[Lee Stewart]

In 1971, the original 1956 Robby the Robot was sold to Jim Brucker and put on display at his Movie World/Cars of the Stars Museum, near Disneyland in Buena Park, California, where he was often vandalized by visitors. Robot historian Fred Barton was commissioned to restore Robby to his original 1956 state while the robot was still on display at the museum. Barton used original duplicate replacement parts made for the Forbidden Planet suit by MGM's prop department. It was, however, in a desperate condition once again several years later. The museum closed in 1980, and Robby, along with his transport vehicle, original MGM spare parts, and shipping containers were sold to William Malone. Malone noted that Robby had once again fallen into a state of disrepair. Having built the first ever replica of Robby in 1973, Malone was able to carefully restore the robot prop to its original condition using additional spare parts which the original builders had stockpiled in Robby's storage cases some 25 years earlier. The original Robby the Robot remained in Malone's original Forbidden Planet props collection for many years, until finally being sold by Bonhams Auctioneers in New York on November 21, 2017, for US$5,375,000. Robby became the most expensive film prop ever sold at auction