1953 – Tobor the Robot – Dave Ballard (American)

From the "Captain Video" TV serial, the "I, Tobor" episodes starting the week of November 2, 1953. Tobor (played by 7' 6" Dave Ballard) was a prototype robot designed to be a tireless worker and indestructible soldier. It bore the inscription "I-TOBOR" (a reversed image of ROBOT-I) on its chest plate. Tobor's body featured a …

1955 – Space Tug (Illustration) – Nikolay Kolchitsky (Soviet)

Illustrations from the book “Travel To Distant Worlds” written by Karl Gilzen. The illustrations are dated 1955 and are by Nikolay Kolchitsky (Николай Кольчицкий) .  The Space Tugs are manned and have what appears to be simple mechanical arms. The covers to both the Soviet version and the English version of the book. Another similar illustration …

1955 – Sonic Broom (TV Prop) – (American)

In 1955 the U.S. Science-fiction serial Science Fiction Theatre there was an episode called "Time is just a place" where a young couple discovers that their neighbours, who possess a 'sonic broom' and many other technologically advanced household items, are fugitives from the future who have fled to the past to escape an oppressive government. Complete …

1955-62 – Painting Machine – Raymond N. Auger (American)

Press Photo of Raymond Auger's Painting Machine 1962. ROBOT ART: "Take home a machine-made painting while U want it," reads the sign over the door of the "Automatic Art Show" in a shop in New York's Greenwich Village. Presiding over it is Raymond Auger, a bearded painter who believes in giving art a new mechanical  …

1955 – Robot – Tim Grimes (British)

In the picture above, 17-year old Frank Grimes of Alphington, near Exeter, is seen introducing his cat to a mechanical man he has made out of odds and ends. It is powered by an electric motor, but only Frank knows the secret of how it walks backwards and forwards, swings its arms, turns its head, …