Updated: November 28, 2023

An original Twiki robot costume worn by Felix Silla in the television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century ( Universal Television, 1979-1981 ).

This costume is composed of silver-tone fiberglass and plastic, and includes a torso section, legs and boots, a helmet, and vinyl and foam skirt. The helmet portion features electrical wiring that would control the illuminating elements just under the lip of the helmet's dome. The costume features pincher-style hands with foam padding on the inner edge. The foam latex / rubber joints present at the shoulders of the costume exhibit significant wear. The painted vinyl skirt also exhibits wear and cracking due to age.

Wiring present at the base of the figure connects to a standard wall adapter and illuminates the underside of Twiki's helmet.

Twiki the robot served as the sidekick to Buck Rogers ( Gil Gerald ) throughout the series, providing comic relief and his famous "Bidi-bidi-bidi" electronic noises. Mel Blanc provided the voice of Twiki for over half of the series.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century was the second television version of Philip Francis Nowlan's character after the ABC series that ran from 1950-1951. The character was revamped after the success of Star Wars ( 20th Century Fox, 1977 ) and Universal was looking for their own entry point into the science fiction craze. After viewing footage of the two-part pilot episode of the new series, with its sweeping landscape matte-paintings, Universal decided what they saw was good enough and released the two-part pilot in theaters as a feature film on March 30,1979. The series premiered on September 20, 1979 with the two-part pilot episode slightly altered for television from the theatrical version.

The Twiki costume is mounted on a removable fiberglass mannequin attached to a black metal base. Crate Measures: 62.5 x 50 x 28.25 inches; Figure Measures: 46 x 30 x 17 inches.

Value: $25,000.