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The Mike Toole Show - The Island of Super Misfit Robots


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FaytLein



Joined: 21 Jun 2008
Posts: 1260
Location: Williamsburg, VA
PostPosted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 9:45 pm Reply with quote
Anime Midstream announced like a week or so ago that Raijin Oh DVD 2 would come out in a few months. While I'm a huge giant robo fan, one or two DVDs a year just doesn't make me feel good about DVDs 3+....

I wish we would at least get Brave Express Might Gaine released here, the whole "this is a cartoon to make toys and we aren't gonna take it anymore!" would be pretty good to see, and you can never go wrong with more Nobuyuki Hiyama!

Awesome job Mike, giant robots are definately an underappreciated genre, and makes me want to see these older shows.
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sirkoala13



Joined: 27 Sep 2009
Posts: 134
Location: Muscle Tower, U.S.
PostPosted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 10:25 pm Reply with quote
Nice column, now I'm thinking of getting a little more into robot anime.
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agila61



Joined: 22 Feb 2009
Posts: 3213
Location: NE Ohio
PostPosted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 10:55 pm Reply with quote
Wow, if only I'd been into anime when the kids were little ... they had Transformers (because, after all, they'd be twisting and bending the toys anyway, so toys that rewarded twisting and bending the right way survived longer) ... but it could have been so much more.
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DavidShallcross



Joined: 19 Feb 2008
Posts: 1008
PostPosted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 11:08 pm Reply with quote
I see you (Toole) pulled a fast one there. The Brave Little Toaster was an American production, based on a story by Thomas Disch.
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fmagrave



Joined: 21 May 2008
Posts: 23
PostPosted: Sun Aug 01, 2010 11:14 pm Reply with quote
I'm sure that the shows you've mentioned would have had far more prominence within the English speaking community if there were actually subs of those shows available anywhere on the internet. They are undeniably children's products but they might have found an audience back in the early 2000s when there was still enthusiasm for anything anime.

I'm sure there is still interest now but only within the fairly small group of people who love Gao Gai Gar and want more. *sigh*
It's such a shame to be a lover of super robot anime.
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RedLeader



Joined: 28 Mar 2009
Posts: 310
PostPosted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 2:17 am Reply with quote
Too... Much... Awesome... [FALLS OVER DIZZY]

fmagrave: Ain't THAT the truth... There's just so MUCH awesomeness that could be localized here but noooooooooooo. Instead we just keep getting more and more girly shows... Anime hyper Maybe if someone REALLY marketed some robot shows people might discover that there's more awesome things out there than K-On and Naru/Bleach Volume 234923902232.4! But then... Maybe America's just too COLD blooded for super robot shows... Just ain't manly enough, nope. [shakes head]
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fuuma_monou



Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 1816
Location: Quezon City, Philippines
PostPosted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 8:20 am Reply with quote
Awesome column, Mike. Had a whole bunch of robot toys thanks to indulgent relatives when I was a kid. All gone now, though.

Raijin-Oh was on local TV back in 1995, dubbed in English. Never finished, AFAIK, though ten years later Hero TV dubbed it and the two other El Doran series in Tagalog in their entirety. Must've been cheap at the time already, but the shows were still fun.
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rti9



Joined: 08 Jul 2007
Posts: 1241
PostPosted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 8:30 am Reply with quote
Mike Toole wrote:
The series featured Ganbarger (I love this title, because it can also be transliterated as "Gunburger," which sounds delicious)

For a second, I misread the "r" as an "n". When Toole said he loved the title, I thought it was because it sounded like gangbanger.

Mike Toole wrote:
Remember that old Spider-Man cartoon where Spidey lives in an apartment with Iceman and Firestar, and when you yank on a certain trophy on the mantlepiece the whole place goes crazy and flip-flops around and turns into a crime-busting headquarters? Well, in Raijin-Oh, the entire school campus does that.

Gate Keepers is probably a throwback to shows like this.

Terrific article. I bet that not only Mike Toole, but a lot of people who are going to post in this thread, have houses that resemble Mandarake stores.

I did this thing of buying a toy originated from a show that I watched as a kid since I couldn't afford it back then. It wasn't anime, though. It was Daileon, from Juspion. Really weird sensation.
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Lord Geo



Joined: 18 Sep 2005
Posts: 2532
Location: North Brunswick, New Jersey
PostPosted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 9:22 am Reply with quote
Great article, Mike. And it's great to see a mini-eview of sorts for Anime Midstream's first volume of Raijin-Oh. Yeah, it's a little rough (and I bet that the video quality is going to be the best we can get, as more than likely it wasn't remastered for the R2 DVDs either), but overall it's a still a nicely-produced DVD.

As for the slow release schedule, one can only hope that they're only going to be speed up with each release. As I said on the AoD boards, using only two points to come up with a result is a bit useless, since getting more points will always result in a more accurate result or guess. Also, think of it like this: The license was announced in December of 2008, the first release was about one year later in December of 2009, and now the second release is 8 months later in August of 2009... They're slowly speeding up their work time! Maybe the next release will be in another 5 months, making it a January release, followed by 3 months...

Maybe.
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feitian



Joined: 01 May 2010
Posts: 27
PostPosted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 11:55 am Reply with quote
Great Article, I have been looking forward to this ever since the interview on ANNCast. I had to stand up when I heard about Anime Midstream and Raijin-oh.

Having being growing up in Taiwan During the 80s and 90s Raijin-oh and Brave series (specifically DaGarn) were fond memory of my childhood, oh the nostalgia.

Now if someone can just menage to bring Da Garn over... a man can dream, right? lol
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nagato316



Joined: 04 Mar 2009
Posts: 306
PostPosted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 12:41 pm Reply with quote
Mike Toole wrote:
along with a third show called Voltes V (no widespread toys in America, sadly)


Fixed, but only because I remember Voltes V used to be all over the place in the Philippines back in the day when I went on my first trip ever there to see my relatives. Didn't make it any cheaper/easier back then to actually acquire one of the awesome toys. Sad

Mike Toole wrote:
They were kind of like the GoBots, and-- "What the hell is GoBots," you say?! Oh god, I'm old!


Piffle and nonsense! Age is but a number; you're as young as you feel. And I feel like a kid again thanks to the aforementioned...you and I are apparently two of the seven in Western Civilization who still remember--okay, barely anyway--the neverending conflict between the factions of heroic F-15 fighterbot Leader-1 and evil motorcycle Cy-Kill. (Can't even remember the faction names anymore). Good times!! And great article, Mike.
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Wooga



Joined: 22 Jun 2007
Posts: 916
Location: Tucson
PostPosted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 1:18 pm Reply with quote
Oh, yeah, I had a bunch of robot toys as a child..not. My parents wouldnt let me get the Beast Wars figures because they were 'boy toys'...

Crying or Very sad
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BorgmanJayce



Joined: 11 Feb 2004
Posts: 298
Location: Hades via UK
PostPosted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 1:44 pm Reply with quote
Mike, thanks a lot for making me feel fricken' old with mention of shows like GoLion and Daitanius (ironically enough, I had the huge-ass version of the Vehicle Team Voltron which I bought years ago pretty cheap and sold on eBay as well as the lion and legs parts from the Godaikin version which I bought at a jumble fair held at my old primary school)

On another note, it's interesting that you did a review of the Raijin-Oh DVD (Volume 1) as I've known Jimmy Taylor and his wife for over 15 years (I first met them in the late, lamented Anime Chat on WBS) and they're two of the nicest and coolest people I've ever known. Very Happy
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Showsni



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 641
PostPosted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 2:08 pm Reply with quote
You know, I don't think I ever did have any robot toys as a child. Well, apart from the battery operated thing you had to make yourself and it could walk along from the science museum or somewhere I got one christmas, and the lego technic kit that could be a robot (or a helicopter or a cat). Perhaps its because I missed out on them as a child, but I never really get into giant robot shows...

I did have Tracey Island and all the Thunderbirds. I guess that's a little similar?
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LostPhrack



Joined: 10 Dec 2007
Posts: 40
Location: Mass.
PostPosted: Mon Aug 02, 2010 5:22 pm Reply with quote
I remember being a youngin' and asking for Voltron one Christmas, naturally expecting the lions of vehicles. So, of course I ended up getting the blue robot from Albegas instead. I was in tears all the way to church that Christmas morning. Crying or Very sad Now I kind of wish I still had that thing. Ah well!

And hey! I remember Shogun Warriors too, mostly because my cousin had Raideen. I'm still fascinated by Shogun Warriors, not just because they're giant robots which is really cool, but because they were actually given a Marvel comic series which was set within the Marvel Universe! Just one of those weird things that kind of blows my mind when I look back on it.

Oh, and I'm totally looking forward to more mecha columns!
Very Happy
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