The turbulent history of a robotic legend

Posted By: Larry Larsen | Jun 14th, 2007 @ 6:24 PM
SciFi.com (via Crunch Gear, via Nerd Approved) has a post about the B9 robot from Lost in Space being available for purchase at the low low price of $24,500, or three easy installments of $8166 as some would say. The B9 held a special place in the hearts of baby boomers everywhere. For you kids out there, this is what was expected of future robots; huge keg-like beasts with a fishbowl head, pincher hands, blinkenlights, and tank tracks for feet.

There's a big chunk of B9 history missing from these blog posts though. The original license to mass produce the B9 robot was originally awarded to a company called Icons Replicas. Icons had some noteriety as the company that mass produced the lightsabers you may have seen in Sharper Image catalogs. They also had the license to produce the M41-A Pulse Rifle from Aliens, the "noisy cricket" pistol and Neuralizer from Men In Black, and the famed desktop chrome dome from Terminator 2.

Icons founder and President, Jim Latta, had dreams of selling armies of B9 robots at $12,500 each, and he did sell quite a few. Unfortunately he didn't ship as many as he sold. Production problems turned into shipping problems which turned into a restructuring, and a very angry and impatient client base. Follow the whole sordid history via the Wayback Machine, or this pictoral history.

Many of us lost a lot of money to Icons (put me down for a never-received Men In Black Neuralizer) and once Jim quit showing up at the Icons factory, unpaid employees and upset customers began hopping the fence and making off with anything of value. That might be why there are many unfinished movie props floating around.

Master Replicas took over some of the licensing and has done a great job of building high quality props (I finally got a Neuralizer.) And of course the fine folks at LostInSpaceRobot.com currently have the license to produce the B9. Neither company is affiliated in any way with Icons.

And now you know, the rest of the story.
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#Jun 14th, 2007 @ 10:04 PM
LZIM
LZIM
I loved the version in the more recent movie. (the ones from the future.) Wouldn't mind having one of those around the house.
#Jun 15th, 2007 @ 2:49 PM
Arztek
Arztek
I have my computers warning message set as "Danger, Will Robinson," but I really can't see the value in owning the full-sized robot.

I don't think I'd even go for Nova Robotics SAINT prototype "Johnny 5," my all time favorite robot.  Sure, they make for the ultimate collector's piece, but they take up a lot of space and don't really do anything purposeful.  You can't even play MP3's on it.

I'd much rather get one of those restored arcade machines like Pac-Man or Asteroids, the ones that also have Microsoft Windows installed and built-in MP3 players.  Now, those are sweet.