Rabbit

Rabbit is one of the original automatons built by Peter A. Walter I in the year 1896. His clockwork mechanisms frequently malfunction, as he is the least upgraded of the robots. He plays the melodica and accordion, and sings during performances with the band "Steam Powered Giraffe".

Design
Rabbit's construction consists primarily of copper, the softest of the metals in the band. He sports vents on each cheek to increase resonance during performance, as well as channel hot air away from his Blue Matter-powered Self Oscillating Utilitarian Lifesource core. His performance attire typically consists of a corseted vest cut at a slant, a short hat, and the famous pair of brass goggles looped atop the hat brim. These are actually a prototype particle accelerator designed by Peter Walter I and given to Rabbit at the time of Peter's death.

History
Rabbit was built along with The Spine and The Jon in 1896 by Peter A. Walter. He was first used to combat an invasion of Ignatius M. Thadeus Becile's Copper African Elephants on the Nile River. A fifth robot, the Steam Powered Giraffe namesake Delilah, was completed three months after Rabbit, and the automatons rode Delilah to victory in what became known as The Weekend War or The Battle of the Colossi.

After the success in Africa, Rabbit turned to entertainment, and he and Peter Walter I made a premiere appearance at Ralph Benedict's Bayou Music Festival in 1898. Unfortunately, the explosion of Benedict's steamboat ended hope of future performances at the Bayou Music Festival, but around 1915, Rabbit, The Jon, and The Spine turned to performing closer to home. At the first ever World's Fair, the Panama-California Exhibition in Balboa Park, the group became a cohesive whole for the first time, playing under the name "Colonel P.A. Walter's Steam Man Band."

But the musical function of these robots was destined to be short-lived, as America was thrown into the mix of World War I. Rabbit was enlisted along with other Walter robots for search-and rescue missions, and it was not until 1933 (at the Chicago Exposition World's Fair) that the robots were able to perform in any capacity again. By 1941, the United States once again found itself in the grip of global warfare, and Rabbit returned to the battlefield. He saved lives of fellow soldiers even against orders to participate in a bombing raid.

In 1942, catastrophe struck while the robots were still deployed overseas. Rabbit's inventor and long-time friend, Peter Walter I, died in his sleep at Walter Manor in San Diego, California. By the time the robots returned home in 1945, World War II had ended, but so too had Peter A. Walter. Rabbit received Peter's brass goggles after the fact, and has worn them around his hat ever since.

In 1950, Rabbit's Self Oscillating Utilitarian Lifesource was stolen by Ignatius and Norman Becile, long-time inventing rivals of Peter Walter I. An attempt to reverse engineer it resulted in a horrific explosion that tore through the space-time continuum, killing many on both the side of the Walters and the side of the Beciles. Rabbit's power core was eventually restored to him safely.

From there, Rabbit went on to participate in classified government operations in Roswell, New Mexico, and in the Vietnam War. During combat, he and the other Walter robots were rendered inoperable, and their chassis went missing from 1965 to 1974. Peter Walter V repaired the robots and returned them to less dangerous entertainment purposes: touring all over as "Colonel P.A. Walter's Steam Man Band." By 2008, the group name was changed to its current form: "Steam Powered Giraffe", after the mechanical giraffe that carried the automatons to victory so many years ago. Rabbit currently performs in the musical group Steam Powered Giraffe, and resides in Walter Manor with the Walters, Beciles, and Walter robots.