Make Way For The Mighty King Ding And His Robotic Brain!

Yesterday while doing a little shopping at the comic shop in our neck of the woods I saw a customer bring in a box under his arm in an attempt to see if the shop wanted to purchase it. I found myself 100% captivated by the robot it held within, this King Ding and his Robot Brain. Sadly the store owner didn’t see any need for the robot and I followed the guy outside and offered to buy it myself. I offered $75 bucks but he was looking for more in the $300 and up category – I was really tempted to beg my Wife to splurge but I had to let this amazing toy slip away, on the other hand the guy was kind enough to open up the box and let me mess around with it.

King Ding was a giant motorized robot produced by Topper Toys from the late ’60s and early ’70s – part of a line called the Ding-A-Ling robots, a brand that manufactured robots to fit any situation like Ding-A-Ling Fireman, Spy, Chef, and Police Man to name just a few.

King Ding was a 14″ construction robot that was ‘piloted’ by the Ding-A-Ling Brain robot, flipping the elevator switch on the back of King Ding allowed a red and yellow lift to descend. Once the Brain Ding-A-Ling ascended upwards into the control chamber – it would ‘grasp’ the controls of King Ding – when a person would engage the ‘Walk’ lever the mighty King Ding would begin to move forward. The movement of the legs would also cause Brain’s arms to move back and forth as if he were truly piloting the giant machine.

The guy who owned…and still owns King Ding didn’t know anything about the toy besides the fact that it used to belong to his Father and he had found it in the attic of his childhood home. I told him I was going to write an article for the site about King Ding – so if he happens to be reading this, thanks a million for letting me check out the toy for myself.

Trying to find out more information about King Ding for this article directed me to a fantastic site called Collectiondx and the author of the post Robokeith shares more photos of the toy and his personal recollections of it as well as many more robot related toys from years past. Makes sure to follow the link provided to check it out. Robokeith also made this fantastic video including some modern day sounds to show the King Ding in action!