The Metal Men of Science & Industry

I don’t know who Dr. Howdy is (see yesterday’s comments), but I have to admire the opacity of a line like “remember to never restrict anyone’s opportunities for ascertaining uninterrupted existence for their quintessence.” Sure thing, doc. And while I’m at it, I’ll do everything I can to protect our precious bodily fluids.

When I visited the Museum of Science & Industry a few weeks ago (do they have a quintessence wing now?), I not only took in a megashow, but had a little extra time for more obscure displays. It’s a habit of mine. At the Art Institute, for instance, I see the impressionists, the Chagall windows, “Nighthawks” and “American Gothic” at one time or another, but I also take looks at the Greco-Roman coin collection, arms and armor, the photo gallery downstairs, even the paperweight collection, though I haven’t been able to find that in a few years.

So at S & I, I wandered down a hall displaying the Robert Lesser Collection of Robots and Space Toys. Turns out that after World War II, one of the many export products that helped Japan recover was toy robots, since most of Lesser’s large collection were made there in the 1950s and ’60s. No plastic here, but a variety of real metal men, colorfully painted.

I collected some of their names: Winky Robot, Mr. Atomic, the Wind Up Space Explorer, and Jupiter Robot by Yonezawa; A-35 Robot by Masudaya; Radar Robot by Nomura; the Smoking Robot by Linemar (no cigarettes evident, though); and the High Bounce Moon Scout by Marx, one of the few North American-made examples.