He looks like a supporting character from classic comic strip Dan Dare, but there's nothing fictional about George the Robot. George was built in 1950 and is one of the first humanoid robots ever made.

After 45 years powered down in a garden shed--how British--George is back online.

George was created over the course of three weeks by former Royal Air Force officer Tony Sale, now 79. Having refined the design in four previous versions made of Meccano and cardboard, the then 19-year-old Sale built George in from aluminum and duralumin from a crashed Wellington bomber.

He's been languishing in a shed for nearly half a century years--George, not Sale--before emerging to take his place in the National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park.

George the Robot stands 6 foot tall and can walk and talk, but has sadly lost the capacity to use his photocell eyes to locate and home in on an illuminated bottle of beer. Almost sounds like Crave on a Friday night.

Read more of "Apple-1 breaks records as vintage robot steps out of the pages of Dan Dare" at Crave UK.