The Spine

The Spine
The Spine from the 2017 Individual Character Photo Prints series.
Occupation	Steam Powered Giraffe member
Affiliation	Walter Robotics
Gender	Male
Additional Information
Aliases	Number One Silver Spiniel (by Rabbit) Cracker Jones (by The Jon)
Status	Alive
Age	125
Place of Origin	Walter Manor

“Howdy. My name's The Spine. I was built with a titanium alloy spine. [...] That's my... Backstory.” - The Spine, introducing himself

The Spine is a futuristic dieselpunk-style automaton, originally built by Peter Walter I in 1896. He is one of the original members of Steam Powered Giraffe. He sings and plays rhythm guitar, bass, keyboard, and occasionally mandolin.

He is portrayed by David Michael Bennett.

Appearance

The Spine is constructed from a shiny, silvery metal, and typically wears full-black formal wear with small red details. He is almost always seen wearing his wide-brimmed black-banded black fedora. He has a set of six dorsal heat-sink protrusions(described as “stegosaurus fins” by Zero) in pairs going down the center of his back, decreasing in size with the largest pair at the top and smallest at the bottom. They have their own lighting, and he can retract or extend them at will.

His face is a metallic silver in color, with large geometric black seams for cheek vents in the hollow of the cheek area, which are a slightly darker grey color. He has large black eyebrows, each with a connecting seam to the top of his head, and to the outside corners of his eyes. His lips are also black, with twin vertical seams from his lower lip to the bottom of his chin. Along his jawline is a thin band of metal distinct from the rest of his face with another dark seam, interrupted by the vertical line of his cheek vent. His ears are the same metallic color as his face.

His neck is composed of two horizontal metallic bands with large seams between, with a V-shaped dip in the front. Below his ears and behind his head, as well as a spot on the back of his head, are all black (or part of a large seam in his plating). He used to wear a wig which was attached to his fedora, but more recently his design has no hair. Instead, there is a geometric pattern — similar to the one on his neck — visible on the top of his head.

He wears a black long-sleeved shirt with red cuffs under a black striped vest, with satin-sheen vertical stripes over the chest and horizontal stripes over the waist. The vest is segmented between these two fabrics, above the waist. The vest has red buttons, a red pocket square, and red hems around the armscye and hip. He wears black flared pants, belt, and black shoes. He is the only band member who consistently “does not wear gloves”. (His actor wears painted gloves resembling mechanical jointed fingers.)

Personality and Traits

The Spine is the most impassive of the Steam Powered Giraffe automatons, often serving in the classical comedic role of “straightman” to his more off-the-wall bandmates. He describes himself as “the normal one”, and puts the most effort into adapting to and replicating human culture and mannerisms, to mixed results — his pop culture references are often a bit outdated or off the mark, not unlike an adult attempting to seem cool to children by trying to learn about the latest “cool thing”. He has an interest in very dry or non-fiction books that tend to bore the robots around him, referring to books like dictionaries as “a good read”. He enjoys reminiscing about historic periods, such as the “wild west”; possibly due to his own nostalgia.

The Spine has an unusual quirk of construction; is able to detach his head and spinal column from his body chassis and move freely, like a snake or worm.

History

The Spine, serving with a platoon during the Vietnam war

The Spine was originally constructed in 1896 by Peter Walter I, with smokestacks protruding from the spinal column area(in the place of his modern dorsal heat sink solution), earning him his name. He fought against Thadeus Becile in the Weekend War alongside the other Walter Robotics automatons, and later in 1917 (World War 1) and 1942 (World War 2).

The Spine's old, outdated design (2011 and earlier); based on his “humanlike” visual upgrade in 1955.

In 1955, The Spine was upgraded by the US government for use in war. He received his current titanium-alloy spine, as well as a number of other design and programming changes to make him more closely resemble a human, in order to undertake special-ops missions. In 1965, he put the upgrades to little use in Vietnam. The Spine and other Walter Robotics automatons were broken in combat, and were only returned to Peter Walter V for repairs in 1973. They returned to operation in 1974, vowing to never use their weapons again.

In 2008, The Spine and other band members rebranded to Steam Powered Giraffe and become street entertainers, going on to release several albums over the next few years.

In 2015, the band followed W.I.N.K the satellite into space in order to assist in saving the Earth.

Relationships

Rabbit and Zero

As fellow automatons and band members, Zero, Rabbit, and The Spine have a sibling-like relationship, where they're friendly with one another at times, and argumentative at others. The Spine sees Rabbit as exasperating at times, but overall they get along. Zero and The Spine have a tendency to get into childish arguments, which Rabbit sometimes mediates for them.

Trivia

• The Spine spends most of his free time in the Hall of Wires in Walter Manor. This may be the equivalent to a shut-in who spends all their time on the internet, since it is implied in the comic that the Hall of Wires has wi-fi access.
• According to Steam Powered Giraffe The Card Game, The Spine weighs 1.2 tons (assuming imperial US tons: 2400 pounds or 1089 kilograms).

Gallery

The Spine, with his titanium alloy spines extended. Photo by Geekshot Photography.

The Spine, 2013, wearing a red tie which later departed from his wardrobe. Photo by trekkiebeth.

The Spine at VidCon 2013. He is wearing a long black coat with red lining. Photo by trekkiebeth.

The Spine performing at Yulemas in Bakersfield, December 2013. He has a mustache for some reason. Photo by trekkiebeth.

The Spine onstage with Rabbit and Hatchworth at Anime Midwest, 2014. His spinal protrusions are clearly visible. Photo by trekkiebeth.

The Spine at North Park Theatre, 2014. The lights on his spinal column can be seen in the reflection on the back of his guitar. Photo by trekkiebeth.

GG (puppeteered by Rabbit) and The Spine onstage, 2016. Photo by trekkiebeth.