DVD Review (region 1)
Directed by Lee Sholem
Starring Charles Drake, Norman Field, Taylor Holmes, Billy Chapin, Karin Booth
Release date Out now

A rocket scientist gets involved with the creation of a robotic pilot to further mankind’s exploration of space. However, enemy agents are also interested in the project…

This cheap and rather basic 1950s kid flick is not on a par with the classics from the same period (like It Came From Outer Space or Them). Starting with a lot of stock footage of test rocket launches, the first 10 minutes alone are enough to sent any potential juvenile audience to sleep — there’s no way the PlayStation generation will get anything out of this. So that leaves fans of classic SF movies as the only potential audience, and it’s doubtful they’ll get much from it either. Tobor ain’t that great.

Central to the story is one of the scientist’s grandchildren, Brian (Chapin). He’s a brainy whiz kid, desperate to find out about his grandfather’s robotic experiments. The old man has built Tobor (robot spelt backwards: hey, that’s smart!), a fine looking piece of robot design, but not especially practical as a potential space pilot. One drawback is that Tobor is designed to mimic human emotions, the theory being that this will make it better at dealing with a crisis.

Soon enough, young Brian has been kidnapped by Commie spies, and it’s down to Tobor to stomp to the rescue. The scenes with the robot are quite fun, but there’s far too much padding (for such a short movie), most of it at the beginning. Underwhelming. Brian J. Robb

VERDICT: 5/10
Far from essential mid-1950s kiddie fare, featuring no one of any note. There must be better things you could be doing?