Planet Robot, Am I Missing Something?

[steve]

Wow-I get to disagree with Pat regarding Planet Robot. Hopefully he won't strike me dead next time we get together. My belief that the tin handed version came first is based upon the leg pressings. I believe that all tin handed versions have the thicker leg pressings. There is a blue rubber handed wind-up with thicker leg pressings but I believe this was done during the "transaction" form tin to rubber hands. Once the switch was made to the thinner leg pressings-these thin legs remained until the latest 70's version(or later?)It wouldnot make sense to go from thicker leg to thinner leg back to thick leg pressings.

[robothut]

I don't know for sure if the red rubber hand came first or the tin claws, but I have always been told that the red rubber was the oldest and by far the rarest. So my personal guess is the red rubber hands were first and short lived compared to tin claws and hard plastic hands. Yes I do feel very bad about what has been done to Bill in this matter but we have been screwed from one time to another, hell I have lost $4,500.00 to jerk in CA that I will never get back, it costs more to legaly persue an out of state fraud than the $4500.00 and if I go there and take care of him personaly I will end up in jail. My freedom is worth more than the bucks. Any way I can't wait to modify some of these new planet bad boys.

[robothunter]

Steve - Even as we speak, silent robot assasins are stalking you for daring to question me!!! But really, wouldn't you think the cheaper looking metal hand, which is only a crummy little scrap of tin, would come after the more expensive rubber hands? Remember that rubber was at a premium for years after the war and it would have meant more molds, raw materials, another part to have to inspect and fit. In other words, more expense. The tin handed versions would all be made on the same line, unfinished, and final spray painting taking place at the same time. No new materials. A surplus of tin. Less inventory. Cheaper to make.

I can't see that the maker would have gone from a cheaper process to a more expensive one.

And here's the final kicker.....I have a theory that they finally went to the hard plastic hands so simply make the robot more appealing!!!! To change up the way it looked because sales fell after the introduction of the sharper cheap tin claws. And to comply with the new saftey stamp that appearded on the boxes of the later made robots. Have you ever seen a rubber handed Planet that came in a Saftey Stamped box? I haven't.

Ha! What do you think of that one???? ( I just thought this up as I'm writing this now boring reply!!)

[steve]

I've thought about that for awhile-rubber is not native to Japan and would have to been imported which is more expensive. But who really knows-maybe a bunch of rubber material was given to the factory in trade or found in a dumpster. Another thought-there is evidence of either a catalog or a museum stamp(again)that the metal handed planet robot(battery op)existed circa 57-58. There is the thin legged rubber handed planet robot in a Yonzawa 1965 catalog. Rmember also way back the rubber handed blue wind-up planet robot(damn do I want that guy!)for sale on the old hong kong web site I think called Grace. Under the for sale sign was the wording 2nd version. I still think the leg pressings are the key. Also I have never seen a tin handed version with the later style flatter face grill which I dislike. I have seen black rubberr versions with this latter grill.

[dratomic]

Hm... Well, thinking about Robothunter's comments -- If rubber were rare after WWII, might the toy company have used the metal hands first? It's a plentiful material, cheap to use. Then, when rubber prices dropped -- say, early Sixties -- they would have upgraded to the more detailed hands. I know, this doesn't explain the use of rubber on the hands of the Mechanized robby and the the other Nomura toys, but it's a thought.

On the other hand (pun intended -- sorry), the planet robots didn't hit until the late Fifties. Was rubber production even a concern at this point? WWII was over. Even the Korean war was over. Rationing wasn't an issue, so I'm thinking the prices wouldn't have been too high. If this is the case, then the "availability of rubber" reasoning doesn't really work either way... doesn't prove, or disprove, anything about which came first.

Just thinking out loud.

[robothunter]

Man! Have we all got WAY TOO much time on our hands!!! I have to come clean and admit that I made up the whole rubber-in-short-supply theory on the spot as I was writing the last post. I just like to think that the rubber handed version came first. Maybe because, as Jogn Rigg already pointed out, these always seem to be the more expensive rare versions of this great robot and my personal favorite version! I just dig the "rubber gloved" look the best. I've always hated the little tin clawed hands. But then again, the Robby space tanks all have tin handed drivers and I do LOVE those robots. So I gues I'm just full of crap on this one!

But again, if we collectively put all the energy and brain power used here to figure this out towards something more grand, we could rule the world!!!! With a rubber-gloved iron hand!!

[Guest neatstuff]

As you may have guessed, I'm also a little anxious to get my hands on Planet Robots. They look very nice. All is not a lose for me. Since I was wise and didn't go directly to factories myself, I do have recourse with the Company here in the States that I dealt with on the Planet Robot project. In fact I will be getting all my investment back! Not sure where this leaves the company who was dealing directly with the factory on it!? I'm still in a bit of shock that the factory has done this to a LONG TIME associate of theirs. The US company I was working with has been dealing with these factories in China for many, many years. In a blink of an eye they have screwed him Big Time! I just don't understand the mentality of the factory people. It's a mystery to me. Kinda seems to me that the factories are only hurting themselves by their blatant dishonesty. At this point, seems to me that they would screw anyone and everyone if they see a profit in it. It's pathetic!

There is one good thing that came out of all this. We have a new robot on the market! This was my reason to build planet robot in the first place. Seems no one was coming out with new repro bots for us, so I commissioned Planet Robot to fill the gap. It didn't quite go the way I had planed but the robot is being produced just the same. All this really is a shame. I had BIG plans to have a bunch of very cool bots made. Now we will just have to depend on some other "risk taker" I have no idea who that's going to be, It ain't going to be me that's for sure! Sorry guys, I gave it my best shot.

Bill.

[Joe K.]

This Yoshiya catalog just came up on eBay. Too bad that 1980 date can't be confirmed.

See:

http://cgi.msn.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...06&category=616

Kinda makes me wonder how long those High-Wheel Robots have been in production?!? I spotted this 4 gear version in a 1968 Eaton's (Canada) Christmas Catalog.

[dratomic]

Even if it could be confirmed, all this would tell us is that the toys in the catalog were in production until at least that date, but not when they first appeared.

Nonetheless, I find it interesting that the high-wheel lasted as long as it did. Makes me wonder how old mine is, really. Hm.

[Robotnut]

I'll put this hand thing to rest once and

for all. Rubber was definately used first.

If you remember Garret Morris' famous

quote from Saturday Night Live, "Don't

use RUBBER, RUBBER BREAKS". They realized

the fragility of rubber and switched to metal.

Then again, I think he was talking about

basketball backboards... :P

As for that catalog, I'm positive that there

must be a date on it somewhere. Either a

print date or in Japanese. Joe, are you going

to buy it ? The 1980 date is close, as the toys

in the later pages were 80's toys. This may

also answer the question of where all these

mint Planet robots are coming from. By the

80's tin toys were certainly not very popular.

If Yoshiya was still cranking them out in 1980

or later, there certainly would be a lot of them

about. Another question that needs to be answered

is, when did the Safety Toys logo appear on Yoshia

toys ???

[funkrobotik]

I'm shocked. I never realised that the High Wheel was around in the eighties, so how come there's not a mass of them about in minty condition?????

[dratomic]

And, not to change the subject of this thread too much... Do ANY High-Wheel boxes have the ST (safety toys) marking on them? If not, then why not? They were apparently sold at the same time as the plastic-headed Planet Robot, and I've yet to encounter a box for this final variation that doesn't have the ST.

The plot thickens...

[steve]

Bill - very good news about not losing $$ on this deal. Live and learn!!!!!

[Joe K.]

And another question this catalog raises: The blue (chrome?) Laughing Robot and Mechanic Robot in the 5th photo. I have both of these in my collection, but mine are marked "Made In Japan" with the Yonezawa logo. Could Yoshiya have produced them as well?

O.K. I figured this one out. These last two photos are misplaced from a Yonezawa catalog the same seller has up for auction. See:

http://cgi.msn.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?V...item=3177058308

Darryl - Yes, I'd like to add both these catalogs to the Museum inventory. See if I could find a date somewhere in the KO catalog. Would like to post their pages here, like I did with that Horikawa catalog from 1979.

[Fineas J. Whoopie]

First off, I am very happy to learn that you are going to get your money back Bill, there is justice after all. :)

The idea of the High wheel and the Planet robot still in production in the late seventies/early eighties would explain this ad from the June 1979 issue of "Antique Toy World" (the one with robert the robot on the cover). I showed this to Dratomic and it turns out that he lives around the corner from this place and even was able to ask the owner about it. Apparently the owner remembers having quite a large number of them (as covered before in another thread).