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Information in this article may not be canonical to the storyline of the games or any other Sonic continuity. |
The X Robot[2] is a character that appears in the Sonic X comic series published by Archie Comics. It is a robot created by Dr. Eggman as a weapon against Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends which could use their own abilities against them.
Concept and creation[]
The X Robot was designed and written by Tracy Yardley, although Yardley has noted that the original idea behind the character may have come from the then-editor of the series Mike Pellerito. Yardley originally planned for the X Robot to have a design reminiscent of Emerl, but this idea was eventually scrapped in favor of a design with greater inspiration from Metal Sonic. The white coloration of the X robot was an intentional choice made so that the robot would have a "neutral" color in comparison to the characters it was copying, while the red highlights on the robot denoted aspects of the robot which had been copied from the main cast. The joints of the robot and usage of heavy black lines were inspired by the the robots featured in the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series.[3][4]
Despite his work on the design, Yardley could not decide on a name for the X Robot, although he initially considered the name "Specter", but eventually dropped it because he "didn't think it really fit". Yardley even once considered holding a contest to name the robot, although this plan never came to fruition. Yardley would eventually title the robot "X Robot" on his Deviantart page.[2][5]
Appearance[]
The X Robot is a metallic white robot about a meter tall. Its basic appearance resembles that of a muscular anthropomorphic animal like Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy, and it possesses many physical traits of those aforementioned characters. It has feet resembling Sonic's sneakers, but with white shoes and cuffs and red straps, two propeller-like tails with red tips resembling Tails' twin-tails, large (albeit fingerless) hands with spikes and a red crescent-shaped mark on its chest resembling Knuckles', and a mouth-and nose-less muzzle with spikes on the cheek resembling Tails' cheek tufts. It also has a red visor for eyes and a jetlined head with a red stripe across it.
History[]
Archie Comics[]
The X Robot was created by Dr. Eggman to be used against Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy to crush them once and for all. It was designed to mimic Sonic and his friends' abilities and skills, and knowing their strength and weaknesses for maximum strength, but in order to that, the X Robot required the data on their abilities. Therefore, when Sonic, Knuckles, Tails and Amy appeared on the television show "Station Square Today" to demonstrate their abilities, Eggman secretly took over the TV station and recorded Sonic and his friends as they ran through an obstacle course, and downloaded the data on their abilities into the X Robot. Once the X Robot was ready, it was send by Eggman to ambush the heroes. When it initially fought the heroes, the X Robot was able overwhelm each of them one by one, but the heroes eventually realized its weakness which was that it could not counter unpredictable moves. Therefore, when X Robot went after Sonic, it was ambushed by Tails, Knuckles and Amy and pinned down, allowing Sonic to destroy it.[1]
Despite its failure, the X Robot's remains were salvaged by Eggman and stored inside his tower base.[6]
Personality[]
The X Robot was evil, silent, and loyal to Dr. Eggman. Due to mimicking the data on the behavior patterns of Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy, the X Robot possesses their personality traits.[1] For example, like Amy, the X Robot became infatuated with Sonic and displayed a fierce temper after Sonic hit it.
Powers and abilities[]
The X Robot was a very strong robot, being just as powerful as Sonic and his friends according to Eggman,[1] if not more so, as it was able to overpower nearly all four of them at the same time.
Being programmed with the data on Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy, the X Robot possessed all of their prominent abilities; Sonic's super speed which let it move fast enough to match Sonic's speed; Knuckles' super strength which was great enough to smash through walls and metal, deflect Amy's attacks with her Piko Piko Hammer and overpower Sonic's Spin Attack; Tails' flight capabilities by using the propellers it had for twin-tails; and Amy's furious Piko Piko Hammer skills. Additionally, it could mimic Sonic and his friends' moves and techniques, including their fighting styles and Sonic's Spin Attack. Also, because it knew all their strength and weaknesses, it allowed the X Robot to anticipate and counter any of their moves.[1]
The X Robot was able to reconfigure its hands to further mimic Sonic and his friends. It possessed retractable spikes on its fists to climb walls like Knuckles, and it could transform its right hand into a giant hammer which it could use as a weapon to fully mimic Amy's fighting style.[1] It was also quite durable, as it continued to operate after Amy hammered it deep into the ground and left a huge dent in its head.
Trivia[]
- The X Robot's requirement of the data of the beings it was based upon to be complete is similar to Emerl and Hyper Metal Sonic's case in Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie, where Hyper Metal Sonic required the life data of Sonic the Hedgehog to be complete.
- According to Tracy Yardley, editor Mike Pellerito originally wished for the X Robot to be rebuilt following its defeat in Sonic X #24, and travel across Zones to become a reoccurring villain in the Sonic Universe spin-off series. This was eventually decided against for unknown reasons, however, and the general role was instead filled by Metal Sonic v3.3.[7]
Gallery[]
Concept artwork[]
Panels[]
| Gallery |
|---|
 The X Robot attacking Sonic and his friends  The X Robot's Spin Attack  The X Robot's retractable spikes  The X Robot's hammer  The X Robot destroyed  The X Robot's remains |
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Sonic X #24, "Camera Hog"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Tracy Yardley . X Robot by Yardley on deviantART. Retrieved on 17 June 2014.
- ↑ Game Apologist (28 February 2023). The Forgotten "Metal" of Sonic X. Youtube. Retrieved on 28 February 2023. "Tracy Yardley: When I was writing the story Mike Pellerito was still the editor. I don't recall if it was his idea or mine but at first copy robot was visually based on Emerl and I think we may have thought about making that a story point but obviously didn't go that way."
- ↑ Game Apologist (28 February 2023). The Forgotten "Metal" of Sonic X. Youtube. Retrieved on 28 February 2023. "Tracy Yardley: I wanted to do something sort of like Metal Sonic, but have a robot that could take on everyone else, just besides Sonic. Because of that, it was a tough choice of what color it until the obvious choice was white. A neutral color, and one we don't see on many characters besides Rouge. The red highlights all denote an aspect of the four characters. The stripes in the shoes are for Sonic, Knuckles' chest stripe, the tips of the tails, and the headband for Amy. The heavy black lines and the joints I think I took from the Evangelion robots."
- ↑ Game Apologist (28 February 2023). The Forgotten "Metal" of Sonic X. Youtube. Retrieved on 28 February 2023. "Tracy Yardley: The only name I had seriously considered was Specter, as in its a ghostly copy, but we didn't think it really fit"
- ↑ Sonic X #40, "The End!"
- ↑ Game Apologist (28 February 2023). The Forgotten "Metal" of Sonic X. Youtube. Retrieved on 28 February 2023. "Tracy Yardley: So, lastly as I'm sure you know, the Sonic X book ended with Shadow dimension hopping around from the regular book to the X universe while chasing Metal Sonic. Initially Mike Pellerito had hoped to use a rebuilt "Specter" instead and have it become a reoccurring villain robot in Universe/regular book. It didn't happen obviously. I don't recall why, if I ever even knew the actual reason. Sega probably just said no."