Tik-Tok OF OZ!

The mechanical man Tik-Tok is one of Frank Baum's more clever notions. This "robot" operates when he is wound up properly like a watch and he is prone to run down at the most inconvenient times. That said, he is a stalwart ally against the most frightening foes. He was introduced in the third novel Ozma of OZ, and makes a few appearances along the way. He's a robot, but no one uses that name since it wouldn't be coined for decade after his creation. Tik-Tok of OZ is the eighth installment of the series by Baum and it was published in 1914, after he'd decided to give the public what it wanted and not what he preferred. 

I think he looks remarkably like Teddy Roosevelt, though I don't understand any particular meaning attached to this resemblance. I guess John R. Neill had to get his inspiration from somewhere. 

The story begins when the Queen of a tiny kingdom on the outskirts of OZ gets the notion to conquer the world and she raises an army from her population of dozens and marches off to do just that. Meanwhile a young girl named Betsy Bobbin and a mule named Hank are drawn to OZ after a terrible ship disaster and they wander around until they meet the Shaggy Man and then later others such as Polychrome, the daughter of the Rainbow and a freshly plucked Rose Queen who it turns out is kin to Ozma. It's about this time they find Tik-Tok and wind him up. The gang head to the land of the Nome King to find Shaggy Man's brother who has been missing for quite some time. 

Their adventures lead to the other side of the world through an enormous magical tube and there they encounter a very powerful magical being called "Tititi-Hoochoo" or more simply "Private Citizen". He ultimately sends them back to their usual haunts the by way of a dragon with orders that the Nome King be punished for sending them there in the first place. The whole shebang doesn't actually end up in OZ until the very end. Frankly this one read a bit slowly, and the mob of characters collected in the first part of the story seemed to overwhelm the narrative. Baum had a habit of assembling a bunch of characters in the story and then seeming to forget them. That happens here to a greater degree.

It turns out that the novel was an adaptation by Baum of his own play titled The Tik-Tok Man of OZ produced in 1913. Alas, the play wasn't very successful. But that's a positively charming poster. Maybe this fact is why this OZ story reads a bit differently than its predecessors. 

More OZ coming up, but first there will be a bit of a detour. It will all make sense. 

 Rip Off