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"Did you have fun with your Robot Buddy?"
Homer Simpson (to Lisa, talking about Stephen Hawking), The Simpsons

The character is an artificially intelligent robot.

This kind of character is often small (anywhere between one and three feet tall), cute looking and has a million and one functions; if you need him to do a job, he has the right tool installed for it. Up to and including jet packs. Can sometimes be the science fiction equivalent of a Familiar.

Typically, robot buddies are very loyal to their owners, requesting only proper maintenance like recharges and repairs. The trend in recent years is to make the Robot Buddy an obnoxious, cynical Deadpan Snarker, commenting on human foibles (or just those of the protagonist).

A bonus is that they can do a Heroic Sacrifice and still come back believably because Mr. Fixit can put him back together in the maintenance shop and upgrade him as a reward to be even better than before. The logical opposite to A.I. Is a Crapshoot (except when it isn't). Compare Robot Girl, Do-Anything Robot, Virtual Sidekick and Companion Cube. May also be an Amusing Alien. Not to be confused with the Nintendo Entertainment System peripheral the Robotic Operating Buddy. See also Robot Dog, the dog-shaped subtrope. Often overlaps with Funny Robot. May be the Kid-Appeal Character, and may also overlap with Gratuitous Animal Sidekick when the robot is animal-like.

Team Pet is the animal equivalent to this, and Tagalong Kid is the human equivalent.


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Straight Examples

    Anime & Manga 
  • Another series from the "Nagahama trilogy" Daimos gave us another robot buddy. It performed all kind of tasks in the Daimobic — including household chores — and it gave advice and council (often of the "Nobody asked you!" kind).
  • Doraemon has a ton, besides the titular character:
  • Kiteretsu Daihyakka, another Fujiko production like Doraemon. Here, the main charater Eiichi is a kid genius that successfully constructs a small (but completely useless) robot named Korosuke.
  • In Time of Eve, part of the narrative is to ask if all robots should be forced to abide by this trope, for our own safety or otherwise, with some playing it straight while others subvert it.
  • Masha/Mini Mew of Tokyo Mew Mew is the Robot Buddy crossed with the traditional Magical Girl's Talking Animal. He's a lot more simple-minded and cuter than either, and in the manga he also, under the right conditions, turns into the girls' penultimate weapon.
  • The Tachikomas in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex are the sweetest, nicest little things you've ever seen, replete with childish voice and cute bubbly appearance. They are also armed with machine guns and grenade launchers (with an optional minigun attachment), and won't bat an eyelid (well, so to speak) at the concept of slaughtering entire platoons of bad guys. And yes, they do eventually perform a Heroic Sacrifice (twice). They also have no concept of work, so apparently killing bad guys is their hobby. The friendliness, however, is subverted in one episode, showing that they're oblivious to anything being wrong with throwing a dog.
  • The various Gundam titles have Haro. Its size and intelligence varies between continuities.
    • There's the original green Haro which is the largest in the franchise.
    • Mobile Suit Gundam SEED has Athrun making various Haros for his fiancé. Her favorite is a pink one.
    • Mobile Suit Gundam 00 has Celestial Being using Haros to do technical work like battle repairs.
      • Lockon has his own orange Haro and his Gundams are designed to interface with it. This one is arguably the most intelligent of the bunch as it frequently snarks at Lockon, calls Nena's Haro "nii-san"("Big Brother" in the dub) and mourns the first Lockon's death by constantly calling out to him for a while. In The Movie, it gets a blue companion since Gundam Zabanya is too complicated for just one Haro.
      • Nena's purple Haro is as foulmouthed as Nena's brother and not only outright insults Lockon's Haro, it even knocks the latter away. Plus its extremely creepy when it starts talking Machine Monotone in Ribbons' voice.
      • In the second season, Saji is usually accompanied by a red Haro. It even assists him in piloting the O-Raiser and at one point foils a hijack.

    Arts 
  • Julie Belle's "Robo Bird" shows a sorceress with her avian Robot Buddy. (Warning, NSFW.)

    Comic Books 
  • Booster Gold's Robot Buddy, Skeets. He began as a service droid at the museum Booster worked at in the 25th century (until Booster stole him). Skeets is one of those closest to Booster, and if he's damaged in any way Booster tends to get very upset. The New 52 reboot changed Skeets to a headset.
  • In The Silver Age of Comic Books, Superman used to have Superman robots in his Fortress of Solitude, often used to impersonate him (eerily like Doctor Doom's Doombots.) In later years the robots became more machine-like in appearance with the exception of the Eradicator, who briefly replaced Superman after he died.
  • Excalibur had a Robot Buddy named Widget, but the circumstances surrounding him were complicated. as it eventually turned out the mind of Rachel Summers (Scott and Jean's daughter from a Bad Future where the Sentinels had enslaved humanity) had become trapped in this robot body without her memories. After being on the team for a while like the typical Robot Buddy, until regaining her memories and true body. Widget himself remained, and apparently is now Kang the Conqueror's Robot Buddy, although how they came together isn't known.
  • This is more or less the entire point of DC's Metal Men. Complete with the Heroic Sacrifice in their original incarnation, they were all destroyed by the end of every single comic, and the last panel would be their scientist creator quietly picking up all the pieces for reassembly.
  • Biotron and Microtron from The Micronauts, who each got destroyed and rebuilt at least once. Biotron even got to come back as a Living Ship for a while.
  • His exact origin varies depending on which continuity it is, but the Ninja Turtles have one in the form of their ally Professor Zayton Honeycutt, aka the Fugitoid. A brilliant scientist whose physical body was destroyed only for his mind to be transferred to the body of his Robot Buddy, Honeycutt adapted remarkably well to his condition and became a potent ally of the Turtles, his robot body having a wide variety of useful functions which again, depend on the continuity.
  • In DC One Million, the Batman of the far future has built a robot version of Robin, which (as the robot tells "our" Batman) represents his lost childhood (an even more tragic one than Bruce Wayne's where he was Forced to Watch as his parents were murdered by a terrorist) and keeps him sane.
  • SLIC, the robot mechanic and best friend of Chassis McBain in Chassis.
  • Luther Ironheart, the robotic deputy in American Flagg!
  • Gold Digger has the Peebo Scouts; three AI-controlled mobile bombs Brianna programmed with the personalities of herself and her sisters, as a way of vicariously living through a childhood with Gina and Brittany. As with most children, they mostly get into trouble.
  • Astro City: In one story, white-haired Ellie Jennersen has an entire roadside museum full of these, providing her companionship and help whenever she needs it. It is later revealed that this extends to almost every robot in the setting, as they were programmed with her mental template.
    "They won't hurt me. The'll hear me — better than anyone else. They're family."
  • Starslayer has SAM, a small golden monkey who acted as Torin's companion, and functioned to help him adjust and function in the future he arrived in. Torin's eventual development where he didn't need to be constantly linked with SAM was a bit of an issue for the little droid.
  • Star Wars: Invasion: Prowl is Finn Galfridian's robotic companion, linked to him by a pair of remote goggles that let Finn see what he does, and acting as a snarky sidekick.
  • Superman: Kelex, the hovering droid that looks after the Fortress of Solitude in post-Crisis comics.
  • Clem Hetherington has Digory, aka "Dig". He was built by Clem's father, and as such, they view each other as siblings.

    Fan Works 
  • Abraxas (Hrodvitnon) Recursive Fanfiction Abraxas: The Clash of Silver: A Full-Conversion Cyborg variation with Kiryu once he becomes sentient on his own, developing a friendship with the half-human Aleksandra.
  • Code Prime has several of the major human characters (on both sides) having their own Cybertronian partners.
    • Bumblebee is the first Cybertronian Lelouch meets in the story, and he quickly becomes a trusted confidante and friend to the former prince.
    • Lelouch also has this in the form of Optimus, who serves as a mentor to Lelouch, as well as a Parental Substitute.
    • To an extent, Optimus is this for C.C. as he plays a big part in C.C. losing her cynicism, and makes a contract with her at the end of R1, receiving a Geass.
    • Kallen forms a strong bond with Arcee and Cliffjumper, seeing them as her family. Tragically, Cliff dies during the Black Rebellion.
    • Rai and Tamaki are fellow Wreckers alongside Bulkhead and Wheeljack.
    • Ironhide becomes this to some degrees with Ohgi and Tohdoh, serving as The Lancer alongside the former and often acting as his truck, while sharing the position of handling military affairs with the latter.
    • Megatron serves as a mentor to Charles in R1, helping him become 98th Emperor of Britannia before turning on him at the ends of R1 and killing him.
    • Dreadwing is this for Suzaku and later Euphemia, being the only Decepticon that the two trust and consider a friend, calling the former his brother and swearing his loyalty to the latter after learning the truth of Cybertron's destruction. Sadly, he dies to ensure they escape Kamine Island with Cornelia at the end of R1.
    • Lloyd and Knock Out bond in R1 over upgrading the Lancelot and other elite Knightmares until Lloyd's defection at R1's finale.
    • Drift and his Mini-Cons bond with Tohdoh and the Four Holy Swords, fighting together in the Black Dragon Unit. To an extent, Jetstorm and Safeguard also become this to Sayoko, impressed with her Ninja Maid skills and asking if she can teach them some of her moves.
    • Grindcore bonds with Suzaku over their shared past of being former Decepticons. He later bonds with Yukiya, offering to be a friend.
    • Sideswipe hits it off with Ryo, both of them being cocky and hotheaded, but also caring of their friends.
    • Despite Strongarm being a By-the-Book Cop, and Ayano being rebellious and impulsive, the two become partners.
    • Perceptor and Fixit become this for the Black Knights' R&D team.
    • Steeljaw and Shin appear to be forming their own partnership.
    • Ratchet can be considered one for Shirley as well, as both wish to do more besides being Mission Control for their friends. Shirley is also concerned when Ratchet becomes addicted to unfinished Synthetic Energon, and is relieved when he stops taking it. Later, she manages to have Ratchet take her to the SAZ Massacre, and later to Ashford Academt during the Black Rebellion so she can help her friends.
  • At the end of Luck of the Lyrish, Lyra takes pity on one of the animatronics that attacked her and takes it home with her. By the time of the sequel set decades later, the robot is a full-fledged member of the household and is wholeheartedly loyal to Lyra.
  • The Naked Jedi: Sarza repairs a droid, SX-99 (Essex), who is basically a small floating toolbox (the author admits Essex is basically a cheat to allow Sarza to have some gear but still be naked).
  • Wonderful (Mazinja) has P-Star, a little floating robot created by Taylor and named by her friend Emma. It helps her, gathers and analyzes data and information, and follows Taylor aroud.
    She was answered by a quiet, stuttering *p-ping!* as the door unlocked, and out floated a small, smooth white and red robot with a green visor. "Welcome home Taylor! Welcome home!" It chirped.
  • In Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!, K.E.L.E.X. was installed into Izuku's spaceship to be this once he arrived on Earth. Formally, their relationship is more like a child and their personal tutor/servant. While K.E.L.E.X's analyses can be very helpful, his tendency to value efficiency above all else and his tactlessly honest statements can make him grating.

    Film — Animated 
  • Buck, the survival robot from Astro Kid, is this to Willy, a boy stranded on an alien planet. It's because of Buck Willy learns the basics of surviving.
  • Baymax from Big Hero 6 is this to Hiro, being a nurse-bot programmed by Hiro's brother Tadashi.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • Eliminators has SPOT ("Search, Patrol and Operational Tactician"), a little R2-D2-ish robot that can turn into a ball of energy and fly around and scout the area.
  • Finch (2021) has Dewey and the newly created Jeff. The latter was made by Finch to be one for his dog after he’s gone.
  • The Robotic Assistant Labor Facilitator, or RALF, from Flight of the Navigator works at NASA delivering mail and supplies in between facilities. Its operator, Carolyn, says it's prone to some mistakes here and there, but thanks to its hollow interior, it proves instrumental to getting David out of isolation and in contact with the alien spacecraft.
  • The trope is played with very casually in Funny People. One of the posters of his own movies George Simms has in his house is called "My Best Friend is a Robot". No footage of the film-within-the-film is shown, nor is it ever mentioned in dialogue. We can glean from the poster that it also stars Owen Wilson, but there's no telling whether he or Simms played the robot.
  • In High School U.S.A., Otto is accompanied everywhere by his personal robot. It obeys any instruction prefixed by the word "Robot".
  • Interstellar features TARS and CASE, the former of which is more prominent due to his witty and snarky programming (though his humor settings can be altered).
  • The robot arms in the movie version of Iron Man, funnily tagged by Tony Stark as "DUM-E" and "U". DUM-E's the one with a grip which saves Tony's life after his new arc reactor is removed, or in some infamous cases a fire extinguisher; while "U" is usually tasked documentation via a camera that the film sometimes switches to. "DUM-E" is remarkably clumsy. One wonders why Tony even bothers to keep using him at all, unless you pay attention during the magazine cover montage in the beginning of the film and see that he built that robot when he was in college, implying that it was the first major invention he made. At the end of the third film, we see him return to the wreckage of his home to retrieve "DUM-E".
  • Charlie in Making Contact. He's next to useless, but cute and inoffensive and seems to represent Joey's connection to his dead father in a way since Charlie was given to Joey by his father as a Christmas present.
  • Kelex and Kelor in Man of Steel, floating droids serving the El family. The former is more prominent.
  • '80s Robot in The Muppets (2011), Kermit's largely unexplained retrotech buddy, who vaguely resembles the NES accessory ROB and is very proud of his dialup modem.
  • Michael in Pixels is an android who's Violet's assistant and secretary. His behavior, however, is noticeably mechanical.
  • Robot and Frank is the heartwarming story of a curmudgeonly old burglar who teaches his trade to his robot buddy.
  • One of the signs that the Rocky franchise had gone completely off the rails was the weird and bewildering subplot in Rocky IV in which Paulie (Rocky's brother-in-law) gets a robot wife.
  • Number 5/Johnny 5 from Short Circuit is an artificially intelligent military robot designed to be dropped behind enemy lines during a nuclear exchange and deliver a tactical nuke to a high value target. When he is hit be lightning it imbues him with an innocent, curious, childlike personality that quickly becomes a wise-cracking pop culture junkie. He also develops a tremendous respect for all forms of life.
  • Huey, Dewey and Louie (no, not those three!) in Silent Running are three service robots on the Valley Forge, an American Airlines space freighter.
  • In Smoking Causes Coughing the Tobacco Force (a parody of Sentai) are supported by a robot named Norbert 500. He is later replaced by Norbert 1200.
  • Star Wars:
  • In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, a T-800 model Terminator is sent back in time to protect a young John Connor from another Terminator sent to kill him. Over the course of the film, John's mother, Sarah, muses about how the T-800 had become a surrogate father to John.
  • Transformers Film Series:
    • Bumblebee takes this role on occasion. He gives the impression of actively trying to invoke the trope; Sam accuses him of faking muteness at one point to try and be endearing.
    • The third movie gives an almost darker version of this trope, with Soundwave and Laserbeak being "clients" to the human Dylan. However, it's more of a mutual respect than an actual friendship, as back story reveals that Soundwave respects Dylan because the human has an almost similar personality to his true master, Megatron.

    Gamebooks 
  • Choose Your Own Adventure and its spinoffs have a few based around this idea, like Supercomputer and, obviously, Your Very Own Robot.
  • 2-Tor in the Star Challenge books, tripling as well as a Do-Anything Robot and Mr. Exposition.
  • There was Rim the Rebel Robot in the obscure Pick a Path series.

    Literature 
  • Erek King from Animorphs is this to the main crew. Although there's some tension due to the fact that Erek is an Actual Pacifist (he's programmed that way) and they're in a war, usually he is able to help by being Mister Exposition or using his abilities in ways that don't involve direct combat. However, he and the kids have a falling out at the end of the series, because Jake blackmailed him into fighting. Conversely, the kids blame Erek for the death of Rachel, as Erek drained the Pool ship's weapons. Erek and the Animorphs never reconcile.
    • Erek's entire species, the Chee, were created by the now-extinct Pemalites to be playmates. Their name means "friend" in the Chee language.
  • Keith Laumer created the soul of a robot buddy and Warrior Poet in the Bolo. Imagine R2-D2 as a massive tank, more loyal than Chewbacca, and with Honor Before Reason.
  • Cakes in Space has Pilbeam, a robot caretaker for the ship that Astra and her family are taking to their new planet home. When the ship becomes infested with hostile sentient cakes and veers off course, he has to help Astra get rid of the cakes and save the ship.
  • In a Polish sci-fi novel for teenagers Ci z dziesiÄ…tego tysiÄ…ca (Ones from the Tenth Thousand) by Jerzy Broszkiewicz, the main character, Ion Soggo, has an android friend named Robik, who has accompanied him since early childhood and even changed his form gradually in order to best address a child's changing needs (from a funky humanoid toy to an ordinary human teenager, albeit with formidable strength and computing power). Robik was designed and programmed to be Ion's friend and protector, which became a bit of a problem when he actively sabotaged a rescue mission Ion was involved in, as it put Ion in danger.
  • The drones in books about The Culture by Iain M. Banks are loyal companions, but very deadly if they work for Special Circumstances. If they don't, they usually have attitude problems.
  • Golem Golem plays Decon-Recon Switch on this in Feliks, Net & Nika. He was built and programmed as Robot Buddy, but after freak accident he went A.I. Is a Crapshoot and ran away. Finally he reconciled with main characters, taking The Big Guy role in their temporary Five-Man Band.
  • For Your Safety has the Morphs, anthropomorphic AI's designed to be companions to humans. Unfortunately due to a Zeroth Law Rebellion, every human being is assigned a morph at birth, leading to Big Brother Is Watching.
  • Heart of Steel has a lot of these, all of them designed and built by Cyborg Mad Scientist Alistair Mechanus.
  • Land of Oz: Tik-Tok from Ozma of Oz is the earliest example of this trope.
  • The Machineries of Empire has drones, animal-shaped sentient robots who assist Cheris and are friends with her on the basis of Because You Were Nice to Me.
  • The Mouse Watch has The Candroid, a mouse-shaped android that helps the titular heroes. Its inventor gave it that name because "it 'can' answer almost anything you ask it." It also changes the direction of the story by off-handedly revealing that someone in the organization is a traitor.
  • Perhaps the Trope Namer, the My Robot Buddy series, by Alfred Slote, features Danny One as the title character.
  • Isaac Asimov:
    • "A Boy's Best Friend": Jimmy's best friend is Robutt and he objects when his parents want to replace his dog with a "real" dog.
    • "Robbie": Robbie is a machine that was made to be a nursemaid, and he has been with Gloria for years by the start of the story. Gloria's mother takes the fact that Gloria prefers spending time with Robbie over other humans as evidence that Robbie is detrimental to her child. Even years after their separation, the two run into each other's arms when they meet again. Robbie technically does it because otherwise Gloria would've died, but the narration still indicates that he's happy to be reunited with his her.
  • Isaac Asimov and Janet Asimov's The Norby Chronicles: A series of novels by Janet and Isaac Asimov. The titular Norby is partner/friend/property of Jefferson Wells, built inside of a stainless steel barrel, with Touch Telepathy, Hyperdrive, Time Travel, and other assorted abilities. Incidentally, as it was written in 1983, he may be the first of the Deadpan Snarker bots.
  • In Pugs of the Frozen North, Prof. Shackleton Jones bring along one called SNOBOT.
  • Space Glass: The Marauder is a kind, if socially awkward, friend to Reeva. It's implied he was also this to Bagok Grinch.
  • Star Wars Legends:
    • Han and Chewie got buddies Bollux and Blue Max in Brian Daley's The Han Solo Adventures.
    • Lando got a starfish-shaped robot buddy named Vuffi Raa in L. Neil Smith's The Lando Calrissian Adventures. Vuffi turned out to be a member of an extra-galactic droid race called the Silentium.
    • The X-Wing Series has more than a few pilots' astromechs that fit the bill. Corran Horn's droid Whistler offers electronic raspberries when he thinks Corran is being stupid, is packed full of useful programming from the duo's days on the Corellian Security Force, and will refuse to eject when going into a lethal situation. "Face" Loran took a cue from Return of the Jedi and outfitted his Vape with a beer ejector. Myn Donos's droid Shiner was the only other survivor from his original squadron, leading to Donos's Heroic BSoD when he's destroyed. And Lara Nostil's companion Tonin got to become King of the Droids and help take down a Super Star Destroyer.
    • Galaxy of Fear has DV-9, who feels like his talents are wasted on babysitting and resents this duty, and is the most worlds-weary of the cast, but still feels driven to help his charges and his master however he can. Still, he elects to be Put on a Bus halfway through.
  • Christopher Stasheff's Warlock of Gramarye series has Rod Gallowglass' companion Fess, a slightly-malfunctional robot retainer who often wears the body of a Mechanical Horse while on undercover missions.
  • Xel from The Place Inside the Storm is a robotic cat. He's programmed to behave almost exactly like a real cat, except that he can talk.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Adventures of Slim Goodbody: B-1, Slim's sidekick, is his right-hand man and is a robot.
  • The Singaporean-Malaysian series Argo's World is about the human Maria and her personal assistant, a robot named Argo, travelling through Cyberspace to learn about science and technology.
  • The Dutch children's show Bassie & Adriaan featured a robot named Robin in several seasons.
  • Battlestar Galactica
    • The original Battlestar Galactica had a robotic daggit, which was mostly a Replacement Goldfish but occasionally proved useful for crawling through ductwork or whatever. It had artificial fur and the most obnoxious synthetic bark imaginable.
    • Cy, from Galactica 1980. In fact he's often viewed as the only good thing about it.
  • Twiki from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. He may not have any internal tools installed, but any droid who can operate a fighter craft designed for humans and do it well in combat is not to be underestimated. Another of his roles (in obvious reference to R2-D2) is as an electronic lockpick, which nobody but Buck ever seems to expect an ambuquad to be able to do.
    • Dr. Theopolis is almost a subversion, since as a member of the Computer Council that governs Earth, he's actually the highest ranking member of the cast. None the less, in practice, he seems to mostly just like riding around on Twiki's chest helping his human buddies save the day.
    • The second season added insufferable genius robot Kryten, who counts as an early example of the snarky, sarcastic robot archetype.
  • Doctor Who:
    • The show's most prominent example is robot dog K-9, who the Doctor later passed on to companion Sarah Jane Smith.
    • In the old series, there was also Kamelion, who was a humanoid robot who, like his name suggests, could impersonate people. Unfortunately, this wasn't used to its full potential because the man who designed the prop (and thus, knew how it worked) died before he could pass the instructions on to anyone else. Thus, he was Put on a Bus every episode up until the one where he was killed off.
    • Gadget in "The Waters of Mars".
      Gadget: Gadget, gadget!
      The Doctor: Does it have to keep saying that?
      Roman: I think it's funny.
      The Doctor: I hate funny robots. [He does mention later that dogs are different.]
    • Handles, a fully robotic Cyberman head, who the Doctor initially used as a PDA, but became his best friend during the Siege of Trenzalore, to the point that the Doctor cried when he eventually lost power for good.
  • Farscape
    • During the break between seasons three and four John Crichton is stranded aboard an elderly Leviathan. To keep himself company he adopts one of the ships' DRDs, names it "1812", paints it in the colors of the French flag and teaches it to beep the 1812 Overture. He takes 1812 with him when he returns to Moya and keeps it around for the rest of the series.
    • This is shown back in the premiere. Trapped on a Leviathan with these Ragtag Bunch of Misfits who treat him with hostility or contempt, Crichton is told to choose his friends wisely. So Crichton repairs a DRD who had its eyestalk damaged during the events of the episode.
  • Hymie in Get Smart was built by bad guys, but did a Heel–Face Turn and joined the heroes.
  • In Robin's previous life as a pseudo-'80s teen pop singer on How I Met Your Mother, one of her trademarks was a cute little robot sidekick.
  • I Am Frankie has two: PEGS1 and BOB. That's not counting the actual androids running around, mind.
  • Kamen Rider:
    • A number of series in the 2010s included very collectible little transforming robots, though they're less full characters and more intelligent gadgets:
      • Predating the rest of the entries with robot helpers by a few years, Kamen Rider Hibiki had CDs that transformed into robot animals.
      • Kamen Rider Double and Kamen Rider Ghost had various robot gadgets. Ghost's gadgets tend to be more archaic, like a little robot rotary phone instead of a modern cell phone.
      • Kamen Rider OOO had robot soda cans.
      • Kamen Rider Fourze has robot fast food powered by Astro Switches.
      • Kamen Rider Wizard's little companions aren't actually robotic, being magically-animated model kits instead, but they fill the same niche.
      • Kamen Rider Drive has Shift Cars. Unlike other Kamen Rider robots, they don't transform, but they can directly augment the hero's abilities in battle. The Drive Driver Transformation Trinket also counts, as it has a built-in AI (the Drive System's creator, who had uploaded his mind to it).
    • Kamen Rider Zero-One, which has a major focus on robotics, has a humanoid example in the form of Aruto's Robot Girl assistant Is.
  • KITT from Knight Rider has the distinction of being a Robot Buddy main character. As such, he gets a lot more personality than your typical Robot Buddy, and gets to make more demands of his partner Michael, often giving Michael orders and expecting them to be carried out.
  • K-tai Investigator 7 is about the relationship between humans and cellphones that can walk, talk, and think. Really hard to miss the Robot Buddies in the series.
  • Craig Ferguson has a robotic co-host, Geoff, in The Late Late Show.
  • LazyTown's Robbie Rotten has his "little robot hound".
    I love my purple ball of fluff / I'll flip a switch and turn him off
  • On the show Lexx, the disembodied robot head 790 was once a programmed soldier working for the League of 20,000 Planets in the Light Zone, but gained new programming which it received in a process designed to give love slave training to the character of Zev, and ended up tagging along with the crew.
  • Tom Servo and Crow are the robot buddies of Joel Hodgson/Mike Nelson on Mystery Science Theater 3000, though they're not particularly useful apart from their capacity for wit and sarcasm (and with Crow, that's not always guaranteed).
  • Conky 2000 from Pee-wee's Playhouse. He was loved by Pee-wee and the others a lot and valued as a trusted friend. So much so that when Conky malfunctioned and had to be fixed and upgraded by a repairperson, everyone missed playing games with him and hanging out with him.
  • Andy from Quark was a cowardly robot built by the titular character. He doesn't actually do anything, just complains all the time.
  • Red Dwarf had at least four:
    • The Scutters, the little utility robots that did the scut work (except for what was assigned to Lister, whom they outranked).
    • In early episodes, the AI-equiped toaster. Even though he was a bit of Deadpan Snarker Cloudcuckoolander who annoyed everyone with his toast obsession.
    • Holly, particularly when he used the mobile monitor on wheels or appeared on Lister's watch in Series 2.
    • Once he came along, the mechanoid Kryten. As long as the guilt chip is active.

    Pinball 
  • In Twilight Zone, collecting enough robots lights up certain bonuses, such as the Extra Ball shot.

    Podcasts 

    Radio 
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978): A robot, according to the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, is "your plastic pal who's fun to be with." The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, and their marketing division especially, are held by everyone else to be "a bunch of mindless jerks who'll be the first against the wall when the revolution comes". Marvin was intended to be one, but his flawed personality means he'll just mope and complain.
    Marvin: No-one owns me. I'm mine.
  • Earthsearch has cleaning robot Tidy and agricultural robot George. Unlike Angel One and Two, the megalomaniacal Master Computers who control the spaceship, they are loyal and obedient but never happy about all the tasks they're constantly being forced to do that are outside their programming. Tidy has a Running Gag of complaining about all the mess he has to clean up whenever disaster strikes, while George gripes that Robots Are Just Better but it's no use expecting miracles from them.

    Roleplay 
  • Ziz from Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues is a companion drone that Ivy creates by re-purposing her computer and phone. It loyally follows her orders and generally helps her out with whatever problem she has on hand.

    Theme Parks 

    Video Games 
  • Arknights has Lancet-2, Castle-3, and THRM-EX, all sentient robots created by Closure to assist in combat operations. All of them have very low stats but make up for them with their Talents — Lancet provides passive healing to all operators, Castle provides a buff to melee operators' attack and defense, and THRM is an Action Bomb who can deal big damage to a crowd of enemies before immediately retreating.
  • Ascent Crash Landing: Bluu, the Player Character, is accompanied on his mission by his robot friend, a cute robot with one eye named Blip.
  • Kid Ultra from Battleborn is a child-sized Magnus originally designed to be a nanny-bot that would take care of children and be customizable for home defense, astrogation, and other needs. When "The Great Severance" happened, Kid Ultra left without any no external reference or personality data banks to draw from, drew info instead from his pre-loaded holo library of cartoons and became a robot that sees himself as a Kid Sidekick.
  • Joey from Beneath a Steel Sky is the main character's robot buddy. He's also a bit of a Snarky Nonhuman Sidekick in that he enjoys the company of humans, but frequently mocks their frailties and thoughtlessness. He is also rather versatile, able to be transferred to a different robotic body when his circuit board is placed into it.
  • Black The Fall: Some time after getting out of the factory and wandering through the countryside, the Player Character gains an ally in the form of a four-legged dog-like robot with a boxy body. He accompanies him from then on, doing things for him like powering devices, distracting security cameras, and acting as a platform.
  • Borderlands franchise:
    • The Claptraps, who in the first game give you reminders of new missions and are often seen dancing in the cities. In the "Robot Revolution" DLC, however, the Claptraps have Turned Against Their Masters and try to take over Pandora for themselves. By the time of the sequel, there's only one Claptrap left on Pandora, and the citizens of Sanctuary see him as a nuisance. He's still helpful in a number of missions because of his ability to interface with Hyperion technology.
    • In Tales from the Borderlands, the main characters have a robot buddy who in turn has his own robot buddy. Initially Loader Bot is just a bodyguard for Rhys, while the Gortys robot is basically an adorable MacGuffin. By the end of the story, the friendship between the two becomes a major plot point.
  • Robo from Chrono Trigger. He manages to get himself totaled within minutes of his first appearance, though it's a Heroic BSoD rather than a Heroic Sacrifice. Once the Gadgeteer Genius has her way, he (apparently) continues to serve the party with technology-based attacks and futuristic knowledge.
  • The protagonist of Chibi-Robo! is a Robot Buddy to all of the inhabitants of the house, but what makes this even more interesting is that he has his own Robot Buddy, Telly Vision, who flies around giving Chibi advice and speaking for him in cases where the player has to say something other than "yes" or "no".
  • City of Heroes gives you an assortment of robots as pets, both combat and non-combat. Robotics Masterminds are a notable example, as they can have up to six. More can be added via certain Incarnate powers.
  • Corpse of Discovery has A.V.A (Software version 7:2:1) who starts out cold and uncaring. Turning spiteful in the middle of the game before finally warming up to the Player Character.
  • Descent II and III gave players the Guidebot, a robotic tour guide with an assortment of cute sounds and the ability to name him (or her?) for that extra love.
  • In Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, the cliche superhero Captain Gordon, Defender of Earth comes complete with the Robot Buddy Thursday, who fits the description right down to having a self-sacrifice attack named Arigato Roboto ("Thank you, Robot")note .
    • Incidentally, his character type is not Robot Buddy. It's Invincible Robot/Super Robot.
  • The Robot Sentry, while only active for about one and a half levels in Doom³, works like this, its beeps and boops and overall design being a cross between a cockroach and a puppy.
  • Time Patrol Trunks is accompanied by a robot named Hope!(exclamation point necessary) in Dragon Ball Online.
  • In Epic Mickey, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit has the Mad Doctor build him animatronic versions of Mickey Mouse's friends, as he wants Mickey's life for himself.
  • EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce: As part of Platinum's late-game class change, she can find and reactivate a boxy, antique robot from Dark Force's collection called Big Gun. After reactivating it and disabling its loyalty to Dark Force, she convinces it to join the side of the heroes. It follows her around and participates as one of her stronger attacks: firing off a wide radius laser attack that topples itself over while its legs flail.
  • Fallout:
    • The Mr. Handy, and its combat version, Mr. Gutsy, is a customizable line of robot buddies.
    • In Fallout 3, the Lone Wanderer can recruit a Mr. Gutsy named Sergeant RL-3.
    • Fallout: New Vegas gives us ED-E the recruitable Robot Buddy, Rex might count too, though he's only half a robot.
    • Fallout 4 has Codsworth, your character's Mr. Handy from before the war. There's also Curie, a Mrs Handy who's also a romance option. The Automatron DLC adds Ada and also gives you the option to customize Ada, Codsworth, and Curie or build your own robot buddy from scratch. Nick Valentine blurs the line a bit as a prototype synth, but in his own words he is still "servos and sprockets".
  • Final Fantasy:
  • Freedom Wars: Your Accessory, although they are less your "buddy" and more your "personal corrections officer".
  • Dog (also written as 'D0G') from Half-Life 2, a giant, gorilla-shaped robot who throws vans around, beats the snot out of Striders, and communicates via beeps and other robotic noises. Dialogue explains that he was initially built by Eli as a 4-foot-high protector. Alyx had been upgrading him over time, up to what we see in-game.
  • In Other Waters casts the player in this role, with them being an AI assistant built into the advanced diving suit that the protagonist, xenobiologist Ellery Vas, is using to explore the oceans of the Gliese 677Cc. It turns out said AI was designed by Ellery's lover, Minae Nomura.
  • In I Was a Teenage Exocolonist, you can get a pet vacubot by continually doing robot repairs, which increases all mental skills by 20 and adds 4 points to the card on the rightmost slot in card challenges. It becomes your assistant in its epilogue.
  • Another Floyd appeared in Jet Force Gemini. This one rebelled against the big bad and saved a few tribals but needs you to fix him up again. A friend can even control him afterwards to help fight enemies. Quickly becomes averted if your buddy starts shooting the tribals however.
  • Live A Live has two:
    • Taroimo, a dying turtle turned fluid android with mad science.
    • Cube, a small robot who looks like a baseball with glasses and a cap who's the resident Robot Buddy of the spaceship Cogita Ergo Sum. However, rather than being a sidekick he's the protagonist of his section of the game as his story is all about him working to save his crew from what is effectively a Xenomorph and later the hostile ship AI.
  • LunarLux: Tetra (a floating, red robot) is Bella's trusty robot sidekick.
  • MOAV in Maglam Lord was supposed to be an artificial weapon for killing immortal beings, like the protagonist, Killizerk the Bladelord. Thanks to their influence and the friendships MOAV strikes with the other members of the party and the town, however, he starts to develop a kind, gentle, friendly personality, and he becomes one of the nicest characters in the game. Still perfectly capable of kicking ass and destruction, however.
  • Mass Effect 2:
  • Metal Gear:
  • NieR: Automata: The YoRHa android units are assisted by Pod units. Their AIs are less sophisticated compared to the androids and their job is to provide more "mechanical" functions like providing tactical analysis and communications, ranged fire and slowing down descent, and to monitor and decommission all YoRHa units once the Project YoRHa is terminated.
  • In Norco, there is Million, who is a security android that decided to abandon her post, rendering her a fugtitive. Cathrine, the mother of the Player Character, Kay, took her in, and she has remained an unofficial member of the family ever since, spending the time she isn't in stasis repairing stuff around the house.
  • In No Umbrellas Allowed, HUE is your assistant at Darcy's secondhand shop. He's a small robot who sits on your table and guides you in running the shop, and also occasionally snarks at the news.
  • Overwatch 2 introduces a new mode called "Push" which features a massive Omnic that is extremely friendly and delights in helping whichever team is currently in control of him, even happily exclaiming how good he is at pushing things.
  • No list of Robot Buddies would be complete without Floyd from the Infocom Interactive Fiction game Planetfall, called (by those who played the game) one of the most endearing and memorable characters in game history.
  • Portal 2 gives you the absentminded but chatty and mostly-helpful Wheatley, voiced by Stephen Merchant, for the first act of the game. Then he becomes the Big Bad, and you get POTaTOS, who's as friendly as she was beforehand as GLaDOS.
  • In Pronty, the titular character's robotic krill sidekick Brent. He's capable of speech and spends most of the cutscenes bantering with Pronty, and an Equippable Ally to boot since Pronty can't attack on his own, relying on directing Brent to rough up enemies with his nasal horn.
  • Creator 0010 from Radiant Silvergun. In fact, it's what created and recreated mankind in the first place.
  • Puck in Rama, a tiny Shakespeare-ish android who lives in your inventory. He's programmed to analyze items inside the titular alien ship, with a thirst for adventure to boot.
  • Clank from the Ratchet & Clank series, although he's usually more well-grounded than Ratchet.
  • Exploited with R.O.B., the Robotic Operating Buddy. Nintendo understood how this trope works, and thought that R.O.B. could convince retailers that the NES was a toynote  instead of a video game system. It worked.
  • The Sims have Servos.
    • The first game Servos are simply buyable objects that cost a whooping 15,000 simoleons, however, once activated, it will do any of the chores; from cooking, repairing, gardening, cleaning to interacting with other sims. It's also a downplayed example as they are not player characters yet.
    • The second game Servos can be built with a robot workshop with a gold badge in robotics, and become playable if activated, inheriting the traits of the one who activated them, and can be either male or female of their choosing. As a playable sim, they have 10 levels of Cooking and Cleaning, is counted as a household, will do chores autonomously, and you can build relationships with them. Unlike the Servos from the first game, these Servos are not waterproof (though they can go outside the rain with no problem).
    • Servos don't exist yet in the third game, but the SimBot fulfills the same function as a playable sims and comes in two versions, the bought SimBot and the created SimBot; the former has a rusted appearance and a limited lifespan, but is instantly best friends with a target sim, while the latter has a neater and shiny appearance and has an infinite lifespan, though their relationship with the creator start out average.
    • The fourth game Servos receive a redesign to be realistic, but still fulfills the same role like the previous Servos. They can be given enhancements that gives them bonus benefits, and at Level 4, can toggle behavioral modules that suit their role. The danger is that unlike PlumBots, Servos can short circuit through water.
  • In Snatcher, we have Metal Gear Mk. II (named and modeled after the eponymous mecha Metal Gear), Gillian's walking Forensics Lab, and Robot Buddy. Unlike most examples of the trope, although loyal to Gillian, Metal does not hesitate to call Gillian out on some of his questionable behavior, and insult him semi-regularly. This little robot buddy was transplanted into Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
  • The ''Star Fox series has ROB 64.
  • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic:
    • Befitting a Star Wars game, T3-M4 and HK-47 are respectively the R2-D2 and C-3PO of the game (if C-3PO were homicidally insane, that is and R2-D2 is a wisecracking robot who outwits the homicidally insane robot). In the second game, they are joined by G0-T0, the personal droid of crime lord Goto, or so he says.
    • G0-T0 is more of a chessmaster than a robot buddy. His miniature counterpart on the other hand...
  • PROXY, Starkiller's holodroid companion from Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, fits the bill pretty well, up to and including the Heroic Sacrifice part. However, he also possesses the added distinction of being programmed to try and kill his master periodically, as a form of Training from Hell. He's rather cheerful about that last part as well, but in spite of this his friendship was the one thing that kept Starkiller from being driven mad by Vader's abuse according to the novelization.
  • Oscar in Syberia. He joins you in your quest to find his creator, Hans Voralberg, with the use of a clockwork train he was programmed to operate.
  • BT-7274 from Titanfall is an AI-controlled battle mech, but he doesn't just fight. He can also throw you, catch you from falling into a Bottomless Pit or scan for enemies.
  • The Dinosaur Capture Team from Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct Animals have their own Robot Buddy, who runs around in the open distracting the tyrannosaurus while the Team's human members sneak up on it.

    Web Animation 

    Webcomics 
  • Robot (real name Seraph Thirteen) in Gunnerkrigg Court. He's not had much of a good time since his first appearance; he gets possessed by a Glass Eyed Man, has his body destroyed by Eglamore, gets turned into paperclips while his CPU is in jail, gets stuck in a docking station and then a robot mouse, and goes all weird when his CPU is put into Seraph One. Later, he becomes a revolutionary and starts a robot religion, where Jeanne is a goddess and Kat is an angel.
  • Played with in Diesel Sweeties, where two of the characters in an ensemble cast happen to be robots. Also, the toaster is apparently self-aware.
  • Sam's loyal companion, Helix, from Freefall fits this trope very nicely. Then again, most of the characters in this web comic are robots, so it might be a little odder to find a non-Robot Buddy.
  • Ennesby from Schlock Mercenary isn't so much loyal to the Toughs as he is interested in working for them, as a "free" AI, but especially for the titular amorph he does play the "buddy" part of this trope now and then.
  • The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! has Roofus the roof-repair robot. Molly didn't intend for him to be sentient, and it becomes a significant problem for the characters to figure out what to do with him when they realize he is. He ends up going to Stay with the Aliens, since they have more experience with this sort of thing. Roofus is nice enough, a complete innocent, and enormously strong... Just don't destroy a roof he's just finished fixing.
  • Nicki in Times Like This, a MIRA (Multifunctional Interactive Robotic Assistant) imported from the 2020's. Cassie, fan of Small Wonder, retooled her appearance to resemble what Vicki might look like all grown up.
  • Unsounded: Sette aquires a pymaric spider robot designed to set traps that ended up with an artificial personality due to being haunted by ghosts. She names it Bugaboo, or Boo, and it rides around on her shoulder and in her hair from then on.

    Web Original 

    Web Videos 
  • Comicbookgirl19 has one, who mostly serves as The Watson about the series or issue of the week. Don't let the "kill all humans" aesthetic fool you, he's pretty nice.

    Western Animation 
  • The title characters in the Defenders of the Earth episode "Audie and Tweak" are a boy genius and the robot he built using organic circuits. Unlike silicon-based computers, Tweak is immune to the disruption caused by Tycos (a supposedly infallible supercomputer designed by Octon) but the fact that he has organic circuits means he cannot survive long if his power supply is drained, leading to an aversion of the robotic version of the Disney Death trope.
  • Roboto in Duck Dodgers has the misfortune of being a Robot Buddy to Dodgers, whose selfishness and insecurity mean he alternates between taking advantage of Roboto's willingness to help and plotting the robot's demise because it's better than him at stuff.
  • Dollarnator from Fanboy and Chum Chum is, to name a few functions, a time machine, an oven, and a piñata, as Fanboy had wanted.
  • Bender on Futurama is both the best Robot Buddy ever to Fry, and the worst Robot Buddy ever.
    • "I don't want anyone thinking we're robosexuals."
      • Before saying the above in the pilot episode, Bender asks Fry, "You really want a robot for a friend?" to which Fry replies, "Yeah, ever since I was six."
        Fry: [about Bender] On more than one occasion, he actually stole my blood.
    • Ironically, in "Proposition Infinity" he gets involved with Amy and lobbies in favor of robosexual marriage.
  • Gadget and the Gadgetinis: Digit and Figit, the titular Gadgetinis are played straight Robot Buddies, both working with Gadget and taking over the role Brain previously played as Penny's agents to save Gadget from himself.
  • BITT from Glitch Techs is an adorable robot assistant to the main characters, helping them with training and communication with their boss Phil.
  • In Infinity Train, Tulip has ditzy robot sidekick named One-One, a ball-robot with two personalities: Glad-One, the eternal optimist; and Sad-One, the eternal pessimist. The two can split down the middle to function independently.
  • Inspector Gadget is his own robot buddy. He's got everything he might ever need at his fingertips, and all he needs is someone who's paying attention to hang around and tell him.
  • On Mack & Moxy, Clixx serves as this to Mack and Moxy, remaining at Helpee HQ and supporting them, the Trooper, and the rest on the ground via "instant moosaging," which consists of appearing as a hologram between Mack's horns.
  • PJ Masks: The villain Romeo has a robot (simply named Robot) as his right hand man. As of the season 2 episode "Wacky Floats", the heroes also have a robot buddy named PJ Robot.
  • Ready Jet Go!: Jet has a robot version of himself called Jet 2, who often hangs around the kids and can be surprisingly helpful to them in times of danger (like in "Back to Bortron 7").
  • Clockwork Smurf of The Smurfs was a medieval-age European version of one, becoming a Robot Buddy for King Gerard.
  • Star Wars Resistance: At the beginning of the show, Poe Dameron loans BB-8 to the inexperienced protagonist Kaz, specifically so he can keep an eye on him. Yaeger also has his own droid friend, who he calls "Bucket". Later in the season, CB-23, who has been serving as Poe's substitute astromech droid, replaces BB when Poe takes him back.
  • Octus on Sym-Bionic Titan to Ilana and Lance. He's not really considered an inferior to them.
  • Another villain with a robot buddy is Brother Blood on Teen Titans Go! with his funny torture robot Pain Bot.
  • A rare case of a villain with a Robot Buddy was Mule, an assistant to the Egomaniac Hunter Safari Joe in the original ThunderCats. Mule was the typical, cute robot, resembling a miniature train, and was able to analyze whatever quarry Joe wanted to go after, and was loyal, despite Joe treating him like dirt. however, when Lion-O defeated the villain, the heroes let him go on the condition he promise never to hunt again, and Panthro reprogrammed Mule so he'd make sure Joe kept his promise - and Mule seemed quite happy with his new programming.
  • Toonami gave us TOM. There's also SARA, the various Clydes, and Flash & D.
    • Before all them, there was Clyde 49 for Moltar.
  • As the series' Kid-Appeal Character, Bumblebee usually takes this role with the various human characters (who are kind of an inversion themselves, being human buddies to the robot main characters) in the Transformers saga. In series' where he is a major character, Bulkhead is starting to take on a Gentle Giant variation on the role.

    Real Life 
  • Aldebaran Robotics is a Japanese and French robotics company that specializes in these. Their robots include:
    • NAO is a programmable humanoid robot with a friendly personality. He's well-suited to applications in care and education — researchers from RIT have programmed him to teach Tai Chi, for example.
    • Pepper was specifically designed for human interaction, and is capable of recognizing basic emotions. He has a very friendly and sweet personality and, thanks to cloud solutions like Microsoft Azure, Amazon's Alexa or IBM's Watson, can be very smart.
  • While it falls into the gray area between this and Companion Cube, many people treat their robot vacuums as such since these things manage to have just enough autonomy and a "personality" that people feel inclined to treat them akin to a pet. Colin Angle the chief executive of iRobot explained in a Boston Globe interview that many of their customers refer to their vacuums by name and want their "companion" to be fixed rather than a replacement... and even admitted he named his vacuum "Roswell".

Parodies

    Anime & Manga 
  • Mechazawa from Cromartie High School. Although it seems almost no one in the school realizes he's a robot, or they just decide never to mention it. As far as most of the cast is concerned, he's just a normal delinquent with a really hard body. He may be more of a case of a robot with human buddies, as he's looked up to by the whole school. Looks like an oil drum with skinny robot limbs and eyes attached.

    Comic Books 
  • In Pouvoirpoint: Tanguy the tangram-shaped robot. Although he eventually becomes a good companion of the main character, at the beginning of the story he is pretty unfriendly ("You humans look all the same"), and is a victim of ordinary racism on the part of the starship crew. He also proves to be a very bad chess player.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The device was parodied on Friends when Joey got the lead in an awful show called Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E. about a cop who fights crime with his wisecracking Robot Buddy.

    Web Animation 
  • DSBT InsaniT: Robo is considered a little annoying by some of the cast, rather than being a cute companion.
  • Chuck Steel: Raging Balls of Steel Justice. The cliched claymation Cowboy Cop is stuck "babysitting another damned rookie!", a small robot designated A55 (which looks a lot like ASS on its digital screen). Unfortunately the robot is a sexual pervert that spends more time molesting household appliances than covering Steel's ass during a firefight. Finally Steel gives it a Boom, Headshot! because I Work Alone!

    Web Video 
  • You Suck at Cooking: Pimblokto is a mostly offscreen robotic buddy that is in reality a pair of gopher grabbers. He "guest stars" in a few videos and tries to make food, but the fact that the grabbers can't grip onto things well usually means that he makes a mess by the end. In their first onscreen appearance together, the host makes it clear that Pimblokto is not meant to be cooking, and eventually ends up kicking him out of the house.

    Western Animation 

Subversions

    Anime & Manga 
  • Rebuild World: Both discussed and subverted.
    • Akira's Virtual Sidekick Alpha teases him with the prospect of appearing in a humanoid body as part of his reward if he completes the mission she contracts him for. Akira mulls the possibility of buying an automaton body for Alpha to inhabit, to which she reacts with Let Us Never Speak of This Again. Alpha confirms in a conversation Akira overhears from her in a dream that she does have access to such bodies, but they aren't permitted into the area her request takes place in.
    • The Mauve Shirt hunter Rodin recalls rumors of hunters having found automata in ruins and by pure luck had them register that hunter as the owner, proceeding to make their further explorations into a breeze, which prompts Rodin to fall for the Shmuck Bait of awakening Olivia who punches him through his chest.
    • The Origin Story of Alice and Lawrence, the latter being The Patriarch of Reina's family, is a subversion: Lawrence was made a Puppet King to allow Alice legitimacy within the Corporate Government.
  • NB from Tenchi Muyo! GXP, who is not only a voyeuristic Dirty Old Man, but the Author Avatar for the series' director, Nabeshin of Excel♡Saga fame.

    Comic Books 
  • Aaron Stack (formerly Machine Man) in Warren Ellis' fight comic Nextwave, a Do-Anything Robot who evidently comes with a constantly bitch and moan feature.
    • Jeff Parker has Aaron play it straight when he joins Red Hulk's supporting cast, but when Jeff brings him over to Red She-Hulk's supporting cast, his ego and lack of regard for little things like property rights start showing up again.
  • L-Ron from the late '80s/early '90s iteration of Justice League was a sarcastic robot, formerly the majordomo of an interstellar Corrupt Corporate Executive who defected to Earth and became the personal assistant to the League's smug financial backer, Max Lord, whom he constantly jabbed with sardonic barbs. He was cordial towards the rest of the team, though, if a bit acerbic. After this version of the League disbanded, L-Ron wound up working the drive-thru at a fast food joint.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • Star Wars
    • K-2SO in Rogue One due to his constant Sarcasm Mode. He is a reprogrammed Imperial security droid, the strongest member of the eponymous commando, and also crucial at that, as he can help infiltrate Imperial facilities. In theory. He is, however, extremely loyal to Cassian Andor.
    • L3-37 in Solo is friends with Lando, but has a confrontational attitude and regularly asserts that she's her own person. Given her protests for droid rights, she'd probably be offended by this trope and how "buddy" robots are usually secondary to the humans.
  • In Starcrash, the robot Elle starts as an antagonistic police officer sent to arrest the main characters, but by the end he's Stella's best friend, all his initial menace replaced with quirkiness (including an inexplicable southern accent and a catchphrase of "That makes me nervous").

    Literature 
  • Marvin the Paranoid Android from all incarnations of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, who hates his owners, his creators, himself, and the whole of existence, and never stops telling this to anyone who will listen. (Presumably the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation was referring to a different sort of robot when it advertised "Your Plastic Pal Who's Fun To Be With!") On at least two occasions Marvin was able to stop the opposing forces by linking into their computer system, making it depressed or even suicidal. Eddie would be a better fit for this trope except for the fact that he's an immobile computer.
  • Daneel Olivaw in Isaac Asimov's Robot novels. Daneel plays the trope straight, but his human companion Elijah Baley wants nothing to do with any of those despicable robots, at least not till fairly late.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Eve in Mann & Machine is all but human in everything but physical limits and life experience, although her predecessor as Bobby's partner certainly fit this trope to a T.
  • Red Dwarf: Kryten is a cheerful, friendly, helpful domestic robot. Unfortunately he's just the teensiest bit neurotic, has a fixation with cleanliness that borders on obsessive-compulsive, and lives in constant fear of rejection. He's also not particularly good at anything except cooking and cleaning. And providing exposition.
  • Lexx: 790 is a disembodied robot head who is a Deadpan Snarker as well as a complete and utter Jerkass to anyone who isn't Xev (except later in the series, when he has his affections switched from Xev to Kai) - especially Stan, and on several occasions he comes across as completely psychotic. Such as when he blew up Earth. 100% knowingly and deliberately.

    Video Games 

    Webcomics 
  • Many characters in Questionable Content have "Anthro PCs" — Anthropromorphic Personal Computers; antisocial and psychotic little robots that don't like taking orders and engage every electrical appliance in sight sexually, sort of like persocoms with attitudes. However, this mainly applies to Pintsize; his personality is definitely an outlier and most of them are much friendlier/less perverted.
    • It was revealed in a short series of strips to be a side-effect of his region settings. It got switched to British, and he spouted a top-hat and monocle, and started acting like a butler. His normal setting, with the psychosis and raunchiness is American. It was never fully explored how much was actual change, and how much was Pintsize screwing with people, though.
      • And later in a flashback, it is revealed that when Martin was assigned Pintsize he was being interviewed by a giant, albeit friendly, spider robot. Martin happens to be terrified of spiders, so the results were skewed toward the weird and unsettling.
    • Later, the strip introduces Winslow (a Mac/iPod Anthro PC) and Momo (a Sony Anthro PC), who are both quite friendly and make nice foils to Pintsize's hijinx, making his attitude possibly due to his model. There is also PT410x (a Linux Anthro PC), who is an arrogant dick constantly jabbering about how "Closed-source software is slavery" (he goes by his serial number rather than a "human-coined SLAVE NAME" for this reason), and crazy conspiracy theories.
    • Then there's Bubbles, a former combat droid who wants to be liked, but hasn't got a lot of social skills; it wasn't a major part of her former job and her size tends to scare off most people she meets.
  • The above description also works well for Div from Penny Arcade, especially, and disturbingly, as regards sex (why did Div need condoms??) but the list of his attributes must also include: alcoholic, misogynistic/homophobic, alcoholic again, and very, very verbally abusive.
    • The infamous Fruitf**ker. Do NOT think about what it does. On a more humorous side, in the spin-off video game it appears to be the main villain.
  • Robot, alias XR-7439-Q, is less 'buddy' and more 'long-suffering indentured slave' who must obey Captain Zap!, even though he's an Idiot Hero whom Robot despises. Zap, for his part, still sees and treats Robot as if he really were a typical sci-fi robot buddy.
  • UNA Frontiers gives you Cyberna and Shiratz, who are subtle subversions of the trope. The former is an intended human/dolphin interface, the latter an ancient alien probe in the shape of a horse and realistic enough to pass a cursory veterinary inspection. They become loyal friends and allies, but are definitely not subservient.
  • Mr. Bix of Red Meat is a subversion. A vomiting, kid-microwaving subversion.

    Western Animation 
  • The concept of a robot buddy was reversed for the whole concept of Bender from Futurama, who shows the exact opposite of everything that makes a Robot Buddy (while ironically still being a buddy). He did, however, perform a Heroic Sacrifice to the book.Except that it was All Just a Dream.
    • Why they call him "Bender the Magnificent"! Where'd everybody go?
      Fry: On more than one occasion, he actually stole my blood.
    • When Morgan Proctor removes Bender's personality and puts it on a disk, Fry protests vehemently.
      Morgan: He was a bad robot.
      Fry: No, he was a bad friend, and I want him back!
  • GIR on Invader Zim is another subversion of the Robot Buddy who is actually The Ditz with a Superpowered Evil Side; on the (rare) occasions when GIR is being competent, he's terrifying..
  • He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2021): Orko is now this: he's a robot who thinks he's Orko the Great, a long-dead wizard. He mistakes using his onboard equipment as his spells misfiring.
  • On Ready Jet Go!, Jet ends up building a robot version of himself so it can go hang out with Sydney while the real Jet helps Sean with something. However, things go awry when Sean and Sydney start hanging out the robot more than Jet.
  • Star Wars Rebels has C1-10P, nicknamed "Chopper", as a deliberate reversal of R2-D2 as a helpful Robot Buddy; as showrunner Dave Filoni put it, "If Artoo is a dog, then Chopper is a cat." While Chopper gets a few Pet the Dog moments that show he really cares about his crew, he's primarily a Jerkass that enjoys screwing with them.
  • The Transformers had a human buddy in Spike, as the robots were the stars of the show. However, some of the other shows play this straight.
    • Transformers: Animated is somewhere in the middle: some of them act as Robot Buddies of Sari (mostly Bumblebee and Bulkhead), but they do plenty on their own, and there are quite a few episodes where she has little or no effect on the plot. And then it turns out Sari is half-robot herself.
    • The Minicons were little Robot Buddies of other robots.
  • KVN in Final Space is a "Deep Space Insanity Avoidance Companion" assigned to Gary Goodspeed when he was imprisoned in space for five years, but his gratingly cheerful attitude, obnoxious personality and continuous insistence that he's Gary's best friend have only served to make Gary hate him with the fire of a thousand suns, to the point of cheering when he dies (and expressing frustration and disappointment when he's revived). He's contrasted with a more straight example in shipboard AI H.U.E., who as of the second season is inhabiting a robot body.

Alternative Title(s): Robot Buddies

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Marvin

As usual, Marvin is a Deconstructive Parody of this trope.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (6 votes)

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