Characters from The Works

♦ Contents: ♦ Humans ♦ Computers ♦ Robots ♦

Welcome to the Characters page!
William "Bil" Maher "created many of 'The Works' cast of 25 robots" (-"Inside The Works" by Suzan Prince). (I don't actually have 25 robots to show you.)
Thumbnail images link to full-size images hosted on their respective websites! There are also short notes if you hover over an image or "[src]".
I highly recommend checking out Paul Heckbert's website for credits for individual images & characters (also where some of the names come from), and watching the videos listed on the Resources page to see characters in motion.

Humans


T-Square
T-Square is a human (sometimes referred to as an android) pilot. She wears a detailed metallic space-suit.
She appears in the trailer and is discussed in "Inside The Works" where she's referred to as the "heroine". Her role in the script is minor, as a friend of Beeper, although she does lead the humans back to Earth in the end. In storyboards, T-Square takes the role of Beeper as protagonist.

Beeper Raxis
Beeper is a teenage human boy who lives in a city in the asteroids called Megapod. He is recruited by Ipso Facto & Selene to prove to The Works that humanity is alive.
Beeper is the main character of the script, but as far as I know has no images. In storyboards, Beeper takes the place of T-Square as a friend to the protagonist.

A couple other humans are named in the script.
• Rathbone Twillie (nicknamed Space Rat) is the Emergency Communications Coordinator of the humans. He seems to be friends with Beeper and T-Square.
• Frank Fabley Shaver is a reporter for Sleepcycle Spacepod News.

Computers


The Works
The Works is a military supercomputer stationed on Earth. He represents himself as a warped, faceted human face. He is grumpy and senile, with little patience to deal with others. With the lack of humans to order him, he is obsessed with building strange structures.
His face appears briefly in the trailer, and he's the main antagonist.

Selene
Selene is the computer complex of a scientific research station on the Moon. She represents herself as a photo of the Moon. In contrast with The Works, she is calm and diplomatic, with a bit of a fun nature. Before she speaks, she sounds a "bell-like tone". She built Ipso and his ships, and sent him on his mission to contact humans.
Selene is a supporting character in the script.

Robots


Ipso Facto
Ipso Facto is a "charming elliptical robot" (-Wikipedia); he's orange with a round oval body and long lanky limbs. He can open his mouth to reveal a signboard that projects words. Despite his silly appearance (which is to "allay suspicion and forestall hositilty"[src], he is a skilled fighter. He's a protagonist and helper to the main human. Similar to Selene, he comes from the Moon, and has a diplomatic personality.
Ipso Facto was featured on the front of Byte Magazine along with an Ant in 1984. He's seen in the Trailer and is a main character in the script.

Clyde
Clyde is a tall humanoid robot with an orange body and teal and purple accents. There's a large emblem of a "W" on his chest. Apparently he was to be a supporting role to the protagonists. Curiously, there are more robots with a similar model to him, but with a single button on their chest instead of a letter emblem, but for simplicity's sake their pictures are listed under here.
Clyde is seen in the trailer and is (or, his model is) in many different pieces of art from the NYIT CGL, and the "Ant jockey" is in the construction clip. He's not present by name in the script.

Ant
The Ant is a huge vehicle, its bug-eyes being cockpits. Its jaw can hold and maneuver objects, making it useful in construction. There are possibly multiple of them.
The Ant is seen often in videos (such as in the trailer, construction clip, and 1982 demo reel), and was featured with Ipso on a cover of Byte magazine. Ipso and Beeper pilot a stolen Ant in the script.

Panzer
Panzer is a chunky orange robot with a dome-like head and powerful arms, supported by wheels or treads.
Panzer appears in the trailer and construction clip, as well as for the main image for the article "Inside The Works" from Computer Pictures (which is where their name comes from). Like Clyde, there are some variations between designs here, so they may or may not be the exact same character.

Officer Weevil
Officer Weevil is a slick black robot, with a humanoid build except for their three legs. Their arm ends in a gun, and the shape of their head makes it look like they are wearing sunglasses and have a pompadour.
Weevil is only seen at the end of the trailer, where they fire a gun-like hand at the viewer. Maybe they would've had an antagonistic role.

Bulldog
This is a squat blue robot with purple and orange accents. They have red eyes against a black face, and little silver antennae.
They appear briefly in the trailer. The name comes from Heckbert's website.

Gizmo
This is an orange bot with a squat body and tube-like arms ending in humanoid hands. He has glassy eyes set within cones at the end of little stems, and he rolls around on treads. In the script, he has a nervous personality and speaks in a high-pitched voice. He's a sort of assistant to The Works, described as a "stooge".
He appears briefly in the trailer, and in another short by the NYIT CGL, "3DV". In production materials for The Works, his name is revealed to be Gizmo, confirming that this is the design of The Works' assistant as seen in the script.

Positioner
This robot has a grey body with purple and red accents, and a blue accordion-like midsection. Their chunky arms end in dish-like shapes.
They appear briefly in the trailer. Their name comes from production materials.

Humpty
This is an orange humanoid robot with an egg-shaped body, with a round glass dome as a face. Multiple lenses are visible through the glass. Their left hand & feet are clawed, and their right hand is removable, able to be replaced with various tools.
This robot is seen in the Construction clip, and their name comes from production materials. They are very similar to the next robot discussed, who is unnamed.

[Unnamed]
Another orange humanoid robot with an egg-shaped body, very similar to Humpty. They have a round glass dome as a face, a clawed left hand, and a right hand ending in spines or drill. Different from Humpty, their arms are connected to a large rotating segment, and their feet are different.
This robot is seen in the trailer, and in a silver untextured state in the short "3DV". They remain unnamed in production materials, just called "misc robot".

Driller
This robot has a pill-shaped upper body supported by four wheels at the end of a stem. There are some little tube-like projections coming from the front of their body as well. Their build allows them to roll smoothly on rough terrain.
This robot is seen in the trailer & construction clip. In the latter, they have a blue and purple colour palette, rather than yellow. Their name comes from production materials.

Pogo
This is a thin green robot that bounces around like a pogo stick. They have four feet that can extend to hold them steady, and they have a welding tool at their top.
They are in the construction clip. The name Pogo comes from production materials.

Wilbur
This robot has a humanoid body, but is otherwise obscured by shadow. Their head spins around and their limbs move in odd ways as they jerk around the screen.
They appear briefly in the trailer and 1980 teaser, and in a picture from Wayne Carlson's website. Their model also appears in another short by NYIT CGL, "3DV", in which their name is Wilbur. This name is also used in production materials.

Finally, there are some robots who are present by name in the screenplay.

• The Dinosaur Squadron is a collection of small saucer-shaped robots that can combine to form a dinosaur-shaped body.
• An important unnamed robot is the junkyard robot, a bot revived from spare parts by Ipso. He's an old rusty bot who often goes "hmmmm" as he talks. Beeper affectionately calls him "old timer". In production materials, there's art for a robot made of mismatched parts named Jal, which is likely the junkyard robot. This model is seen in "3DV".
• Crank is a construction robot that often wins at poker. His body is crowded with all the parts he's won. He has a "boorish and monotonous" laugh [src].
• Rusty is another poker-playing bot, but is a desperate loser. Ipso wins its memory cylinder during poker, which Widget (an undescribed friend of Rusty) finds abandoned and returns to Rusty.
• Joint Juke is a jukebox-shaped robot with a hat and cane. They're a part of Joint Juke and the Algorithm Band, a holographic display that plays "honky-tonk" music.

Website est. April 11th, 2022, by Fortis Arbor. Powered by NeoCities.org.