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Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots
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Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots
Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots is a two-player action toy and game designed by Marvin Glass and Associates and was first manufactured by the Marx toy company in 1964. It features two dueling robot boxers, Red Rocker and Blue Bomber, mechanically manipulated by the players, and the game is won when one player knocks the opposing robot's head up and off the shoulders. The 2000s version of the game by Mattel features physically smaller robots.
A film based on the game has been announced to be in development by Universal Pictures.
Each player takes control of one of the two robots: Red Rocker and Blue Bomber, both of which are standing on a platform molded in bright yellow high-impact polystyrene plastic, representing a boxing ring. By pushing plunger buttons on a pair of joysticks at the base of the platform, players make their robot punch at their opponent's robot. If a robot's head is hit with sufficient force at a suitable angle, the head will overextend away from the shoulders, signifying that the other player has won the round. The losing player then pushes the head back down to the shoulders to get ready for the next round.
From 1948, the International Mutoscope Corporation produced a coin-operated arcade machine called Silver Gloves featuring two players controlling the movement and arms of two boxing figures. The boxing games appeared in arcades, using mannequins made of metal that would fall over if a player managed to hit the button on the chin of the opposing player's dummy.
Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots has enjoyed far-ranging success in the United States, selling in the hundreds of thousands and becoming something of a minor popular culture phenomenon. The game was developed for the Marx toy company by the renowned toy design firm Marvin Glass and Associates. After some development, Glass decided to cancel the project in 1963 following the death of boxer Davey Moore in the ring. Burt Meyer felt that the toy was too good to go to waste, and suggested that they "de-humanize" the characters, making them robots which fall apart, rather than humanoid figures who fall over.
Text on the box suggested an outer-space backstory for the two robots. The red boxer is "the rollicking Red Rocker" from Soltarus II, and weighs in 375 pounds. The blue opponent, the "beautiful Blue Bomber, pride of Umgluck", weighs in at 382 pounds.
The toy first became available to retailers during the 1964 season. Marx produced the action set, virtually unchanged, for well over a decade, until the packaging and characters were updated for the 1977 sales season with a more overt outer-space theme to make it appeal more to buyers looking for space toys following the release of the movie blockbuster Star Wars.
The game was available in the United Kingdom during the 1970s, where it was sold under the name Raving Bonkers. The two robots were renamed, with the "Blue Bomber" becoming "Basher Bonker" and the "Red Rocker" becoming "Biffer Bonker".
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Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots
Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots is a two-player action toy and game designed by Marvin Glass and Associates and was first manufactured by the Marx toy company in 1964. It features two dueling robot boxers, Red Rocker and Blue Bomber, mechanically manipulated by the players, and the game is won when one player knocks the opposing robot's head up and off the shoulders. The 2000s version of the game by Mattel features physically smaller robots.
A film based on the game has been announced to be in development by Universal Pictures.
Each player takes control of one of the two robots: Red Rocker and Blue Bomber, both of which are standing on a platform molded in bright yellow high-impact polystyrene plastic, representing a boxing ring. By pushing plunger buttons on a pair of joysticks at the base of the platform, players make their robot punch at their opponent's robot. If a robot's head is hit with sufficient force at a suitable angle, the head will overextend away from the shoulders, signifying that the other player has won the round. The losing player then pushes the head back down to the shoulders to get ready for the next round.
From 1948, the International Mutoscope Corporation produced a coin-operated arcade machine called Silver Gloves featuring two players controlling the movement and arms of two boxing figures. The boxing games appeared in arcades, using mannequins made of metal that would fall over if a player managed to hit the button on the chin of the opposing player's dummy.
Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots has enjoyed far-ranging success in the United States, selling in the hundreds of thousands and becoming something of a minor popular culture phenomenon. The game was developed for the Marx toy company by the renowned toy design firm Marvin Glass and Associates. After some development, Glass decided to cancel the project in 1963 following the death of boxer Davey Moore in the ring. Burt Meyer felt that the toy was too good to go to waste, and suggested that they "de-humanize" the characters, making them robots which fall apart, rather than humanoid figures who fall over.
Text on the box suggested an outer-space backstory for the two robots. The red boxer is "the rollicking Red Rocker" from Soltarus II, and weighs in 375 pounds. The blue opponent, the "beautiful Blue Bomber, pride of Umgluck", weighs in at 382 pounds.
The toy first became available to retailers during the 1964 season. Marx produced the action set, virtually unchanged, for well over a decade, until the packaging and characters were updated for the 1977 sales season with a more overt outer-space theme to make it appeal more to buyers looking for space toys following the release of the movie blockbuster Star Wars.
The game was available in the United Kingdom during the 1970s, where it was sold under the name Raving Bonkers. The two robots were renamed, with the "Blue Bomber" becoming "Basher Bonker" and the "Red Rocker" becoming "Biffer Bonker".