You see them everywhere nowadays in various guises – the giant, city-destroying and/or defending robot. Usually, said robots have a cockpit for the operator in the head or chest area, but sometimes they are autonomous or controlled remotely. Without straining too much, I can list several examples: Ultraman, Voltron, the Transformers (an added twist there!) the Gundams from Gundam Wing, Big O (my personal favorite big robot name AND physiological response to stimuli). Hell, not only does Dexter from Dexter’s Laboratory have one, but he built his hated sister DeDe one, and his arch rival Mandark has one, too. And remember Truckasaurus from the Simpson’s? It’s real! There is actually a giant t-rex-looking thing that works the monster truck circuit tearing cars to bits with giant robotic claws and jaws for your viewing pleasure.
Where did this science fiction cliche’ come from? Who was the first to dream the dream of a giant, heavily-armed humanoid robot that terrorizes and/or champions civilization? What is the earliest instance of the giant robot in literature, comics, film, and/or TV? At what point was the innovation of several different vehicles that combine to make a large humanoid robot added? When will I get mine?
In 1903’s, “The Land Ironclads,” H. G. Wells described something that nowadays is likened to a tank, but his actual description of the vehicle matches somewhat to the dog-like at-ats from The Empire Strikes Back.
Well, that’s about the same MPG as your really behemoth SUV’s get, so it’s not impossibly out of line with other popular transportation alternatives. (And you can’t actually fly in an Excursion or a Navigator or an Escalade.)
The Skycar is not going to happen. I won’t go so far as to call it a scam, but it’s close. The performance numbers don’t stand up to engineering scrutiny. The thing is a conglomeration of unproven technologies. It relies on an ATC infrastructure that doesn’t exist. It has never flown. It has never even been ground tested.
Despite this, I have an article here by Dr. Moller claiming that test flights will be starting in several months. Problem is, the article dates back to 1992. And the thing looked pretty much identical then.
If it ever does fly, it’ll be hideously complex, very dangerous, and cost at least half a million bucks per copy.
Moller is claiming that the thing can be built for $80,000, at a time when a lousy Cessna 172 with a 4-cylinder 150 HP engine costs about $150,000. And the Skycar has 8 engines and 8 fans, each of which must be featherable. Just the engines and fans will be worth a couple of hundred grand.
There have always been dreamers and frauds in the aviation world. I’d prefer to put Moller in the ‘Dreamer’ category, and there’s nothing wrong with dreamers. The problem is that he crosses the line whenever he accepts money for the thing or for any of the related products he sells (videos, T-shirts, models, etc).
All right, all right, mad props to Sofa King and Arken for correctly pointing out that there is such a device out there, though I don’t know if I’ll be able to go out and buy one yet. But it still chaps my hide that here I am, living in the twenty-first century, and can I book a room in a Space Hilton? Nooo. Can I fly to work in a bubble-domed vehicle that folds up into my briefcase as I step onto the moving sidewalk (as in the Jetsons)? Noooooooo. Do I see cyborg policemen and reanimated “freejack” racecar drivers walking around? Nooooooooooooooooo. And regarding the OP, I for one am extremely disappointed that madmen bent on destruction resort to such twentieth-century technology as fertilizer and fuel oil, rather than giant robots stomping buildings flat.
On the other hand, electronic paper isn’t too far off, and that seems kind of cool.
You may now redirect your thread toward its scheduled destination. Viva Fidel!
If you really want to bend your definition of “Giant Robot”, there’ve been tales of golems for ages. Since ancient Egypt, I would think, at the very least.
The word “robot” was coined by Czech playwright Karel Capek, in his 1921 work R.U.R (which stands for Rossum’s Universal Robots). Robot comes from the Czech word “robota”, which means “forced labor”.
Just after arriving in Harare, Zimbabwe, I was driving into town from the suburbs when I came upon a sign saying “ROBOT AHEAD”. I anxiously peered around, looking for signs that a metal-munching monster was in the area, only to discover that the sign meant there was a traffic light ahead.
Going back still further, in Greek myth there was Talos, the huge artificial man of brass. He heated himself in a fire and then gave you fatal hug against his white hot chest.
As visualized by Ray Harryhausen in JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS, Talos was roughly Godzilla-sized.
Speaking about robots. Does anyone know the name of a show that I think I remember as a child? It seemed asian, as in most of the charaters had asian features. It had 3 giant robots that somehow changed into rockets. One was Gold, and the other Silver. I think they were like a matched pair, and the 3rd one was their offspring. Anyone remember anything like that? Know the name?
Geez, I leave this thread alone overnight and it veers wildly out of control. But I hear Cuba’s nice this time of year…
KK, I have always been a little fuzzy about Ultraman. Robot? Cyborg? Human empowered by technology or magic? Or is he a human in possession of a giant robot? Is his natural state big or small?
Zarathustra, I too am disappointed by the lack of moon bases and orbiting hotels. But, on the positive side, I will relate this story. An internet company (which will remain nameless) recently closed its office in my town. My newly unemployed friend liberated a webcam for me from the ruins of the office. I hooked it up to my computer, downloaded Netmeeting from the Web, and placed a video conference call to an old friend who lives in Portland, OR. We shot the proverbial shit for a few minutes and then logged off. When I was done, I said to my girlfriend “Wow! I just placed my first videophone call!”
The original Ultraman was a giant alien. He merged with Hyata after accidently destroying the plane he was flying.
I think Voltron was the first giant robot made up of the merging of smaller robots, although Transformers may have had something similar.
Seeing this made me all the more disappointed that no one noted my Leviathon reference.
As for the twenty-first century, I guess if all the flying car scenarios are set against all the dystopic visions like 1984, Terminator 2, Brave New World, and all that, I guess on balance we haven’t come out too bad.
I’d like to live in a Jules Verne version of the future, though. Imagine those big cutter ships flying overhead, but with propellers instead of sails . . .
