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Moebius 1/6 Lost in Space Robot Upgrades?

33K views 150 replies 28 participants last post by  Radiodugger 
#1 ·
Having been out of the loop for a while, I just recently found out about the up and coming 1/6 scale LIS Robot from Moebius. I was wondering if there are already plans in the works to offer upgrades for the kit??
 
#114 · (Edited)
Remember, the Robot's arms, legs and bubble lifter were NEVER black. They started out a medium gray and got darker as improvements were made to him. By the end of the the third season, they were a deep charcoal gray. The only black on the Robot were his treads.

As for me, part of the character and look of the Robot comes from the fact that a real actor is inside him giving a performance. This includes the look of his arms inside the suit. He was not just a mechanical device like the Chariot, he was a character. I am thrilled with the early images of the Moebius kit and the design work Gary Kerr has put into it and can't wait to build all the versions I am planning once the kit comes out.

Saying you would settle for this over that because it looks the same as your memory of the Robot would be the same as saying that the AMT Enterprise from 1967, with all it inaccuracies is as good as the Round 2 kit from last year. I mean, they both have the same shape that I remember the Enterprise having. No modeler would settle for that type of shortcutting on that kit, so why should we have to settle on the quality of this kit simply because some want to pose it like a doll?

If you don't like how it is made, as I said, good luck "correcting" it to your vision.That is what the hobby is all about, but give me those beautifully designed Gary Kerr arms!!
 
#124 ·
Thank You for this quote. This is what I was thinking. Let Moebius do what they do well and and go with that.The put out great products for me. I wished I could afford all there model ships. But there is some many I haven't bult yet. Just got back into model building and just building my skills after 20 yrs of not building anything. One thing is. i can never have enough shelves for all my models or collectables.
 
#130 · (Edited)
There are clamps on the wrists and there are clips. On the left photo, from last year, you can see both the clamp, that holds the wrist band ends together, are on the top, beside the clips. The clips, one on top of each wrist and one on the bottom of each wrist, are to lock the arms into place when Bob May retracted them so he did not have to hold them in place all the time and they would not fall out of the sockets. On the right side photo, from today, you can see that the clips have been moved to their proper placement. :thumbsup:
 
#132 ·
I'm liking the fact that the bubble is not in place on the lower picture. I'd guess the reason is that they are still perfecting the seam issue. I'd further guess that the minor delay on the kit is due, in part, by the seam tweaking. This is all good news. Don't get me wrong, the kit is mind-blowing even with the seam. 3 for me.
 
#133 ·
WOW! I can hardly wait. I'm going to build ONE of mine into a Stop motion type model where I can move the legs and arms, rotate the body and even raise and lower the head.
Anybody gonna do a mechanical rotating thing for the paddles? Metal Drill bit for the foot? Smoke machine to fight Robotoids with? Moving light sticks in the head? Scale cables to drag in back like the costume did? Removable feet so we can see Bob Mays legs with sneakers?

Ya know..... A Robbie and Gort would be cool in the same scale...... Maybe John from Voyage to a prehistoric planet? C3PO, R2?
 
#141 ·
Buy the ones you really want, not only to support sclae modelling companies that are starting to fade away, but also because while you might see a short term sale in the future, you might also mis that, and end up paying a LOT more for a model that is out of production.

Plus, prices on everything (including modelling) are skyrocketing because of costs increases, so rereleases end up costing quite a bit more than original releases.

(Look at the difference in price between the original Moebius big seaview, and the recent 8 window release.)
 
#142 ·
There are some 'must haves', others which I would like but will probably wait a bit on and some which are nice but not ones I cannot live without. I am getting married in a few months and so funds will be much tighter also.

But it is a great feeling walking into my LHS and seeing a dozen models I would like to own. For years I walked in, saw that I had everything they had already and just bought some donor kits for scratch building instead...

This Robot kit is going to be great! I am not too sure what I will do with it yet, I am going to wait until I hold it in my hands and decide then.
 
#144 ·
Hi! I'm new to this forum and this subject has probably been spoken about and rehashed again, and over again ... but with regards to the Moebius 1/6 scale B-9 Robot, I just wanted to mention that I discovered something that some builders might be interested in! I was in a Pep Boys just the other day, waiting for my car to get smogged and I was browsing the counters near the checkout stands; they sell a lot of gifts and knicknacks in this area, and I happened upon a motor oil bottle extension. This thing is made of a vinyl or PVC material and is designed to screw onto the neck of a motor oil bottle to help pour oil into a vehicle's oil reservoir with minimal spillage; I am thinking that it takes the place of an oil spout; it was inexpensive - just a couple bucks - more portable than a traditional spout, and easier to store.
And it is practically almost the exact diameter and length of the Moebius Robot arms! That's right! This oil bottle extension has pleats like the model Robot's arms! It is flexible and almost holds any position you might bend it into - I was able to pose it almost like the molded vinyl ones that came with the kit!! The scale of the pleats looks correct (!) to the length of the arms of the model and you can collapse it upon itself, extend it out - it is the same length as the extended model arms - pose it, etc.
There are only two issues with this device in using it as moveable, poseable replacements for the model's supplied arms:
1. In the collapsed position, the "stack height" of this thing is about the same as the model's collapsed arms, but the pleats are just a little thicker because of material thickness (the actual wall thickness of this oil tube) - in other words, the material thickness of this part is just a bit out of scale, but it could work as a replacement. Also, because the wall thickness is a little bit too much, while it seems as though it would actually work OK when collapsed or "folded up" in the retracted position, it tries to expand just a little; in other words, it isn't as neatly folded up as the Moebius-supplied arms.
2. The second issue with using this oil spout as a replacement for the models arms is ... the color!! As far as I can tell, the only colors available are Radioactive Green and Bright Pink-red! If everyone was concerned about painting the Moebius-supplied model's arms, in that the paint will flake or chip off, this thing is way worse. Unless, of course you don't mind that your model would look a bit psychedelic.
I guess in summary, what I am saying is that this auto accessory would make adequate actual working replacement arms for the B-9 Robot, except that it isn't as finely made as the original, and the color is ... gaudy!
 
#145 ·
Oh, and while on this subject, I have found that with regards to painting the bellows parts of the kit, such as the legs, ankles, and arms, nothing, not even Rustoleum Plastic paint will stick! everything chipped or flaked off. Until - I had the idea to use a steel cleaning brush to scuff the surface of the vinyl parts, and, lo, Testor's Metalizer Titanium in the spray can went on and when dry, stuck like flypaper! Only neater! Really, it worked with absolutely no loss of paint. The gentleman who posted a thought about using steel wool to prep the parts was on the right track, but the brush worked great. If you want to give it a try, you can find such a steel brush at Turner's Outdoorsman or most other sporting good stores in the gun accessory section where they keep the cleaning stuff. I forgot the manufacturer name (sorry!) but there are nylon brushes, brass or bronze brushes, as well as steel brushes - they look sorta like a squared-off toothbrush with a plastic handle and should cost about $5. Don't use the brass-bronze brush cuz it could leave gold colored residue on the plastic parts! Then spray and check it out. It looks (to me anyway) just right. Have a great build!
 
#146 ·
By the way, has anyone noticed that the right side tread section inside panel will absolutely not fit in place if you try to attach it using the four molded positioning pins? Something is out of alignment; the only solution I have been able to come up with is to remove all four pins and realign the panel as I glue it in place. Another odd thing is that the edges of the inside panel does not align with the tread section! I tried both inside panels (since they are identical) and bought another B-9 kit and tried the inside panels from that, as well, and none of them will match up exactly to the right tread section! This leads me to believe that the right tread section on the inside edge - the edge on the side of the narrow tread - is somehow out of alignment with the rest of the kit. Luckily, this does not affect the build, since you can't see this misalignment when the left and right tread sections are joined together. And on THAT note: when you join the tread sections together using the pin and socket method that is part of the original assembly plan, the left and right sections don't exactly match up to one another! The alignment of the treads place one slightly ahead of the other - AND they don't necessarily sit on a table top totally flat, like a model car that has one wheel that doesn't touch, out of the four! So I cut off the pins and sanded the socket rings flush with the inside panels, then used disc magnets to attach the tread sections to one another (the thickness of the magnet was equal to the spacing between the sections, and I glued them towards the center of the tread sections so that they are not easily seen). Whew! What a lot of work to pull the alignment of the parts into registry! Or does anyone know whether this out of alignment of the model represent the "real" Robot's parts alignment?
 
#150 ·
No problems at all with a reaction between the vinyl and the styrene. You do have to be careful after painting the vinyl that you do not crack the paint when compressing the arms and legs into place. The Chariot tread problem has now been corrected on the new release as the good folks in China are now using the proper vinyl/rubber on the treads.
 

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