Product Details

• Actors: Charles Drake, Karin Booth, Billy Chapin, Taylor Holmes, Steven Geray
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Lions Gate
• VHS Release Date: November 1, 1989
• Run Time: 77 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300209164
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #283,043 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars TOBOR IS ROBOT SPELLED BACKWARDS!, July 12, 2000

By 

Donald J. Long (San Jose, Ca. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tobor the Great [VHS] (VHS Tape)

TOBOR is one of the most delightful juvenile sci-fi B-movies of the 1950s, and one of the best movie robots of all time! Although TOBOR was closer related to the tin-can clanking robots in the old Republic movie serials of the 1940s than to more futuristic versions like Robby and R2-D2, he endeared himself to 1954 audiences of kids who loved to see a 7-foot-tall robot as a hero. The archetypal boy-and-his-robot movie, like Robby in The Invisible Boy (1957) this one works as sheer entertainment and no doubt inspired many young boys in the Fifties to grow up to be scientists. Billy Chapin as Gadge heads an all-star cast of sterling character actors during the cold war McCarthy era. Stephen Geray is tops as the villainous spy you love to hate, and was supported by top character heavies Peter Brocco and Henry Kulky. They were nicely counterbalanced with Taylor Holmes as TOBOR's inventor, Professor Nordstrom, and Charles Drake as a pre-NASA-era rocket scientist. Highly recommended! Great fun for all ages! Three cheers for TOBOR THE GREAT!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars One of the best kids robot b-movies., October 15, 2006

By 

R. Christenson "SpaceComics.com" (Pine, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tobor the Great [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Tobor is Robot spelled backwards. Invented by a scientist (Taylor Holmes) for the space program, Tobor is befriended by the scientist's grandson, played by Billy Chapin (who appeared in the Christmas episode of Dragnet, the one in which someone stole a statue of Jesus from the church, and is the brother of Lauren Chapin, who played Kathy on Father Knows Best). But foreign spies are after Tobor to turn his technology to evil uses.

This is one of the best Robot movies for kids from the 1950s, though not quite as entertaining as the Disney movie The Invisible Boy, which featured Robby The Robot from Forbidden Planet. The name Tobor was used again for a robot in a more recent movie - Sharkboy and Lavagirl.

The cast includes some of the most familiar and prolific B-move character actors including Robert Shayne, who portrayed Inspector Henderson on the Superman TV series; William Schallert, best known as Patty Duke's dad on The Patty Duke Show, with 300 film & TV credits - and still appearing in films today, like Sweetzer (2006); and Lyle Talbot, who appeared in everything from The Clyde Mystery (1931) to Newhart, including Plan Nine From Outer Space, Batman and Robin, and 42nd Street.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tobor the Average, May 24, 2008

By 

A. Gammill (West Point, MS United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tobor the Great (DVD)

My friend and fellow sci-fi fanatic have our own personal "wish lists" of films we've always wanted to see. Well, Tobor has topped my list for the past 20 years or so. It's almost never shown on t.v., and even the VHS tape of the film has been out-of-print for years. So it was with great enthusiasm that I greeted this long-overdue DVD release.

Unfortunately, like so many things that we build up in our minds to be great, the reality is that Tobor isn't really the "lost classic" I'd hoped it would be. Oh, it's hardly a bad film. The production values are first-rate, especially the expansive lab set wherein the title character is created. And I was impressed that there was some real SCIENCE in this science-fiction: The idea of using artificial beings to test the dangers of space travel is a fine idea.

Where Tobor misses the mark is with the ludicrous plot device of the robot creating an ESP-based link with its inventor's grandson, which then proves useful when the boy is kidnapped by criminals intent on stealing the mechanical man. It's as if the writers couldn't decide if their story was a kid's movie, or serious sci-fi. With about equal amounts of both, the result is not that satisfying.

But if you like 50's sci-fi, you may still find this a worthwhile purchase. It does retain much of the "gee whiz" innocence of the era, and I'm sure the nostalgia factor is high for anyone growing up during that time.

For a much better boy-and-his-robot picture, check out THE INVISIBLE BOY, available as a bonus feature with Forbidden Planet (Two-Disc Special Edition).