SPACE EXPLORER - YONEZAWA - JAPAN

This is an ambitious and complex robot. Painted tin battery operated robot. This is a transforming robot that starts life as a squat, cube like TV set. When started the robots body rises up, the arms extend. The head emerges and a TV screen is revealed. The robot then walks along for a few seconds until the process reverses and the robot drops back into it box form.

The TV screen is a raster scene with a 3-D effect of a pilot at the controls of the robot. Made in red and brown versions.

The demands made on the mechanism are great and this robot frequently breaks. The main weakness is a pot metal cam that breaks and gears that wear.

The first version was fitted with two switches: one on the back and a head switch to initiate the action. The later version has just a single switch on the back. The box side panels are slightly different to reflect the presence of the head button.

This robot appeared as a new item in the Yonezawa catalog for 1968 but appeared in David Jones' Christmas Gift Book for 1967. Still available well into the 1970s.
television