LOST IN SPACE
ROBOT B-9 (MODEL KIT) PROJECT #225 BUILT/PAINTED: 2003 "Robot model B-9, designed and computerized as a mechanized electronic aid for Earth voyagers engaged in astral expeditions." The Robot from Lost in Space television program is a favorite robot from my childhood. (I'm not quite old enough to have caught the show when it first ran, but I watched it in syndicated reruns from the 1980's.) He was the main reason I watched the show (I thought the human characters were pretty bland, except of course for Dr. Smith) and even today I consider him pretty much the star of the series. The model kit I got was released by Playing Mantis under the Polar Lights brand, and was a reissue of the model kit produced by Aurora during the 1960's, when the show originally aired. Around the time the Lost in Space movie remake came out, there was a resurgence in B-9 related merchandise, but this model kit is still one of the most accurate representations of the Robot that you can find on the market. The model kit was molded entirely in tan-colored plastic (along with some clear parts for the bubble and collar) so the entire thing required painting. The sculpt was flawed in a few places, with some of the detailing partly obscured along the contours of the body shell (probably due to a damaged or poorly-restored production mold) so I had to resculpt some of the details with my hobby knife. Also, the kit did have a handful of small inaccuracies (the sensors on the head were round instead of oval-shaped; the soil sample door on his foot was missing) so I fixed these issues as well. I painted this model kit long before the show was available on DVD. After doing some Internet research and cross-checking a large body of online images, I realized that the colors of his various lights and panels just weren't consistent during the course of the TV show. In the end, I used a photo on the box of one of my Trendmasters toys. |