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Target Earth (1954)
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Bud Brewster
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013
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Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Sat Jan 16, 2021 12:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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What wonderful video! Mr. John Rigg has a spectacular collection of science fiction memorabilia, including a full-sized replica of both Robby and Robby-in-the-jeep!

Here's the official websit of The Robot Hut.

The 20 minute video which David shared is like a visit to John Rigg's privately owned museum, which he opens to the public from time to time. Here's an article about Mr. Rigg.

A giddy visit to John Rigg’s Robot Hut

For a look at his robot-powered cart that he shows near the end of the above video, go to the 8:45 mark in the video below!


____________________ 2014 Elk Days Parade


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Krel
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PostPosted: Sat Jan 16, 2021 11:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Looking back on the first page, I noticed orzel-w's post on the robot holding the .45, and it triggered a memory. In the 1984 movie "Runaway", Tom Selleck dresses in a special outfit to enter a house to stop a robot. He is in the house, you hear a revolver being cocked, and he ducks as it fires, blowing a hole in the wall. The robot is a small box-like machine with an arm with a claw-like appendage. There is no way the robot could have fired the revolver, much less cock it.

A surprising oversite by Michael Crichton. Perhaps he was stuck with it when the prop was delivered, but you'd think it would have been noticed in the planning stage.

David.
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Bud Brewster
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013
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Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 5:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Sir, you've hit on a problem which has vexed me for decades! Mad

Frankly, I've always been annoyed by robots who aren't given well-articulated hands! A robot with useless hands is a useless robot! Rolling Eyes

Robby's thick three-fingered hands ought to be considered the low end of the scale. Poor Robby's hands would be incapable of doing 50% of the things which human hands can do.

The three-prong claws of Tobor could do about 20%.

Gort's "mittens" could do about 10%.

The two-prong claws of the robots in Target Earth (and other movies) would be less effective than a good pair of pliers to a man using them to pick up a spoon and stir a cup of coffee! Sad

To give a robot a brain that can reason and solve problems — and then saddle the poor guy with hands which aren't much better than what Captain Hook had — is just plain stupid! Rolling Eyes

_________________
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Mon Jan 18, 2021 12:17 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Krel
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PostPosted: Sun Jan 17, 2021 10:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Bud Brewster wrote:
Robby's thick three-fingered hands ought to be considered the low end of the scale. Poor Robby's hands would be incapable of doing 50% of the things which human hands can do.

Good point, but remember that Robby was designed from the very beginning to have replaceable special-purpose hands for various tasks. One of the first concept drawings of Robby had the hands arrayed around his waist. I'm sure that Robby's three-fingered hands were designed that way to make him look less like a man in a robot costume.

David.
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Pow
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Joined: 27 Sep 2014
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 18, 2021 8:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Excellent point Bud regarding engineers developing a robot's mechanical hands properly enough so they would be as useful & nimble as human hands.

The robot B-9 on Lost In Space had the same issues. He had on each arm two big pincer-claws that were essentially useless.

The best I saw ever was on the marvelously designed unmanned remote controlled Hyper Reality Vehicle (aka Probe) from "Seaquest DSV."

The HRV had two mechanical arms with human-like fingers that could be operated---usually by the sub's engineer---via a remote control interface.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 18, 2021 11:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Krel wrote:
Good point, but remember that Robby was designed from the very beginning to have replaceable special-purpose hands for various tasks. One of the first concept drawings of Robby had the hands arrayed around his waist. I'm sure that Robby's three-fingered hands were designed that way to make him look less like a man in a robot costume.

Excellent points. Robby's hands are a perfect compromise between hands that look totally "mechanical" and hands that might look too much like simple gloves on the operator.

The audience can easily believe that the three-finger rubber "glove" is needed to provide the metal digits inside with traction and a soft surface for handling objects that might get scratched.

Asimo, the amazing Japanese robot who was built in 2000, has wonderful five-fingered hands — and it only took 44 years for actual technology to improve Robby's hands! Very Happy



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I'm still in love with little NAO, the robot who can walk and talk and get back up on his own when he falls down!


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I'm waiting for the price to come down a bit more. Right now he's $7,990 — down from $16,000! So, I figure by next Christmas I'll buy that little guys and get him to clean and cook for me!

Notice how well NAO's three-fingered hands work!
Laughing

___________________________ Nao Robot


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If your wondering what you get for that price, watch this amazing video.

__NAO Next Gen : the new robot of Aldebaran Robotics


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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Krel
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PostPosted: Mon Jan 18, 2021 2:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
Excellent point, Bud, regarding engineers developing a robot's mechanical hands properly enough so they would be as useful & nimble as human hands.

The robot B-9 on Lost In Space had the same issues. He had on each arm two big pincer-claws that were essentially useless.

The best I saw ever was on the marvelously designed unmanned remote controlled Hyper Reality Vehicle (aka Probe) from "Seaquest DSV."

The HRV had two mechanical arms with human-like fingers that could be operated---usually by the sub's engineer---via a remote control interface.

Movie and TV robots hands are dictated by the budget and then current engineering. Money will win every time.

The robot in LIS's first season had special attachments to his claws so that he could handle chess pieces.

The drone in "Seaquest DSV" was a total CGI creation, so the hands were not a problem, as they were not an actual physical object.

David.
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Bud Brewster
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Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17018
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Sat Sep 25, 2021 3:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

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Let's Create a Sequel!
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~ A Question for the Members: Could a sequel to this somewhat disappointing movie make better use of the more interesting aspects of the concept?

~ Here's what I came up with: The idea that alien invaders sent an army of robots to take over one American city sounds a bit silly. But I did some research and came up with an interesting idea.

The invaders are said to be from the planet Venus, because (according to Richard Denning) it's the planet most likely to harbor life similar to Earth.

Well, I found this when I Googled the question, "When did we find out how hot Venus is?" I got this.
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The high surface temperature of Venus was discovered by radio astronomers in the late 1950s and confirmed by the Mariner and Venera probes.
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I discovered that the Venera probe was launched in 1970. I also found this fascinating fact.
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Venus may have had a shallow liquid-water ocean and habitable surface temperatures for up to 2 billion years of its early history, according to computer modeling of the planet's ancient climate by scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York.
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Rather than just dismiss the misinformation about Venus in this 1954 movie, I have a better idea.

Suppose Venus actually did have an Earth-like environment for millions of years — and still had it in the 20th century! Shocked

Suppose a race of Venusians evolved a high level of intelligence, and as their technology advanced, they experimented with increasingly powerful sources of energy, most of which are far beyond our technology.






At the peak of their civilization, they believed they had safely harnessed an incredibly source of energy, and they used it extensively all over their planet.





Furthermore, they were confident that their advanced weapons would allow them to easily conquer Earth.

Riding high on their inflated opinion of their intelligence and their technology, the Venusians sent a small group of spacecraft to study Earth from high orbit, gathering the intelligence needed to plan their conquest.

But before their mighty fleet of warships were launched for the invasion of Earth, the awesome power source the Venusian thought they safely controlled suddenly caused a global catastrophe which wiped out their entire race and their civilization! Sad

As a result, Venus became the hellish planet we see today, a planet scorched to the bed rock, devoid of life, and enveloped in poisonous gases.






The story presented in Target Earth is about an attack by the small fleet of Venusian ships that were in space at the time of the planetary cataclysm — the only survivors of that incredibly advanced race.

The small fleet desperately needs to conquer Earth (or some section of it), because their home world has become a raging inferno.






This explains why the invasion in the movie is limited to one city! Very Happy

The Venusians hope to establish a beachhead on Earth and then gradually expand their territory. Their ships are not capable of sustaining them indefinitely, and they'd rather not have to live out their lives on them.

So, they need to have a base of operations on Earth while they strengthen their limited resources.

The movie clearly states that the American military were severely outgunned when the attacked the aliens. For that reason, both we and the Venusians would eventually agree to a cease fire until we could devise an effective defense.

But of course this would give the Venusians a chance to build their defenses here on Earth!

This low-buget movie ends when we discover a way to stop the robots — but the Venusian ships would still be in orbit, and they would learn from their mistake concerning the robots' Achilles Heel

In fact, the final line in the movie is a statement by one of Army officers who said that if the Venusians had used "a certain kind of metal" in the robots' faceplate, the sonic weapon which defeated them would not have worked!
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I wondered if perhaps I could improve the robots' appearance. The robots in the movie aren't overly impressive —



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— but I found a fan-made version which featured some nice enhancements. Very Happy


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And yet it's still too "boxy" looking, and the feet are ridiculously small!

So, I went to work with Paint.net and jazzed up the robot's physique a bit! I widened the waist and hips, made the feet larger by giving them a "boot" shape, and improved those useless "salad tong" hands by adding a third finger.



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I modified his color, too . . . but then I couldn't decide which one I liked best! The one above looks like steel, and the one below looks like bronze. (I think I like the bronze a little better.) Cool


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I gotta admit, guys that with these changes, the robot looks like a real badass! Shocked
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Fri Nov 18, 2022 4:51 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)


Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17018
Location: North Carolina

PostPosted: Fri Feb 03, 2023 10:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

___________________________________________________________________

Let's Create a Brand New Kind of Sequel!
___________________________________________________________________

~ A Question for the Members: Would it be possible to create a sci-fi movie that served as a sequel to two separate movies from the 1950s?

~ Here's what I came up with.: In This Island Earth, the Zagons hated the Metalunans so much they refused all peace offerings and wound up nuking the entire planet.

In Target Earth, aliens of unknown origin attack the Chicago area and force the evacuation of the city. The invasion seems to be deliberate small-scale and localized for some reason.

I have an idea for a story that connects these two movies and provides a sequel that's inspired by their separate concepts.
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Imagine a big budget sci-fi movie called Target: This Island Earth.

The Zagons have destroyed Metaluna, and now they want to wipe out Earth because they hate humans as much as they hated Metalunans, simply because some of our scientists aided the Metalunans (without knowing it.)

Because of this, the Zagpons send an army of robots to destroy mankind. They begin with a limited attack on an America city, just to test their prototype robots.

They were defeated, but the Zagons learned what improvements their robot soldiers needed.






Then they launched a global assault with an improved version.


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Meanwhile, Rex Reason and Faith Domergue are called upon to share they're experiences concerning the Metalunans and the Zagons.





Richard Denning and Kathleen Crowley had first-hand experiences with the first group of alien robots, so they also become involved with the team of international scientists who are frantically reverse engineering the robots which were deactivated in the initial, small-scale assault.


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The plan is to have our "new, improved" robot army battle the Zagon's robot army! (I mean, just look at this badass 'bot! Those Zagon sissy-bots won't have a chance!) Shocked


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The battles would be magnificent, with human operators directing the actions of our robot army by remote control, wearing VR suits.

I'm sure we can come up with a dramatic situation in the climax which requires Reason and Denning to take over the remote controls of two man-made robots. Together our heroes manage to capture an enemy spacecraft, fly up to the mother ship in orbit, fight their way into the main control room, and rip the guts out of the Zagon supercomputer which controls all the enemy robot soldiers!

Naturally we'd get to see legions of armed Zagons in the mothership who desperately battle the robots controlled by Reason and Denning. The two robots toss the hideous aliens around like rag dolls while charging through the ship's corridors and smashing through doors until they finally enter the large and impressive main control room!

(My God, can I write a great action scene or what!?) Cool

As I said, this would be a sequel to both of the classic sci-fi movies, a novel idea that was not done until a few of the Marvel movies made it work.

_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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