 The museum closed in 1980, and Robby, along with his vehicle, original MGM spare parts, and shipping containers were sold to William Malone.Malone noted that Robby had once again fallen into a state of disrepair.Having built the first ever replica of Robby in 1973, Malone was able to carefully restore the robot prop to its original condition using additional spare parts which the original builders had stocked in Robby's stage cases some 25 years earlier.