chilli Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Yep, I known these are difficult robots to repair but I do like a challenge .I picked this little beauty up this week.Also has a nice box, but it does not work, not received it yet so I will be after help I am sure!!!!2 things I am after,1- there are a lot of varying dates on the internet about this robot dating it from 1959 to about '67. I am guessing it first appeared about the late 60's but is there any confirmation of it earlier.My version has the switch on the head, does this make it earlier or later? Usually they simplified the robots to make them cheaper. But why was the second switch there when there is a switch on the back already?2- there is a good bit of info on alphadrome about repairing this robot in the section http://danefield.com/alpha/forums/topic/9076-yonezawa-59s-tv-space-explorer-documentation/but does anyone know how to locate this dead link from the topic http://danefield.com/alpha/forums/index.php?showtopic=1967many thanks for any help here.cheersChilli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Kirk Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 Doesn't the switch on the head make it stand up and walk? I never had that version. My mom bought me one of these - this picture is 1967 and was marked that year in my family's slide library. It was used, and I'm not sure where she found it. I saw it out at Lazarus (the big department store in Columbus) the following Christmas and didn't buy it, mint in the box because I already had the one from the previous year. Damn! I wonder if it came out in 1967 and had arlready been used and discarded, or if it might have been 1966. These didn't last too long in the stores, so considering I saw it in 1968, I'm guessing 67 or 66 were the earliest years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilli Posted April 28, 2015 Author Share Posted April 28, 2015 Thanks David, looks like it was a great christmas. A wheel a gear robot as well.I have no idea why it has 2 switches, I would have thought the main switch would have made it get up and walk anyhow, I will post when I get it and figure out how to make it work!!!!CheersChilli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robothut Posted April 28, 2015 Share Posted April 28, 2015 There are 8 videos on you tube of the Yonezawa space explorer robot but only one of them has the button on top the head. But the guy does not have to push the button in the video to make the robot work so I have no idea what the button realy does. My space explorer robot does not have the button only the switch on the back. I have been told that the ones with the button on top are harder to find. So once you get yours be sure to take some pictures of the inside so we can see if the button is a electrical switch or just a mechanical system to make the robot transform. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilli Posted April 28, 2015 Author Share Posted April 28, 2015 I'm really intrigued now. I had seen these robots come up for sale but until I watched the video I did not realized how cool the action is. Pity you cannot repeat it often as it brakes the robot.cheersChilli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilli Posted April 29, 2015 Author Share Posted April 29, 2015 Just picked up info from a collector that the button head was the first batch out, I had guessed that might be the case as normally robots seem to loose features as they are further into the run.Anyone got a date for the button heads or an ad.I will show the pics if I have to do surgery!!!CheersChilli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fineas J. Whoopie Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 I hate to say it but perhaps the head was replaced at some time? That might explain the two switches.Good luck Chili. And I mean that sincerely, not sarcastically. I tried to repair a Space Explorer years ago. I spent a couple of months on it, had lots of great advice, and even had a part sent out to be fabricated, and I did finally get it to run properly - for about five minutes! Perhaps the thread that covers my work on it is still floating around. I don't remember if I had the heart to tell everyone that the robot stopped working so quickly after I got it running. The problem is the engineering that went into these robots, they are faulty by design. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Kirk Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 I wonder if there is a way to bolster the gearing at fault. When I got mine used in 67, it didn't fully work even then. Not only that, the chrome work on the lower panel is nearly always shot. It's an amazing idea, not quite fully perfected. Still you have to give them credit for making something so peculiar and difficult. Even for being fifty years old they still kind-of work. When Osaka made their copies of Robby they didn't last ten years and they cost a hundred times as much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Kirk Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 If you look close in this picture you can see that as well as the Space Explorer and the Wheel-a-Gear, I got a Marx Moon Creature and a little red and blue plastic robot. I also had a High Bounce Astronaut that Christmas and there may have been one of those Horikowa rotating machine gun robots later in the day. It's never been the same since! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilli Posted April 29, 2015 Author Share Posted April 29, 2015 Hi Don,I know these are little devils to get working and have followed the repair threads including your own.I know what you mean Don, was the head with a switch added to a body with a switch, but no It was produced with the 2 switches, there are a few on line. here's one from an auction .http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/14401226_yonezawa-space-explorer-battery-op-robot"Polishing his rocket" reckons they were the early version.cheerschilli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Kirk Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 And has anyone mentioned what the switch does, for certain? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilli Posted April 29, 2015 Author Share Posted April 29, 2015 No, guess you switch it on and bash the head to make it work, a bit like me I suppose!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Kirk Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 I was wondering if it was anything like that CK chimp with the eyes that bug out when you bash it on the head. Perhaps it does its collapse when you touch the button, then rises to walk. Somebody here must have one. I have the other version, and it's still in pieces waiting for silver paint and re-assembly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilli Posted April 29, 2015 Author Share Posted April 29, 2015 3 days from now and I will have the answer ( I hope). Come on DHL!!!!Its a bit like waiting for Christmas !!!!Getting a bit carried away now......."Nurse!!!!!"....I think it is like Robothut say's, there are very few of the button heads around.Funny that there is so little info on this robot. I am guessing that the non head button version is the one in the ads from about 1967 but it would be good to see an ad with the button, oddly the box does not have the head button.cheersChilli Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Kirk Posted April 29, 2015 Share Posted April 29, 2015 I wish I could remember which version I saw, and didn't buy at Lazarus in 1968. I have a feeling it was probably the version I already had - the brown non button head, or I hope I'd have gone ahead and spent the damn $6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.