You may remember just a few short weeks ago, we reported that international auction house Bonhams was offering the fully operational robot who cost $120,000 to build ($1.2 million in today’s money). Long before C-3PO and R2-D2 stole the limelight, Robby was the original silver-suited, metal-booted star of cinema. He even has his own IMDb page.

Well, the auction took place in New York yesterday afternoon and this morning Bonhams has said that Robby sold for a whopping $5.375 million, a record price for a movie prop, topping the previous marks of $4.6 million for both Marilyn Monroe’s white dress from The Seven-Year Itch (1955) and the original 1966 Batmobile.

The buyer’s name wasn’t released. Naturally.

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Robby starred in the 1956 epic science fiction movie Forbidden Planet, starring Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis and Leslie Nielsen and it’s often hailed as a founding father of modern sci-fi.

In the movie Robby was constructed by the archetypal eccentric professor, Dr Morbius, who was driven to the borderline of genius and insanity by artificially boosting his intelligence with ancient alien artefacts. Robby was everyone’s dream silicon-based buddy. He could make pretty much anything using his built-in, molecular-level replicator, he was highly intelligent with a cheeky personality, an arid dry sense of humour and was obedient without question.

Designed by Robert Kinoshita, Arnold Gillespie, Irving Block, Mentor Huebner, and Arthur Lonergan, Robby was sold with the vehicle that he used in Forbidden Planet, as well as a control panel, an alternate head, his original staging crates, the harness worn by actors Frankie Carpenter and Frankie Darro to haul the heavy suit and other robotic accouterments.

The TCM Out of this World auction also featured some other classic movie memorabilia, including some beautiful model replicas from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954) – which sold for $13,750 and even Columbo’s iconic raincoat – which sold for $1,187. Luke’s screen-used lightsaber from Return of the Jedi (1983) was withdrawn from the auction for reasons unknown.

The Riddler’s cane from Batman Forever (1995) sold for $1,500 and a pair of Imperial Biker Scout gloves also from Return of the Jedi were sold for $3,750.

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