Robots were popular in the science-happy 50's, and a few of the cinematic ones even became stars. The most obvious was Robby from FORBIDDEN PLANET and THE INVISIBLE BOY. Pictured here is the titular star of TOBOR THE GREAT, from Republic Pictures early in the decade. In the film, Tobor is the invention of a scientist looking to create an artificial astronaut. Tobor has the ability to mentally link with human beings, nobody so strongly as Gadget, the scientist's grandson. When the kid and his Grandfather are snatched by enemy spies, Tobor charges to the rescue! Quite a bit of work obviously went into the Tobor suit, and I can only imagine it was a very expensive prop to a small studio like Republic. A potential series was built around the cumbersome costume, to be called Here Comes Tobor. It failed to go to series, however, and the pilot film was never aired (to my knowledge). It has recently surfaced on DVD with a handful of other unsold pilots. I sometimes wonder whatever happened to Tobor, and why he didn't pop up on The Twilight Zone and other shows as Robby did. I always found him rather impressive.
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