History Main / GoodOldRobot

* The [[WesternAnimation/TheJetsons Jetsons']] [[RobotMaid robot maid]] Rosie was an antique when they got her, but she's a part of the family now.

* The [[WesternAnimation/TheJetsons Jetsons']] RobotMaid Rosie was an antique when they got her, but she's a part of the family now.

This is often AnAesop (and not even a very hidden one) where the old robot will be shown to have a much more developed (and human-like) personality, while the new models will be more able and better looking but unfeeling. However, it may just be sentimentality -- the character has a relationship with the old robot that a ReplacementGoldfish wouldn't fulfil.

* An episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' features a down-on-his-luck boxer in an age when all boxing is done by prizefighting robots. His old Mark 3 boxer-bot is no match for the new Mark 7s that litter the profession, but darn it, the Mark 3 is ''his'' robot. [[spoiler:When his robot malfunctions, he enters the ring himself pretending to be a robot. This does not end well for him.]] This episode was based on a short story by Richard Matheson, the same story that was loosely adapted into ''Film/RealSteel'' several decades later.

* Dr. Wakeman of ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot'' keeps [=XJs=] 1-8 around for no other reason than apparent sentimental value.

* An episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' features a down-on-his-luck boxer in an age when all boxing is done by prizefighting robots. His old Mark 3 boxer-bot is no match for the new Mark 7s that litter the profession, but darn it, the Mark 3 is ''his'' robot. [[spoiler:When his robot malfunctions, he enters the ring himself pretending to be a robot. This does not end well for him.]] This episode was based on a short story by Richard Matheson. The story was later loosely adapted into a film called ''Film/RealSteel''.

* While it isn't touched on much in the games, the ''Mega Man'' series can be seen as an example. In the ''[[VideoGame/MegaMan Classic]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/MegaManX X]]'' series the heroes have to defeat newer and newer models of robots, knowing that they themselves stay the same.

* This comes up in ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'' a few times. The first season of ''[[Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex Stand Alone Complex]]'' has an episode revolving around an old model of gynoid which were still popular because they were easy to customise. Another episode has the CEO of a company use what is essentially a box with four legs as his body, as he likes the old-fashioned style. The manga explains the box isn't that old-fashioned; it requires extremely sophisticated simulated sensation of body in order to avoid insanity due to sensory deprivation. The man just likes to advertise that he gave up his body to the company, so to speak; they sell organs donated by people who prefer cybernetics, which are cheaper and faster to get than cloned organs.
* ''Manga/{{Chobits}}'': Hiroyasu Ueda bought a persocom when he opened his bakery. He fell in love with her, but she then gradually lost her all of her memories. He refused to have her repaired in fear that the persocom would completely lose her memories, much less replacing her.

** It goes back to the original Star Wars movie (A New Hope). Before the final attack on the Death Star, an X-Wing mechanic notes to Luke that R2-D2 is looking pretty banged up and asks if he wants a new one. Luke declines.
** ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'' explains that there are advantages to using old droids that haven't had regular memory wipes, such as the fact that Artoo has worked with Luke's X-Wing computer for so long that they practically have a symbiotic relationship and are much more efficient than the standard. There are also disadvantages - the ship's computer has become so idiosyncratic from this that if another computer needs to scan the ship's data, they need Artoo around to translate.
* Old B.O.B. in ''Film/TheBlackHole''. V.I.N.Cent, another robot of the same model, even gives a pep talk about how their model hadn't been improved -- "You can't improve on perfection, we are the best!"
* In ''Film/IRobot'', only the newer models of robot begin attacking humans. The older models actually fight against the new models briefly due to their un-updated programming.
* This was the plot of ''Film/{{Cherry 2000}}''; the male protagonist accidentally breaks his RobotGirl, and her model's out of production. Instead of getting a new model, he hires an ActionGirl to take him to the abandoned factory in the post-apocalyptic wasteland, so he can find another Cherry-model to install the backup memory chip into.
* In ''Film/RealSteel'', Atom is a previous-generation sparring robot that was stored whole and functional (but uncleaned) in a parts depot. He has different strengths and weaknesses from current top-of-the-line arena fighters, which allows him to survive when facing them. Some of his strengths have nothing to do with being outdated: since he was built as a sparring bot, not a fighter, his body is specifically made to be highly resistant to damage. On the other hand, his physical strength (at least initially) is very low for a robot (also intentional). Basically, he can take a punch but not give one, until Max replaces his arm actuators with stronger ones salvaged from Ambush.

* ''Film/PacificRim'' has a HumongousMecha example: the heroes' mech, Gypsy Danger, is less advanced and more worn-out than their rivals' mech, Striker Eureka. . . which incidentally makes it perfect for the mission to destroy the creators of the Kaiju.

** In short story ''Light Verse'', a wealthy socialite and artist refuses to fix her old robot butler, finding his eccentricities charming, [[spoiler:but it turns out that it was the malfunctioning robots who were creating her art]].
* [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bollux Bollux]] in ''Literature/TheHanSoloAdventures'' by Creator/BrianDaley. Bollux is actually a slight subversion, as his only real use is as a mobile hiding place for a highly-advanced hacking/data droid, a Trojan Horse if you will.
* In ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic: Fatal Alliance'', the pirate Jet Nebula has a trusty old droid named Clunker with a broken vocoder. The only way he communicates is via an old military code, consisting of hand signals. Jet prefers it that way and thinks Clunker intentionally broke his vocoder (something about "if you didn't reply to an order, then there's no proof you heard it").

* Grumps is exactly this to the Bell family in Helen Fox's childrens' novel [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eager_%28novel%29 Eager]].

* In ''Series/PowerRangersSPD,'' the robot dog RIC (Robotic Interactive Canine). Run down and broken, with replacement parts long out of production, he was given to making any sound ''but'' dog sounds, and annoyed the Rangers until he [[TakingTheBullet jumped into]] MechaMooks' fire to save Syd. Though she had been first in line to just recycle him before, now Syd couldn't bear to, and got the tech-savvy Bridge and Boom to work on him. The result is a DoAnythingRobot that even turns into a "[=K9=] Cannon" for a FinishingMove... though a lot of fans preferred RIC the way he'd been before!

* The protagonists of ''Series/AlmostHuman''. Kennex "accidentally" destroys his police-issued MX android (emotionless and efficient) partner, so the department saddles him with "Dorian," a leftover DRN (discontinued for having overly-realistic emotions).

* Helper from ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' is certainly of the money-saving variety. Dr Venture prefers to repair or reuse his father's old tech than invent his own.
* Happens on an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'', when Rosie is apparently outclassed by a later model of robot, and runs away when she sees a salesman giving them the hard sell.
** This trope came up fairly often on the series (particularly the 80s revival), as Rosie is considered a long-obsolete robot model by the Jetsons' future's standards.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers'', Zachary's MechanicalHorse Brutus is a significantly older model than the other three and isn't as agile or fast as the other three, either. But he ''is'' much sturdier and has more power on pushing and pulling loads.

* [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bollux Bollux]] in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' ''Han Solo Adventures" trilogy by Brian Daley.
** Bollux is actually a slight subversion, as his only real use is as a mobile hiding place for a highly-advanced hacking/data droid, a Trojan Horse if you will.

* More or less the premise of ''WesternAnimation/TheBraveLittleToaster''. More or less.

* Carl from ''Disney/MeetTheRobinsons'' is the lowest tech thing the family has, apparently built when Lewis was just a kid. His son inherits it.

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

* This comes up in ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'' a few times. The first season of ''[[Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex Stand Alone Complex]]'' has an episode revolving around an old model of gynoid which were still popular because they were easy to customise. Another episode has the CEO of a company use what is essentially a box with four legs as his body, as he likes the old-fashioned style.
** The box isn't actually old-fashioned - the manga explains that it requires extremely sophisticated simulated sensation of body in order to avoid insanity due to sensory deprivation. The man just likes to advertise that he gave up his body to the company, so to speak; they sell organs donated by people who prefer cybernetics, which are cheaper and faster to get than cloned organs.

[[AC:{{Comic Books}}]]
* DCComics' Star Hawkins - Space Detective! His robot secretary, Ilda, is very much an antique model - Star admittedly can't afford better, but he wouldn't get rid of her even if he could. (Except in ''Twilight'' [or "Let's make all our goofy sci-fi characters DarkerAndEdgier"], where he says he'd have junked her if he'd had a chance. But [[CanonDisContinuity that wasn't the real Star Hawkins]].) An even better example is Stella Sterling in ''Whatever Happened To ... Star Hawkins'', who can ''certainly'' afford a top-of-the-range robot bodyguard, but prefers Automan, a robot who dates back to the 1960s.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* ''Film/TheAdventuresOfPlutoNash''. The titular character's bodyguard robot can't run very fast and his speech is very noticeable RoboSpeak. But Pluto keeps him around for sentimental purposes.
** He's also "incompatible" with Pluto's robot maid.
** Pluto does get a new one at the end, but only so he can make Bruno his club manager.
** Bruno also has years of "rill-hopping" experience in him from their smuggling days. Also, compared to the other robots shown, Bruno is a lot smarter.
** He can also intercept phone calls but can't listen to them himself.

* C-3PO and R2-D2 from ''Franchise/StarWars''. Especially C-3PO in the prequels.

* This was the plot of ''{{Film/Cherry 2000}}''; the male protagonist accidentally breaks his RobotGirl, and her model's out of production. Instead of getting a new model, he hires an ActionGirl to take him to the abandoned factory in the post-apocalyptic wasteland, so he can find another Cherry-model to install the backup memory chip into.
* In ''Film/RealSteel'', Atom is a previous generation sparring robot that was stored whole and functional (but uncleaned) in a parts depot. He has different strengths and weaknesses from current top of the line arena fighters, which allows him to survive when facing them.
** Some of his strengths have nothing to do with being outdated. Since he was built as a sparring bot, not a fighter, his body is specifically made to be highly resistant to damage. On the other hand, his physical strength (at least initially) is very low for a robot (also intentional). Basically, he can take a punch but not give one, until Max replaces his arm actuators with stronger ones salvaged from Ambush.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC:{{Live-Action TV}}]]

* An episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' featured a down-on-his-luck boxer in an age when all boxing was done by prizefighting robots. His old Mark 3 boxer-bot was no match for the new Mark 7s that littered the profession, but darn it, the Mark 3 was ''his'' robot. [[spoiler:When his robot malfunctioned, he entered the ring himself pretending to be a robot. This did not end well for him.]]
** This episode was based on a short story by Richard Matheson. The story was later loosely adapted into a film called ''Film/RealSteel''.

[[AC:{{Video Games}}]]

[[AC:{{Western Animation}}]]

* Pops from ''Film/TerminatorGenesys'' can be seen as this from Sarah Connor's viewpoint.

* Pops from ''Film/TerminatorGenesis'' can be seen as this from Sarah Connor's viewpoint.

* ''[[TheAdventuresOfPlutoNash Pluto Nash]]''. The titular character's bodyguard robot can't run very fast and his speech is very noticeable RoboSpeak. But Pluto keeps him around for sentimental purposes.

** ''TheThrawnTrilogy'' explains that there are advantages to using old droids that haven't had regular memory wipes, such as the fact that Artoo has worked with Luke's X-Wing computer for so long that they practically have a symbiotic relationship and are much more efficient than the standard. There are also disadvantages - the ship's computer has become so idiosyncratic from this that if another computer needs to scan the ship's data, they need Artoo around to translate.

* In ''Zima Blue'' by Creator/AlastairReynolds, [[spoiler: Zima]] began life as a simple pool cleaning robot which derived 'pleasure' from the color of its pool tiles. The robot's creator made a small fortune selling kits of the design, and used the robot as a testbed for new upgrades. When he died, he passed the robot onto his children and so on, and they continued to upgrade the robot. Eventually, it was given its freedom once it became near-human in intelligence. [[spoiler: The robot continued to upgrade itself, then used bio-augmentation to become near-human. His old programming remained, and he turned into a mad artist that painted entire worlds in ''Zima Blue''. Eventually, he rebuilds the inventor's pool with recovered tiles, and sheds his augmented mind to live in simple pleasure]].

* This comes up in ''GhostInTheShell'' a few times. The first season of ''Stand Alone Complex'' has an episode revolving around an old model of [[strike: android]] gynoid which were still popular because they were easy to customise. Another episode has the CEO of a company use what is essentially a box with four legs as his body, as he likes the old-fashioned style.

* In the ''KareKano'' [[ShowWithinAShow play within the manga]] ''Steel Snow'', the main character keeps 'Antique', an old robot, around because it resembles his first love.

** From ''{{Foundation}}'': R. Daneel Olviaw, even before [[spoiler:he aged 20,000 years]]

** This episode was based on a short story by Richard Matheson. The story was later loosely adapted into a film called ''RealSteel''.
* The protagonists of ''Television/AlmostHuman''. Kennex "accidentally" destroys his police-issued MX android (emotionless and efficient) partner, so the department saddles him with "Dorian," a leftover DRN (discontinued for having overly-realistic emotions).

* ''{{Anachronox}}''. PAL-18 was originally built as a toy (the series is considered valuable collector's items) but is custom-equipped with hacker software and functional weapons. And Mystech capability. And self-awareness. And the personality of a bratty eight-year old. All in all making him far more useful than anything manufactured recently.

* Old Bob in ''Film/TheBlackHole''.

* Old Bob in ''TheBlackHole''.

* In ''RealSteel'', Atom is a previous generation sparring robot that was stored whole and functional (but uncleaned) in a parts depot. He has different strengths and weaknesses from current top of the line arena fighters, which allows him to survive when facing them.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers'', Zachary's MechanicalHorse Brutus is a signifigantly older model than the other three and isn't as agile or fast as the other three, either. But he ''is'' much sturdier and has more power on pushing and pulling loads.

* In ''Film/BladeRunner'', the character played by William Sanderson has a house full of "misfit toys", so to speak.

** In "The BicentennialMan", Andrew (later known as Andrew Martin) is owned by the Martin family. Most other robots are leased and recycled after a number of years. After Andrew's "individuality" annoys the CEO of U.S. Robotics, the company buys back all old robots (the Martins refuse to sell) and destroys them. The company even later begins to reduce the intelligence of the robots, with all higher functions being done by central computers in communication with the robots. Sort of like [=PCs=] today, where you can buy netbooks and/or browser OS.

* C-3PO and R2-D2 from ''StarWars''. Especially C-3PO in the prequels.

* [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bollux Bollux]] in the ''StarWars'' ''Han Solo Adventures" trilogy by Brian Daley.

* In ''StarWars: The Old Republic: Fatal Alliance'', the pirate Jet Nebula has a trusty old droid named Clunker with a broken vocoder. The only way he communicates is via an old military code, consisting of hand signals. Jet prefers it that way and thinks Clunker intentionally broke his vocoder (something about "if you didn't reply to an order, then there's no proof you heard it").

* An episode of ''TheTwilightZone'' featured a down-on-his-luck boxer in an age when all boxing was done by prizefighting robots. His old Mark 3 boxer-bot was no match for the new Mark 7s that littered the profession, but darn it, the Mark 3 was ''his'' robot. [[spoiler:When his robot malfunctioned, he entered the ring himself pretending to be a robot. This did not end well for him.]]