Object Head
Object Heads are a humanoid robot-type where the typical head is replaced with a common object, most notably TVs.
Information
History
The idea of object heads has existed for many centuries, appearing across many cultures throughout the centuries. The first visual roots of object heads appears in the Japanese legends of Tsukumogami. Within the emaki (picture scroll) called Tsukumogami Emaki, Tsukumogami were objects or tools which acquired spirits after existing for over 100 years. Also described were people throwing out objects before they reached 99 years of age, thereby preventing them from becoming Tsukumogami. Many of these objects would retain their original shapes while also gaining demonic qualities and having the ability to change forms.
In the 1930s, object heads would begin to take foothold in early American cartoons, usually as a way to depict certain meanings that would be hard to depict otherwise. One early example includes the 1931 cartoon, Minnie the Moocher, where the titular character Betty Boop's father, after continuously berating her would turn into a record player to denote the phrase "like a broken record". The trend of object heads would continue to increase in media as the 21st century creeped around the corner, appearing in media such as the video game series Silent Hill with Pyramid Head and the 2017 video game Cuphead, among others.
Object heads wouldn't start being depicted as robots until fairly recently. A real life example would be the Japanese robot Wabot 2, which sported a camera for a head. This camera gave Wabot-2 the ability recognize and read musical score, allowing it to play a musical keyboard.[1] Most commonly, however, is the TV object head. While the exact origin is unknown, many online artists would begin drawing these TV heads with many different designs, most notably old 20th century CRTs. Due to the prevalence of existing CRTs in tech and pawn shops, many people would also start to fashion the shells of these CRTs into wearable heads.
Construction
Object heads can have a variety of designs and many head types, ranging from TVs, monitors, musical keyboards and even traffic lights. Below the head, many designs opt for either a full mechanical body or a simple human body. Every object head has a different way of expressing emotions and faces, most notably TV and monitor heads, which use their displays in order to achieve this.
In popular culture
TV/Monitor Heads
- Canti (FLCL)
- Karen (Spongebob Squarepants)
- Securitrons (Fallout: New Vegas)
- Hex (Friday Night Funkin': VS Hex Mod)
- Lord of Games (Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts)
- Monita (Nintendo Land)
- ROBO_Head (Cytus II)
- Heart and Slash (Heart&Slash)