A chubby, self-important robot.  I can't figure out what he's all cocky about; he really has nothing going for him. Not only does he have an awful weapon, he has the lamest gimmick this side of Top Man. Bright Man is so unnecessary that I think I once beat the game without even going to his stage.  Since the so-called bright man is not, in fact, very bright, he doesn't realize his own pointlessness, and lives in a narcissistic state.   He is, literally and figuratively, the only evil robot master who can turn himself on.

I originally figured Toad Man was just a last-minute addition to a rushed-out Christmas release, until I took a good look at his Rockman & Forte portrait.  I realized that those things at the top of his head are his eyes - which means that those other eye-looking things are actually inside his mouth.   I'm not sure whether this makes Toad Man more powerful, but he's now so scary that I can't battle him without shivering, which screws up my jumps.  Now I can't beat him, which sucks, since he's supposed to be the easy one in this game.  Thanks a lot, Rockman & Forte CD portraits.

I try to judge the evil robot masters on their own merits, and not on any personal biases, but with Drill Man, I just can't help but feel it would have been a lot cooler to have made one of his arms a pneumatic pump, and created a Dig Dug Man.  Now there would have been an innovative theme boss - he could have dug around his underground base, and attempted to drop rocks on Mega Man's head by timing it right.... it would have been a great spark of innovation in an idea-starved series like Mega Man.

Actually, it would probably have just been frustrating - for one thing, Mega Man has no way of digging through the dirt on his own, and besides, whenever you fought Dig Dug Man, you'd be wishing you were playing as him.  Dig Dug is a lot more fun than these later NES Mega Man games, I'm sorry.

Arrogant, aloof, and all-seeing, Pharaoh Man was the first in an unfinished series of almighty-ruler-themed robots.  The next in line was going to be Khan Man, but he had to be canned since, in the English version, it could have been misinterpreted as "Con Man" when spoken.   Thus, in America, Khan Man was replaced with Plant Man, who I still think was the work of a con man.

As for Pharaoh Man himself, he's posed like a Sailor Moon villain at a costume ball, and fights like a mummy that hasn't quite woken up yet.  Even if you don't have his counter-weapon, the Anti-Mummy Ray Gun, he shouldn't be too much trouble.  I'm just guessing here, though; I'm not even sure I played this game.  What number are we on?  Five?

What do you want me to say?  All he inspires in me is a desire to go have a Ring Pop (note: this, like Dig Dug, would also be more entertaining than playing through Mega Man IV).

Dust Man was put into the game because everyone realized that the last few robots, except Bright Man (who everyone ignored in the hopes that he would go away) were all pretty bitching looking, and the game needed some comic relief.  He was never quite satisfied with this role, and rebelled it against it - even though Dr. Wily had given him a suitably goofy weapon in his big head-mounted Electrolux, Dust Man built his own gun-arm so that he could actually, conceivably, hurt someone in a dignified fashion.   However, since Wily ran the dust tube straight through where Dust Man's brain used to be, this poor sap usually forgets he has the gun, and when he doesn't, he still can't use it very effectively.

Based on either the way he puts up with his oddly disquieting name, or his rigid, committed patriotism to Dr. Wily (note the salute), you figure out pretty early that Dive Man is not cool with the other robots.  While all the other robots cheerfully plot and scheme behind Dr. Wily's back - for god's sake, even Dust Man is secretly augmenting himself - Dive Man obediently follows the mad doctor's orders, and is inevitably destroyed by Mega Man.  The other robots are too, of course, but they go out with style.  Dive Man just marches off to his own doom while everyone laughs at him behind his back.

I'm sorry, I can't really comment, because I'm way too scared.  Skull Man is the first one of these things that's been actively involved in the process of shooting me.  Sure, Magnet Man looked kind of like he was preparing to throw a cosmic spell blast in my direction, and Wood Man was probably working up the nerve to punch me, but neither of those robots is remotely fear-inducing on his own.  Skull Man is an ancient Eastern symbol of death and rebirth, and is so clearly above those guys that the very sight of him pointing his gun my way is enough to make me flee in terror.   So I've never beaten him either.