This box contained a space robot toy, a tin toy manufactured in Japan for export to Western markets. In the 1950s and 1960s, its maker, Nomura, specialized in producing robot-themed metal toys, including several versions of an unlicensed "Robby" robot based on the popular robot character from the film "Forbidden Planet" (MGM, 1956). In post-WWII Japan, producing these metal toys began as a way to tap into an international market for "penny toys" or cheap playthings, but developed by the late 1950s into a industry manufacturing creatively-designed, complex toys with moving parts and lights that competed successfully with Western toymakers. The artist's depiction of the toy inside dramatizes the toy, showing a metal-clawed robot standing on an outer space landscape with Saturn hanging above.
The Gewirz family donated this toy to the Museum in 2006.
This object is not on display at the National Air and Space Museum. It is either on loan or in storage.
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