119 replies to this topic

[Robotnut]

I've always wondered why Susie is so rare.
This toy was made by a US company that made millions of toys
in the 50's. As their name states, Metalware made mostly metal
toys, maybe this departure to plastic occured near the end of
their existance. This was why there were so few Wyandotte robot
dogs. BTW, there's currently a metalware catalog up for sale on
eBay, but there's apparently no date on it...

Metalware Catalog

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[Brian..]

Some information about ROBOTER 700. From Gernot

A robot collector found that Robot in the box on a fleamarket in Germany about 3 years ago (I have seen the piece myself, incredible). He was very interested about the history of that Robot and was lucky to find a connection to an old German toy manufacturer in a city named Coburg near the old frontier to east germany, famous for old toy companies. He even found the place of the old factory and made his way to the son of the factory owner.

The company just had been closed after a fire in the early 90s ! I do not know the name of the company but they mainly made small cheap puppets. The son told him, that as far as he knew in the early 60s (1960-61) the idea was born to make a robot to make some more money. (Maybe the have seen DUX Astroman before) They produced about 100 pieces to advertise them on main toy fairs like Nurnberg toy fair in Germany. The feedback to the robot or the order during that fair must have been so bad that they never went in production with this robot. The company just ended their business in the mid 90s after that fire and believe it or not, threw away many samples of the Robot box recently.

The Robot is so rare that even in Germany most collectors and dealers do not know of his existence. The Robot itself is about 25 cm high (10 inches) it’s a wind up and fully made of plastic.Simply fantastic. There is no other function than walking (with rough full leg movement). The Antenna has a unique shape and is as fragile as the one from DUX Astroman.

That's the story behind ROBOTER 700.

[Blechroboter]

The name of the company is "August Knoch o.H.G.".

[Sparkrobot]

I saw this one for sale on ebay U.K the other day,I genuinly dont think the dealer really knew how rare this robot is ,,I guessed even in the condition it was in, it was going to sell well above what I can afford at the moment,,I wasn't wrong £1300 or about $2500 Dollars,,,,,,,Here's a pic of the broken [but easily repairable] super rare ROBOTER 700 and a nice pic of a mint condition one to compare also a link to the now finished auction..
http://cgi.ebay.co.u...e...A:IT&ih=012

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Edited by Sparkrobot, 30 June 2008 - 08:45 PM.

[MetalRobotHead]

I was watching that one Spark and hoping no one else had seen it, hoping I might sneak in a get it cheap, never quite works like that though. Wasn't sure at first what it was then came to me. Certainly a good price, for a broken and incomplete robot.

The image I found lurking on my computer.

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Edited by MetalRobotHead, 30 June 2008 - 08:58 PM.

[martijn]

so the roboter 700 has returned to his home land!
congratulations D i read lots of of time you wanted it really really and was looking a long time!
who were the other bidders? any belgians maybe?? first I thought it would go there...

[9tobor9]

Would you believe My Snipe engine broke down ! For f**** sake. Anyway, I'm happy it's gone to Dirk but a bit (Himalaya size) disapointed ! I would have probably won if the computer gods hadn't been against me !!!

[roboz]

Hey Dirk Congrats !
Ole grandpa robot works has that antenna already
prototyped , perhaps you can give him a shout .