# What was this robot, shown in stock footage in a Sesame Street clip? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 21, 2016, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-robot-shown-in-stock-footage-in-a-sesame-street-clip/749746 "2016-03-21T11:45:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-robot-shown-in-stock-footage-in-a-sesame-street-clip/749746/1 "2016-03-21T11:45:00Z")
Specifically, the one scene [here,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0jTwW82Ma4&t=0m59s) in one of my favorite/most unsettling shorts from when I was a tyke, back in the 80s. A rather distinctive looking machine—a humanoid shape, with clear plastic forms covering the electronic and mechanical innards of his torso, arms, and legs; the minimalistic “head” futures a plasma globe for a cranium, two large metal “lips” (almost like a bill), and a pair of goggly, probably decorative eyes. Although there’s no audio aside from the CTW music track, the motion of the robot and his “lips” indicates that he was “talking” when filmed. I’d guess that he’s probably from a science museum or a trade show pavilion; I _swear_ I recognize it, maybe from a book or magazine, but I can’t think of where. I’m sure he’s not a movie/tv prop, at least. So…can anyone else ID this mechanical marvel? ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-robot-shown-in-stock-footage-in-a-sesame-street-clip/749746/2 "2016-03-21T12:31:19Z")
The clear exoskeleton robot looks like a clear C3PO ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-robot-shown-in-stock-footage-in-a-sesame-street-clip/749746/3 "2016-03-21T12:42:49Z")
I have it on good authority ( being a comment on another youtube upload video of the same piece… ) that the boxy robot (box on wheels) is HERO-1 and the clear humanoid exeskeleton is “Gor-Don”, mascot/host of the AT&T InfoQuest Center.… [AT&T Archives: The AT&T InfoQuest Center](http://techchannel.att.com/play-video.cfm/2012/2/6/AT&T-Archives-Infoquest-Center) … at 4.06 ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-robot-shown-in-stock-footage-in-a-sesame-street-clip/749746/4 "2016-03-21T19:00:59Z")
The little boxy one is a HERO-1, the Heath Educational Robot. I can still remember the odd cadence of its Votrax voice synthesizer. “Hello I am Hee-Roe the Heath Educational Roe-bot. I can sense light sound and movement. I can use my grih-purr.” And to annoy people, you could program it for watchdog mode. “Some Thing Move!” ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-robot-shown-in-stock-footage-in-a-sesame-street-clip/749746/5 "2016-03-21T19:10:20Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-robot-shown-in-stock-footage-in-a-sesame-street-clip/749746/6 "2016-03-22T00:19:05Z")
> [@Isilder](#): > > the clear humanoid exeskeleton is “Gor-Don”, mascot/host of the AT&T InfoQuest Center.… [http://techchannel.att.com/play-video.cfm/2012/2/6/AT&T-Archives-Infoquest-Center](http://techchannel.att.com/play-video.cfm/2012/2/6/AT&T-Archives-Infoquest-Center) … at 4.06 That’s the guy—thanks! An old question finally answered. On that same note, that Infoquest Center seems like a neat place—and I’m sorry to learn that it was truncated after Sony bought it out, and that it was eventually closed for good earlier this year. ☹ “The world’s still the same. There’s just…less in it.” ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-robot-shown-in-stock-footage-in-a-sesame-street-clip/749746/7 "2016-03-23T00:09:25Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > That’s the guy—thanks! An old question finally answered. > > On that same note, that Infoquest Center seems like a neat place—and I’m sorry to learn that it was truncated after Sony bought it out, and that it was eventually closed for good earlier this year. ☹ > > “The world’s still the same. There’s just…less in it.” I was in college (graduate school) when it opened, and visited it a short time after it opened. It was indeed pretty cool at the time, but as the short video showed many of the exhibits at the time have been superseded by technology over the decades. I wonder if Sony had kept it going till recently, what kind of exhibits did the center host at the end? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-robot-shown-in-stock-footage-in-a-sesame-street-clip/749746/8 "2016-03-23T00:13:09Z")
Wow, that clip brings back nightmares. As a kid I found those old timey toys creepy as hell. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-robot-shown-in-stock-footage-in-a-sesame-street-clip/749746/9 "2016-03-23T12:18:14Z")
I remember seeing HERO-1 [on an episode](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_C0bRgAJw) of Nickelodeon’s 1980s _Mr. Wizard’s World_. Mr Wizard himself, Don Herbert, said that the man who created and built it was a friend of his. ---
**Author:** ![SpyOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@SpyOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpyOne)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-robot-shown-in-stock-footage-in-a-sesame-street-clip/749746/10 "2016-03-23T13:24:23Z")
Glad to see I’m not the only one who remembers HERO-1. The robot arm arranging the blocks looks familiar, too, but I don’t know what it was called. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2016, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-robot-shown-in-stock-footage-in-a-sesame-street-clip/749746/11 "2016-03-23T13:40:07Z")
> [@SpyOne](#): > > Glad to see I’m not the only one who remembers HERO-1. > > The robot arm arranging the blocks looks familiar, too, but I don’t know what it was called. There used to be a similar, if not identical, robot arm that arranged blocks at the Computer Museum in Boston. When that Museum closed in 1999, many of its assets went to the Museum of Science in Boston (with which had had officially merged the previous year), but many of its pieces went to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. I haven’t seen the Aem at the MOS, so, unless it’s simply in storage, I assume it’s in California. ---
**Author:** ![SpyOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@SpyOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpyOne)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2016, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-robot-shown-in-stock-footage-in-a-sesame-street-clip/749746/12 "2016-03-25T11:58:27Z")
Sad to hear the Computer Museum is gone, glad to hear the exhibits live on. Glad some of them are still in Boston, at the equally cool Science Museum. When I was a lad in Connecticut , we made a trip to the Science Museum at least every couple of years. It was close enough for school field trips, even. I only went to the Computer Museum once, but it made a huge impression. Especially the stuff they would let you touch, like the Apollo Command Module Computer, and the mechanical computer that played tic-tac-toe that was made from tinkertoys and string. ---
**Author:** ![BuddyBoy600alt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buddyboy600alt/32/20731_2.png) [@BuddyBoy600alt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BuddyBoy600alt)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2026, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-robot-shown-in-stock-footage-in-a-sesame-street-clip/749746/13 "2026-02-09T10:27:49Z")
[That footage is from AT&T Infoquest Center.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPLpvvWcaV0) That is the same robot who you saw on that Sesame Street film. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2026, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-this-robot-shown-in-stock-footage-in-a-sesame-street-clip/749746/14 "2026-02-09T10:39:12Z")
Why is it that the robot arms doing things, like spelling out SESAME STREET, or painting the numbers, look like they are moving normally, but the humanoid robot looks like stop-motion? And C-3PO’s creepier cousin doesn’t _do_ anything, unlike the robot arms, that are probably for precision manufacturing, and reprogrammed for the video.