Robot Identification

Having now seen the WeRobot shirt from ChopShop (via, via), I can't help but treat it as a quiz.  How many of these robots can you identify based on their silhouettes?  (My answers after the jump.)

(In my answers below, I've marked the ones I'm not sure about with ?question marks?, and the ones I just don't know in red.)

Starting from the upper left and going across:

Astro Boy/Testuwan Atomu, the movie version of Marvin the Paranoid Android, K-9 from Doctor Who (and now The Sarah Jane Adventures), one of the robots from Silent Running, unknown round robot, Vincent from The Black Hole, unknown squarish robot, ?the little kid from that Frank Miller Big Guy comic I haven't read?, and Twiki.

Next, arcing across starting at the left:

The robot from Lost in Space, Crow from MST3K, Number 5 from Short Circuit, ?a Martian machine from War of the Worlds (which is more of a vehicle than a robot)?, unknown robot trying to hug me, Tom Servo from MST3K, and Robbie from Forbidden Planet.

Tucked into the gaps, we have:

A robot from the video game Bezerk [sic], Gigantor/Ironman 28, unknown round-headed robot, a Rock-em Sock-em robot fighting Mecha-Godzilla, ?Mega-man?, the Tin Man, and a robot from the video game Robotron.

Starting at the left middle, there's:

An old-school Cylon centurion, ?Marvin from the TV series?, the owl from Clash of the Titans, a squid from The Matrix, R2-D2, unknown robot with its arms raised, and Gort.

From the left again:

A robot that totally rings a bell but I can't place it, Bender from Futurama, a Terminator, C-3PO, unknown robot at attention, the Iron Giant, Maria from Metropolis, a new-style Cylon centurion, Rosie from The Jetsons, and some anime-ish robot I can't place.

Arcing through the middle again, starting at the lower-left:

Unknown robot with its hands up, the executive-murdering robot from Robocop, unknown four-legged robot, a Droideka, and a Dalek.

Finally, along the bottom:

Dunno, Mazinger Z, Maxmillian from The Black Hole, ?lion Voltron?, and ?Muffit from BSG?.

So, if I'm counting these right, I got at least 34/51 and maybe as many as 40/51.  How'd you do?  Now that I'm done, I'm going to go check out other people's guesses by reading the comments on the BoingBoing and Gizmodo posts.  If after the robot shirt you're still feeling confident, try the alienWe shirt, which looks harder.

Comments

[michael]

I think the bottom left circular robot must be Dr Theopolis. So I got that and about 10 others.

I don't think I'd be much good at a line up.

[Tom]

I'm fairly certain 'unknown robot trying to hug me' is Wall-E from the eponymous upcoming movie. Hard to place since it hasn't really entered popular culture yet.

[Chris Anthony]

Tom, you're right about WALL-E.

And Mr. The Tensor, you're right about Mega Man, and I'm pretty sure you're right about lion Voltron and TV's Marvin.

[Skrud]

That "some anime-ish robot I can't place" is none other than Optimus Prime.

[The Tensor]

That "some anime-ish robot I can't place" is none other than Optimus Prime.

Yeah, I realized that when I went and read the other comment threads. Embarrassing, but I was never really into Transformers—it was a little after my time.

[Jangari]

The executive-murdering robot from Robocop was called Ed-209, I think. And that three-legged gunning robot you call a 'Droideka', is that from the Star Wars prequels?

[Pete Bleackley]

May I claim a pedant point for noting that the Daleks aren't robots at all, but cyborgs?

[Russell Borogove]

"A robot that totally rings a bell but I can't place it" is Baron Karza of Micronauts, also technically not a robot but a cheap Darth Vader knockoff cyborg.

[Russell Borogove]

"A robot that totally rings a bell but I can't place it" is Baron Karza of Micronauts, also technically not a robot but a cheap Darth Vader knockoff cyborg.

[doctor mekon]

good evening. not sure i can add much, other than the 'unknown four-legged robot' could be a tank/mecha from the anime Ghost in The Shell?

[Vilhelm S]

I'm very impressed -- I got about 7 of them.

I think the "unknown round robot" in the top row might be meant to be HAL?

[futuretaikonaut]

I'll second that the unknown round robot is HAL. Unknown squarish robot is from the Sealab episodes Bebop Cola. The Frank Miller comic Big Guy and Rusty is also the names of the robots.

That was fun!

[scotbot]

Robot at attention next to C-3po is the robot from the Queen album cover News of the World, originally from astounding Science fiction issue October 1953 as painted by Kelly Freas.

Robot with arms in the air next to Gort is Megalon, which is confusing because I didn't think he was even a robot? Why didn't they use Jet Jaguar?

[Sarcasticool]

The hugging robot is Johnny five #5 from Short Curcuit

[Sarcasticool]

The Robot with it's hands up beside ED-209, is ROBO-DOG (Close Shave), not sure if there are still any left to identify??

[Sarcasticool]

Sorry, you already have Johnny 5, scratch that one

[geekbot]

You can stare at that pic for quite some time. Gets the imagination going.