Can the Metal Men really be considered as robots?

[Toreador]

Usually we consider robots to have parts like servos, motors, gears and wires but the metal men seem to have none of that. They are basically AIs/robot brains Doc Magnus build and put in a metal shell that manipulates and shapes the metal at a molecular level.

Also has DC ever explained how Magnus was able to get enough gold and platinum to create his robots? Lead, iron, mercury and tin are cheap metals to buy but even if he was wealthy making a solid life-size male and female figure of gold and platinum would would be expensive. I'd like to imagine that Magnus started off making much smaller versions of Gold and Platinum and then have them roam around abandoned gold and platinum mines (or searching through junkyards for electronic parts) having them search for and add to their mass until they reach a certain size.

[Alan2099]

We consider the T-1000 from Terminator a robot, and he's liquid metal.

The idea of making them really small at first is a cute one though. That could make for an amusing issue or two.

[Robanker]

Usually we consider robots to have parts like servos, motors, gears and wires but the metal men seem to have none of that. They are basically AIs/robot brains Doc Magnus build and put in a metal shell that manipulates and shapes the metal at a molecular level.

Also has DC ever explained how Magnus was able to get enough gold and platinum to create his robots? Lead, iron, mercury and tin are cheap metals to buy but even if he was wealthy making a solid life-size male and female figure of gold and platinum would would be expensive. I'd like to imagine that Magnus started off making much smaller versions of Gold and Platinum and then have them roam around abandoned gold and platinum mines (or searching through junkyards for electronic parts) having them search for and add to their mass until they reach a certain size.

That's as good a retcon as any. To be honest, I imagine he had a hefty grant from someone looking to use his technology for their own means (not specifically nefarious, mind you). A working responsometer would be revolutionary with a lot of applications. I can imagine in DC's land of infinite resources (how else can you explain all these cities being rebuilt daily?) that one of its many investors would back Magnus.

Are they robots? Sure, as Alan2099 said we think of the liquid metal T-1000 as one so it stands to reason the Metal Men are as well.

[jetengine]

Regarding the materials.

Sometimes its "he literally buys the materials" othertimes its "The core responsometre transforms metals into the main metal

[Lee Stone]

Usually we consider robots to have parts like servos, motors, gears and wires but the metal men seem to have none of that. They are basically AIs/robot brains Doc Magnus build and put in a metal shell that manipulates and shapes the metal at a molecular level.

Also has DC ever explained how Magnus was able to get enough gold and platinum to create his robots? Lead, iron, mercury and tin are cheap metals to buy but even if he was wealthy making a solid life-size male and female figure of gold and platinum would would be expensive. I'd like to imagine that Magnus started off making much smaller versions of Gold and Platinum and then have them roam around abandoned gold and platinum mines (or searching through junkyards for electronic parts) having them search for and add to their mass until they reach a certain size.

Howabout this...

If the Metal Men have robot brains in solid, malleable metal bodies...

And Robotman has a human brain in a robot body...

Is Robotman a robot? Or human?

If you consider Robotman human, than I'd say the Metal Men are robots.

If you consider Robotman a robot, than I'd say the Metal Men are scientific golems, or constructs.
They might even qualify as androids.

As for the source of their bodies...
I don't think too much into things, as far as where Magnus got the materials.
It's a comic and he needed enough for their first appearance.
He could've gotten it from a genie.

Since they debuted in the '60s and space stuff was all the rage, if someone pressed the writers, I'm sure they would've devised a story where aliens supplied him with all he needed.

[Lonewolf36]

My guess is Calvin "Cave" Carson could have gotten him the Gold and Platinum with no problem.

[LordMikel]

A little known substory, Doc Magnus once stole the Philosopher's stone to change enough lead to gold and Platinum to be able to have enough to make those robots.

[Lonewolf36]

He aided an alien from the planet Trom who transmuted the materials for him.

[Digifiend]

Howabout this...

If the Metal Men have robot brains in solid, malleable metal bodies...

And Robotman has a human brain in a robot body...

Is Robotman a robot? Or human?

If you consider Robotman human, than I'd say the Metal Men are robots.

If you consider Robotman a robot, than I'd say the Metal Men are scientific golems, or constructs.
They might even qualify as androids.

Robotman is a man whose mind was transferred to a robot body when his real body was seriously damaged in a car crash (he was a racing driver) I believe. So he is a robot, but used to be human.

[Ascended]

He still has his brain right? It's not just a digital copy, but his actual, organic brain?

Pretty sure that makes him a cyborg, technically. We usually think of cyborgs as having a lot of organic parts as well as bionic, (like Vic Stone) but I think if his brain is still there Robotman is technically a 'borg.

And I think the Metal Men are androids. Artificial intelligence with a human appearance.

[Jim Kelly]

Robotman--it's in the name. Robot and Man. Cyborg wasn't a term in use when Robert Crane became the Robotman. Even when Cliff Steele became Automaton and then Robotman, cyborg was not a common term. It just is a combination of cybernetics (from the Greek for good at steering) and organism. Seems to me that robotman or cyborg it's the same difference.

Given all the things that the Metal Men can do (which seem to my tiny mind like magic), I can believe that they somehow manipulate the atoms in their make-up so they become the correct element on the Periodic Table for their function. Mercury has always been the one that seems most remarkable, given he's red and apparently a solid at room temperature--not much like quicksilver.

[Sirius J Moonlight]

The current story is back to (I think) Byrne's idea, that they're not those metals (stated as because of the cost), but they simulate them. I do like the gradually-incorporating-enough-metal idea a lot more. The writers have never done enough with the physics & chemistry of the metals. They mostly stick to common beliefs about them. I'm kind of surprised newer versions haven't made Mercury more silvery, maybe with red highlights, because only oxides of mercury are red. The term "robot" has gotten more complicated. I think it originally meant "worker," so an autonomous drone. The MM have always been shown as what we now usually call sentient AI's. At least they passed the criteria they used for Data in a TNG episode.

[Robanker]

He still has his brain right? It's not just a digital copy, but his actual, organic brain?

Pretty sure that makes him a cyborg, technically. We usually think of cyborgs as having a lot of organic parts as well as bionic, (like Vic Stone) but I think if his brain is still there Robotman is technically a 'borg.

And I think the Metal Men are androids. Artificial intelligence with a human appearance.

Depends which run. Towards the end of Morrison's run his brain is destroyed but he lives on as a backup that was made pretty close to time of death, if I recall correctly.