Danger, Danger Will Robinson… Moebius Models has come to the rescue of all those living in our past and loving Lost in Space. Their latest release, in beautiful 1/6 scale, is the original bubble headed booby, the B-9 Robot which played such a huge parts in the series. The robot itself was played by Bob May and voiced by Dick Tufeld. If you are my age, almost everyone I know remembers at least one of the robot’s lines. The B-9 Robot may be one of the two most famous robots in TV and movies, along with Robbie.

Let’s dive in and look at the kit. The basic parts for the kit are done in a medium-soft gray plastic, and are comprised of seven sprues and four torso parts. Two clear sprues are also included, along with a small photoetch fret and a decal sheet. Last, there are eight gray vinyl parts for the arms and rubber portions of the legs. The kit’s molding is very nice, and there is a nice instruction sheet included with it.

I decided to build from the ground up, starting with the feet and treads, and then work my way to the top. The feet and tread parts are durable and fit okay, except for the seam down the middle. This required several putty sessions. Since the robot’s feet are silver, I elected to use Tamiya Gloss Aluminum decanted from a rattle can for the entire base color. It shows every scratch, but also acts as a filler. The treads were painted dark gray, the sides added, and the feet were finished. There is also an option for the feet to have the built-in soil sampler deployed. I filled it in and puttied it for a nice seam.

I started stacking skyward with the knees and knee joints, and then the leg bottom plates. These were all painted Tamiya Gloss Aluminum. The legs were added, and then the waist plate. Fit was great all around, and I was up to the main body.

The two main parts were glued together. The clear parts were added to the backing plate, and then attached to the upper torso. The lower torso has three clear parts which are added, and these have PE screens that need to be attached. I bent the screens to fit, and glued them in place with Elmer's. Finally, I glued the clear parts in place. The front of the lower torso has a programming bay which needs careful attention, painting, and decaling. It also has a moveable, sliding glass in it. The parts are a tight fit, but they all seat well. Before adding the top and bottom torso, the center section also has a large glass insert for the buttons and lights. The back of the instruction sheet has a detailed painting and decaling guide for this. I used Tamiya Transparent Red, Yellow, and Blue on the buttons, and then decaled over them. This slid easily into the front of the robot, and then the top and bottom torso fit right into place. Finally, the torso assembly was added to the legs.

The claws and retainers were built next. You have a choice of extended or retracted arms. I went with retracted arms. The claws were added to the arms, and then the assemblies were pushed into the slots on the torso.

The most detailed part of the build is from the neck ring up. Starting at the neck ring, two clear parts trap a black background. I was careful while trimming the clear parts off, and used gloss clear Elmer's for the joining. This does create a join line that is not there on the full size robot. Moebius did a superb job on the engineering of the kit, but there is no way to eliminate this join line (or the line on the head). I do hope that some aftermarket company will find a way to correct this.

The radar section and ears are built and added to the neck ring, and that leaves us the head. The head is straightforward, so take your time and pay attention to the well researched color scheme. For the brain panels, I painted them dark gray metallic, and used yellow water colors to highlight the markings. While that dried, the finger lights were added to the base of the head, and the crown was painted. The interior parts were assembled, and then added to the bottom half of the bubble. The bubble was glued together with the Elmer's glue. This was added to the connecting shaft, slide over the flexible neck parts, and the robot lived!

This is a fantastic kit, and one wanted by many. It is a large model when finished. There are tons of lighting and voice kits coming out already, so if you want to animate or add lights to your build, there are many options. Moebius Models’ kit has perfectly replicated one of the most beloved robots of all time. Highly recommended!

My thanks to Frank Winspur and Moebius Models for their efforts to bring this kit to life, and to IPMS/USA for the chance to review it.