Article: One hot Robot: sci-fi film icon Robby enjoying a retro renaissance.(Fred Barton Productions Inc.)

When MGM spent $125,000 to create Robby the Robot for the 1956 film "Forbidden Planet," it was the most expensive movie prop ever produced.

It was also the keenest thing 4-year-old Fred Barton had ever seen.

Robby remains his life passion, and today, Fred Barton Productions Inc. takes in about $1 million a year mostly from the sale of expensive Robby replicas to collectors and museums. When Warner Bros. re-releases the re-mastered 50th anniversary "Forbidden Planet" DVD in November, demand for Robby may kick up even more.

For Barton, who has made fewer than 100 of the replicas over the past decade, the Robby biz is booming.

"Not only ...

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