With 2T2, Bob Wilkins, and Mr Lobo.
"toy Prince" 2007 from blog here
Robot 2T2 was a real machine, which was operated off camera, via a cable control box. The robot was built by some local fans at a machining company, and when Bob started the show, Bob remembered them, and asked if he could use their robot… There's some 8mm film that was shown at a couple of Bob Wilkins/Creature Features events over the last couple of years, that shows the robot being loaded up on a truck and taken to KTVU's studios. When the show went off the air after four years (1977-1981), 2T2 returned to its original owners.
Here's what Bob Wilkins. himself, said about the robot: Somewhere along the line, I thought of [this] old robot in a garage back in Sacramento. Now, we had had the robot back on the old Channel 3 program [mid-to-late 1960s] maybe one time, to tie into some… maybe one of the old sci-fi movies that had robots. And really, 2T2, he was named–I forget if he had a name before we named him 2T2–after the station’s call letters [KTVU], but he was in the garage for many years, he was a high school project by a fellow named Gary Tomasec.
Gary Tomasec was a young man who came on my show very early on, he did a satire on the Marlboro Man, the cigarette character, and he really showed a lot of talent, loved television, he was only about 14 years old then. Anyway, I got him a job as a delivery boy at Channel 3 because he wanted to get into television (and just a sidebar, today he films movies, he’s all over the world, he’s just an outstanding cameraman and a very nice young man.)
Anyway, I said, “Is it possible to bring the robot up to Oakland, and we’ll pay you a fee, a monthly fee for him” and I said “ We’ll have him painted, and we’ll do some things with him mechanically and we’ll get him going again” and he said “No problem.”
And so the robot was brought up, and we got him a paint job, electronically we got him going there, and it was quite a job—you know, there aren’t just robot repairmen around, so we took him over to people who work on motors and engines and things like that, in Oakland, and they got a kick out of getting him prepared. So while they’re working on the robot and getting him all ready, I’m trying to come up with a concept for 2T2, for the show itself.
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An image found in the AP picture archive contradicts some of the information above.
Bryan Berry, 14, nineth grader from Sacramento, Calif.demonstrates how his robot, Bryan II, can pour water from a kettle into a cup in Sacramento on March 25, 1966. The remote controlled robot has eleven motors and operates on two storage batteries. It can raise itself six inches, turn 360 degrees, extend and rotate its arms, pick up anything larger than a golf ball, crush cans and walk.. Bryan has been working on the 400 lb., 5 foot-5 inch high robot since October. and finished his project just in time for the sixth annual Industrial Arts Exposition, where he gave a demonstration. Only articles made under school supervision in the field of industrial education are accepted for the exhibit. (AP Photo)
New owner Bob Ferrara (2011).