My personal faves (all mentioned already, dammit!) are:
The Shrike!! (thanks Alessan!)
R. Daneel Olivaw (Giskard was a weenie, IMHO)
Bender
In no real order.
The house smashy robot thingy in the I, Robot movie.
The bartender robot guy in Fifth Element “You want some more?”
The screw-groined killer robots in Flesh Gordon.
Hector from Saturn 3.
…and of course Screamers!
Go Bender, go Bender…
Second place: Mike from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
Because I’m such a chauvinist, all my favorite robots are going to be female. Not really a top-five, just five fun 'bots that haven’t gotten any love, yet.
Ifurita from El-Hazard (What can I say, I’m a sucker for Amano Yuri’s voice)
I will also mention the machine character from the short-lived SF series: Mann and Machine, played by a very young Yancy Butler.
I also have a fondness for the ‘female’ robot character from Big O, Dorothy. Anything whose response to a hung-over boss is to play fortissimo classical music gets points for snarkiness. 
“Mother” from Alien. If only because it was great fun when Ripley screams Mother, you BITCH!
Ryouko, from Tenchi Muyo. One of only two interesting characters in the whole show.
More seriously, I’d say my top five visual* media robots would be:
#1 - Hewey, Dewey and Louie from Silent Running. Unlike most other robots of this list, I had no cognitive dissonance with them. They struck me as far more believable than any other robot I’ve ever seen.
#2 - I really do have to go with Ifurita, here. She was introduced as a tragic character, constrained by her programming to actions she hated. And a great voice, too.
#3 - R2D2. As another poster said - the main character of the Star Wars movies. Certainly the only one I didn’t want to slap a few times in the hopes of iimplanting a clue.
#4 - Robbie the Robot from Forbidden Planet.
#5 - Marvin. “God, I’m soooo depressed.”
*Thus, many other good robots are going to be left out, like Mike from Moon is a Harsh Mistress, R. Daneel Olivaw from Caves of Steel, Dahak from Mutineer’s Moon.
Yeah really , no muffie either
obviously
Neeeeeeeeeed more input
Declan
Something to be said for using such a package for a major WMD.
And the writers giving her the full name “R. Dorothy Wayneright” makes a nice bit of Asimov homage. But yes, the 'tude was just perfect.
And another example of a 'droid that’s an “artificial life-form” rather than a mechanical.
I could agree with the list…
I don’t recall the details, and I’m only pretty sure it was an Asimov story, but I liked the 2 characters who were exploring Jupiter, or one of its moons, having lively conversations throughout the trip, and it wasn’t until the very end of the short story that we learned these two were actually robots
Would that be *Victory Unintentional * ? As I recall the story, it was the Jovians who didn’t realize they were robots, but thought they were humans (and there were three of them).
thankyou - yes
and the reader didn’t know for sure until the end either IIRC
That’s how I remember it. The Jovians kept trying to kill them and failing; in fact, it was some time before the robots realized they were being attacked. When the Jovians gave up on that and tried to impress them with how awesome they were, the robots kept doing things that proved how much tougher they were, like accidentally walking through a ground vehicle, or casually reaching into a vat of molten metal and stirring. My favorite was when the robots realized the gamma rays they used to see were destructive to Jovian life, and said something like “I’m sorry, we can’t look at you too closely or you’ll die.” 
The Jovians were so impressed they grovelled and agreed to never leave Jupiter; it was only after they left the robots realized they’d never mentioned that they wern’t humans.
I nominate Tony, the sexy prototype robot from Asimov’s short story “Satisfaction Guaranteed.” He’s like a one-man Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Or rather, Robotic Eye for the Mousy Housewife.
Who wouldn’t want a Tony to help her deal with the “G-g-g-gladys C-claffern’s” of the world?
Considering that a golem is just a magically-powered robot, I wouldn’t call the Shrike a golem. The… entities that created it may have been incredibly powerful and advanced, but they were not magic-users, except perhaps in the Clarkean “all sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” sense.
For those not familiar with Hyperion (and you should be - it’s the best SF novel since the original Dune), the Shrike is a metallic, spikey, four-armed humanoid with a mean streak and the ability to slow the flow of time, allowing it to move very fast. Very, very fast.
No, it was rather clear from the very start. And even if it wasn’t, the whole “reaching into molten metal” trick was a pretty big clue.
um yeah :smack:
its been many years since i read it :eek:
and i have a mind like a steel trap - things go in and get amngled 
especially when I type too quickly… :smack:
You do realize the original Golems were the creation Devout Jewish Rabbis?
I have the story at home and there was even an x-files episode based on it.
[ol]
[li]Bender “Bending” Rodriguez (Bending Unit 22)[/li][li]R. Dorothy Wayneright (from The Big O)[/li][li]Saying “Hi Opal” does not compute[/li][li]Platinum, of the Metal Men[/li][li]The Robot Daddylonglegs, from Johnny Quest[/li][li]Optimus Prime[/li][/ol]
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Another Asimov robot (QT-1? I can’t quite remember.) The one who decided to believe in God because those flawed humans could not possibly have created something as perfect as himself.
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I’ll see your *Austin Powers * fembots and raise you the Bionic Woman fembots.
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Rem, from the TV version of Logan’s Run. Yes, it was a lousy show, but I enjoyed it when I was ten years old.
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Tanith Lee’s The Silver Metal Lover. I’ve never actually read the book, but it’s nice to know that women fantasize about this, just like men.
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The “rapist robots” from Flesh Gordon. The ones with the spinning screws at their groins.
Which versions?
YIKES!