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Polar Lights Robby the Robot


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A build from five years ago, bear that in mind when you read. I made it for my younger son, a fan of the genre, myself favor civil airplane models in 1/72.

 

If the phrases "Fritz Lang's Metropolis" or "Forbidden Planet" say nothing to you, just skip this and move on.

To the fans of vintage science fiction Robby the Robot needs no introduction. To the ones that era not, nothing will make sense anyway.

The foundational "Forbidden Planet" movie featured this mechanical character that later on transited through the years all across the board appearing in other movies and several TV shows. Today is an iconic symbol loved by supporters of the genre.
I finally could get my hands on this kit.

This Polar Lights edition includes the figure of the female character of the original movie, Altaira, whose attention Leslie Nielsen (yes, pal, the same) managed to pick up.

This kit is different from other releases as the legs and arms of the robot are differently posed, and includes a new base with the movie poster background in cardboard, a bit cheesy as it should be with these early examples of the genre.

The model is quite hefty, indifferently molded, quite heavy and the details are coarse, again, in line with what you could expect from a "figure" model. Lots and lots of seam kilometers to scrape, fill, sand and smooth-out. The fit is not bad, though.

The number of parts is not high, even with the added female figure.

You can find on the Net some "upgrades" for this kit: photoetched parts and some electronics that include light and sound effects. Although you could add those to your model with some extra work, it is not my cuppa, preferring personally to leave things as science-fiction nature made them. 

 

 

There.

The two creatures:

One has no heart, is calculating, cold, and driven by ruthless motives.

And the other is the robot.

The good thing is that the fans of the genre can make an almost decent replica of Robby the Robot with this kit. My son will have a much better replica because he has a loving father that happens to be a decent modeler. This kit should be better and could have been made better. There are no excuses. To a modeler it feels chunky, heavy, coarse and deficient. To a toy -or memorabilia- collector it may feel different. I wouldn't know.

Any modeler with average skills and a bit of experience will pull a good one out of this. At the cost of some extra time and some profanity-muttering.

Polar Lights does a good thing rehabilitating this old kits and making them available, but since they charge a price and don't do this entirely from the goodness or their hearts, they can do a much better job "polishing", perfecting and upgrading them. Or at least making sure that the molds are repaired, and revising some of the parts.

Nevertheless and regardless of the well-deserved nit-picking, I hope my son will be happy to have Robby at home.

 

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Darling, dear, what is that woman doing on you desk?:

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The ancillary parts are now colored as per stills of the original movie. It is now when the mediocre quality and production of the kit is most noticeable. The clear parts have flash and excrescences, and they are poorly molded:

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 Look at this one half of an "ear": the two bigger towers are flash, the two smaller pips are the locating pins. Man, this is not a bargain kit, the designers and the Chinese factory could have been just a little bit more careful:

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 And these are the worst: the said "ears" which are totally, absolutely awful and do not match reality, and the "transducers", which come as solid plastic and should have been included with the clear parts. The clear circles you see are the ones I am producing to replace the solid parts:

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The head is assembled. Watch out because the clear parts that have those little accordions are a very poor fit and are all different, in spite of being all "#15". The shorter ones should go in the middle, the longer ones at the ends:

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The fit problems with the head components continue. This head was a....headache!:

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Do not glue the arms before placing the figure, it won't fit. First position the robot's left arm around the figure and glue it to the torso. Immediately, before the glue sets, add the right hand. All these parts have an excellent fit (contrary to the head's):

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Lovely build.

This movie is one of my all-time favourites, and I have lost count of the number of times I have watched the DVD. I must admit, I don't remember a scene where Robby carried Altaira like this.

I do remember the scene where Robby carries the doctor from Morbius' laboratory after he tries the brain enhancing machine.

 

Still a lovely piece of work, though.

 

Well done!

 

Cheers, Alan.

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On 09/04/2019 at 12:38, Alan R said:

Lovely build.

This movie is one of my all-time favourites, and I have lost count of the number of times I have watched the DVD. I must admit, I don't remember a scene where Robby carried Altaira like this.

I do remember the scene where Robby carries the doctor from Morbius' laboratory after he tries the brain enhancing machine.

 

Still a lovely piece of work, though.

 

Well done!

 

Cheers, Alan.

 

Agreed a great build.

 

The model replicates the poster art, not a scene in the film.

 

Tommo.

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