Tobor the Great poster

 I have talked about this, complete with pictures, about thirteen years ago.  I still enjoy it, though the kid...

HOTW- 8th Man

 

When Special Agent Brady is gunned down by the crook Saucerlip and his gang, Professor Genius brings him back to life.  He transfers Brady's brainwaves into an awesome robot body.  He can run at impossible speeds, change his appearance at will and is nearly indestructible.    He assumes the identity of Detective Tobor and offers his assistance to Police Chief Fumblethumbs.  Fumble is the only other person to know that Tobor is 8th Man.  They have a lot of adventures together, battling the Black Butterfly Gang, Intercrime and mostly, Dr. Spectra.

Hot Seat

 Some enterprising fans have been recreating the English versions of 8th Man, using the audio from extant episodes with the Japanese versions from the new DVD sets.  They look amazing, and they sound pretty great, considering the source.  They have done quite a few of the episodes already.  Some of the missing ones have been subtitled as well.  It is rather startling to see the difference- this series might not have looked this good when it debuted in syndication in the US in the mid '60s.

Xenorama #30- Marine Boy!

At long last, the third and (hopefully) final edition of my Marine Boy book is available on Amazon.  This blog started in 2007, and became the official Marine Blog in September of that year.  I had just spoken to the late Peter Fernandez about the show.  What a great guy he was!  I wish I had finished at least one version of the book before he passed on.  I think he would have enjoyed it.

Yusei Shonen Popi

Or Papi, as the subs in this episode one call him.  Anyway, I've been watching more Prince Planet and I remembered I had this first episode subtitled from some nice people somewhere.  I hadn't watched all of it yet, but since I'm working on an episode guide I thought I should.  The quality of both subs and video is quite good, which makes me wish this would come out on DVD like Marine Boy has, even if it's not an official set like Astro Boy, Gigantor or Kimba The White Lion have had.  It's really a good show.  I like all those others, but perhaps I like the rarer shows more, since you don't see nearly as much written about them, even now with the internet.

Tobor the Great (1954)

this is one I saw as a kid, so I remember it fondly. it's not a bad little movie, though I said that about the Slime People recently, and when I watched it I was not as impressed. so perhaps I'll watch this one again soon. but I like the design of the robot here a lot.

Batman in Japan

here's the opening theme I referenced here.  it's a nifty little song.

8th Man opening

I can't believe that I've never posted the US theme song to this show, since I've talked about it more than once here.  rumor has it Ralph Bakshi had something to do with this, but I don't know any more than that.  it rocks.

"Bat-Mite Presents: Batman's Strangest Cases!"

 this is episode #51 of the most excellent cartoon "The Brave and the Bold".  it has Bat-mite hosting three adventures, starting with an adaption of Mad Magazine's "Bat Boy and Rubin" story.  I've read this one many times, and it's a little weird seeing it in color (it was in a book when I read it). however, it's a great adaption for a satire!

 next up, we have a Bat-manga adventure, and it's done 8-man style.  this was fun,  but the "poorly dubbed on purpose" thing was tired in the 80s, and just wouldn't even have been true at all in the 60s. other than that minor quibble, I enjoyed this one as well, and would have loved watching this as a kid.

finally, we have a re-do of the nadir of Batman's animated career... the team up with the Scooby gang.  they still battle the Joker and the Penguin, but this time we get a cameo from "Weird Al" Yankovic as well!  of course, they do make fun of Hanna-Barbera's more limited animation from the time.  once is funny, five times, the joke wears thin.

the final battle makes up for it- there's more action in 2 minutes than in the entire season of Super Friends.  Bat-mite lets us know that Batman couldn't throw a punch back in the 70s, but he fixes that.  if Scooby had been more like this, I might like him more!

8 Man

a dramatic pose.  that is all!

8 vs 8th

here's a fun credit comparison between the Japanese 8 Man and the US 8th Man:



I think these are pretty fun and cool.

8th Man, you know, Tobor!

here's a cool and sort of rare cartoon- though oddly, there's a ton of episodes available in various PD compilations floating about on dollar DVDs and such.  however, it was aired in the wake of the huge success of Astro Boy and Gigantor.

however, this was one I never saw growing up at all.  I first saw it offered for sale at Star*Con 1989, and then several volumes were on sale at my first Comicon in 1990.

dealers back then wanted $20 for a tape with five episodes on it, in various video and audio quality.  I eventually traded for about 30 episodes of the 52 episode run.  that's a lot of 8th Man to watch.  not sure I ever did see every episode I had, though I transferred them to DVD-r at some point.

this Japanese cartoon is a bit more American than some of the others.  these are some frame grabs from the episode "Target: 8th Man".  here the Black Butterfly Gang outfits a man with a costume that gives him powers similar to 8th Man so the Butterflies can destroy him.

here we can see the buff villain vowing to destroy 8th Man on his honor.  I'm pretty sure this doesn't happen, but I'd hate to spoil the episode for anyone!  though I am also sure most people will know that our hero will survive this dastardly plot and be able to fight evil in the next episode.

which of course is exactly what happens.  there were some recurring villains, such as the Butterfly Gang, Intercrime and Dr. Spectra.

it's a pretty violent show, with death by gunshots in nearly every episode, not to mention rockets, lasers and even a robot tiger on occasion!  he also fought aliens and giant birds and monstrous eelers. 

here we see a rather awesome display of strength, which might remind a fan or two of some other superhero.

naturally, a cool cartoon like this is not available in good quality on commercial DVD, but you can get great copies here.  they also have many fine and cool things to view.

space? what voyage?

a nice comp movie based on the "Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot".  it was compiled in 1970 and presented as a feature movie to various tv stations around the country (none in CO, of course).

I only ever saw one episode of "Sokko" growing up, the first one, and that is mostly presented here.  I actually first saw the movie in an 8mm box in K-mart, of all places, back when that was all you could own.  which I am sure just astounds many kids these days that can see just about anything they want to immediately.  the movie is made up of the first, second, third and fourth episodes, the thirteenth (I think) and the final one.  they used each monster at least twice, which saved on costs, I'd think.

of course, since there was no blurb ON the box telling me it was a Japanese movie, I passed it up for quite possibly "Varan, The Unbelievable".  while I greatly enjoyed seeing all 11 minutes of destruction that Varan does, I think perhaps a giant robot fighting 2 or 3 monsters would have been more my thing then.  I mean, look at this thing!

there's 26 episodes in the series, and it was dubbed by a different team than AIP's usual go to guys, Titra/Titan.  Jerry Berke, AKA the voice of 8th Man, is the narrator.  Bobbie Byers, the voice of Prince Planet was the voice for Johnny (and probably the rest of the female characters).  it's good dubbing, but not quite up to Titan/Titra standards.

it's a really fun show, full of energy and destruction and monsters.  it's also pretty violent, as our heroes gun down villains with no remorse- even Johnny, who appears to be about 12, is armed and dangerous!  of course, not quite as well equipped as Giant Robot is!  eat your heart out, MechaGodzilla!

did I mention that none of our heroes voyage into space at all in the movie?

a minor setback

i have four episodes left to watch, and the first two in that set will not play in my machine. i had wondered about that disc, since it was one of the first i ever made with my recorder.

so now i'm in the process of getting it replaced. hopefully it will come from here, the best place i've seen online. i know for sure their Prince Planet episodes are awesome in quality!

it's a bummer, but it's only the last four episodes, so i can call Corinne and talk to her in the near future. i hope that goes as well as the interview with Peter. what a great guy he is!