Rock ’Em Sock ’Em Robots give kids the chance to be in the boxing ring without getting a black eye or bloody nose. The set of two dueling robot boxers, the Red Rocker and Blue Bomber, stand on a platform made of bright yellow plastic to represent a boxing ring. Each player controls one of the robots by pushing plunger buttons on a set of joysticks to punch the opponent’s robot to be the first to knock the other robot’s head off.

The two-player game has had great success in the US. It was designed by Marvin Glass and Associates, first manufactured by the Marx toy company in 1964. It was inspired by arcade boxing games that were introduced in the early 1960s, originally using small metal figures that looked like men and would fall over when they lost.

After the death of boxer Davey Moore, the game was temporarily shelved for concern that it was in bad taste. But game designer Burt Meyer thought that the toy was too good to toss aside and suggested dehumanizing the figures by making them robots who fell apart, i.e. having their heads extended off their shoulders. Further cementing the change, the toy’s box art presented them as robots from other planets.

The toy remained virtually the same design for over a decade after it was introduced. In ’77 they were given a makeover with a more obvious outer space look to piggyback on the success of Star Wars. Repackaged as Clash of the Cosmic Robots, the characters were renamed and recolored as the orange PROG-2 and white V-STYX. The boxing ring was also recolored black to appear more like the darkness of space.

A new version in the mid-1990s saw the blue robot in a darker shade and the red robot turned grey/silver, now named Bolt Crusher Bob and Gear Grinder Greg. The design could be enhanced with stickers and decals that came with the toy.

Mattel remade the classic version of the game in 2000 that were about half the size of the original toys. It was followed by action figures, a PlayStation game, handheld games, and bobble head dolls.