The Puzzle:

McPUD has been acting even more erratically than normal in recent weeks and has, in a fit of artificially-intelligent whimsy, taken to giving his creations their very own names.

Being a mechanic with a high IQ (and, more importantly, a long lunch-break), you cannot let this slide and must attempt to identify the inspirational source of this labeling phenomenon – why “Johnny” or “Hammerstein”? Where did McPUD pull Herbie and A.M from? And what’s with the numbering?

Send your list of the Robot names and where they have been drawn from to
puzzle@surprisedstaregames.co.uk - there are prizes for 10 (that’s TEN in decimal) mechanics who identify the source of all of the named robots (names to be drawn from an appropriately cybernetic hat*)!

Competition closes on 31st December, 2009

*a colander with some metal coat hangers sticking out of it and an old network interface card stapled to the front