| “ | Who in tarnations are you!? | „ |
| ~ Kintobor questioning Sonic on who he is in the US promotional comic. |
Doctor Ovi Kintobor is the overarching protagonist of early western lore in Sonic the Hedgehog media, most of it based on his debut appearance, Sonic the Hedgehog promotional comic. He was once a good-hearted human scientist who sought to rid planet Mobius of all evil. In the process, he befriended Sonic the Hedgehog, but this friendship ended tragically when Kintobor was transformed into an evil tyrant in a lab accident.
Biography[]
Sonic Bible[]
His early life is a mystery, he however originated from planet Earth. Its unknown how Kintobor got to planet Mobius, but what is known is that he was a kind and benevolent scientist that operated in a local toxic waste dump. He was using the Cogwinder Retractable Partulent Corer to search for Chaos Emeralds, specifically the final, gray emerald. One day, he accidentally dug up a hibernating brown hedgehog named Sonny. He used a machine called the Lingua Scrambler'Um to teach Sonny how to speak human language. Kintobor explained to Sonny that he needs the Chaos Emeralds to reverse years of pollution and rid Planet Mobius of all evil, reverting it to its natural state.
Kintobor rescued many poisoned and struggling animals in his base, many of which Sonny befriended. Eventually, Kintobor appointed Sonny to be his right-hand assistant so he could help him in his search for the emeralds. Kintobor began teaching Sonny about physics, but Sonny discovered a treadmill that Kintobor had constructed. Running on it to pass the time, he eventually broke the sound barrier, crossing all known limits of acceleration and moving at the speed of light. Kintobor was alarmed, rushing to slow down the treadmill, only to find that Sonny had somehow turned blue. Kintobor began calling Sonny "Sonic" due to how fast he was moving. Sonic used his speed to further assist Kintobor in his experiments, and discovered a machine made entirely out of gold rings. He found out Kintobor had used this machine to gather all evil in Earth into six colored emeralds, and had them stored them in a cabinet.
Kintobor explained that the emeralds could eliminate all pollution from the world, or in the worst scenario, double the amount of evil in the world if they were to be hit by radiation. Unfortunately, just as he said that, a wave of pollution penetrated Mobius' surface and hit the emeralds, which made Kintobor's machine, the Retro-Orbital Chaos Compressor turn on and cast a beam on Kintobor, a half-eaten egg, and the Chaos Emeralds.
This transformed Ovi Kintobor from the benevolent, kind, scientist into a cold-blooded, wrathful beast that uses his intellect to spread more pollution and evil into the world, unlike Kintobor, who wanted to rid the world of it. The creature chased after Sonic, who grabbed many gold rings and ran out of there as fast as possible. The monster named himself Dr. Ivo Robotnik, and swore to destroy Sonic no matter what.
Sonic the Hedgehog promotional comic[]
Ovi Kintobor's meeting with Sonic is portrayed differently here. The hedgehog came across the doctor's laboratory while he was working on the ROCC device. Without paying attention at who he was talking to, the scientist explained that he was using the machine to attract and contain all evil on Mobius inside the Chaos Emeralds so that he could destroy them and the evil inside. Only then did he realize that he was talking to a hedgehog, who promptly introduced himself.
Kintobor and Sonic became friends. While testing his speed on a treadmill, Sonic went over 685 MPH and blew it up, which turned his spines blue in the process and burned his shoes, with Kintobor giving him new ones. Kintobor's plan regarding the ROCC proceeded slower than desired, as he lacked the Gray Emerald which would was needed to control all others. He once asked Sonic to fetch his a hardboiled egg and a soda, but accidentally spilled it on the keyboard, causing the ROCC to shock him and transfer all evil stored inside it into his body, turning the once kind doctor into the evil Ivo Robotnik, who has been turning animals into robots and seeking to destroy Sonic and conquer the world ever since.
Appearence[]
In the Sonic the Hedgehog promotional comic, Kintobor was an elderly man with messy white sideburns and a large white kaiser moustache, for attire he wore a brown blazer with a white shirt underneath, as well as blue jeans with a black belt.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- His name is "Robotnik" spelled backwards.
- Robotnik's backstory as Kintobor served as the inspiration for many other western Sonic stories. Ironically, most sources using this backstory are European rather than American, where Robotnik was normally portrayed as being evil by nature. Continuities using the "Kintobor" backstory include Sonic the Comic and novels published by Virgin Books. Sonic Adventures by Sirene also reference Robotnik's past life as Kintobor, but leaves it ambiguous if the ROCC accident remains canon to it.
- Kintobor's US promotional comic appearence was loosley modeled on the real life scientific genius Albert Einstein. Kintobor even mentions to "Eggstein's theory of mass versus velocity" which is a reference to Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity (commonly simplified to E = mc2)
- Despite the Kintobor backstory been unused for Robotnik's Archie counterpart, his actual name is Julian Kintobor, the former would however be used in some of the issues such as issue 11, who is the Moebius counterpart of Dr. Robotnik.
- Despite this backstory of Dr. Eggman being well recieved by some fans, claiming it makes him a more tragic character, and explaining as to why Sonic never kills him, thinking he still wants to believe he can one day get his friend back, the early North American Sonic canon was slowly abandoned throughout the 1990s. This culminated in the Sonic series' 10th anniversary, in 2001, with the release of Sonic Adventure 2, which scrapped the Kintobor backstory entirely. No mention of Dr. Kintobor and the canon he came from has been made ever since.
