Robert Lesser

[dratomic]

I was invited up to Robert Lesser's house last night and got to see his wonderful collection of robots, pulp art (the pieces not in the museum) and resin model kits, and all I can say is, Wow. He's really got some fantastic robots, all mint in box. If you check out John's photos at the robot hut site, you can see how the collection is displayed on shelves - carefully, but not preciously. That is, Lesser has no problem bringing them down and showing them off. Quite a thrill.

What John's photos don't show (and sadly, I didn't have my camera with me - I'll get pictures next time) is Lesser's HOME, which is painted bright, bold colors. Some rooms are green, some are orange, some are blue - not that you can tell, because the whole place is CRAMMED with his collections. Actually, he's very tidy, so it's all cleanly laid out and on display, but still - talk about a riot of color. Wall to ceiling. Literally. In the room with the robots, he's also got rockets and space ships hanging from the ceiling.

And that's sort of all there is - he's got a small bed, a couple desks, a tv, and then the collections. Nothing else. Complete focus. Pretty astounding.

Lesser himself, for those who haven't met him, is a gracious host and very friendly. We had never met before last night, but he made me feel right at home, and freely talked about his collections and collecting in general. He also answered any questions I had, and actively listened to my own thoughts on the subject. Lesser's about 40 years older than me (and about 40 years more experienced) - but he treated me like an equal over the course of our conversation (which lasted three hours, until about 11 p.m.).

Anyway, this was the first time I had ever seen most of these robots outside of pictures, and it was pretty incredible. Definitely a great evening - I'm going back sometime in the next couple weeks, and will definitely take pictures.

[Keith Palmer]

Bob Lesser is an icon. More significant, Bob is a gracious host and a true ambassador for toy robots (as well as his other collections). I phoned Bob several years ago -- my call was out of the blue for him, and he had no idea who I was. Yet, after providing a brief description of myself and the nature of my call, he invited me to stop in while in New York. I still have a photo of me with Bob's Tremendous Mike and the rest of the Lesser toy robot collection in the background. Bob is generous with his time, and he is also sincerely interested in the opinions of other collectors, regardless of how new they are to the scene.

[robothunter]

I know what a trip it can be to see all of Bob's great robots n person. I was lucky enough to have been invited several times and I took all the photos posted on the robothut museum page of Bob's collection.

He is a the real Grand Old Man of this hobby and a wealth of terrific stories. One day if he ever gets bored with his robots (and I know THAT will never happen) it will make for one hell of an auction to go to!

[steve]

Dratomic-what is even more remarkable about Bob's collection is that he started collecting before anyone was sure which of these guys were rare or not. He most certainly has the "collectors eye". In case you didn't know Bob created the acroynm Gang of Five(originally gang of four before Machineman was discoverd)and the machineman overlooking his bed is the very first one ever to be found.

[Guest Homer J]

Steve I could be wrong but I spoke with Brian Moran many moons ago & he told me how he had found a machine man in parts at a garage sale or flea market & he immediately thought it was a rare bird being familiar with the other "gang " he put the robot together ..cleaned it up nicely where he proceeded to trade it for cash & lots of rare battery toys to the infamous FH Griffith & that's when Bob became aware of it but who knows those 2 were always very competitive to say the least.

[dratomic]

Steve - I did know that, actually. We talked a lot about how he got into this (and all his collections, including his old comic art and buck rogers collections) before anyone else (or, almost everyone, I guess) and all the weird looks he got from other collectors who considered the robots just junk. Of course, he proved them all wrong.

One thing that struck me was how supportive Bob was of repro robots - he's very much into notions of democracy, and pop (as in POPULOUS, not POPULAR) culture. In his mind, everyone has the right to collect what they want, and everything should be made available to those collectors - if price gets in the way, well, make a repro! Damn the value of the market, full speed ahead! It was nice knowing that a collector of his caliber sees nothing wrong with that aspect of the scene.

[steve]

HomerJ-the way I have the story is that after Moran put the robot (machineman)back together-it was sold to Griffith. Upon receiving the robot-Griffith asked Bob for pictures of his so that(being the not very trusting person that he was)he could make sure that his had everything it was supposed to. Therefore Bob had #1(received directly from Japan via Sandy Kessler)and Griffith had #2(the very one sold at the Sotheby auction). Number three was sold at the Wyse auction, perhaps #4 at a follow up Sotheby auction(I believe)back to Masudaya whose web page at the time proudly proclaimed-Machineman comes home. Five and six were private sales with about another half dozen being purchased afterwards. Two examples are boxed.

[Robotnut]

I know of a collector in Toronto who claimed to me

that he has two Machine Men. I met him at the show

in Toronto last year and he said he has one in C8

condition and one in poor condition. He collects other

Battery Operated toys and only has 20 or so robots.

The junker was bought in a lot of old toys in the late

80's and the C8 example was bought from the original

owner. Although he now knows, at the time he did

not know how rare the robot was, as he found these

2 in the Toronto area within a couple years. The example

that he bought from the original owner was supposedly

purchased at the downtown Toronto Simpson's Dept

Store in the late 50's. As more Machine Men turn up,

I wonder about the rarity, look at what the last one sold

for. If I believe this guy, then apparently FAO sold them

in the US and Simpson's in Canada and who knows in

Japan. I've always been told that Japanese toys were

always made in the thousands, so how many more may

be out there ??? B)

[steve]

An unofficial rule of thumb that I have followed is that for every 12,000 units made of a given robot(each production lot was 12,000)-give or take around 12 pieces would survive. So I think that many of the rarer items had just one run. I can name 12 Machinemen out there, 10 each Robot5 and Sankei Television robots etc. Think then how many lots of 12,000 were made for the common robots. So thousands made could still only translate to just a dozen or so remaining examples-of course even less boxes.(machinemen 2 boxes, Robot 5 two or three examples, Sankei Television 5 or 6 examples etc).