One of the Most Famous Movie Robots of All Time Just Sold for $5.4 Million
Long before robots like R2-D2 or the Terminator hit the silver screen, a 1956 movie called Forbidden Planet featured a humanoid automaton that, in all likelihood, blew your grandparents’ minds. Robby the Robot might be primitive by today’s movie prop standards, but the three-piece costume is so iconic that it recently sold at a Bonhams auction in New York for a staggering $5,375,000.
Photo: Bonhams
The auction makes Robby the Robot the second most expensive movie prop of all time, topped only by Marilyn Monroe’s white dress from the 1955 film The Seven Year Itch, which sold for $5,520,000 at auction six years ago.
Photo: Bonhams
While a robot like Robby would be realized today using an actor in a motion capture suit and sophisticated computer graphics, in 1956 it was built by MGM’s in-house prop shop from plastic, metal, rubber and other futuristic-looking components like a spinning gyroscope (ooh!) and even neon lights.
Five 12-volt DC motors kept all of Robby’s spinning features running, and contributed to the costume’s 120-pound weight—carried by a strong stunt person who took many, many breaks while shooting. A special rig was even built to allow the performer to rest without having to completely remove the costume.
Robby the Robot cost somewhere around $100,000 to build back in 1956, which would be the equivalent of spending close to a million dollars to build a single prop today. Obscenely expensive, yes, but over the years MGM got a lot of use out of Robby, with the robot appearing in countless other movies and TV shows, including Gremlins , The Twilight Zone , Mork & Mindy , and Lost in Space .
In 1970 the prop was purchased by a private collector who put it on display at a Hollywood-themed museum, but in 1979 it was acquired by another collector who restored Robby the Robot to its original condition using spare parts and replicas cast from original components, like his hands and see-through bubble dome. There’s no word on whether or not Robby’s new owner plans to put it on display again, or keep it as part of a private collection.
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Forbidden Planet... One of the all-time great SF movies!
Loved that robot, I thought I wanted one like him when I was a kid.
I saw the movie again a few years ago... well into my sixties... and I still loved that robot!
You can't help but love that guy, "guy"? Oh well, he was named Robbie.
Absolutely a great SF movie. Forbidden Planet was one of the first really great SF movies. The concept that the monster was created from Dr. Morbius' id was quite clever. At that time I was really into reading SF pulp magazines and novels, and so I'm sure I must have gone to see the movie when it was first released, and watched it at least a few times more over the years, including within the past couple of years. Anne Francis was 26 years old then, and pretty gorgeous. What I'm trying to remember now is what kind of drink Robbie produced for the space ship crew - I think it was Scotch. The movie was preceded by around 5 years by another iconic SF movie, The Day the Earth Stood Still (with "Gort", another iconic SF robot).
Danger Will Robinson, danger! I loved Lost in Space. Didn't see Forbidden Planet until much later.