Robotization

Robotization refers to the imprisoning of Sonic's animal friends inside badniks - a technique which seems to be Dr. Robotnik's favourity hobby during the early Sonic games. It is distinct from the considerably more invasive process portrayed in the SatAM and Archie continuities, known as roboticization.

General

The mass-robotizer in Sonic Spinball.

From Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit) to Sonic & Knuckles for the Sega Genesis, Doctor Robotnik's mechanical legions ("badniks") used small animals as a kind of "organic battery". Robotization referred to the imprisonment of a creature inside one of these robots; the organic creature remains intact and viable, but trapped and presumably not very happy . When defeated by Sonic, Tails, or Knuckles, the badnik would explode and the trapped creature set free.

Although Robotnik has branched out from the use of living creatures as power sources in later model robots, the classic animal-containing badnik still appears in some of the more modern games, including Sonic Advance 1 and 2.

This "organic battery" conception of roboticization was also the one used in Fleetway's Sonic the Comic, although here Robotnik also uses android Troopers as soldiers, which do not contain animals.

Robotizer

Main Article: Veg-O-Machine

Sonic Spinball sees the blue hedgehog attack Robotnik's facility on Mount Mobius. At the core of the Doctor's facility lies the Veg-O-Machine, a mass-robotizer device which can transform woodland critters into robots in mere seconds. This is the only instance within the games where the process of robotization has been directly observed.