Batteries... Am I Going Crazy?

[Guest Scott Cragstan]

And thanks for the welcome Robothunter and Tobor, you guys are going to make me work, aren't you? No names in the profiles, LOL. I can't memorize as well as I used to, you know. ;-)

I'm looking forward to getting the car completed and will post photos of the crazy dash when I get it back which I'm hoping will be before the summer weather is shot. It's especially robot-like lit when lit up at night, all bathed in a turquoise glow... the dash is called an Astra-dome which is basically a large bubble between the steering wheel and the dash with all the intruments inside it. Very Robby!

[robothunter]

And thanks for the welcome Robothunter and Tobor, you guys are going to make me work, aren't you? No names in the profiles, LOL. I can't memorize as well as I used to, you know. ;-)

I'm looking forward to getting the car completed and will post photos of the crazy dash when I get it back which I'm hoping will be before the summer weather is shot. It's especially robot-like lit when lit up at night, all bathed in a turquoise glow... the dash is called an Astra-dome which is basically a large bubble between the steering wheel and the dash with all the intruments inside it. Very Robby!

Scott - I had no idea my name didn't actually apear under the member profile! it didn't have anything to do with my being in the Witness Protection Program. Really. So how do you actually put in a name? I went and can't find an input field for the name so I can update. Oh, before I forget. I'm Pat Karris.

[robothunter]

...It's especially robot-like lit when lit up at night, all bathed in a turquoise glow... the dash is called an Astra-dome which is basically a large bubble between the steering wheel and the dash with all the intruments inside it. Very Robby!...

I can see it for sure Scott! ;)

[Guest Scott Cragstan]

Hello Pat... don't feel bad about not being able to find out where to put your name, I still haven't found out where to specify male, currently a blank on my profile, LOL! I just looked again for that and for name and I don't see either one, perhaps these are things Brian has to plug in for us?

Also, I should have been able to figure our your name from your website, I missed that earlier. Before making my first posting as I was looking around the site a bit I followed that link and all I can say is WOW. Great collection and a really fun website.

I really enjoyed some of those conversions too, in particular the Piston Action done up in Mechanized Robot trim is just soooooooo amazing. The Planet Robot's head looks like it was designed for the High Wheel Robot's body too, that was quite nice. The solid red Planet Robot was great too. So many interesting variations!

Great photos of the '60 Chrysler dash and what is most likely one of it's biggest inspirations! I've been trying to find a good name for the car that fits, perhaps it should be Robby!

And Hello Morbius, I missed your post earlier, thanks for the welcome aboard! :-)

[Guest Scott Cragstan]

Yep, I'm thinking the car needs to be named Robby. It's amazingly easy to overlook the most obvious choice. This by the way is the actual color I'm restoring mine in, metallic turquoise. Now if I can just figure out how to add the car's most important accessory as shown. :lol:

[Rotate-O-Matic]

Welcome to Alphadrome Scott!

Hey, did anybody else notice that the rolled styling of the car's dash also matches the edging on Robby's chest panel!

Does this car also have the push-button transmission? My grandfather had an old Chrysler with that feature and I thought it was awesome!

[Guest Scott Cragstan]

Thanks Rotate-O-Matic!

Yes, the dash is button-crazy... push button transmission and a set of almost perfectly matching buttons off to the right for the heater/def/etc. Push-button radio too of course. :-)

I see you are in NYC. A long time ago when I was a department store buyer I went to New York 5 or 6 times a year. I enjoyed going through a little store called Forbidden Planet on some of my trips, is it still around? That's where I picked up my small scale Masudaya Robby and LIS robots.

[Morbius]

Thanks Rotate-O-Matic!

Yes, the dash is button-crazy... push button transmission and a set of almost perfectly matching buttons off to the right for the heater/def/etc. Push-button radio too of course. :-)

I see you are in NYC. A long time ago when I was a department store buyer I went to New York 5 or 6 times a year. I enjoyed going through a little store called Forbidden Planet on some of my trips, is it still around? That's where I picked up my small scale Masudaya Robby and LIS robots.

Picked mine up in 1985 at FP store, what a great place but I haven't been back since, Id' like to know too I assume it's still going?

[robothunter]

Scott - I know you asked this question of ROM, but I couldn't help but want to answer. (Sorry Ray for stepping on your toes!)

They moved across the street from the small space you must remember from years ago to a much larger store but have very little left in the way of toys. All those great toys and robots that used to be downstairs are long gone and now it's just a couple of small showcases of resin model kits and some action figures. The real concentration now is on books and in that respect their stock is huge. Great for comic book geeks, bad for toy geeks.

I still remember how excited I was when I found my first Robby the Robot model kit there years ago. It was followed by a C-57D kit and a blaster pistol kit. All from England. Ah, that place used to be one of my favorite stops in Manhattan when I was on a robot searching mission. Some other places you might remember from the great old days in NYC are Children of Paradise on Bleecker Street and Darrow's Fun Antiques which was way uptown across from Dangerfield's nightclub. Sad to say, they too are long gone. Truth is, there's no where left in NYC to go find real vintage tin robots and space toys anymore. You can get some great new Japanese pop-culture stuff at shops like Toy Tokyo on 2nd Avenue, but the days of antique shops where you could always find robots & space toys are all gone. Along with the 6th Avenue Sunday morning flea markets on 26th Street. Those huge open parking lots are all now super expensive apartment buildings.

Too bad....but at least you're not missing anything by not coming to the big apple anymore!

[Joe K.]

Let me add my welcome to you, too, Scott.

You may want to keep a set of those "extra strength" batteries around though. For those inoperable robots without lights, that may need a little extra juice to kick them over for the first time in a long time, they may come in handy!

I feel lucky to have had a chance to shop the "old" Forbidden Planet store myself. Here's their current web site:

http://www.fpnyc.com/

Hope your return to this hobby is a long and happy one. You've come to the right place.

[steve]

Welcome Scott - out of curiosity - are you a fan of the "expensive" Jupiter Robot that shares the same head as your beloved Cragstan robot.

Yes Pat- those were the days - if not for Toy Tokyo there wouldn't be any store in NYC for a quick fix.

[RotoBadger]

Heya Scott...a belated welcome!

[Eagle]

Since we have a large sellection of batteries here at the airport I decided to check them with the Fluke. All of the alkaline batteries top out at 1.6 V. However the Lithiums are 1.8 V. No wonder my mini mag was blowing bulbs. No more lithiums in the mini mag. So if you need a good jumpstart for a lazy robot, use the lithiums. It won't hurt the motors. The Bulldog tank motors were designed for 3 v but my modified versions run on 6 v with no ill effect.

Man this weather today. I was standing in the front yard today and at least a 70mph gust hit. One of my 30 ft Douglas Firs came right down. Pulled the root ball right out of the ground in slow motion. Missed the house by 2 ft and the dogs moved in to finish the kill. Those trees were planted 14 yrs ago to protect the house from the nortwest wind. Those trees are 24" at the base. Will use the big yellow robot [Case] tomorrow to dig the rest out. That out to be good for one or two blown hoses.

[robothunter]

Yep, I'm thinking the car needs to be named Robby. It's amazingly easy to overlook the most obvious choice. This by the way is the actual color I'm restoring mine in, metallic turquoise. Now if I can just figure out how to add the car's most important accessory as shown. :lol:

I love it! The Chrylser Space Patrol! Where do I sign up to get on the waiting list for one! LOL!! :lol:

[Eagle]

Better get it fast before Chrysler goes on the auction block. What a great company, what happened? Iacocca is livid.

My mom had a 1960 with the pushbutton trannie. Many a morning she would drive me to school down thru the back yard as it would not go in reverse. Hey Scott are you coming to spring Carlisle this weekend? If you do ,bring me a creampuff from schmidt's restaurant. If you don't come, do you need anything for the car. I'm headed there Thursday, only 15 min away. Sold my Cuda, now I miss just listening to it idle. Was fun shutting down the rice boys.