Sasquan begins today here in Spokane, and normally I wouldn’t have bothered showing up until last night, but I arrived Sunday instead, because I had things to do (some of which I can’t tell you about until my deeds are revealed by others first) and people to see.

Well, not only people. Also … robots.

Because a 50-minute drive outside Spokane, in beautiful Elk, Washington, there exists the incomparable Robot Hut, at which I spent several hours Tuesday afternoon. While there, I was so gobsmacked it was difficult to do more than say “Wow!” over and over and over again.

What’s the Robot Hut? This is the Robot Hut!

And that’s John Rigg, a man who’s assembled what is (as far as I know) the world’s largest collection of robots and robot memorabilia. Some he’s bought, others he’s traded for, and many he’s built himself.

I was truly overwhelmed. There was simply too much to absorb, as this view down one of the many aisles shows.

I could have spent days there. Weeks, even!

While the Robot Hut is open to public, it doesn’t keep regular hours, as Rigg would rather spend his time building new robots than give tours to the random tourist who might have no true love for them. I was grateful he was able to squeeze me in during one of the few days I was in town. Anyone interested in visiting needs to email asking to be allowed to drop by, so I sent one off and kept my Tuesday open, hoping he’d say yes.

Which, as you can see, he did!

Visible in that picture? Many of my favorite robots, plus the Time Machine from the George Pal movie of the same name.

Not visible in that picture? Inside my heart, a 12-year-old boy was squeeing.

Oh, and about that Time Machine? Remember the episode of The Big Bang Theory which featured one? Rigg is the guy who built it for them.

And I couldn’t resist hamming it up with the Venutian robot that terrorized Richard Denning in 1954’s Target Earth.

As we roamed the collection, with Rigg answering all my questions and even helping me track down some childhood toys, I had to remember to … watch the skies!

That’s one of the Martian war machines from the 1953 film The War of the Worlds, which even though it creeped me out as a kid, I loved seeing overhead as we wandered.

Not all of the robots at the Robot Hut are ones with which you’d be familiar. In addition to creating perfect reproductions of the classics, Rigg also comes up with his own creations, as with a robot band which has a repertoire of around 100 songs. Let’s give them a listen!

First … the “Stars and Stripes Forever” …

… followed by “Putting on the Ritz” and “Penny Lane.”

To close, how about a few words from the Lost in Space robot?

How cool is that?

I hope that someday you’re lucky enough to get to the Robot Hut yourself. Because there’s no way these few words and pictures could ever do it justice.

Thank you, John Rigg, for allowing me into the special place that is your world.