It may look slightly creepy, but Robie taught me about money at a very young age, and incentivized me to save my spare change.

Sold in the US by Radio Shack in the 80s and 90s, this gift from my Grandma was a huge hit at our family's Christmas gathering.

But enough reminiscing! Let's tear this thing down to see what makes Robie tick.

Using our handy-dandy Spudger, we perform a craniotomy on Robie by carefully prying off the top plastic cover in order to get at the screws underneath.

Lucky for us, Robie is held together with standard Phillips #2 screws throughout, and there are three of them holding his head cover in place.

Well, this is terrifying. Quick! Let's move on to the next step before we get nightmares!

Robie's eyes are loosely held in place, so let's remove them before they fall out accidentally and roll under the desk.

Just two screws hold Robie's head to its body. After removing those, we can carefully lift the head up and set it off to the side.

Before we can go any further, we need to remove Robie's feet covers so we have more room when removing his body.

The power switch is located in his left foot—nothing in his right.

Robie's body is split into two halves, which are held in place by clips and tape.

Using some tweezers, removing the tape is a piece of cake.

The clips are fairly weak (hence the tape, most likely), so separating the body enclosure is also a piece of cake.

The motor assembly is attached to the base with three screws—two in the front and one in the back.

Unfortunately, the battery contacts are soldered to the motor assembly, so any repairs or replacement of the motor will require a soldering iron and some basic soldering skills to remove it entirely.

But once those two wires are removed, separating the motor assembly from the base is a cinch.

The motor assembly is filled with all sorts of gears and servo motors that make Robie move.

If needed, you can open up the enclosure to gain access to these components by removing four screws, but we feel like this is a good stopping point for this teardown.

Robie handled his teardown with aplomb! He'll be put back together so he can continue to eat coins in peace.