oh well.

To cheer me up, Annie B. pointed me out to cardboard Transformers you can print out and fold yourself. Thanks Anne!

On a related note, this and this have to be the best commentaries on the Michael Bay Transformers movie on the web.

Bumblebee On The Racetrack

I'm took my Bumblebee figure for a photo shooting session on a racetrack, where I basically fiddled with manual focus and F-number values to set depth of field. The H2 can be cranked up to f/8.0, which produced the racetrack photos.

Here's Bumblebee the long-distance runner, warming up for a race.

The road turns out to be a little too long though, and running is tiring. See how droopy his head is?

But why run when you can drive? Bumblebee makes the transforming noise as he folds himself up into a Camaro. Choo-choo-chee-chee-chee!

Marathons are easy to win when you have wheels and a motor (and also when there's no one else around actually racing you). Here is Bumblebee enjoying the view from a lofty spot after winning the race.

Transformers

Ever since I was a kid, I loved Transformers. I think every Transformers fan has wondered at one point if they would ever make a live-action Transformers movie, and how much it would rock if they did. So here we are, in July 2007, and the first Transformers live-action movie rolling out into the theatres. The only problem is, it was directed by Michael Bay.

There are spoilers for the movie ahead. If you don't want to know anything about the story, stop reading here.

Now the movie was entertaining enough, and the giant robots were impressive. I liked the new character designs with their intricate detail and fluid movements, which was (in my opinion) an improvement over the boxy squarish robots we had back in the 80's. However, the whole experience was rather lacking. The plot was ludicrous, the supporting characters were forgettable and the cinematography was clumsy. Such is to be expected from a Michael Bay movie of course, but I think even he could do better.

The first half of the movie begins promisingly enough. The story begins with a Decepticon attack on a US military base in the desert, with a giant helicopter dude (Blackout) tossing tanks around and shooting at random things. There we meet our first forgettable stock character, the Macho Marine. He has a wife and baby girl back home (like every good movie marine should), and he leads a band of surviving soldiers out into the desert.

We then meet Sam Witwicky (Spike from the cartoon, though they don't call him by his nickname in the movie), a nerdy kid who really, really wants a car. His dad (Sparkplug, but called 'Ron' in the movie) takes him to a used-car dealer and gets a junky '74 Camaro for him. The Camaro turns out to be none other than Bumblebee in disguise, who helps Sam woo the girl he fancies. The object of Sam's affection is a pretty classmate named Mikaela, and in a cheesy but cute sequence Bumblebee plays back music and pretends to break down as a hapless Sam tries to figure out what's wrong with his car and at the same time impress Mikaela.

In the night, Bumblebee sneaks out, transforms and calls up Optimus Prime and his friends with a Batsignal-like thing. Sam sees this, and become terrified of it, but when he gets embroiled in the Autobot-Decepticon war to find a MacGuffin called the "Allspark" (kind of like Vector Sigma, only... squarer), he decides to help out.

It turns out Sam's great-great-grandpa was an explorer who discovered a frozen Megatron in the North Pole years ago, and the coordinates to the Allspark were etched on his glasses (you have to see it to understand). Optimus Prime gets hold of the glasses, but Sam, Mikaela and his parents get kidnapped by a shady government organisation called Sector 7. This is where the plot disintegrates, with a lot of very painful attemnpts at 'humour' from the Section 7 bureaucrat. Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots rescue Sam and Mikaela, but the potential coolness of this scene was totally taken away by the goofy portrayal of their captors.

The Autobots have a run-in with Sector 7, Sam and Mikaela get captured again together with Bumblebee, Sam and the rest of the stock characters (an Important Government Official, a Nerdy Hacker, the Macho Marine from the opening sequence) converge at the Hoover dam where the government is secretly holding both Megatron and the Allspark in a secret base. The Autobots (using the grandpa glasses) track down the Allspark to the Hoover dam. However, the Decepticon spy Frenzy (who looks like a little metal gremlin) leads the bad guys there too.

Sam convinces Important Government Official and Macho Marine to help the Autobots, so they release Bumblebee and take the Allspark, but robot gremlin infiltrates the base and revives Megatron. Then, the Autobots take the Allspark to a highly populated urban area for no apparent reason other than to set up the final confrontation where Michael Bay can blow up buildings and show the terrified human populace running for their lives.

The final battle isn't too bad to watch, if you can ignore the logical flaws in the story. However, the enjoyment is again marred by Michael Bay's poor direction. The camerawork is awful, and it is frequently shaky and the use of zoom is always at odd and inappropriate times.

I commend the special effects guys on making cool-looking robots and transformation sequences. The director and scriptwriters don't do much justice to it though. Shia LaBeouf gives an earnest performance as Sam, but the rest of the human cast fails to stand out as they were reduced to stock character roles. The addition of the fat hacker nerd was completely unnecessary, as were the Sector 7 and 'hacking' plotlines. Peter Cullen's return to the Optimus Prime role provided a comfortingly familiar voice, and thus Prime is the most recognisable of the Transformers. Otherwise, there isn't much for nostalgia-seekers. Most of the robots had only a few lines each, and did not get much to say. It's as if the filmmakers didn't care at all about the robot characters, and just used them as they would the other special effects.

The potential for this film to be awesome was there, if only there had been a different director and scriptwriting team. How amazing would it have been if it were directed by Sam Raimi or Brad Bird or even Steven Spielberg himself (he is the executive producer of this movie).

The producers have indicated that they are making sequels to Transformers. If they get rid of Michael Bay and hire a director that cared about our beloved robot characters, perhaps then there'd be a worthy movie that will light our darkest hour.

Bumblebee

Here is a Bumblebee action figure from the new Transformers movie. He turns into a Chevrolet Camaro. This edition of the toy is the "2008 concept Camaro" which he turns into later in the film.

These shots were taken with the H2:

Agent Megatrond?

Here's some news about the live-action Transformers movie. I've always wanted to see something like this as a kid, and despite the changes from the original cartoon and having a terrible director, the new movie still manages to intrigue me from time to time.

The latest report from USA Today indicates that Hugo Weaving will voice Megatron. I can picture it now.

"Welcome to Cybertron...Misterrr Prrriiime"

Brilliant.

They aren't telling what Megatron turns into. Previous rumours indicated he turned into this really horrid-looking "alien jet". For a robot in a disguise that wants to conceal its alien origin, that's a pretty lousy disguise. I hope he turns into a tank or something. That way they can preserve the bad-ass cannon on his arm.