Rascal Robot

The Rascal Robot is the ubiquitous wind up robot, and variations of it are still being produced to this day. But where do it’s roots lie?

These little wind-up robots first invaded the USA in the late 1970s and were originally packaged as Pocket Bots, Rascal Robots, or Star Bots. Early ones are stamped Japan on the feet, but you can also find them stamped China, USA, and Taiwan. In Japan, they were still called Rascal Robots, which in Japanese is ラスカルロボット.

The design evokes a squashed down Robby the Robot, with his clear dome and front mounted claw arms.

Underneath the clear dome lies a surpising amount of sculpted detail. Fans of Microman should take note of the chrome and clear combination.

Almost 30 years on, Rascal Robot still winds up and walks well. It’s a simple mechanism that has no need to change with the times.

There are seemingly endless variations of this toy, with purple, blue, red, and even green domes as well as silver, gold and grey bodies.

As part of the Pocket Bots line they shared a line with similar wind-up robots such as the Acrobot and Pocket Bot (Yes, it’s the name of the line and also a robot).