Robecca Steam

Robecca Steam is a robot and daughter of a mad scientist. Her father is a monster of undetermined kind. Robecca hasn't seen him since he entered the catacombs over a century ago, but some clues suggest he's still alive. In the meantime, Robecca lives with Kindergrubber. She is voiced by Julie Maddalena Kliewer.

Personality
Robecca is polite and eager to please. She's always running late due to a defect in her machinery, but she always tries to make up her mistakes.

Physical Appearance
Robecca's "skin" is copper brown, with several patches, bolts and rivets including two gears on the backside of her calf. Her wavy hair is black with blue streaks.

Family
As a simulacrum, Robecca does not have family in the same way natural creatures have. However, she and her creator, a Mad Scientist of an unknown type of being, consider each other father and daughter.

After the disappearance of her father, Robecca came to live permanently with Kindergrubber, who's become an unofficial adoptive mother figure to Robecca and was the one that made her enroll at Monster High. Recently, Hoodude Voodoo has come to live under the same roof as them, but it's unknown how Robecca views him.

Friends
In her biography Robecca mentions being friends with Rochelle Goyle and Frankie Stein. This may be because Robecca saved her life and because of the fact that Robecca had already met Frankie's parents and therefore naturally became her friend, or because of their relation as simulacrum. Robecca mentions in her diary that she found Draculaura to be a honorable and accommodating hostess, suggesting that they may be or were friends.

Classic Monster
Robecca is a robot, a mechanical variation of the simulacrum archetype that in recent decennia has developed such as to no longer adhere to several definitions of what constitutes a simulacrum.

The oldest 'robots' found in stories are the Automata of Hephaistos, the Greek god of technology and craftmanship. "Automaton" is Ancient Greek for "self-moving", and mythologically applied to a group of metal creatures resembling organic creatures that Hephaistos had created for various purposes. Most of them were animal-like in appearance, but Talos and the Golden Maidens were humanoid, and the latter even served as Hephaistos's personal assistants. It is arguable whether the Automata were actual robots or, equally likely, living statues made of metal. It is known various ancient cultures, among them the Ancient Greeks, have had possession of knowledge concerning the creation of impressive machinery, some of which even today are still not understood by modern science. At the same time, myths also featured more magically animated creatures such as Galatea (ivory), Pandora (earth) and even humanity as a whole (earth), leaving it unclear how the Ancient Greek envisioned the metal creatures in their myths.

The earliest definite robot or robot designs known about are creations by Leonardo da Vinci from around 1495. The idea of creating mechanical creatures to perform various kinds of labors has since been pursued with slowly building fervor. It wasn't until 1920, however, that finally the term "robot" was invented. Before, various descriptive phrases and words like "automata" had been used. "Robot" has been coined in the book R.U.R. from Karel Čapek. It is adapted from a word found in many Slavic languages and means "work" or "worker" to "slave" and "slavery". The term was further popularized by Isaac Asimov.

As simulacra, robots are creatures used in fiction to generate fear for what is similar but not quite the same (automatonophobia, xenophobia, and a slice of technophobia), but also to question what a being needs to be considered worthy of personal sovereignty. In short, what makes a human 'human'. Or in Robecca's case, what makes a monster 'human'.

Meta Timeline

 * September 22, 2011: Mattel requests the trademark for Robecca Steam.
 * December 30, 2011: The Walmart website sets up pages in preparation of the releases of Robecca Steam, Rochelle Goyle, Venus McFlytrap and Jackson Jekyll.
 * February 11, 2011: Robecca Steam's first doll is on display at American International Toy Fair.
 * February 13, 2012: Robecca Steam's profile is published on the Freaky Fab 13 microsite.
 * Early April, 2012: Robecca Steam makes her diary debut in Rochelle Goyle's diary and Jackson Jekyll's diary.
 * April 13, 2012: Robecca Steam's profile is published on the Monster High website.
 * April 13, 2012: Robecca Steam's profile art is revealed.
 * April 13, 2012: Robecca Steam sort of makes her 3D-animated debut in "Escape From Skull Shores", in which posters of her appear.
 * Early July, 2012: Robecca Steam's first doll is released as part of the Main V4 series.
 * September 5, 2012: Robecca Steam makes her book debut in Ghoulfriends Forever.
 * September 20, 2012: Robecca Steam makes her webisode debut in Aba-Kiss Me Deadly.