Robot Probes (Monsters vs. Aliens)

Robot Probes Robot Probe: Glowing blue eye turns red upon sensing Quantonium in Susan Gender: Genderless Type: Awesome, nostalgic robots Homage to alien robots in old movies Species: Robots Status: Destroyed Media of origin: Monsters vs. Aliens

The Robot Probes are the secondary antagonists of DreamWorks' eighteenth full-length animated feature film Monsters vs. Aliens. They are gigantic, formidable robots who serve the villainous Gallaxhar. During the first part of the movie, one of them is sent to Earth to obtain Quantonium for its master, threatening its enemies along its way.

Robot Probe Eye Beam (Blue)

Why They Rock

1. The Robot Probes in Monsters vs. Aliens, despite being antagonists, easily became one of the most beloved characters in the movie. For many, they are so interesting that they are probably cooler than even the main protagonists of the movie.
2. In a movie that never quite manages to take advantage of its interesting premise, the portrayal of the Robot Probes is perfection as they do exactly what viewers would imagine them doing.
3. As henchmen, the Robot Probes are really awesome when you imagine them serving you, because they are giant, powerful machines with cool weaponry. In fact, they're so awesome that they're probably even cooler than Gallaxhar himself.
4. Like a lot of the designs in Monsters vs. Aliens, the Robot Probes are nice to look at, feeling like stylized homages to classic giant alien robots in old sci-fi and horror movies.
   • Each robot is a compact, egg-shaped design with stumpy legs and retractable arms that can go inside the body, completing the egg shape of the robot. It has antennae on top of its head, a big blue cybernetic-looking eye, and some circuit detailing all around the body.
   • In fact, the Robot Probes do look kind of cute in some ways.
5. Their sound design is wicked cool, with a lot of dark mechanical sound effects being heard whenever they move any parts of their bodies.
6. Surprisingly, unlike the other creatures in the film (which try to look and feel lighthearted and kid-friendly), the Robot Probes are serious overall, not making a funny face or doing anything played for laughs; everything they do is dark in tone.
   • The dark coloring of their bodies add to how they are not like the other creatures which are vibrant.
   • Their silent nature gives them this mysterious, dreadful feeling.
7. Their abilities are incredible, and the main one who appears in the film shows them in a really cool, menacing way:
   • The robot's eye has a blue laser beam that can scan objects.
     • As for the one that appears most in the movie, there's even a point where its blue eye turns red after scanning the Quantonium in Susan's body, which looks menacing.
   • The head can rotate all the way to the back
   • The deflector shield around its body prevents it from getting damaged by attacks.
   • The mouth in the chest that shreds objects to pieces is scary.
   • Their retractable arms can break objects with ease and the base of the arms can even slide up and down.
   • There's even a small, round-looking arm inside its chest.
8. The robot probes are one of the strongest characters in the movie, from their immense size to their effective abilites. In fact, one probe could probably defeat Insectosaurus singlehandedly.
9. When Gallaxhar sends one to Earth in order to retrieve Quantonium, we see the robot in action and throughout its scenes, it does effortlessly epic stuff:
   • When a couple witness something crash land on Earth, they check it out, only to find a big blue eye open in front of them, causing them to scream in terror.
   • After that, the president and military confront the machine, preparing their weapons in case something lethal happens. The president gets near the robot's face and plays a keyboard for it, trying to see what will happen. The robot seemed like it wanted to give the president a handshake, only to reveal that it's a threat. He arises from the crater it made upon crashlanding on earth and gets unaffected by the army's attacks.
   • In San Francisco, the robot faces off against the monsters and isn't scared of them one bit. He tries to track down Susan and chases her while causing destruction, eventually ending up cornering her in the Golden Gate Bridge. The whole scene is exciting and the robot is fun to watch.
10. During the climax of the movie, Gallaxhar commands all robot probes in the hangar to stop Susan from foiling his plan, and seeing all the robot probes awaken is cool, even if it only lasted for a few seconds and it ended in a dull way.
11. There are toys based on the robot probes:
    • The 6 inch Robot Probe action figure is one of the most fun Monsters vs. Aliens toys. It looks accurate enough and has a lot of articulation, even having some neat action features (despite not being accurate to the movie).
    • McDonald's even made a robot probe toy that looks pretty movie accurate and has retractable arms and legs.
12. The Robot Probe is also a boss in the Monsters vs. Aliens video game.

Bad Qualities

1. The one who got most screen time in the movie never got a proper fight with Insectosaurus.
2. Their deaths were not handled the best:
   • The main Probe in the movie gets decapitated by a piece of the Golden Gate Bridge in a somewhat dull way, and some viewers may find the robot's death in the middle part of the movie unsatisfying.
     • In addition, it still had a bit of wasted potential, since it wasn't destroyed during the middle act and General Monger wanted to do something with it once it's defeated. It would have been really cool to see what would have happened to it, like maybe it could be alive again and it would have its own arc since that would have been a cooler fate. Maybe the robot could be its own character now and it could find a new purpose in life since its creator and the other robots are gone. The robot doesn't have to be one of the heroes, but it wouldn't be their enemy anymore.
   • While it's nice to see all robots in the hangar activate as it's better than nothing, the way they all get destroyed by crashing onto each other like dominos is kind of silly.

Trivia

• In some of the toys, the Robot Probe is named "Alien Clone Robot".

Gallery

• 
  Robot Probe and the military
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  Robot Probe attacks Susan in the Golden Gate Bridge
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  Robot Probe Hangar
• 
  Robot Probe toy (named "Alien Clone Robot")

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