Two Unfinished Gaikings

For the uninitiated, Gaiking was a Japanese robot featured in the Shogun Warriors toy line, but not in the comic book.Probably referenced from some imported "Presto-Magix"-style rub-down transfers I got at a toy store in Wilmington, NC that I always visited when in town to see my grandfather. I used most of them on some cheap styrene plastic shoe-boxes I bought to store small toy parts (missiles, guns, etc.). Regrettably, they broke almost immediately, but I kept the cracked, useless lids for several years thereafter, purely because of the chipped, flaking images of Dangard Ace and friends still clinging to them.

Cutaway View of a Cyborg

I've always had a real fondness for exposed internal organs.... the Visible Man, Pulsar, Gre-Gory, Mutagen Man, whatever. One of the things in life I still need to do is to see one of those cows with windows installed in their side so you can watch their innards.

ROM, Spaceknight

Based more on the comic than the actual appearance of the toy itself. I was so pleased with this colored pencil rendering that it's one of a handful of drawings that I bound together in a screw-fastened binder (originally a military operational manual) that I...er...kind of looted from a storage closet aboard the U.S.S. Yorktown on a class field trip (Please don't tell the authorities-- I'm not sure what the statute of limitations is for that sort of thing.). I'll be posting more of the stuff from that binder in the near future during Shogun Warriors Week, coming soon to this website!

Exoskeleton for a Disembodied Brain

Almost certainly torn from the same notebook as this piece, we see before us my concept for a suit to help disembodied living brains live a more normal , active life... kinda like a Rascal, but more so.

Three Sailors, a Civilian, a Robot, and a Caveman

Regrettably, I have no actual joke to go with this set-up. But it would have to be a heck of a joke, I'm certain! The robot is one of several that I drew in that period mounted with threatening syringes... I don't know where that was coming from. Perhaps there was something like that in a trailer for Demon Seed?

Derivative Robot with Pistol

This fellow's head seems to be a variation on the "Death Star Droid" (with some kind of gadget emitting an electrical arc added on his forehead), while his legs come from Force Commander. The background is fairly perfunctory...note that the small rocky hill is in fact too small for the door built into it. It looks like I tried to fix it by adding a tiny doorway at the bottom to turn it into a tall building off in the distance that's awkwardly placed in front of a mountain, but the horizon line betrays me.

Manic (Possible) Robot with Hat

I bring up the possibility of this fellow being a robot because he seems to have rows of rivets across his torso, and, though it doesn't reproduce here, he is drawn entirely in silver and gold crayon. I can't say how what appears to be a frog (or possibly bird) leg fits with my theory. This is the next page in the typing paper pad after The Happy Fisherman.

"Robbyesque"

As much as I admired (and still admire) Robby the Robot, I don't think I ever attempted to actually draw him as a child, seeing that as too daunting of a task. I was right--it is. I attempted to draw Robby without accurate reference last week for a young friend of mine, and...well...let's just say that it's a good thing that preschoolers aren't the most discerning audience. Still, I would frequently adapt aspects of Robby's design to my own ends, and this is clearly an example of that practice

A Busy Day on the Moon

There's a lot going on here-- there's Space Station K-7 (propelled by rockets for some reason), the proposed L-5 Point Space Station, a Mercury capsule, and what I think are a couple of Robert Goddard's early experimental rockets, along with a dome-shaped lunar base and a couple of robots of my own design. A pretty odd mix.

Scary Robots

These fellows are clearly bad news...the one on the right even has an angry face on his hand, for Pete's sake! But then, I guess that if my hand had a mouth with lasers shooting out of it, then my hand might be angry, too. I was initially puzzled at the robot's apparent scuba tanks, but it's now my belief that they're actually tanks of rocket fuel to allow it to levitate.

Three Happy Fellows

I'm impressed that they can keep their spirits up with only one nostril apiece.

Possibly Rabid Robot with Eye-Tentacle

That interpretation only holds up if you interpret the underside of the top part as a frothing robot mouth and the round bit as a slitted eye, rather than some sort of glowing grating and a joint held by a screw, of course. But it sounds more exciting than "Two Camera-Headed Robots", wouldn't you agree?

Giant Robotic Caterpillar Vehicle (Cutaway View)

Actually, the title pretty much says it all.

Robot Exhibiting Mixed Emotions

Robot Overkill

This fellow is pretty well-prepared for nearly any eventuality, up to and including towing illegally-parked cars or administering injections. And yet, all that he chooses to do is to destroy a tree. I think that stuff at the tip of his nose is a set of doors opening to reveal another missile of some sort.


This fellow is less aggressive in his general look, but he's in danger of legal action from several of his metallic colleagues. Let's break it down: he's got Raydeen's legs, an upper torso reminscent of Iron Man's, ear thingys patterned after Robby, and I think his head may be based on Lucifer (though I believe that the top of the head was not intended to be a dome, but a set of sliding doors modeled on the U.S.S. Enterprise's shuttle bay). I think this may have been intentional, but that's probably after-the-fact rationalization. What is unique about him, though are his three rows of pouches around the midriff. Now that's a utility belt!

Startled Robot

Apparently, when a robot does a Tex Avery take, the proper exclamation is "APP".
While they're hard to read, his eyes say "TILT". There were also a couple of false starts for more contemporary (i.e. STAR WARS/Micronautish) robots on the same page, but they were comparatively boring.