Rosso Robot

Rosso Robot was one of the recurring villains in the Austrian TV-Show, Die heiße Spur, and later made some appearances many years after the show had been renamed into Tom Turbo.

As his name suggests, Rosso Robot is a robot who uses his intelligence and abilities as a criminal.

First appearance
Rosso Robot appears for the first time when Tom investigates after a woman claimed to have seen a strange animal. Rosso Robot arrives in disguise, catching it and heading for the window. Thomas thinks that he's going to jump, but the man turns into a fireball and flies away. Tom later finds a "Wanted" poster, saying that Rosso Robot escaped from a robot laboratory and thinks of himself as an inventor. Eventually, Tom finds Rosso Robot's hideout as well as Rosso himself with the animal, which he claims to be just a prototype for the animal he plans to create, suggesting he's experimenting on animals he holds in cages. After defeating the robot, Tom realizes that the animal is an ordinary cat which Rosso Robot dressed up to see what his animal could look like.

Later crimes
Rosso Robot later made various appearances on the show, becoming the most recurring villain after Fritz Fantom, Rudi Rat and Dr. Gruselglatz.

In one episode for example, he uses a giant magnet to steal cars passing by, holding the drivers for ransom and selling the cars. The process is so fast that the people think that they traveled to the future, given that Rosso Robot's lair in this episode looks quite futuristic and Rosso Robot is also using a servant made of living energy who looks like a robot. Rosso Robot is later defeated when Tom, who got captured by him, as well as his two recent captives are freed by Thomas, leaving Rosso Robot raging in his lair.

In a another episode, he plans his greates crime yet by kidnapping a scientist and bringing her into the Science Museum, where he forces her to build a machine which should committ robberies for him. He also sends his robot henchmen he has in this episode to kidnap Thomas' dog, threatening him to get Tom away from the museum. Thomas does as he is told, but eventually tells Tom what happened. Tom gets captured by Rosso Robot and his henchmen, but is later able to free himself and deactivate the robot servants. Rosso Robot tries to escape, but clashes against a wall as the door he tried to exit through was a hologram created by Tom. He is then reprogrammed by the scientist, after which he constantly says: "I'm nice like a sheep.".

Rosso Robot was among the villains paying money to Fritz Fantom for Lord Spider, who offered to destroy Thomas and Tom Turbo with a special button. However none of the villains wants to go to Lord Spider's fortress, deeming him to be too powerful for them. Later, when Tom happily leaves the fortress with Lord Spider's money after revealing that Lord Spider was bluffing to get the money from his fellow villains, Rosso Robot and the other villains rage.

In one Christmas Special, Rosso Robot, along with Freda Fantom, Dr. Gruselglatz and Rudi Rat, joins Fritz Fantoms new plan to use a machine that would steal every Christmas present around the world. Rosso Robot changed his appearance into a dog, accompanying Fritz Fantom whenever he dressed as a huntsman to scare people away from his mountain lair, telling them a story about a Biting Snowman, who is actually Dr. Gruselglatz in disguise. After defeating Dr. Gruselglatz and tying up Fritz Fantom, Tom is shocked to see the dog turn into Rosso Robot, who turns into a fireball to prevent Tom from entering the lair, but fails. Fritz Fantom and Rosso Robot later enter the lair, where fritz Fantom gets tricked by detective Linda Logo, who disguised herself as his aunt Freda, to reveal how to stop the machine. After it got deactivated, Linda and a scientist kidnapped by Fritz Fantom to fix the machine escape. Fritz Fantom and Rosso Robot rush to the control room in order to close the exit, but Tom uses one of his tricks to glue them to the floor.

In a two-part episode, Rosso Robot, Dr. Gruselglatz, Fritz Fantom and a villain called Elektro-Ede, who seems to replace Rudi Rat in this episode, join a new villain called the White Knight in his scheme. During a conference via computer, the White Knight later accuses Fritz Fantom of trachery and has him imprisoned, leaving the more scientific based villains to work on the project. Eventually, Tom learns that they were building a robot dragon to plunder banks with. However, the White Knight betrays his allies with anesthetic gas, claiming that the robot will only steal for him. After Tom defeated the robot dragon, the White Knight is revealed to be Fritz Fantom, who faked his own captivity so there would be no questions why the two were never in one room. Realizing that he betrayed them, Dr. Gruselglatz, Rosso Robot and Elektro-Ede ran after him.

Tom Turbo
In the renamed show, Tom encountered Rosso Robot again when a man in a white cloak, being referred to as "The White Man" kidnaps a dog Tom's friend, a girl, was supposed to look after, and steals parts of building machines. In a cave, Tom finds plans about a robot that would use the stolen parts to be an unbelievable powerful thief, like being able to melt the thickest bank safe walls. After hearing that The White Man is Rosso Robot, Tom realizes that the robot from the plans already exists: The White Man doesn't build the robot, he IS the robot. At this moment, Rosso Robot returns to his lair. Finding Tom and a boy who came with him, Rosso Robot uses one of the parts he installed into himself to send out a magnetic wave, causing several metal parts to block the only exit for Tom and the boy while Rosso Robot marches away to steal more parts. After Tom freed himself and the boy, he confronts Rosso Robot and manages to reach the "Off"-button this incarnation of Rosso Robot has on his back, resulting in him being shut off. However, the switch turns on its own, apparently controlled by Rosso Robot's mind, but the boy turns the switch once more, deactivating Rosso Robot for good.

Rosso Robot later returned, allying himself with Rudi Rat. The two go after the sword of the Red Knight, who is said to have been invicible. When they find it, Rudi realizes that the sword is a strong magnet that effects both Rosso Robot and Tom. He betrays Rosso and uses the sword to throw the two against a wall, planning to use their technology to build the ultimate robot for himself. However, Rudi is the stopped when two kid detectives get the sword.

Rosso Robot later hires Rudi Rat again, ordering him to install technology into him that grands him the ability to shoot fire or turn into a fireball (a nod to the original incarnation). Rosso then threatens to burn the art museum unless he gets the most valuable paintings. In order to prevent the fire brigade from interfering, Rudi uses a gadget in the form of a silver hand to sabotage their cars. Tom finally defeats Rosso Robot, claiming that he requires a tie (a reference to how he tried to knot Thomas' tie for the gallery visit) and wraps him into a water tube, which, after Tom takes it away, causes Rosso Robot to rotate until he clashes into Rudi Rat.