The B9-0243 Robot Project (aka "A Semi-Inaccurate Potato")

Updated February 7, 2021

My B9 story starts like a lot of others. One of my older brothers introduced me to Lost in Space when I was very young. The Robot caught my attention right away. Not because it was witty or funny, but because it scared me.  A “real” talking robot with bright red claws, giving dire warnings about danger, as they crept forward into some dark cave or around a rock. For some reason, it was unsettling to have a machine that had such a strong human-like personality. I kept expecting it to turn on the humans at any moment.

The first time I tried to build anything was in the late 1990s. I was going to make a simple Halloween costume that had the blinking lights, dryer hose arms, and trash can body.  It ended up being set aside  until I decided to search online for pictures of the B9 so that I could add better detail to my costume. After finding websites like The Magnetic Lock and B9Builders, the costume project stopped and I thought about trying to make something more like the real thing. Here are some photos from that ill-fated costume project. I’ve no idea what that annunciator panel was originally from. The knob positions are Off, LT1, LT2, HT1, HT2. I bought it at a surplus store.