This post shows you a full gallery of all the great entries Massive Voodoo has recieved for the
Forged Hope Program. We hope you enjoy!
Gundam
by Florian "Tuffskull" Weinheimer
One day a rider came to the forgefather. He felt from his horse holding a letter in his hands. He was looking strange: strange eyes, dark skin, black hair. The forgefather opened the letter and read: “dear forgefather. We are the people from a country formerly known as Nihon before the atomic apocalypse. Due to the radioactive fallout most of our animals died but some mutated. Some weeks ago a beast was coming from the sea and attacked the ruins of our old capital Tokyo. We called it Jarzilla. Please forgefather build a robot to defend us.”Shortly after that the forgefather was on his way using his newest speedbot. After a journey of almost three days he finally arrived. The people already collected all they could find and thought it could be of use for the old mechanic. So he started to build… and build… and build. When he finally was done the people came to take a look at their new defender. The robot was huge – almost 20 meters. The forgefather called it RK-78-2. The one of the visitors felt to his knees screaming happily: “Oh my god – it’s the Gundam!” That was the day when Jarzilla went back to the sea.
XM3 - Glitchbot
by Daniel Owen
Typically, the XM3 is a defensive robot used to guard cargo and other vital material in the settlement but "Glitchbot" suffered almost catastrophic damage during an electrical storm which destroyed one arm and made him a little glitchy...until his owner replaced his arm with a harpoon claw and set him a new purpose, he still protects, but he seeks out any vermin that may attempt to consume the settlements food.
The Fishomat F-1
by Jens Didgman
After the Forge Father designed and built the First One he was thinking about what his community needs.The lack of proteins has always been a problem, since most animals were killed by the nocturnal attacks of monsters.
A reasonable and efficient option are the existing fish stocks in the remaining rivers and small lakes.
For this reason he designed the F-1, the Fishomat.
He used, as before with the First One, a DNHH (do not harm humans) module.
This module was originally intended as a protection to avoid assaults by robots agains humans.
He programmed the DNHH, so that the F-1 does not harm the fish unnecessarily and transport them as vividly as possible in the conclave.
He also programmed a MM & WSO, the name of the algorhythm for movement minimizer & water surface observator.
However, there is the problem that the main processor, a rudimentary KI that can learn and adapt, influenced all the implemented modules.
In this case, the DNHH and the MM & WSO.
Due to this influence, certain traits develop.
As manifested in the F-1 is a dreaminess with growing interest for its lively environment.
But it will take months, where the F-1 comes back with less and less fish to the conclave and the Forge Father realizes that the F-1 developed into a kind of active animal rights activists.
But this won't make the F-1 useless, as the Forge Father converted him as a biological observation unit.
V4n-H
by Leonard Kraus
V4n-H is designed as a guard and hunt robot. Especially designed to hunt for beasts in the ruins.For this he was equipped with a heavy repeating crossbow.
Farmbot
by Serafin
This is my Farm Bot. In times when food is rare it´s not an good idea to have human farmers, who want to eat more of the plants than they are allowed to -or give it to their families or those who paid for. So the solution is a neutral farmer - and who is more neutral than a bot that needs no food? Right nobody. So here is the keeper of the postapocalyptical glashouse (I think they need glashouses because of the toxic rain).The Farm Bot does his work day after day - and nothing special happens. There are no humans allowed in the glashouses and so he works alone. But he love to see his plants grow and talk to them - cause there is nobody to talk to. But then comes the day everything changed. Somehow a little lizard found a way into his loneliness. The Farmbot never have seen a creature like this and all he knows about living creatures is, that they need food (thats the reason why the humans builded him) and so he grabs a corncob an offers the lizard some kernels and he realizes that he is not alone anymore.
S.H.E.R.I.F.F.
by Tim Schi
This is my entry named S.H.E.R.I.F.F.by Tim Schi
(Specialized Hunter for Expedite Retrival of Inefficient False-Functions)
He was designed to hunt down malfunctioning robots and returning their data (heads) to the forge father for analysis and improvements.
Small Easter-Egg is the Piqia Mini-Me in the stone on the front.
B00M-R4G
by Bastian Hemmesmann
B00M-R4G called ‚Boom‘ is a hunting robot.
With his deadly boomerang he is a very successful hunter and helps the mankind to survive.
One day he lost one eye. A wild Animal? His own boomerang? Never ask him!
Now he roams with only one eye through the empty streets.
RS-001a
by Kurt Knittelfelder
RS-001a - Robot Shepherdby Kurt Knittelfelder
There are a lot of different robots in town to help the people surviving.
The Trash-Collector 2000 is cleaning the streets, the Autonomous Elder-Over-The-Street-Helper 2X4 is helping the old people crossing the road and the Town-Guard-Bot III is protecting the town against marauders, giant scorpions and raging two-headed cows.
There are a lot of other helpful robots, who care about the people, but who cares about the animals? Who cares about the goat, the bird, the little mouse and the black cat. Who cares about the snake, the squirrel and the turtle - and who cares about the small tomato??
There is one who cares about all of them - RS001a Robot Shepherd
he is the one who feeds the animals and cares about the small tomato plant because
in a world, that is mostly destroyed and barren, it is very important to care about all inhabitants, also the animals. ... and the small tomato - a glimmer of hope.
The last Impersonator
by Thomas Fröse
After a devastating solar storm killed every living thing on earth, only their buildings and machines remained. by Thomas Fröse
The climate changed and large areas turned into large deserts.
That were perfect surroundings for all the robots that previously served mankind.
Over the ages the remnants of mankind disappeared and the robots lost their purpose in life.
Until one day they found the ruins of a theater buried under tons of sand and gravel - and there they found parts of scripts of gripping stories.
Not much was left to recover, but what they found inspired the machines to reenact the stories as good as they could.
They did not know what they were playing, they had no context neither they knew the whole story, but they did it as dedicated as they could.
So they wandered around and showed their repertoire to any robot they met.
The audience sometimes were many, sometimes only single robots, but that did not bother them.
Their spectators felt that the play-acting touched something deep inside their circuits, so they watched them over and over again...
Gary the Gatherer
by Mark Gaylard
by Mark Gaylard
Deciding what to bring back requires careful consideration, especially ever the since the time he took home a big bag of sand he had found.
The forge father had yelled at him - 'Sand? You bring back sand!? Have you seen the ground outside!?'.
Gary had tried to explain that this sand was in a bag and therefore different than the stuff on the ground but the forge father told him to try harder. He learned his lesson - get stuff the community doesn't have. The wire he is holding here will probably end up in his cart - he can't remember seeing a wire with three metal things on it in the settlement.
Runner
by Oliver Späth
A damaged world, wild and full of dangers. Not many humans are left, just one little city, or not a city at all, more some kind of a hidden place with a big wall and some weapons.Their resources are limited. Not much water, food, nearly no electricity and no machines or any electrical equipment. So they started building robots for the help to hunt, to collect fruits, electrical parts, tools and machines of the old world.
We don’t know if there are any other survivors out there, in the deserts and jungles, the nature takes back all the human cities and roads. After all this atomic tests and wars in the past the complete environment changed in a really bad way, mutated plants and animals and even more dangers, which we don’t know about. Some survivors travelled out to find answers before, but they never returned. So we started building the robots. We have already build heavy robots with big guns and armour, to defend us. But they are too slow and need too much energy when they go outside for exploration. So we built this new series, fast and light robots, which collect information about the environment and got messages if they find any other survivors or tribes. So he is out there, running, and making hundreds of kilometers, collecting information and searching for other humans...
And some words about the different elements and to my thoughts on this project:
I wanted to catch a scene of a running robot (running is another big hobby from me). He has a GPS-watch and an oil drink in the hand. And some letters are pinned on his metal body, this messages are for other survivors. On the base you can see different elements for example a human skull, a destroyed road and a gun, this elements stand for the wars of the humans. This has been some years before, you can recognize that, because all the elements were grow over with plants. Beside that you can see a the head of a destroyed robot, this shows the actual dangers in the world, the head doesn’t lie there for a long time. The rabbits were just out there and enjoying their lives, while they get scared away of the running robot. With the jumping rabbit and the robot, I wanted to catch a very dynamic and sudden scene.
The Collector
by Erik Lux
He is the Collector, built to find the remains of the ancient civilization, collect and bring them to his Creator.He is the 2nd of its kind. What happened to no. 1? Better don't ask, it's a tough world out there!
He is still young. He was activated barely two weeks ago. Yet his paint is fresh and only a few scratches are visible, but this is changing faster than he would like. Always with him, his faithful companion K-9.
His job is not easy, so many debris everywhere, but little useful material. But he takes it seriously, because he knows that so much depends on it and people need him and the things he finds.
And sometimes, though not very often, it's a real treasure.
Theo Mechanic
by Maximilian Ullrich
Named after my son Theodor, I decided that my robot should be a mechanic.
He fixes everything that is useful, from the kitchen blender up to a B71. But his heart belongs to his red jeep with white shelby stripes.
Theo has a small hideout where he gathers his tools and other useful stuff. His pride are his aviator glasses which he has exchanged for a defective refrigerator.
Plus a small side entry by Maximilian:
Hans the Guardian
Hans is standing so long in front of his door he should guard that he no longer knows why and what is behind it.
But he is dutiful and ready to fight, and he knows no fear as long as his batteries are charged.
#A.R.T.1
by Siggi Hauke
They are robots ...Living in a world of scrap and metal ...
Built to help the human survivors ...
Some robots are blue ... some robots are orange* ...
If they are orange, they carry metal from here to there ...
Blue robots are built to paint. With their paintings they bring colors back in the wastelands ...
Humans need colors to keep their good will of live ...
Thank you #A.R.T.1
*Model 'worker' #W42
Resting atop a Skyscraper 2332 AD
by Arne Wilkens
As an homage to the well-known picture of the New York Construction Workers on a crossbeam back in 1932 I started to work on my robots for the forged hope contest. In a setting exactly 400 years later. If you wanted to read more about the story behind the original photography follow this link.And here's my (short) story of these 3 for the contest, even if I am not really into writing something about this as a story is visible on it's own if knowing the story behind the original photography.
"Years after the devastating destruction of mostly everything knowen as civilisation humans slowly started to take over the earth again. Collecting junk, harvesting fruits and vegetables, hunting animals and defending against the beasts, mutated from regular animals after the devastation. But they also needed a home.
Constructed from junk people started to use robots as little helpers for mostly every task. So are these 3 constructionrobots, building a new centre fpor robotic research, development and construction. This shot was made during a short rest, while new materials were delivered to the 63rd floor."
Arthur
by Matthew DiPietro
He has crossed the shimmering plain and down to where ruins tumble to eternal deep. And through verdant reaches made new and strange his brush finds a lonely beauty.The forge father speaks of Arthur in shades of sadness and love. For he says in that frame lies the fractured spirit of man. In his work the people glimpse themselves and find hope amongst all that was squandered.
Curious George
by Ashley Curran
Curious George named after the 'Curiosity Rover' Georges goals include: investigation of whether selected field sites of earth have any environmental conditions favourable for Microbial life, including investigation of the Planetary habitability and studies in preparation for future human exploration.George's onboard lab is able to take soil samples and transmit data back to the forge fathers head scientists for further study.
George is also equipped with a rifle to make sure so mutated animals; monsters or rogue humans stop him from performing his mission.
Book and Booklet
by Bernie Ansbach
After the Forge Father had determined that there were virtually no books in the small settlement he created "Booklet and Book".A nice robot couple. Booklet is a flirty smart robot girl and Book has a small circuit failure and therefore is somewhat jumpy, anxious and a little clumsy.
Both have the task to search for books together and to copy them so that the residents have something to read again.
And by Book's circuit fault situations like the one seen here happen quite often. Book is scared by two rats that suddenly appear out of nowhere on their way. And Booklet gets thrown a couple of meters away by Books wild gestures shouting out. And the only thing Booklet can yell is Boooooooooooooooooooook!
Frank
by Lisa Sherry
F.F.R.A.N.C – the Forge Fathers Robot Assistant & Neighbourhood Craftsman, but everybody just calls him Frank.by Lisa Sherry
Frank is the local handyman helping out in the workshop with repairs to other robots or simply doing odd jobs for the local settlers; he is much loved in the community and is full of personality even for a robot.
EOD Bot
by HPB
After the great Atomic War the world was infested. But what almost worse than the radiation, the fact is that even millions of unexploded ordnance (UXO'S) lying around in the world. Its like a time bomb waiting to explode and further causing damage. A group called Hans Peter Basel has accepted the problem and invented a EOD bot.He makes himself fully automatic and self-sufficient on the search for these objects defused this or breaks them specifically in the air. Without compromising beings.
Long Live the E O D BOT
Bernard
by Jim Howard
by Jim Howard
Some things you make because you want to. Some things you make because you have to.
A variant of the utilitarian “First One” design, Bernard is designed as a longrange search and
rescue bot. As word of The Forge Father spread, many survivors attempted to reach his
Settlement. The Wasteland is treacherous and dangerous place, not fit for travel. Bernard was
created to bring these pilgrims into the fold, supplying water from his internal leg reservoirs and
guidance to The Forge Father’s Settlement. A patient and resourceful guide, Bernard has saved
hundreds in this manner.
But Bernard has a tremendous range. The halflife of his fuel cells is well over a thousand years and his eBrain has been programmed with adaptable algorithms with archives of survival techniques. Bernard has often wandered far from the Settlement. Far beyond, unfortunately, the range of many travelers he encounters. For occasions such as this, The Forge Father has also seen fit to equip Bernard for another duty: mercy. When encountering a pilgrim beyond hope, Bernard can engage the surgical systems of his lower abdomen. In a matter of minutes he can retrieve all of the water from any poor souls he’s calculated are not capable of reaching the Settlement.
It has been many years since Bernard regularly returned to the Settlement. In the beginning he’d return with a traveler at least every other day, and often to refill his water supplies. Now he returns less than once a year and makes his base on a rocky outcropping with a good view of a vast desert and a wide valley, often used for travel. He’s adapted his own equipment, acquiring a jug to supplement his leg reservoirs for water storage. His prize possession is a shiny scope used to scout for pilgrims. It is kept impeccably clean, its mirrored surface can signal travelers he’s spotted from miles away.
As he ranges further and encounters fewer travelers he’s capable of helping, Bernard has been using his water to nurture a tree near his lookout spot. One day Bernard hopes this tree will be a lush, green and shady place for weary pilgrims to rest. Until then, he keeps one eye to his scope, watching the horizon.
--The Forge Father
But Bernard has a tremendous range. The halflife of his fuel cells is well over a thousand years and his eBrain has been programmed with adaptable algorithms with archives of survival techniques. Bernard has often wandered far from the Settlement. Far beyond, unfortunately, the range of many travelers he encounters. For occasions such as this, The Forge Father has also seen fit to equip Bernard for another duty: mercy. When encountering a pilgrim beyond hope, Bernard can engage the surgical systems of his lower abdomen. In a matter of minutes he can retrieve all of the water from any poor souls he’s calculated are not capable of reaching the Settlement.
It has been many years since Bernard regularly returned to the Settlement. In the beginning he’d return with a traveler at least every other day, and often to refill his water supplies. Now he returns less than once a year and makes his base on a rocky outcropping with a good view of a vast desert and a wide valley, often used for travel. He’s adapted his own equipment, acquiring a jug to supplement his leg reservoirs for water storage. His prize possession is a shiny scope used to scout for pilgrims. It is kept impeccably clean, its mirrored surface can signal travelers he’s spotted from miles away.
As he ranges further and encounters fewer travelers he’s capable of helping, Bernard has been using his water to nurture a tree near his lookout spot. One day Bernard hopes this tree will be a lush, green and shady place for weary pilgrims to rest. Until then, he keeps one eye to his scope, watching the horizon.
Out of Competition (not finished in time):
Work in Progress
by Olivier Herbiet
The Reproduction Bots
by Klaus Dorn
Version A:The Reproduction Bots
Those two robots are called reproduction bots. The Forge Father had build them to help them with creating new robots. But the process of creating them didn't go as smooth as expected.
During the creation there were two mice in the Forge Fathers Lab, which didn't concern the Forge Father although mice were rare these days, like all kinds of animals. What he didn't see was that the two mice crawled into the power generator, and as if they somehow knew what they were doing, they chewed on certain cables. This caused an unusual high current peak from the generator and the Forge Father feared the creation process to have failed. But he was wrong, the two robots were powered up and were working just fine.
It sometimes seems that those two have their own will. Since he had build them not only it fastened up his production process of new robots, but also they somehow very unconventional ideas for new robots.
But all the new robots which have been created since the reproduction bots started helping the Forge Father, also seem to have kind of their own will. Sometimes when the Forge Father wanders around town he sees groups of robots standing together and somehow communicate, but as soon as they seem him they depart and get on with their jobs. Also sometimes he's got the feeling that they're watching him. He feels like they're planning something, he thinks it's nothing good...
Klaus also wrote a second version... his own interpretation.
Version B:
Forged Hope
They called it the devourer. Originally a bio weapon, a bacteria developed by the Dum-Bian army to get rid of their foes without wasting their own soldiers. The process of its binary fission was so rapid it was able to devour biomatter like a human in ten minutes and only leaves dead matter, methane and some acidic gases in lower concentrations. But to be safe a life span of only a few seconds had been encrypted into it's DNA. This way when used in a combat zone it effectively killed the enemy and after only 24 hours that zone was ready to be taken and to be recolonized.
But something went wrong. It somehow mutated and it's life span became much longer. It spread all over the world by devouring all the bio matter in its way. The people prepared areas where no other bio matter then themselfes within a 50 km radius was. But it didn't help as the wind and weather acted as an accomplice to the extinction of all live.
Some people hid in bunkers deep underneath the earth hoping for survival. But they couldn't get up to the surface again after the bio weapon had devoured everything and disappeared, as it left an toxic and acidic atmosphere. No one was prepared for this. As there wasn't enough resources and food to wait out till the atmosphere eventually became normal again, most of the people starved to death.
There was a group of people in one of these bunkers who consisted mostly of scientists and engineers. They found a way to build robots and transfer their minds into them. This was their only way to somehow survive. As robots they waited till the atmosphere was at least not acidic enough anymore to harm their robot bodies. They went up, back to the surface and what they found couldn't really be discribed in words. It was a world of waste and death. Nothing resembled their memories. All vivid colours gone, only grey. The buildings all collapsed due to the long exposure to the acidic atmosphere. Nothing was left but ruins.
Some of them tried to find a solution to restore the original atmosphere, so that one day it might be possible for organic life as they knew it to walk on earth again.
Others started wandering the world in hope to find at least something that survived. They wandered for centuries and somehow they started to forget things, their minds seemed to dissapear. Here and there a wanderer just stopped moving, his mind gone, his life finally gone.
They started to try to find a solution for this problem. Copying their mind to a new robot didn't help, as the lost parts of their minds were still lost for that copy as well. But one day a couple found a way to melt their copied minds into a new mind. The new mind, and in this way the first new citizen on earth since a thousand years, was transfered into a little robots body. They found a way to reproduce and this way maybe a way to survive till earth is able to be recolonized in human form.
It's the forged hope.
SR-71
by Sebastian Gröger
There
are big robots looking in the world for usable discarded metal. This is
urgently needed to build new robots. They bring it to a
collectingpoint, where some robots seek in mountains of rusting metal
for useful material. Everyone has his job, everyone is looking for
special pieces, as well as the SR-71. It is one of the smallest robot
series, that have ever been built. it is only about 5cm tall, but has
one of the most important tasks. It looks for screws and nuts for
production of the "new". There are hundreds of the SR series. They bring
the detected screws to the sorting centre, where the finding is
processed immediately to build more robots supporting the
robot-community.by Sebastian Gröger
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Greenthumb
by Sebastian Schubert
We have the year 2044 after a outbreak from a deadly Virus nothing is living any more in the World, no Humans no animals, the only think who didn`t stop to exist is a small farmer Robot names Greenthumb. He have only one task, to water the fruits, to dung the vegetables and to collect the good food. Greenthumb realized that the humans didn`t exist any more but he can´t stop to collect all the food, he has to do his job till his battery is empty. After a day full of work he has a small moment in his garden and he heard something, something really silent, something what he didn´t heard long time ago something that let him forget everything allround him. He looked up and he saw a touch full of colours full of emotions of freedom and a new beginning, but not for him, he forget his battery.
GB-WWBLS
by Michael Gerhardt
GB-WWBLS (Guardbot with wheels because legs suck) is a former patrol robot that was used to provide security for the settlements outer perimeter were a couple of roads were still intact. With his wheels he could cover a lot of distance on the partial working road in a single day. After sometime the forge father and the surviving settlers have seen that the first one was good enough at providing security (since nothing else seems to have survived the blast, at least nothing was found, yet). What was in constant demand were spare parts that were scattered around the desert from the former civilization. Therefor the guard bot was pimped with a trailer hitch and a cart was given him along with a new task: collect anything that seems interesting, metallic or technical on your journey around the settlement and bring it back to the settlement to create even more robots helping to rebuild the new civilization. Since metal was getting scarce around the settlement, as everything was already collected, he began travelling farther and farther away from the settlement to fulfill his task. Maybe one day he will be so far away that he may even encounter anyone else still alive out there (or not).
Aqua2000
by Sven Schwald
Aqua2000 is a water-search robot developed to search for the move to precious water. He runs through the desert land and drill for water to it then to pump in his tank.
Fishing Bot
by Kyle "M R Lee" Cruickshank
Oh to sit back and just go fishing all day long! Probably was this robot's builders thoughts when he was making him, though too bad he was not smart enough to pull out fish! Seems he is only interested in tyres and scrap!
GO-LUM
by Tuskar aka Phil
GO-LUM was designed and crafted by the Forge Father to explore the big desert wasteland round the settlement of the last and lost people. There were rumors of a big water way beyond the desert. One day GO-LUM reached the shore of the ancient ocean. The probe immediately started to catch samples of organic material, his humans may need to feed themselves. And there it was, white, with wings and a big tool on his head to catch those scaly things out of the splashing sea...
Atom Powered Entity (A.P.E.) - Mark III
(out of competition) by Martin Skorepa
Hello there, in the jungle,
when the competition Forged Hope was proclaimed on the MV blog, I was thrilled. First of all I liked the idea – waste lands, robots sent there by the mysterious Forge Father... That’s what I call a fantasy, fantastic idea. The comic strip by Raffa really kicked my own fantasy. Now I know – and it was something new for me though I’ve been painting and sculpting figures for some years – the story is very important. It helps you paint your miniatures because if you have a strong story, you know how it should be paint like. The same rule is even more important if you want to sculpt something. BTW rules… I’d like to thank the jury for allowing me to show there the robot though it’s not from the marvelous kit by Heroes and Villains Miniatures (that’s why it’s out of the competition but Forge Father is Forge Father).
I just knew what I had to do from the very first moment – a robot created by the Forge Father that is looking for some raw materials somewhere in the deserts... It had to be quite damaged and scratched and – we are on the Massive Voodoo blog (=in the jungle) so the robot had to looke like an ape.
That’s why I chose the name of it Atom Powered Entity (A.P.E. for short). OK, everything was set and it was the right time for the sculpting. I started the sculpting job by drawing a quick and simple sketch of the robot. I draw something between gorilla and an old steam locomotive. I wanted to cover the body with plates and rivets because I hope it could be great fun to paint it.
Using epoxy putty Magic Sculp and some copper wire I made a simple mannequin. I decided for small size about 28mm known from the war-games. When the mannequin was done I tried to use Magic sculp but I wasn’t satisfied. So I removed it and decided to use oven-bake clay. Using i tis much more comfortable and if you make a mistake, it’s very easy to remove it and sculp the wrong part again. I used Super Sculpey FIRM, (red) FIMO and (blue) mass! by Koh-i-noor. The only reason for it was simple – you can mix it as you wish and after you do it, you get a quite new clay with a new colour(s).
Rivets
There are many ways how to sculpt rivets. You can make a stamp, use head of pin… it depends of the soze of the rivet you want to have on your figure. Sculpting the rivets on the A.P.E. I knew it was almost impossible (for me ) to have the same size of each rivet. That’s why I decided using quite different technique that allowes me have the rivet heads almost the but not the same from the very start. I believed it could be fine detail of the figure. I made a thin slice from the clay on my Clay Conditioning Machine and cut a small circle with a simple tool I made before – cut-off needle (there’s a wire to help to eject the stamped circle from inside the tube). I made a ball from this circle and this ball I put into a hole pushed before. (I recommend place a drop of Sculpey Translucent Liquid Sculpey into the hole before you put the ball into it because it works as glue when (!) you bake it.
So here’s the almost finished A.P.E.. Hope you like it because it’s not finished yet. I have to sculpt the shoulders, hands and the base… So thank you for watching for now and stay tuned … and see more on my blog in the future!
Rusty the Clown
by Harald Moosmann
After the nuclear war, human communication broke down. Power stations were destroyed, landlines broken, antennas gone, digital communication was down as the satellites couldn´t be reached. And the post offices were closed for obvious reasons...The few surviving settlements were scattered far away so the contact between those few was completely lost.
And even within the underground dwellings communication was a big issue. Systems of runners were established that connected the sometimes kilometers long and deep bunker systems. But that system didn´t prove right.
So humanity started to introduce an ancient technology called telegraphy. Back in the days whole continents and even lands overseas stayed in contact by this technic. Soon the tunnels and underground halls were connected by the "singing wire" as the survivors started to call the cables running through their settlements.
After a life on the surface was possible again, it didn´t took too long and humanity started to reestablish communication with their "neighbouring" settlements. The distances were really huge so the only practicable solution was the construction of a singing wire network.
Whatever material was available was used to build the masts that keep the precious cables safe form movement on ground. Mostly metal scarp was used, trees were still a rare sight in the sun burned wastes. To save recources sometimes even natural structures were incorporated. Like rocky spires or overhanging cliffs, even termitehives weren´t save. Nobody could tell how those insects survived the big war and the years after.
After the first robots were created, the settlers started to give them specific colours, according to their actual tasks. Multipurpose bots were repainted if their job changed, others stayed as they were. Black was used for guardians and hunters, orange for maintenance bot, yellow and white for scouting bots and green for those who served the leaders in their daily tasks to run a settlement.
There was one particular green bot, his original name and serial number was lost, called rusty. Something was special about him. There was unrepairable construction fault or a defect in the software, nobody could really tell. Even reboots and a new CPU didn´t help. This green bot was kind of clumsy, throwing down glasses and bottles, stumbling and dropping technical devices, sometimes even forgetting his given tasks. This enraged the leaders and elders, and so the bot was returned to dismantle. The robot forgers couldn´t find it in their hearts to simply do this. So the bot was sent back into the settlement to help whoever needed a hand. The people liked that and overlooked his scatterbrained nature. As he had no real owner to look after him, nobody cared for keeping him in a good condition, like what happens with mostly all community owned constructions. His paint wasn´t repainted when color chipped of, nobody polished the blank metal parts. Gears, joints and pistons stayed unoiled. Due to the harsh environment the bot started to rust pretty soon. Limbs creaked when he moved and his general look was really weathered and beaten.
Soon everyone started to call him RUSTY.
He liked to call himself S M I L O B O T 0.1, but RUSTY sounded find as well. On one occasion he must have done something really hilarious, and passing by children started to laugh and giggle about that funny sight. Rusty registered that and kept doing silly things. The kids kept laughing and having fun. As laughter was a rare sight in these hard times he had found his destiny. From now on the walked the streets doing funny things, bringing smiles onto the faces of even the hardest men.
Then one day a kid came to him and showed him an old tattered book, telling a story about a little clown. It also brought along a set of paints and suggested to color his face according to the book. Rusty looked at the book, eager to learn more about clowns and in an instant decided that having a new makeup would be awesome.
He also started to collect clown accessories like shown in the book. Ball shaped rocks of different sizes, jingling metal parts, sticks, an umbrella and various hats.
Thereafter he was known as RUSTY THE CLOWN.
H2-GO
by Alexander W Moreton
You see the human's latest creation "H2-GO" searching and now finding a source of water! He has rolled the barrels and wheeled the pump far across the desert from the human settlement, now he turns the handle to drill through the rock so water can be pumped to the surface.However, H2-GO cannot see the shadows that lurk in the caverns...
El Botto Libre
by Andreas Neger
After years of struggling for survival in the late 2130s, mankinddeveloped a strong desire for entertainment again. After building
helpful robots for a long time and getting good at it, people started to take
part in illegal robot fight tournaments with their modified household-bots.
Mexico was an Eldorado for illegal robot fighting. Rumors say, that
there is a secret robot wrestling league, with robots dressed and programmed
to fight like ancient masked mexican luchadors.
They say the company's name is WRW... World Robot Wrestling.
And its champion is a golden behemoth named "El Botto Libre",
dressed in the proud colors of a long forgotten nation.
pack@loss
by Petra Lehrmann
The Forge Father found a storage building of a (kind of known) Online Shop for Shoes and Clothing. Everything is still there: Shoes, clothing, parcel packaging (in the typical white-orange look), a really big warehouse and many parcels to send. The Forge Father built one robot for making shoes (the shoe-bert) and one for tailoring (the n4iltai1) already - both stories will not be told here (even though both are quite interesting, hilarious and really nice robots). This is the story of the yellow-red one. And it will be told now.
*How the yellow-red one got his name*
The Forge Father yawned heartily and streched his tensed limbs. He blinked at the descending sun and took a moment to inhale the silence surrounding him. The chirping of the cicadas got to his ears, heralding the upcoming night. There was still some light left to finish this robot in time. All the people out there in the desert were counting on him, he knew. They would thank him. The Forge Father gathered a wrench from his toolbag and torqued a small screw in the ankle mechanics down.
This one would peel as soon as he would be on duty a bit longer. The Forge Father just knew. But that would not be that bad. The rust would protect him from the desert sun. Well; "protection" really wasn't the right expression here, was it? Although it might protect him from the maurauding Looters - those people who would aquire anything for the great black market - as rusty metal was not the most valuable thing to bring to the markets. The Forge Father grabbed the wrench a bit tighter and stroke the yellow varnish of the robot hard. It has been applied only two days before so it was still a bit fresh on some spaces, a scratch popped up and some of the yellow trickled to the ground.
"So I won't get angry over the first ugly mark he will come back with", the Forge Father thought smiling.
His fingers found their way over the uneven and bumpy surface where he did not remove all of the rust before having applied the colour. This one had to be build so fast. It was a bit of a shame that he could not make the robot more shiny. But this base coat of colour had to suffice.
"I'll take more time for the next", he promised the monstrous yellow-red one, "The next in line is not as urgent as you. But the people in the desert, where there is still so much contamination, need their parcels. Their shoes, their food, their supplies. You need to bring and collect packages. This is much more important than good looks."
The Forge Father chuckled lightly over his one-way conversation. The robot had not been imprinted yet. The Forge Father buckled a thick wire harness to the connector area and turned it until a dull sound marked the "click into place" move. The Forge Father hummed absorbed in thought while he hacked some lines of code in an old rattly notebook. He found it some days ago in a pile of old tellys (a nice hideout of the Looters) whilst he was on his own search for some new parts for this one. The notebook was rather slow and gritty, but it did its purpose (his last computer had fallen victim to a rather fierce wild boar attack, as well as the feet of the yellow-red one, which looked a bit mutilated since then). The Forge Father filled up the last couple lines of code and left the notebook to its duty; to imprint the robot its own new essence, nature and character.
Considering the speed of the notebook this would take even more time, until the robot would be imprinted. The Forge Father left the yellow-red one to the cicadas and to the night, switched on the Looters alarm and went to bed.
The next morning the Forge Father awakened with a quivering stomach. He looked around wildly without any reason, jumped up and ran into the open hall, where the yellow-red one lay - should lie! He was gone! The Forge Father double checked the Looters alarm. It did not trigger anything. The yellow-red one was gone! The Forge Father slumped down to the ground and stayed there for some time. His back was aching from all those small pointy metal stuff pricking him. This was so damn awful. Wearily he thought about all the parts he would need to get anew and made a list in his mind, staring on the place where he had left the yellow-red one. He shook his head slowly. He would have to give a huge amount of his stuff on the black market for some parts. And for other parts, he knew, he would need to comb through old burst houses, huts, piles of rubbish and contaminated waste for weeks. He shook his head again pulled himself together and went to get some breakfast.
This was so fretful! How did the Looters get in and out without triggering the alarm? The Forge Father was in deep thougt about this matter the whole day long, as he started to clean up his work bench. They did only take the yellow-red one. They also did unplug him properly and left the cable in the hut; even though cable was a valuable good on the black marked.
As he came to rest on a comfy couch in the open and the orange-red light of the setting sun, he took some blueprints aside and began to study the thin lines on the paper. This was the moment that a lound and blurry roar approached his ear. The Forge Father turned to the sound and his face lit up. The yellow-red one leant over the fence down to the Forge Fahter and assessed him with his glowing blue eye. His small nuclear engine gleamed as blue as his eye from the inside through all the holes in his body. The yellow-red one tried his face mechanics for the first time and replied the smile of the Forge Father.
"I brought a cart for my purpose", he announced lordly and showed a battered military car from which he already had removed the ceiling, interior and the engine. This was an open car with axes and four wheels which the yellow-one could pile up with parcels and packages and he could push it to the people. The Forge Father nodded happily and applauded.
"I have a nice huge net for you to fasten the parcels when you transport them - so that you don't loose any."
The yellow-red one straightened up and looked in the distance.
"I found a great hall on my way. It is stuffed with parcels and they are in white and orange. And two like me are working there. One fills the parcels with supplies ... shoes and clothing. And one makes ... shoes?"
The Forge Father affirmed this.
"Those are in that factory for quite some time now. And they do miss one to deliver parcels to the humans. You know, the people in the deserts need your help, where the contamination has not vanished yet. Some of them cannot travel anymore, because they are old or they live abroad. You will bring them parcels with shoes and clothing. And if it does not fit, you will take the parcels back home. If it fits, they will give you something in return."
"But there are only shoes and clothing! Humans do need other stuff even more than shoes! You told me that, didn't you!" stated the yellow-red one doubtfully.
The Forge Father smiled and patted the yellow-red one on its metal.
"This is true, humans do need more than only shoes and clothing. And there is only shoes and clothing in this huge storage building. Shoes built by shoe-bert and clothing tailored by n4iltai1. But, my dear, this is only the first step. People should come to you to give you even more parcels to bring to other humans. And there will be people dropping by to pick up packages you got from somewhere else. This is how it was used to be in the old times: a parcel service. We should pick that thought up again and work for it."
Both fell silent and watched the sun vanish in one last glittering band on the horizon. The night took over the land and held it in a hard grip.
The cicades started chirping quietly and the Forge Father told the yellow-red one astounded:
"My dear, you still do not have a name! Normally the names come to me, when I am in the process of building a new one. But not this time ... how shall we name you? How do you like to name yourself?"
The yellow-red one stared to his new cart in the darkness and you could literally feel the cogs gear into each other.
Some courting frogs started to fight for mastery of sound against the cicades.
"I bring and collect parcels. I am a parcelbot, a packrobot, a packagerobot. I will bring lost things to humans. And I will get things from humans, which they want me to bring to other people."
"I did not imprint philosophy", mumbled the Forge Father wonderingly, "You are the first one of line. I hopefully will get enough parts to build more of you to do the same thing in other parts of this wasteland."
The yellow-red one blinked with his flood light like eye to the Forge Father.
"Pack@" the yellow-red snarled into the night.
"I thought I had lost you this morning, Paket."
"No, no! Not "PakET" - I want to be named "Pack@"", the yellow-red one explained patiently, "Strictly speaking "pack@loss" - because you thought me lost this morning. And because I bring packets to lost places."
The yellow-red one burst with pride for his names creation.
"I'll just write that down, pack@loss - and your birth date ... this is the 15th august."
The Forge Father gathered his little paper notebook and scribbled with a worn out pencil on the last line of the page
pack@loss 08/15
The Forge Father read the new entry again and burst into laugther and tears. He told the night:
"Let's hope you do not loose any packets with this name."
*The situation as pictured in the images*
The diorama shows a snapshot of the work of pack@loss 08/15 (the yellow-red one). He is on his way through the desert, bringing a new parcel with shoes to a small enclave. The girls robots, Twip and Twop, bring two parcels with non-fitting shoes and clothing for pack@loss to take back to the storage building.
Schuh-Bert (shoe-bert)
by Andreas Rueppert
Everyone needs shoes, even in the post-apocalypse. So this robot makes them!
CS-4.2 Collector-Sherpa & Blue Hunter 3.0
by Nicolas Rouanet
This is the CS-4.2 collector-sherpa that travels the outside world to grab all the necessary bits it can find for the forge father and the Blue Hunter 3.0 that protects the collector.It seems they found the remains of the first one who has been lost a months ago.
But they also found something most important, the proof that the life can reborn in the outside world.
That day, hope reborned for humanity.
O.O.S.U.
by Oliver Posvek
The O2 Operating Special Unit – The O.O.S.U. Joe, Dan, Garry, Dean, Robin, Johnny, Tom, Brad, George, David and Quentin
The guys sitting here are the toughest and most fearless robots on this planet. They are the only ones who can do the job and they do it bloody well! They dare climbing on the highest buildings on earth and by doing so these guys guarantee the survival of the community. It´s their responsibility to suck out the oxygen of the poisoned atmosphere and carry it down to mankind.
Revitalizing AaDB-MK.24-Rob
by Bastian Schweizer
Before the global disaster everyone ridiculed Horatio.Building a bunker, stockpiling food and weapons...
"He's nuts" were the friendliest of the comments others made - that are now gone.
With his wife Natalie and his daughter Jennifer aka "baby" he survived the disaster in his dugout.
In the isolation his daughter Rita was born.
Unfortunately, his wife did not adapt very well to the new conditions and committed suicide shortly after birth.
Jennifer withdrew more and more and soon no longer got out of the bunker.
Rita had the luck to experience these difficult times as infant and was getting tougher until she accompanied her father almost always every time to the surface and was a valuable aid. From each of their tours they bring something for baby to show her the beauty of the outside.
But despite all the beauty the new world is dangerous. Radioactive storms, irradiated zones and endless numbers of dangerous creatures waiting to devour any careless.
In the following years Horatio found enough parts in the ruins of the next town to build a fellow and protector.
The "AaDB ~ Mk.6 ~ Rcb. --> Agriculture an Defense Bot ~ Mark 6 ~ Rechargeable".
His many years of experience as a mechanic and electronics technician helped immensely.
And one thing was clear for the old environmentalist Horatio. His creation would be ecologically and not run with gas, oil, or nuclear energy.
During their forays into the new world the "AaDB ~ Mk.6 ~ Rcb" is protecting the two. He takes care of the fields and their watering, is hunting and should,
what was Horatio's greatest hope, lure his daughter Jennifer out of the bunker.
In its current two-year activity for horatio, the "AaDB ~ Mk.6 ~ Rcb" often saved his live and cleared many dicey situations.
But he could not fulfill Horatio's biggest wish until now...
SCAV-TRA 44P0
by Stefan Watzinger
SCAV-TRA 44P0 (Scavenge/Trade 44P0) – is a Bot who calls himself „G3ier“.He is a crazy dude with a bit of an crack because he stayed in the desert for too long.
Originally constructed as a Hunter-Bot he got attacked on a trip and hid inside a cave.
Unlucky he damaged his sensors as he fell into the cave and so no one searched for him, neither could he call for help.
After some months he suddenly arrived in a camp with a bag of robot parts, and he started trading them on the local market.
Once he had traded most of his parts with other bots he returned into the desert again.
Just to show up at another camp some months later, with a new, bag of parts.
Although a lot of Robots are happy that they have the opportunity to change old or damaged parts,
some are a bit suspicious about this strange scavaging nomad.
“Have you seen this strange bot, calling himself G3eier.
He keeps wandering from town to town, tradin those robo-parts.
I mean it’s a good thing, for sure, but some of his parts just look
to new for being found in the desert, but that’s just my opinion!”
Clean-o-Bot 3000
by Andreas Peetz
The idea behind this robot was a cleaning robot with a human appearance.This cleaning robot was just caught by his owner doing a pretty bad job.
