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Dr. Light: Behold! my greatest invention! Rush, the robotic dog! |
Robots are cool. Dogs are cool. Put them them together and you get a Robot Dog!
Examples of Robot Dog include:
Anime[]
- In the late 1970s anime Yatterman, the two heroes ride on a giant dog-shaped mecha.
- Friender from any incarnation of Neo-Human Casshern (save the live action movie), who was a We Can Rebuild Him case. Friender is also the inspiration for Rush.
- Balican from Chargeman Ken was Ken's sidekick robot dog.
- Peach from Demashita!Powerpuff Girls Z.
Fanfic[]
- In Nobody Dies, Zwei, or Unit-02 as you may know him, is a 200-foot-tall killing machine that thinks that it's Asuka's doggie; it's a deliberate Expy of Dug from Up.
Card Games[]
- Star Munchkin has a card "Dogbot" which is probably an Expy of Doctor Who's K9.
Comic Books[]
- Robbie the Robot Dog from The DCU.
- Spot, Krypto's robotic friend, from an issue of Superboy.
- Pooch, Manhunter's pet, from Tangent.
- Blackhawk built a robot dog in his self-titled comic series.
- Valeria Richards built a robot dog in The Mighty Avengers.
- Half-Face, from the Marvel Universe, invented several devices including a robot dog.
Film[]
- Rags the Robot Dog in Woody Allen's Sleeper:
Rags: Woof, woof, woof. Hello, I'm Rags. |
Literature[]
- The Isaac Asimov story "Robutt" is about a boy and his robot dog.
- The "rat things" of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash combine actual dogs with robotic parts to create extremely deadly guards.
- In Yevgeni Veltistov's Ressi - An Elusive Friend, the titular character is a robotic dog built by a child android named Elektronik as a companion. The dog is highly intelligent and, while incapable of human speech, could remotely transmit data directly to Elektronik. Ressi (which is an acronym) can run and swim extremely fast. In fact, it becomes a plot point after Ressi is captured and reprogrammed by a Corrupt Corporate Executive, as there is almost nothing manmade at sea capable of swimming at Ressi's top nautical speed, which equals to that of a swordfish (about 50 mph). Ressi is finally re-captured by the only boat capable of reaching that speed underwater.
- The Hound in Fahrenheit 451. Interestingly, it may not have actually looked much like a dog since it was built as an octopod, but Bradbury was a little vague on the details.
Live Action TV[]
- Robbie built one of these in an an episode of LazyTown. The dog attacks when the word 'trouble' is uttered. There's even a song about him.
- Doctor Who and later The Sarah Jane Adventures have K-9.
- Averted in a Series 6 episode when The Eleventh Doctor advises Craig to avoid stepping on Yappy, the Robot Dog, then remarks that it wasn't as much fun as he remembers.
- Muffy II the robot Daggit in the 1970s Battlestar Galactica Classic.
- Murphy in Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger.
- R.I.C. 2.0 (Robotic Interactive Canine) from Power Rangers SPD, he can transform into a BFG for the rangers, or a Powered Armor for the Red Ranger. Or a scooter to ride on when the bumbling assistant scientist pretended to be a Ranger. He really becomes a Do-Anything Robot, with a lot of random things added to him just because they could when said assistant and the tech-savvy Ranger, Bridge, upgraded him in their spare time.
- A few Zords have been giant robot wolves, including the Blue Ninjazord from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the Wolf Wildzord, the Wolf Galactabeast who turned from a giant wolf into a giant robot wolf, the Wolf Animal Spirit (a giant robotic-looking wolf... made out of pure ki.) Yeah, Power Rangers a big on giant robot wolves.
- My Name Is Earl: when the gang move into the local big box store because they think Y2K destroyed all civilization, Randy took up residence in the toy department and made friends with a toy robot dog.
- The eponymous hero of Tetsuwan Tantei Robotack is one.
Music[]
- The They Might Be Giants song "The Ballad of Davy Crockett (In Outer Space)" mentions a robot drone that Crockett reprograms into a robot dog.
- mc chris's Robot Dog.
Newspaper Comics[]
- There was a Frank and Ernest comic in which a robotic dog was referred to as a "dogmatic".
Tabletop RPG[]
- A petbot in the shape of a dog in the Paranoia adventure Send in the Clones.
- A few missions also include doberbots. Naturally, a doberbot's primary combat tactic is "attack someone until they die, attack someone else until they die, attack someone else until they die..."
Toys[]
- Energy Hounds from Bionicle.
- The Alphas from Mechatars
Video Games[]
- Dog from Half-Life 2. Not too dog-shaped, but it has a dog-like behavior and name. Then again, Alyx said he used to be "yay-high", implying that Dog was more dog-like until Alyx began "adding on to him".
- The Mecha-Chomps from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga were robotic Chain Chomps with the body of a standard robot dog.
- K9 in Fallout II is a cyborg, but close enough to qualify.
- Also Rex from Fallout New Vegas
- Rush, Mega Man's robot dog. There's also the giant, fire-breathing robot dogs in Wood Man's stage.
- The K9000 enemy from Mother 3.
- The FENRIS Mechs from Mass Effect 2. The collector's edition of Mass Effect 3 will include a non-hostile one that follows Shepard around on the Normandy.
- In Professor Layton and the Curious Village, you can build your very own robot dog. In addition to unlocking new puzzles, he can be used to tell you when there are hidden things in the area.
- In Secret of Evermore, your dog would change according to the region he was in. Naturally, the "future" world made him a robot (and a toaster).
- A robotic bulldog is a type of enemy in Secret Agent, described as "not a man's best friend". Curiously, these are always found near tiny little dog houses.
- In Secret Agent Barbie, one of Barbie’s gadgets is a tiny and rather cute robot dog.
- MEL from the late 1990s Blaster Series games.
Western Animation[]
- Subverted in The Jetsons, as Lectronimo was nowhere near as good as Astro.
- Also there's Cogswell's robot dog, Centro.
- Dynomutt Dog Wonder, with the Blue Falcon. He later appeared on Dexter's Laboratory, as well.
- Dynomutt also appeared in Harvey Birdman. RIP.
- Goddard from The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron.
- A robotic dog was featured as a rival for Scooby Doo in A Pup Named Scooby Doo.
- Phineas and Ferb had a robotic dog show up in the theme song. They actually build it in "Canderemy".
- Robo-Puppy from Futurama, which is a direct parody of Sony's AIBO mentioned below. Bender actually kicks the Robo-dog!
Robo-Puppy: Robo-Puppy commencing two hour yipping session: YIP! YIP! YIP! YIP! YIP! YIP! |
- 1-Rover-1 from Battle of the Planets.
- Rover in Planet 51.
- Sniffer McGross from Grossology.
- Preston turns out to be one of these in Wallace and Gromit: A Close Shave.
- Sari's pet Sparkplug in Transformers Animated.
- K-999 in The Problem Solverz. He's actually not very helpful and constantly insults and pranks the team.
- In the Animated Adaptation of The Partridge Family, Danny had a robot dog named Orbit.
- Again, MEL from Blasters Universe.
Web Comics[]
- Snuffy the Pooch from A Beginner's Guide to the End of the Universe gradually turns into one of these, as the protagonist uses his Reality Warper powers to upgrade her into a Cyborg.
Web Original[]
- Linkara expresses his distaste for these things as video game enemies in his Adamantium Rage review:
"Ugh, a robot dog. Why do video game designers always include dogs? They're one of the most annoying enemies ever!" |
Real Life[]
- Sony's AIBO series of robots were literal robot dogs, or at least as close as was possible within the limits of artificial intelligence.
- Hasbro's Furreal Friends included Biscuit, a robot dog for kids.
- Poo-Chi, a robot dog for kids (followed by Meow-Chi, Chirpie-Chi [bird] and Dino-Chi), which came in various colors. Among the variants were a poodle, a bulldog and three dalmatians (actually Domino, Little Dipper and Oddball, to promote 102 Dalmatians. The toys were made from 2000 to 2002. One of the complaints about them was that they wouldn't shut up!