The pioneering German knob twiddlers are obsessed by the notion of man and machine in perfect harmony, hence their fixation with cycling. For the cover of 1978 album The Man-Machine, “the electronic Beatles” dressed in red shirts and black ties, then used replica androids to perform The Robots on stage (“Wir sind die Roboter…”). Wags often claim the androids give a more animated performance than the band themselves. However, Ralf Hütter and co always embraced such comparisons: 1977’s Trans-Europe Express saw them styled as mannequins – a nod to the track Showroom Dummies, which was written in a response to a gig review describing them as such Photograph: PR
Director Andrew Stanton pitched it thus: “What if mankind had to leave Earth and somebody forgot to turn off the last robot?” His subsequent 2008 Pixar film was a deceptively simple tale about a dutiful ‘bot named WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter: Earth-Class), designed to clean up a waste-covered planet far in the future, who becomes smitten with a robot called EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) and follows her into outer space. Beneath its lovable surface, it’s a daring work, virtually silent for the first half, displaying remarkable artistry in its production design and offering a scathing critique of US consumerism Photograph: c.W.Disney/Everett /Rex Features
The Transformer toy line was launched in 1984 and spawned three decades of TV shows, comic books and bombastic Michael Bay movies. Optimus is the franchise’s red-and-blue figurehead: a robot that turns into a giant lorry is cool enough if you’re a kid (or an overgrown one), so one that does that while courageously commanding a fleet of warrior Autobots dedicated to protecting us feeble Earthlings is impossibly cool. “Freedom is the right of all sentient beings,” goes his motto. “No sacrifice is too great in the service of freedom.” He even had a beer named after him (Hoptimus Prime) and a Mr Potato Head toy (Optimash Prime) Photograph: c.Paramount/Everett/Rex Features
The tagline went: “Part man. Part machine. All cop.” Dutch director Paul Verhoeven’s gory 1987 classic starred Peter Weller as a veteran Detroit police officer murdered in the line of duty, but revived by malevolent mega-corporation OCP (Omni Consumer Products) as a superhuman cyborg law enforcer. The deadpan patrolman duly cleaned up the city, while wearing what looked suspiciously like ice hockey gear and a welder’s mask. Weller lost 3lb a day due to sweating inside the suit, which eventually had an electric fan built into it. There’s a remake out next year, with Gary Oldman and Samuel L Jackson among the cast Photograph: PR
Named after Judd Nelson’s rebel character John Bender in The Breakfast Club, Bender Bending Rodriguez (he was built in Mexico, hence references to his “swarthy Latin charm”) is the antihero from Matt Groening’s underrated Futurama. The steel sociopath is described by one-eyed sexpot Leela as “an alcoholic, whore-mongering, chain-smoking gambler”. While at college taking Robo-American studies, Bender once chugged an entire keg of beer, streaked across campus and stuffed 58 humans into a phone booth – although he admits that many were kids. He tells people to “bite my shiny metal ass”, steals Jay Leno’s head, fathers a child with a soda vending machine and secretly wants to be a folk singer Photograph: PR
Bender wasn’t the first robot to struggle with boredom and depression – that honour goes to the ship’s robot from Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Marvin was inspired not only by Adams’s fights with the black dog but also by Eeyore and melancholy Jacques from As You Like it. “I didn’t ask to be made,” said Marvin, morosely. “No one consulted me or considered my feelings in the matter.” He was played by Stephen Moore in the radio and TV versions, but voiced by Alan Rickman in the 2005 film. Radiohead named the second track from OK Computer after him Photograph: Laurie Sparham/PR
The fliptop bin on wheels and his neurotic sidekick C-3PO are arguably the most popular robots in history, but plucky little Artoo steals the spot in our top 10, for being more lovable and saving the day in all six Star Wars films (so far). Sure, camp “protocol droid” C-3PO can speak six million languages, but “astromech droid” R2-D2 beeps, whistles and proves that robots can emote without being humanoid or speaking our tongue. The Abbott and Costello of space were actually inspired by the bumbling peasants Tahei and Matashichi from Akira Kurosawa’s 1958 period drama The Hidden Fortress. George Lucas happily admits that R2-D2 is his favourite actor Photograph: Cinetext/Allstar
This early sci-fi icon stole the show in the 1956 film Forbidden Planet – a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, in which Robby equated to enslaved spirit Ariel. Costing $125,000 to build (very pricey for a prop in 1950s Hollywood), he stood 7ft tall with a bulbous body and a transparent conical dome for a head, had a drily witty synthesised voice, twiddly antennae and flashing lights. Robby popped up throughout popular culture for the next three decades, notably in The Twilight Zone, The Addams Family, The Man From Uncle, Lost in Space, Mork & Mindy and Gremlins Photograph: SNAP/Rex Features
“Boogie boogie boogie ” was his catchphrase. He ate Atomic Thunderbusters, which looked suspiciously like plain old lemon bonbons. Created by musical impresario Johnny Edward in 1978 to cash in on the Star Wars craze, this 5ft retro-looking robot first appeared on Bill Oddie-fronted kids’ show The Saturday Banana, before Edward’s friend and former Monkees drummer Micky Dolenz picked up the rights to make a spin-off series: a domestic sitcom in which a science boffin kid created Mickey to help around the house, with Irene Handl playing the grandmother. LWT ran the series from 1980 to 1983 and it attracted 12m viewers at its peak Photograph: ITV/Rex Features
Subtitled “A Children’s Story In Five Nights”, Ted Hughes’s 1968 modern fairytale featured a giant metal man of unknown origin who arrived in rural England, befriended a small boy and ended up defending Earth from an enormous “space-bat-angel-dragon”. It was memorably read by Tom Baker for Jackanory in 1985, the Who's Pete Townshend turned it into a musical and Warner Bros optioned the story. To avoid confusion with Marvel Comics character Iron Man, he was renamed The Iron Giant for Warners’ 1999 animated film, set during the cold war. Hughes had given the script his enthusiastic blessing before he died the previous year Photograph: PR
.png?w=600)
