HERE COMES TOBOR (AND ROBERT)

Continuing my delve into Sci-fi films of the past, I watched Republic Pictures' 1954 classic,  Tobor The Great, about a revolutionary mechanical man , designed to fly space rockets. However, before Tobor gets the chance to reach the stars, foreign agents kidnap his creator, Professor  Nordstrom and the professor's grandson, and it's down to Tobor to rescue them.

Tobor (a reverse anagram of robot) was designed by Robert Kinoshita, who went on to create Forbidden Planet's Robbie, and the B-9 from Lost in Space.

Ideal's Robert The Robot toy, which came out at the same time as Tobor enjoyed a bit of cross marketing, and although Robert doesn't appear in the film , several publicity photos show Tobor and the film's young star, Billy Chapin  appearing with Robert. 

Here's the film on dailymotion

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xeodlw_tobor-the-great_shortfilms

The unsold pilot for a proposed TV series called, Here Comes Tobor