Tal Avitzur is obsessed with collecting what he calls "retro junk." The California artist spends hours sifting through scrapyards to find parts for the whimsical robots he dreams up. At his Talbotics ...

With no technical training (indeed, not much education at all), no external financial support, and no fancy computer-aided design, Wu Yulu manufactures his robots out of scrap metal, spare batteries, ...