Alps Mr Brain, gold color version

[Dirk]

Yes sorry Mark, I must full agree to Martijns words. This is no variation and this is not really a golden colour.

I have also found this "aged" or "faded" into sort of nicotine yellow on many silver robots during more than 25 years of collecting.

You can find it more or less on many St1 - Sparkies and on Mechanical Brain robots; mostly not on all parts; mostly on their legs...

But I can't tell which chemical process really was involved here... Please do also remember, that the companies use all kind of metal sheets,

they could get at a low price. These toys are mass produced for some pennies and are available for about $1,- at that time.

The metal sheets didn't need "quality classes" like in the automotive Industrie of today.

 

[chilli]

Hi Dirk,

as you say the odd yellowing happens on the legs, not the bodies which are not flat sheet metal .What I would say is that there are 3 things odd about this robot , not just the colour

Ok one is the colour, show me one similar, that the body is yellowed to this extent but the legs have not. I would agree with you more if the gold was less uniform, as if affected by sunlight or being lay down.

two, the lack of red knees, which also have the oval of litho on non yellowed base , show me another , so we can check the other details.I am not saying they dont exist but never seen one.

three, the correct bulbs if you refer to the picture on the box, and by the pictures of the bulbs I think you would date them as of the right time.

That's 3 oddball things on one robot, each would be interesting but 3 together!!!! you have to question that the combination suggests that it is interesting and on purpose.

cheers Chilli

 

EDIT

Hi Dirk

if you were refering to Martijns comment "yes daylight really gets this gold color, i also noticed on my sparkys and st1"

he was agreeing with me that you cannot check colour in tungsten light.

In daylight you get the full wavelengths. I think he was refering to the article he did about the legs of his Strenco going yellow gold, the pictures, as I remember, were taken outside.

[martijn]

Yep took all the pictures outside, sunny day in shadow give the best color presentation. I have had this st1 and a sparky in the past which i wrote about here, recently had another gold leg sparky, perfect plain champaign gold legs which could not have done by sun fading. 

Back to your alps mark, take a close look at one knee, theres color difference inside and outside the black line, look close at the bottom of knee, the knee seems to be colored once, here i would suspect sun fading.

But then again, strange that the eyes did not fade.

😱speculation speculation😖

[chilli]

Ha, good eyes Martijn, but I beat you too it, I checked that out when I saw it on the screen when i shot it into the computor.

 The cast of brown comes from the dark wood it is stood on, thats why it picks up on the bottom edges of the curve. This is what I mean about colours picking up there surroundings. If you photograph a silver( a neutral colour) robot on blue base the reflection will make the bottom half of the robot look blue .

Thats what I saw when I looked the auction pictures, it was shot on a blue grey background and the higher the camera angle the less gold the robot due to the cold reflection.

Interesting the un named seller at the auction sandwiched this robot in between a hook robot and and a yonezawa space scout in a box. I think he was a fairly high end collector and had this robot for a reason.

cheers Chilli

[Dirk]

Hi Mark,

all I can say is ... I have no clue... But I really can't see anything "golden" on your MB.

I have found one picture, where you can see the beginning of the yellowing process on Sparkies legs and I just found that very ugly junker in a parts box ...

Here somebody has tried to repaint the visible parts of the legs silver; see the developed yellowing process from under his "skirt".

 

[chilli]

Yes, the legs do go yellow. I have mentioned before that the thin flat sheets of the legs from both Japan and German robots seem to react in this way, even the strenco in my pics has the slight yellowing.

But this is always on flat metal, which I assume was pre painted before cutting, that would be cheaper and easier to do, the paint on legs appears to be shiner than the bodies. There also is usually a sheen on the legs which could be a lacquer?. Just a thought, but that would explain the the yellowing of legs.

The bodies are not just folded metal but pressed, the painting would be done afterwards. The exception to this is the Mr Brain which has the paint on the legs is sprayed judging by the slight texture.

Ok , so lets look at this in a different way rather than saying its gold or yellowing and look at the odd facts that it throws up.

I. The body, hat,collar,feet, hands of mine have appear much stronger yellow or gold than the legs or the face. So something is odd about the paint. Either it has a pigment or it has yellowed with age.

Also the small boxes that control the bulbs, just under the skirt, made of flat metal are also gold/yellow

2. There are German and Japanese robots that have yellowing legs, something to do with the way flat tin was painted must be the reason, this is on 2 different continents, yet the same symptom.

3.The legs on my MB have litho ovals but no red paint centres. This is odd in it self. The strenco has hand painted red centres but the Alps MB has machine applied red paint, as otherwise they would not match up to the black oval lithos. ( the strenco red is just daubed on)

4. If the red is missing it suggests that a whole batch of legs were produced without the red centres, where as a hand painted robot could just have had one robots legs missed out of a batch.

5. We are there for looking for more Alps MBs that have the odd reacting body paint and have the legs that have missed the red machine applied paint.

6. We are also looking for other examples robots that all the body paint has reacted and gone yellow but the legs remain silver.

7. The bulbs on mine appear to be as old as the robot. The yellow colour and the fact they are both yellow match the original box idea of yellow rays. Ok, someone later could have done this but I would have gone for the green or red option if I was replacing them. the yellow paint on the bulb is opaque, not solid enamel, which you would expect a kid to be able to get hold of.

8. The legs have the red missing, on the box there is no red on the legs either, ok a coincidence but thats 2 features on mine that are not on the standard production model.

9. We get to Xris bizarre Alps MB. this is an oddity.But lets go through the process of its features and think what might be the reasons.

Ok, lets look at the fact there is no electrics, the switch is missing from the neck and I bet the bulb holders are also missing, hence the oversized bulbs are fitted

2 options, it has been stripped, repainted and the electrics left out. Seems a lot of work to leave out the electrics

or , it was simple a factory colour test to get away from the Strenco colours it was copied from, in which case having the electrics working would serve no purpose.

The collar and hat have been painted an odd cream colour, the back of the head clip has been painted silver rather than black, and we get to the red dots and nose.

The red matches the hand painted red of the on off knob, so if this is factory then it is the right red.

The eyes, nose and mouth have been painted with the same red, if I was a kid doing a repaint, I would have just painted the nose and definitely not bothered with the very tricky repainting over the eyes. Unless it was done at the factory and the eyes needed to be painted on silver. The robot has then lots of option for red daubed all over it.

As a thought, these samples might have been shipped to the States or to toy shows to get approval from potential buyers as to how the MB could differ from the existing Strenco that they would have all seen at the buyers toy fairs.

The only other odd thing is the fact that the backpack is GOLD.This is the only recorded picture to my limited knowledge that has silver body paint turn yellow.

Odd that it is on the only other oddly painted Alps MB.

10. I would say Dirk is the ultimate robot detective and teamed up with Gernot have an unmatchable resource to information on robots, also with Marco close at hand.

I would imagine that between the 3 of you it will be possible to find other examples that explain the above anomalies. Either MBs without knee colour or body paint going yellow. I am sure they are out there, somewhere. It keeps life interesting anyhow

cheers

Chilli

[Dirk]

Yes  - full agreement. And you are right - there are many details out there, we just don't know. The only thing is, that I would not like to come to new conclusions too early, mainly based on thoughs and conjectures.

Just let me add Mark: The worlds greatest robotic detectives should be Brian, John, Joe, Henk, Xris, Gernot, Morbius Mike, Pierre Boogaerts and whoever... many many more others. And maybe they are followed by me and you - Doktor Watson!  But I have to admit - for me this is really all about the robots and its not that EGO thing to me. I have met so many nice robot collectors in person and I (nearly) never felt that it was about something else, than collecting robots.

[chilli]

Aww, shucks,

yes there are others that have been at this game a long time, but I have noticed you have a lot of filed details at your finger tips, guessing thats the stereotype German efficiency that I imagine you have. My approach is just scatter gun, coming from total chaos, a bit of autism, and throwing s*** out there in a hope some sticks. You always seem to come up with the answers, and I am damn sure you will sort this conundrum out. Carry on Sherlock

cheers

Chilli

[Martian Gil]

Cheers all,

 

I'm now the happy caretaker of this robot. 

Whether it's a variation, salesman's sample, aged robot, or whatever...
Thank you, Mark.

 

I won't add much in the way of commentary at this point - I'll share some photos comparing this one with my other Mechanical Brain and allow for your thoughts...   a variation on "My approach is just scatter gun, coming from total chaos, a bit of autism, and throwing s*** out there in a hope some sticks".   

 

We all know I've done that as well, lol   

I took many pics- tried to get equal lighting, with and without flash, etc...    I'll just share a few that I think are nice.

 

If you have any requests (or ideas) for other comparative photos, let me know and I'll oblige - I will have a limited time to make them as my old Mech Brain is headed to a new home, a treasure in a good, old fashioned robot swap!    
 

Also - bonus fun!   I did some very fine cleaning and adjusting of his contacts. 

 

 

He's got a little extra play in his left leg so I need to be careful when he's wound up.

Cheers, 

 

ps.   I must have been holding my breath while making sure that I would be ready to catch him in case he tipped... lol.

that was the sound of relief after filming.

 

 

[RoboDerby]

Congratulations Kirk! Great addition and thanks for sharing the photos and video. The yellow lights in action look sharp for sure.

[Maloo]

Two wonderful mech brains Kirk.

This could be a rare variation and an early retirement! 

[Martian Gil]

13 hours ago, RoboDerby said:

The yellow lights in action look sharp for sure.

Thanks Jeremy!   I was as surprised when those jenky, old bulbs lit up - they really pop and give him a different look.  

His knee / skirt contacts only needed slight cleaning - and a little adjustment to the inner strip. 
Blam.   Let there be light!  

 

 

31 minutes ago, Maloo said:

Two wonderful mech brains Kirk.

This could be a rare variation and an early retirement! 

Clive, you made me roll and laugh with that one - a bit of a coffee cleanse for the old snooter.   

Jelly sandwiches and ramen will do fine by me as long as I get to keep adding robots of character

And this guy has it going on... for whatever reason.

 

Cheers!   

 

[robert]

Beautiful pictures Kirk. And an interesting variation to be sure.

[Maloo]

Do you remember this fellow Kirk?

He's been around the traps a bit with a nice green collar but very little if any sign of yellowing.

Where did the green collar come from? 

[Martian Gil]

Hey Clive - I remember that bloke!   These guys have charm!
I found him in Oz, even

This Brain had a battery left in his head that corroded the lower battery contacts and switch.   The original owner had the collar repainted when they replaced the contacts.
This is the one without the switch, I think?   If the battery is in, the contacts are live?     I think...   I could be wrong.   My blood to coffee ratio is not correct yet, lol

 

I forgot that his eyes had faded to such an extent - still a looker!   

Is he still running for you?