1921-The Mechanical Man

The mechanized menace from this silent film terrorized people, setting the tone for celluloid human/robot relations for years to come. This groundbreaking silent "event" even included the action genre staple car chase, where Mechanical Man pursues a speeding motor coach on foot, thanks to trick photography that comically flies in the face of physics.

1927-Futura-Metropolis

This landmark German film depicts a dystopia in which captalism has run wild, and the managers live in insane luxury while the oppressed workers toil is despair underground. The Maschinenmensch (machine-human), also commonly known as Futura, is the workers' revolutionary leader and also appears in human form. Depending on which the many versions you see, the movie plot is extremely convoluted, but the film looks cool projected behind a performing band.

1936-Annihilants-Flash Gordon

Although films had evolved into "talkies," apparently all movie robot-design knowledge was lost in a prohibition-era arson insurance scam, and the makers of this film serial had to start from scratch. If the Annihilants from the original Flash Gordon movie showed up at a third-grade Halloween costume contest today, they'd probably win one of those self-esteem shattering Participation Awards and be too bummed out to wreak havoc on the populous.

1951-Gort-The Day the Earth Stood Still

Gort: a classic monosyllabic name that sounds vaguely alien. Gort is the robot companion of Klaatu, who descends to Earth from beyond the moon to warn humans that the rest of the galactic citizens are a little tweaked out over how violent we people are, and now that we have nukes, we should up our dosage of chill pills. If not, he says, a bunch of other Gorts will come back and vaporize you all. Ta-ta.

1962, Rosie the Robot Maid, The Jetsons

Harbinger of an era when machines take over human jobs or harmless spoof of a 1960s human TV maid? Certainly the latter, and probably the former, as well. Rosie, model number XB-500, comes from U-Rent a Maid, and needs a separate vacuum cleaner rather than having one built-in. The character lampoons the title role from the sitcom Hazel, but Rosie clearly made the more lasting cultural impression.

1963-Gigantor

Oh, the things that were possible in the year 2000 in 1964! This animated show set in 2000 told the tales of 12-year-old boy with a massive flying robot he controlled with a remote. The boy's dad had designed Gigantor as a weapon, but the robot was later reprogrammed as a champion of peace. This US version was based on the Japanese Tetsujin-28 (Iron Man 28), but toned down the violence for fragile American viewers.

1965-The Robot-Lost in Space

Seriously, this robot had no name, other than The Robot. But it did have a catchphrase: “Danger, Will Robinson!” The robot spoke thus to the young Will Robinson on the show only once, but the phrase lived on as an everyday warning that someone is about to make a mistake and caught on particularly amongst computer hackers.

1967-The Space Giants

In the vein of the Godzilla movies, The Space GiantsJapanese TV show featured so-called giants battling monsters, all of whom were obviously people dressed in costumes that would garner huge props at a Halloween party, but leave a little something to be desired as serious entertainment. But the show was a pretty big deal in its day; the 52 episodes ran in syndication in the United States.

1969-Hal 9000-2001: A Space Odyssey

Self-preservation is the strongest human instinct, so what happens if artificial intelligence decides to preserve itself at all costs? That's the HAL 9000 computer's choice when it reads the lips of astronauts planning to shut it down. By various means, HAL kills the Discovery One crew, except for Dave. When Dave succeeds in initiating HAL's shutdown, the computer expresses fear of death. "I'm afraid, Dave. My mind is going. I can feel it."

1974-Mechagodzilla-Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla

By 1974, Godzilla was playing hero, long before the T-800 pulled that switcharoo in Terminator 2 in 1991. From what we gather, an ape-like species from the Third Planet from the Black Hole (that's right) created Mechagodzilla to come to earth and destroy regular Godzilla, thus clearing the way for planetary takeover. Did Mechagodzilla succeed? We're still here, aren't we? Thanks, real Godzilla!

1976-Box-Logan’s Run

When Logan's Run dropped, the filmmakers probably felt pretty good about Box, the robot that freezes people to preserve them as food. C'mon, Box has it all, they must have thought: Shiny head—check. Limbs that look like strange kitchen utensils—check. Ability to give people a faster tan when they stand next to it—check. Creative name—well, it's still a pretty good robot. Then a year later, Star Wars came out. Whoops!

1977-R2-D2 & C-3PO-Star Wars: A New Hope

These are the droids you're looking for. Neurotic protocol droid C-3PO and astromech droid R2-D2 were some of the first sympathetic robot characters on film. Due to their comic relief and selfless, unknowing service toward the greater good, we not only loved them, we felt empathy for them. "I suggest a new strategy, R2: let the Wookiee win."

1978-The Cylons-Battlestar Galactica

The universe operates by an ironclad rule known as "dibs." So while the Cylons of the 2003 incarnation are cooler, the originals get top billing. Advanced reptilians created the 1978 Cylons to serve them, while humans created the newer Cylons as soldier/workers. Both sets of Cylons eventually kill off most of humanity and chase the survivors into space, so we'll call it a tie. Oh, and Wikipedia designates Cylons as "fictional." Duly noted.

1979-Maximillian-The Black Hole

The cycloptic Maximillian may be the only robot ever to go to hell, if that is in fact where it ends up at the end of this rather craptacular Disney movie. The symbolically-colored Maximillian works as enforcer for evil Dr. Reinhardt, who's enslaved the crew of his spaceship outside of a black hole to discover the secrets of its infinite power. It turns out that meddling with forces you can't possibly understand isn't the best career choice.

1979-Twiki/Dr. Theopolis-Buck Rogers

Sure, Dr. Theopolis, a round container carried around by Twiki, was a super-intelligent computer, but computers don't go to school, meaning he was surely no more a real doctor than Dr. Dre. Too bad he didn't stick around long enough to grab a Dr. Pepper endorsement deal; he was cut from the show after one season. However, Twiki, the 25th-century robot with a head shaped like a 1970s bowl haircut, continued on.

1979- V'ger-Star Trek: The Motion Picture

V'ger's arc begins as an energy cloud that cuts through Klingon warships like a hot knife through warm butter, continues as an alien vessel with extraordinary abilities and then climaxes with a big reveal that it is the result of an American exploratory probe from the 20th century. We'll never know if V'ger's origin would seem obvious if we'd seen it as adults, but at the time, our young, undeveloped brains did not see that one coming.

1982-Roy Batty-Blade Runner

There can be some debate over whether the replicants of Blade Runner are robots or not (they're described as biorobotic beings genetically engineered from organic substances), but there's no debating who's the baddest baddie in the movie: Roy Batty, aka Model NEXUS-6 N6MAA10816, played by Rutger Hauer. With genius-level intellect and a Ph.D. in whoop-ass, Roy leads the renegade replicants in the very human search for longer life. "Time... to die."

1984-T-800-The Terminator

While T-800s are a dime a dozen in 2029, in 1984 Los Angeles a T-800 is a one-cyborg wrecking machine. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays that T-800, a human-tissue-over-metal-endoskeleton Skynet flunky, who uses 18 lines over 108 minutes wisely but uses bullets with reckless abandon. What scared us at first, the T-800's zombie-like determination to continue moving forward at all costs, endeared us to it in the sequel. Awww..."I'll be back."

1984-Voltron: Defender of the Universe

1984 saw the rise a ton of awesome robot-based toys, and also the Gobots. If you had the full Voltron toy set as a kid, you could pretty much call the shots on the bus ride home from school. Of course, the cartoon that spawned the toys told the adventures of the Voltron Force, a team of galaxy-defending pilots whose vehicles combined to form the mega-robot Voltron and was based upon a true story. "And I'll form the head!"

1985-The Transformers

By 1985, kids stepped up their lawn-mowing games to afford increasingly overpriced Transformer toys. Alien robots that conveniently transform into human-invented vehicles come to Earth and pummel each other over energon cubes. With a name like Decepticons, they have to be bad, so you know Autobots rule. It's good vs. evil complete with the moral quandary over abuse of power. With a premise that timeless, will The Transformers ever die? "Autobots, roll out!"

1986-Conky 2000-Pee-Wee's Playhouse

If we had access to a refrigerator-sized robot made out of a boombox and a turntable, it's sole purpose wouldn't be printing out secret words that make us scream, but that's how Pee-Wee Herman used Conky 2000. After the Playhouse lights dimmed, all that underutilized potential must have sent the usually cheerful Conky into a rage, terrorizing Chairry, Pterri, Globey, and Mr. Window with jolts of electricity from its lightbulb eyes.

1986-Johnny 5-Short Circuit

Everybody loves Johnny 5, the speed-reading government weapon turned self-aware AI with a better personality than all your childhood friends put together. Pixar later ripped off his design for Wall-E, so you know he's good. He hung out with a white American playing an Indian, wanted to make taboo machine love to Stephanie (Ally Sheedy), and inspired the pop hit "Who's Johnny?"—easily one of the top 200 El DeBarge songs ever—yes, ever. "Number 5 is alive!"

1987-Data-Star Trek: The Next Generation

Honestly, we don't really care for Data that much, but we do like this photo. Love is a beautiful thing. "If you prick me, do I not... leak?"

1987-ED-209-RoboCop

Taking place in the "near" future, where automobile design hasn't progressed since the 1980s, RoboCop serves as a cautionary tale against letting a corrupt corporation make cyborg cops out of recently killed human cops. Almost 25 years later, that still hasn't happened in the real world, so we can't thank professional director of campy movies Paul Verhoeven enough. "Come quietly or there will be... trouble."

1988-Crow T. Robot-Mystery Science Theater 3000

Created by MST3000's Joel Robinson with free will and a sense of humor, Crow T. Robot stole many a show while the overall crew was generally stealing the show from lame sci-fi movies. Some will remember Crow's creative writing attempts that included "Earth vs. Soup," "Chocolate Jones and the Temple of Funk," and "Crow T. Robot's Bram Stoker's The Civil War," a documentary. "She undercut the subtle nuance of my wiener joke!"

1988-Kryten-Red Dwarf

Character-driven BBC cult favorite comedy series Red Dwarf spawned the service mechanoid character Kryten 2X4B-523P in the second of eight series spanning 1988-1999. Kryten came from a crashed ship, where he was serving a crew that had already died thousands of years ago. Not surprisingly, an American pilot of Red Dwarf cast people who since age 15 had been told they were really good looking and should be models or actors, and it never got off the ground.

1991-T-1000-Terminator 2

Robert Patrick nailed it as the T-1000, a liquid metal alloy bot from the future that turned down potentially lucrative careers as an impressionist or "guy who punctures things" in order to hunt down John Connor. Too bad his makers never coded in a directive to wait it out if his target retreats into a steel mill, and he met a Gollum-like end in a pit of molten despair. "Say... That's a nice bike."

1997-Fembots-Austin Powers

As an homage to the Fembots in the 1976 TV series The Bionic Woman, these Fembots exist mainly as a comic foil to test Austin Powers' will and to let Mike Myers exploit his body image to great comedic effect yet again, as he turned the tables on the Fembots and scrambled their wires with irresistibly seductive male gyration. "You can't resist us, Mr. Powers."

1999-Bender B. Rodriguez-Futurama

Robots can be flawed too, as the drinking, smoking, whore-mongering, gambling, lying, stealing Bender can attest. We'll let the quotes take this one. "This is the worst kind of discrimination. The kind against me!" "Bite my shiny metal ass!" "Let's face it, comedy's a dead art form. Tragedy, now that's funny." "You've snagged the perfect girlfriend. Amy's rich; she's probably got other characteristics..." "I'm Bender, baby, please insert liquor!"

2004-Awesom-O 4000-South Park

When Cartman puts on a crappy robot costume to trick Butters and find out his worst secrets, it all goes south when he finds out that Butters has a tape of him dressed up and singing like Britney Spears. Cartman has to stick to the Awesom-O ruse and try to steal that tape, which leads to him to eat toothpaste, insert suppositories, come up with 1000 movie ideas (800 with Adam Sandler), and serve as a pleasure bot. "Weak. Lame!"

2004-Sonny-I, Robot

In this Isaac Asimov adaptation, the thinking, dreaming, emotional robot Sonny is accused of killing his human creator. When supercomputer VIKI starts to enslave people to keep them from harming themselves, Sonny helps Will Smith and his love interest save the day. In the process, he becomes an iconic robot leader and convinces Smith to trust him, but he still doesn't forgive Smith for Wild Wild West. "I think it would be better not to die, don't you?"

2005-Marvin the Paranoid Android-The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Yes, there was 1981 TV version of Marvin, but we prefer the spherical design of the 2005 film version voiced by Alan Rickman. What better actor to express the exquisite boredom and depression of having a "brain the size of a planet" and nothing to do that would occupy anything but a miniscule sliver of that brain? "Not that anyone cares what I say, but the restaurant is at the *other* end of the Universe."

2007-Frenzy-Transformers

We won't say exactly why we don't love the Transformers movies, but the reason rhymes with "cycle spray." Still, we enjoy them at least in the reptilian portion of our brains and particularly liked Frenzy, the sneaky little would-be consumer electronics device. Small in size but possessing full-blown evil, he infiltrates the most highly guarded human areas with the greatest of ease, disguised as junky boomboxes and cell phones.

2008-Wall-E

Overbearing morality tale or saccharine sweet robot love story? WALL-E has it all. The trash-collecting sentient bot with the puppy dog eyes and super-crush on the out-of-his-league EVE stole everyone's heart with his cockroach loving, Rubik's cube collecting ways. "Eeeee... va?"

2009-GERTY-Moon

As the AI assistant to the Sam Bell clones working for Lunar Industries, GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey) feels like a bit of an homage to HAL 9000, without all the insubordination. GERTY's advanced programming can run a moon mining base and mend injured people, but can only express itself with variations on the "have a nice day" face. With that smiley disposition, GERTY actually allows Sam to wipe it's memory so he can escape the base--now that's a robot pal!

Honorable Mentions, Group 1:

1951/2009-Astro Boy; 1979-K-9-Dr. Who; 1979-V.I.N.CENT-The Black Hole; 1980-Irona-Richie Rich; 1982-KITT-Knight Rider; 1984-GoBots-Challenge of the GoBots; 1985-D.A.R.Y.L.; 1985-Vicki-Small Wonder; 1986-Bishop-Aliens; 1987-Dot Matrix-Spaceballs

Honorable Mentions, Group 2:

1988-Tom Servo-Mystery Science Theater 3000; 1998-PimpBot 5000-Late Night with Conan O'Brien; 1999-Digimon; 1999-The Iron Giant; 1999-Sentinels-The Matrix; 2001-Gigolo Joe-A.I.: Artificial Intelligence; 2002-Mr. Butlertron-Clone High; 2005-The cast of-Robots