Writing for a site whose name is based of a mispronunciation of the word “robots” almost requires that we shift our focus to those mechanical marvels from time to time. Being a pop culture nostalgia junkie like myself, there are several robots that randomly pop into my brain, and having no other outlet to share my collective nerdgasm with I figure I’ll just share then with you, dear reader! Here’s some fun facts about five random retro robots.

1. Killbots

Who can forget the 1986 horror/sci-fi cult classic Chopping Mall? Heck, the VHS cover art alone is seared into my brain. Well, what you may not know is Chopping Mall wasn’t the first choice for the title. No, originally the film was going to be named Killbots after the murderous mall security robots. Apparently the title didn’t perform well and executives were worried folks swept up in Transformers fever may get more than they bargained for.

The Killbots themselves were inspired in part by the 1954 sci-fi movie Gog and created by FX legend Robert Short of Beetlejuice fame. Impressively, despite the low-budget nature of the production, they were able to be remote controlled throughout the shoot. However, the crew was ready to use a costumed human stand-in just in case! Final fact: the mall they roam may look familiar as the Killbots roamed the same mall used in Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Commando: Sherman Oaks Galleria in Los Angeles.

2. Good Bill & Ted Robot “Us-es”

“Station’s creations” may not have had much screen time, but they were critical to Bill & Ted’s successful defeat of the evil androids in the battle of the bands at the end of Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey. We never really get a good look to see what the robots are made out of, but you can clearly make out air filters and an ’80s household icon: a Dustbuster! If you thought the hastily-assembled robots had some sweet moves, you can thank Michael “Shrimp” Chambers and Bruno Falcon who are both Breakin’ and Breakin’ 2: The Electric Bougaloo alums with Chambers playing “Turbo” in both films. Funnily enough, Good robot Bill isn’t Chambers’ only foray into robot characters. No, he has the distinct honor of playing “Urkelbot” in several episodes of Family Matters who is probably deserving of his own entry in a future article.

3. The Fix-Its

I’m not sure how rabid our readers who are fans of Batteries Not Included may be, but the inclusion of the Fix-Its in our list can be up for debate. Are they robots or are they aliens? I, for one, think both.

Often attributed to Steven Spielberg who produced the film, Batteries Not Included was instead directed by Matthew Robbins with a screenplay from Pixar staple Brad Bird. The Fix-Its themselves were created by the fine folks at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) and the visual effects crew includes dozens of names with credits on some of the best visual effects movies in history. I didn’t know this until I went down a BNI rabbit hole, but the baby Fix-Its are name Wheems, Jetsam, and Flotsam while the two adults are named Kilowatt and Carmen.

4. Number 5

“Johnny” 5, the main character from the 1986 movie Short Circuit, may be the most visually recognizable robot on this list, and for that you have Syd Mead to thank. Before Short Circuit, the “visual futurist” first made his mark on Blade Runner and Tron. However, if you can look at Number 5 and instantly hear his unique voice in your head you have Tim Blaney, who also provided the voice for Frank the Pug in Men in Black, to thank for that.

Appropriately, for a movie about a robot, most of the budget of the film went toward creating a detailed and maneuverable Number 5. Several, actually. There were multiple versions of the robot made for different scenes, but one of the most memorable is actually an in-joke. The scene where Number 5 dances to “Saturday Night Fever” is actually a nod to Short Circuit director John Badham who also directed John Travolta in the disco hit.

5. Max

The Trimaxion drone ship robot in Disney’s Flight of the Navigator is better known as Max, but what may not be known is that the voice of Max was provided by non other than Pee-Wee Herman himself, Paul Reubens, who chose to add mystery to his casting by crediting himself as “Pall Mall.” While the motion control of Max was done with traditional puppetry, the exterior of his ship was early CGI from Omnibus Computer Graphics and was supervised by Jeff Kleiser who continues to work today with FX supervision on films like Slither and X:men: The Last Stand.

I haven’t verified this, but according to IMDB, David’s flight to Phaelon and back with Max took “4.4 Solar Hours,” while 8 years have passed on Earth, indicating that time was slowed down for David by a factor of about 16,000, which corresponds to a speed of about 99.9999998% the speed of light. That may be about the only amount of time I can handle some of Max’s cheesy jokes in my adulthood.