Skeleton Joe

Skeleton Joe


A skeleton-like automaton, belonging to the "Joe" family of robots, that first appeared in Capcom's 1991 Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) video game Mega Man 4. While they can be found in other environments, their primary function is to serve as sentries in Skull Man's realm.

BACKGROUND:
The "Joe" series of robots, created by the diabolically mad scientist Dr. Albert Wily, sport a variety of designs and functions, but the two physical features that they all have in common are a bipedal, human-like body and a single eye. The model Dr. Wily most frequently employs is "Sniper Joe"--a green and black robot that sports an impenetrable blast shield and an arm cannon. Other examples of Joe series robots include "Hammer Joe" (Mega Man 3), a wrecking ball tossing robot, and "Crystal Joe" (Mega Man 5), a crystal generating mechanoid.

Skeleton Joe was created by Dr. Cossack--as were most of the robot enemies found in Mega Man 4--although he did so under Dr. Wily's direction, and his design was based on the Sniper Joe and Hammer Joe schematics Wily provided him with. Cossack was coerced into aiding the depraved Wily when the devious doctor kidnaped the Russian scientist's daughter, Kalinka, and used her as leverage to get Cossack to do his dirty work.

ABILITIES:
These robots attack by throwing bone-shaped projectiles with impressive accuracy. Matter generators built into the palms of their hands insure an almost unlimited supply of ammunition. Skeleton Joes are very difficult to destroy. Their bodies are constructed from numerous, self-contained, modular units that are held together by weak magnetic attraction. Instead of being injured when struck by most kinds of weapon fire, the impact disrupts the magnetic field holding the Skeleton Joe together and it simply falls apart, crumbling into a "pile of bones". Shortly after such a disruption, the individual modules will reactivate the magnetic field, the Joe's body will reassemble itself, and the robot will resume its previous activities as though nothing happened. It takes a very powerful attack to actually destroy one of these mechanoids; a fully charged blast from Mega Man's Mega Buster is an example of such an attack.

WEAKNESSES:
Skeleton Joes are expendable sentries; their programming will not allow them to move or retreat from the position they are assigned to defend, even in the face of a superior threat that they cannot hope to overcome. If an intruder doesn't have the firepower necessary to destroy one of these mechanoids, they can still get past the Joe by disrupting its magnetic field and making the robot collapse, rendering it temporarily helpless. He or she can then quickly run by before Skeleton Joe can finish reassembling itself. Much to the annoyance of Skeleton Joes everywhere, Mega Man's dog, Rush, finds these androids delicious and irresistible, due to the robotic canine's love of mechanical "bones".


Materials:
Kleenex, newsprint, cardboard, white/hot glue, wire twist ties, and acrylic paint.

Dimensions:
14.7 cm/5.8 in. x 5.0 cm/2.0 in. (highest point x widest point)

Action Feature:
Skeleton Joe comes apart into seven pieces, to simulate crumbling-into-a-pile-of-bones like the game character does in Mega Man 4 when struck by weapon fire.

Articulation:
Twenty-seven points: Eye, neck, shoulders (2), elbows (2), wrists (2), fingers (10), vertebrae (3), hips (2), knees (2), and ankles (2). The individual body components can also rotate to some extent in their respective sockets, but, as this is less-than-perfect, and purely a by-product of the action feature, I'm choosing not to count those seven points.

Time:
Five days; March 22-26, 2007.